Michael Giltz: Sports: Gymnastics Results at Madison Square Garden http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-giltz/sports-gymnastics-result_b_89386.html [4/5/2009 7:35:33 PM] APRIL 5, 2009 HOME POLITICS MEDIA BUSINESS ENTERTAINMENT LIVING STYLE GREEN WORLD CHICAGO COMEDY 23/6 VIDEO BLOGGER INDEX ARCHIVE Make HuffPost Your HomePage Get Email Alerts Twitter: Follow Us BIG NEWS : Angelina Jolie | Madonna | Chris Brown & Rihanna | Paul McCartney | More...</p><p> LOG IN | SIGN UP Michael Giltz BIO Become a Fan Get Email Alerts Similar Bloggers Email Print Be the First to Submit This Story to Digg Sports: Gymnastics Results at Madison Square Garden Posted March 1, 2008 | 07:19 PM (EST) Read More: Athletes , Gold Medals , Madison Square Garden , Olympics , Paul Hamm, Sports , Breaking Entertainment News Paul Hamm -- the Olympic All-Around Gold Medalist whose win in 2004 was tainted by legal manuevers -- can officially announce his comeback is over.</p><p> You can't keep coming back whenyou're in the lead.</p><p> At the Tyson American Cup held at Madison Square Garden on March 1, Hamm took the first major step towards putting an exclamation point on his impressive gymnastics career bydominating.</p><p> He scored the highest totals in three events -- floor, parallel bars and horizontal bar --and had such a commanding lead by the final event that delighted runner-up Alexander Artemevwould have needed a nigh on impossible 18 point score to catch up.</p><p> On the women's side,defending champ and media darling Shawn Johnson was edged out by fellow American NastiaLiukin (which sounds like a character from "Rocky & Bullwinkle") despite scoring the highest totalon three out of four events.</p><p> That was better than fellow defending champ Jonathan Horton, whofell during his favorite event -- high bar -- and was ranked 5th out of 7 by the end of the day.</p><p> It all happened in a half-empty Madison SquareGarden, which was the talking point of my preview ofthe event.</p><p> At the Olympics a few months from now,you couldn't beg your way into an event like this.</p><p> Buttoday in the heart of New York City, it was a bummerto see so many empty seats.</p><p> But for anyone who can make it to one of the gymnastics events leading up to the Olympic trials in Philly this June, you're in for a treat.</p><p> First, arrive early if you can because watching the practice isgreat fun.</p><p> Anyone broadcasting these events would be wise to tape the practices and edit them intoa preview of the competition.</p><p> Watching all the world-class athletes casually dash off amazingmoves is just dazzling.</p><p> And when you pay attention, you can spot competitors who are working on acomplex new element or struggling on a particular event.</p><p> And did I mention the US men typicallypractice with their shirts off? Popular Stories on HuffPost Fashion Face-Off! Michelle Obama And Carla Bruni-Sarkozy Finally Meet In France (VIDEO, PHOTOS, POLL) *Video, poll and slideshow Levi Johnston TalksSafe Sex With Tyra Banks (VIDEO) ***UPDATE*** 8:30pm: People.com is reporting that Sarah Palin has issued...</p><p> Oscar de la Renta Slams Michelle Obama's Buckingham Outfit As Major Designers FeelIgnored While Michelle Obamahas made lesser...</p><p> Verena von Pfetten 7 Lessons To BeLearned From Carla Bruni So here's the thing.There's no shortage of articles dedicated to thatcertain je ne...</p><p> Huff TV Arianna Discusses MichelleObama's "Fantastic" Style On CBS' Michael Giltz: Sports: Gymnastics Results at Madison Square Garden http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-giltz/sports-gymnastics-result_b_89386.html [4/5/2009 7:35:33 PM] Like this story? Get Alerts of big news events.</p><p> Enter your email address Chicago Shows Off Olympics Venues To International...</p><p> New York Times Picks Cubs To Win...</p><p> Olympics Would Shut Down Public Lakefront Bike...</p><p> Michael Vick's Bankruptcy Plan Rejected By JudgeI'm no marketing genius but sprinkling in practice footage during the meet and/or in a 15 minute set-up for the event would build up suspense (will a player who kept missing a manuever on the horizontal bar miss it in competition?), anticipation for a major routines, and when it comes to the incredibly fit male gymnasts (most roughly college age) drive female viewership through the roof.</p><p> Gymnastics is an ideal sport for TV, where analysts can point out subtle flaws, let you know what routines have been simplified or made more complex at the last moment, give you closeups of thecompetitors so you can see the tremendous strain and agility they exhibit and generally make itabsorbing for even casual fans.</p><p> In person and seen even from very close seats, it's simply a thing ofbeauty.</p><p> It's hard to imagine anyone who's ever been to Cirque Du Soleil not being wowed evenmore by these athletes and what they accomplish.</p><p> You definitely get a feel for their styles.</p><p> American Raj Bhavsar only ranked six out of seven but he definitely loves attacking.</p><p> He almost always pumped his fist after each event and when he did really well, Raj slapped his hands together in triumph, sending up a cloud of white powder (the substance used to keep their grips smooth on the equipment).</p><p> After a great landing on the horizontal bar, Raj slapped his hands together and then slapped them on the sides of his legs for a double burst of excitement.</p><p> It's like the canny trick of hammy actors who slap their hand on a thigh at the end of a big speech or funny moment that subconsciously prompts the audience to applaud and react.</p><p> The crowd gave Raj one of the biggest roars of the day.</p><p> However, his routine wasn't ranked high enough on difficulty to score high.</p><p> When he only scored a 14.4, the crowd showed their loyalty by booingthe judges loudly and longly for the first and only time of the day.</p><p> Artemev seemed just to delight in doing well and scoring so high.</p><p> In comparison, Paul Hamm broke out in a smile of relief after almost every event.</p><p> That makes me imagine he's one of the many competitors at the highest level who operate out of fear.</p><p> They feed on the fear of failure rather than a blind belief in superiority, so that's where their adrenaline rush comes from -- not wanting to fail rather than "knowing" you'll succeed.</p><p> And defending champ Horton presumably took solace in his faith.</p><p> He wears a medal his girlfriend gave him that says all victory comes from God. (I'm paraphrasing.) And he told me that onepassage he always turns to for inspiration is in Philippians. (In my King James Version, it'sPhilippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me." I politely challenged him and said I believed that God doesn't care who wins the World Series, for example, so we shouldn't thank Him for that since He knows earthly glory isn't important.</p><p> Do youthank God when you fail? Horton came up with a funny anecdote.</p><p> When he had a terrible spill,slapping his face into the horizontal bar and collapsing to the ground with blood streaming downhis face, Horton says he immediately thanked God that he was still alive.</p><p> Today Horton had arough meet, falling off the pommel horse and his favorite, the horizontal bar.</p><p> So hopefully he'll findcomfort in his faith and in knowing that the event he did the weakest on -- the horizontal bar -- isalso his best event.</p><p> Doing poorly on it is more frustrating but it also means it should be easier forhim to improve on that in the next few months.</p><p> All the athletes will meet again in competition before finally gutting it out for the Olympic team in Philly this June and then moving on to Beijing.</p><p> See them up close while you can: in Beijing they'llbe fighting for gold medals and you'll need gold just to afford the tickets to see them.</p><p> Email Print More in Entertainment... 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RICHARD POPLAWSKI,Pittsburgh Gunman, Kills 3Police Officers Dr.</p><p> Rachel Ehrenfeld: DoesIran Harbor Osama binLaden? Comments 2 Pending Comments 0 Comments are closed for this entry HuffPost Stories Surging Right Now Ads by Google Gymnastics Education Look here for in-depth advice on how to teach,execute,spot gymnastic www.gymedu.com Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to View Comments: Newest First Expand All larry278 See Profile I'm a Fan of larry278 permalink There is a possibility that gymnastics won't appeal to the people who drive pick-ups or anybody who isn't somewhat effete.</p><p> The gymnastics meet didn't draw the 6 pack crowd to the Garden.</p><p> Michael Giltz See Profile I'm a Fan of Michael Giltz permalink During the Olympics, gymnastics is a HUGE primetime ratings draw, pulling some of thebiggest numbers of the entire Olympics, which is of course one of the top-rated events everytime it airs, dwarfing most other TV shows and specials.</p><p> Men, women, old young, everyone isengrossed by gymnastics and swimming and in the winter olympics ice skating.</p><p> Unlike, say,curling, which is just a novelty, there is no reason to think the audience for gymnastics andswimming et al couldn't be drawn to them outside the Olympics.</p><p> Yes, they draw a LOT more women than most other sports, which is why they should be more appealing to networks and cable channels.</p><p> They don't need to six pack crowd to fill Madison Square garden any more than WWE wrestling needs flocks of moms and little girls to fill the Garden when it appears.</p><p> But over-priced tickets will keep anyone away from anything.</p><p> You must be logged in to reply to this comment.</p><p> Log in or Ads by Google Gymnastics Education Look here for in-depth advice on how to Computers India Barack Obama Michelle Obama Sports Olympics Housing Crisis Fox News Cars MORE BIG NEWS PAGES » Books by this author A cabin of one's own: New England's MacDowellColony celebrates 100years of artistic utopia.And the gay and lesbianartists who prosperedthere celebrate ... 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(The national gay &lesbian newsmagazine) by Michael Giltzchemical used in rocket fuel were found insamples of...</p><p> HUFFPOST'S BIG NEWS PAGES Bloggers Index Read All Posts by Michael Giltz Related News Politics Levi Johnston Talks Safe Sex With Tyra Banks (VIDEO) Style Michelle Obama Hugs Queen Elizabeth, Stirs Controversy (PHOTOS, POLL, VIDEO) World Obama Breaks Up 'Heated' Spat Between Sarkozy, HuJintao Related Blog Posts Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 09:26 PM on 03/02/2008 Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 02:18 PM on 03/03/2008This Blogger's Books from Michael Giltz: Sports: Gymnastics Results at Madison Square Garden http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-giltz/sports-gymnastics-result_b_89386.html [4/5/2009 7:35:33 PM] HOME POLITICS MEDIA BUSINESS ENTERTAINMENT LIVING GREEN STYLE WORLD CHICAGO COMEDY FUNDRACE ARCHIVE Advertise | Login | Make HuffPost your Home Page | RSS | Jobs | FAQ: Comments & Moderation | FAQ: Huffpost Accounts | Contact Us Copyright © 2009 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. | Archive | User Agreement | Privacy | Comment Policy | About Us | Powered by Movable Type teach,execute,spot gymnastic www.gymedu.com Athletes Gold MedalsMadison Square Garden OlympicsPaul HammSports Style : Bonnie Fuller Michelle Obama's Lost Her Mind! 3 Reasons She's Suddenly A Fashion Disaster Style : Verena von Pfetten 7 Lessons To Be Learned From Carla Bruni Style : Verena von Pfetten Brow-O-Wow: Bushy Eyebrows Make AComeback (PHOTOS, POLL) Related Tags
