Late addition Alexander Artemev lifts U.S. gymnasts into men's team final

Is it just me, or does it seem like the US Team was scored extremely low compared to the Chinese and Japanese for performing many routines that were just as well executed and often more difficult than those performed by the Chinese and Japanese. Sasha's pommel horse performance was phenomenal, yet he was given a mid-15 score, while more mediocre, though equally well executed performances by the Chinese and Japanese, were scored well above 16. Did I miss something? Or did there seem to be some bias against the US?

Alexander Artemev was absolutely fantastic on pommel horse, it was really enjoyable to watch! Am I alone with this opinion? He really is a talent.

Why does Yahoo list the Official languages on the USA web site as "NONE" This political correctness is going too far.
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/usa

Hi there,

First of all, I'm Chinese and live in Hong Kong. You're right about Sasha had a wonderful performance on pommel horse, but I don't think there's a bias. Sasha's routine was very innovative and beautiful, yet it's not flawless. That's why he only have a mid-15. However, this mid-15 is not a low score, and I have to remind you only Xiao Qin of the Chinese Team got a 16.10.(He was the only gymnast getting a 16 on pommel horse yesterday!) Sasha has actually beaten the two other Chinese Gymnasts on pommel horse.

Compare to Sasha's, Xiao's routine was very traditional, but he did it almost perfectly. The speed was kept constant, the height was even all the time, and the legs were all the way as straight as they could be. Xiao's pommel horse performance has been taken as the "textbook" in FIG (International Federation of Gymnastics), so it's really hard to beat him.

Like Nemov's high bar routine in Olympic 2004, he got some really great moves, but the flaws made the judges deduced some marks. If Sasha keep on working on his routine, I think he can get a 16 in the future.

Vera Csocsics wrote:

Alexander Artemev was absolutely fantastic on pommel horse, it was really enjoyable to watch! Am I alone with this opinion? He really is a talent.

I so agree..he is a talent worth watching and there's just stg abt him which tells u tht he can do more.Anyway i wish him well on his individual event and to the rest of the team members 2...Gd luck USA!!

Warren G wrote:

Is it just me, or does it seem like the US Team was scored extremely low compared to the Chinese and Japanese for performing many routines that were just as well executed and often more difficult than those performed by the Chinese and Japanese. Sasha's pommel horse performance was phenomenal, yet he was given a mid-15 score, while more mediocre, though equally well executed performances by the Chinese and Japanese, were scored well above 16. Did I miss something? Or did there seem to be some bias against the US?

It depends on the event though. for example, mid 15 is a bad score on vault but it's an amazing score on pommels. different events score differently