06. August 2008  
Beijing / China  
Artistic Gymnastics

* ... see You in BEIJING 2008: O L YM P I C S P E C I A L S ( I ) ....

... and what else is happening in Beijing?

.... In addition to many Olympic Games fans from the USA, many British people have also travelled to Beijing, especially for the completely sold-out gymnastics events. The symbols of the Beijing Olympic Games are popular motifs for photos. After all, after a gap of 64 years London will be hosting the next Olympic Summer Games in 2012.

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... what else is happening in Beijing!!


" ... W H A T 's   N E W   I N  B E I J I N G ?
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...as soon as the last spectators of the women’s team final had left the arena,
the change of the apparatus set-up was started by the team Janssen-Fritsen.
Here they are setting up the rings.
Also various TV stations were interested in their work.

Gao Jiang, right, with the Chinese flag, together with his gymnasts. A lot of cheers were heard from the 18,000 spectators in the Olympic arena.

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...It was a historic victory:
For the first time a Chinese women's team won Olympic team gold, after bronze 2000 in Sydney and also 1984 in Los Angeles. In between they reached the 6th place in 1988 in Seoul, two times the fourth place in 1992 in Barcelona and in 1996 in Atlanta. Four years ago in Athens they only managed seventh place.

"... We changed a lot of things and sent our gymnasts to international competitions so that they could learn. And of course we worked hard", said Gao Jiang at the press conference after the team final.

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Oksana Chusovitina and Katja Abel in a
good mood in the athletes' lounge




...What might be the reason for their happiness?

<< Oksana Chusovitina (33) and Katja Abel (24) indeed have reason to be happy. One of them, because she is the first female gymnast to have taken part in five (!!!) Olympic Games - as long ago as 1992 she won the team gold medal with the last Soviet team in history - and now in Beijing she is qualified for the vault final.

 << Katja Abel has fulfilled her dream: She managed to participate in the Olympic Games with the German team, even though not everything worked out perfectly for the team during the competition.
Now she says it's up to the younger gymnasts to take over responsibility for the team.
At the moment it's still the 33-year old Oksana Chusovitina who brought the top performances for the German team  - she reached a great 10th place in the all-around qualification!




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...Quite frankly, it is hard to think about who or what is being watched by the guard under the sunshade, as nothing is located around it...?
But look at his posture and the hands in line with his trouser seams. That's the rule  - No matter where you see a uniformed person, you see them in this posture for two hours. Then they have a two-hour break.
But apart from that, there is not much to see of strict controls, armed militia etc. You only see friendly, smiling, helpful guards. Compared to that there were other Olympic Games in the past with far more annoying control systems!





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Between the competitions a competent team of the Dutch equipment supplier 'Janssen-Fritsen'
takes care of a quick change of the set-up of the high-tech apparatus in the competition arena.

Svetlana Chorkina, Philipp Boy

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Despite a mistake on the landing on vault, Germany's Philipp Boy was happy, especially about a great high-bar routine which helped his team to achieve an excellent fourth place.

In front of him in the picture is former gymnastics diva Svetlana Chorkina busy with handling requests for autographs and interviews.
On the upcoming Wednesday she will commentate the women's team final for Russian TV from a "cam position", that's a reporter-seat with an installed camera.


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Lori Ballard-STRONG - Canada's former star of the Eighties on uneven bars



In the 1980s Canada's uneven bars queen Lori Ballard-STRONG once performed in Cottbus, thrilling the audience especially on her specialist apparatus. Together with her team-mate Michael Inglis she won the pairs competition at that event. The hand-made, carved cups which she won at that competition still have pride of place in a glass showcase in her home.
Here in Beijing she is commentating the gymnastics events for Canadian TV together with Brenda Irving.
For the women's events Svetlana Chorkina will commentate for Russian TV and also Nadia COMANECI is supposed to be coming...!





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Nowitzki - German
flag bearer

Gymnastics star Fabian Hambüchen was asked by the German Olympic Committee if he wanted to carry the German flag in the opening ceremony. However, due to the start of the men's gymnastics competition being on the day right after the ceremony, he declined.
Now Basketball star Dirk Nowitzki  will be the flag bearer for the German Olympic team on Friday in Beijing's stadium.
This was published by the German Olympic committee in a press conference on August 6th.
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Joeline Möbius - the spring chicken of the German team

* With her 15 years Joelinie MÖBIUS, the gymnast from the city of Chemnitz, is the "spring chicken" of the German Olympic team.  37-year-old horse rider Peter Thomsen, the oldest member of Germany's Olympic team, theoretically could be her father.
At 1.52m in height, both Joeline Möbius and Anja Brinker are also the smallest members of the German Olympic team. Weighing only 39 kg Anja is also the lightest member. In contrast to that, judoka Sandra Köppen-Zuckschwerdt  alone weighs in at 125 kg.

*The FIG published statistics about the age structure of the gymnastics competitions at Olympic Games since Sydney 2000.
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...babyfaces 2008?



* Wednesday, August 6th
Age of Chinese gymnasts unclear
This is not the first time in the history of women's artistic gymnastics that a dispute has arisen about the true age of some gymnasts competing at major international events.
This time the dispute is about the Chinese gymnasts HE, Kexin and JIANG Yuyan. The latter was a member of the  silver medalist team at the World Championships in Stuttgart 2007.
*The  former US-Coach Bela Karolyi said to the US agency AP: "...they aren't 16 years old, they are children!"
Only a few days before the start of the competitions at the Olympic Games, a dispute has arisen between the FIG and the IOC about the clarification of these doubts concerning the minimum starting age (16 years) of these gymnasts...!
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*  ... read more "O L Y M P I C  S P E C I A L  ( II )