Japan takes team silver in men's gymnastics, China wins

Tuesday 12th August, 05:43 PM JST

BEIJING —

Japan took the silver medal in the men’s gymnastics team final at the Beijing Olympics on Tuesday, falling short of defending its title as host China dominated the competition to claim victory with a margin of more than 7 points. Japan, which won the team gold at the Athens Games four years ago, amassed 278.875 points on six apparatuses at National Indoor Stadium but was nowhere near China’s total of 286.125. The United States got the bronze medal with 275.850.

Japan and China, which followed the same rotation starting with the floor exercise, got off to a slow start, placing fourth and fifth, respectively, with a gap of 0.050 point after the first apparatus but the host team overtook the defending champion after the second event. China, winner at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, emerged to the top of the standing after four apparatuses owing to solid performances on the pommel horse, rings and vault, and never looked back. Japan struggled on the vault where two of its three gymnasts competing in their fourth event had problems in execution and landings, leading to the worst vault total among the eight teams, and stood in third place behind China and the United States after the parallel bars with one apparatus remaining. Following three clean routines on the horizontal bar, the Japanese squad surpassed the United States, whose two gymnasts made major errors on their last event, the pommel horse.

Kyodo

Latest 15 of 21 Total Comments Show All

toolongheremaybe at 08:44 PM JST - 12th August

Good point Princess. Kind of sad to watch Japanese athletes in different sports getting interviewed who don't win gold. You'd think some of them had been caught for stealing by the way they are so apologetic and down. And yeah, the US team looked like they won gold the way they celebrated.
Pukey2 at 09:41 PM JST - 12th August

Wish I could have watched it but I had to work. I haven't seen any repeats on TV and can't find any videos on the internet. I just saw a report on the NHK, but they didn't even say who won!!!!!!!! Well, surprise! Why bother competing with outsiders if you pretend they don't exist?

Good on the Chinese for not screwing it up this time and handing the gold to the Japanese, like in Athens. Managed to get live updates from the official website at my workplace (shh!) and China had a whopping lead even before the last apparatus. I think they were invincible this time, coming first in 5 apparatus. In a class of their own.

WTF happened to USA? They were heading for silver, then suddenly screwed up big-time in the last apparatus. You have to feel sorry for Russia, once a powerhouse, but now the men and women reduced to mediocre gymnasts. Who would have thought that a decade ago.

but USA performed very well, and they accepted their bronze medal very graciously, with smiles and happiness, not like Japanese athletes, sulking, crying and not wanting the bronze medal but the gold one.

No idea, didn't see it. But I do remember Kashima, the pommel horse expert who missed out on the gold to a Chinese in Athens. He looked as if he could strangle the Chinese. I could feel the venom! Was he just as sour-faced this time?
Pukey2 at 09:43 PM JST - 12th August

Another thing. Would NHK stop wasting airtime showing all those damn gambaru faxes.
NICOLE77 at 09:44 PM JST - 12th August

last night when the 19yr old judoka won the bronze medal, she said she was very disappointed and that anything but gold isnt worth anything... i think this is very sad- Bronze is an amazing achievement and she should be very proud of how far she got.
Pukey2 at 11:23 PM JST - 12th August

last night when the 19yr old judoka won the bronze medal, she said she was very disappointed and that anything but gold isnt worth anything...

And I said anyone is free to give back their medals if they don't want them. And for that, my post was deleted. Sour grapes?
usaexpat at 12:10 AM JST - 13th August

Japan has to be happy, from what I saw I am surpriesed that they medaled at all. Last I had seen China was leading, the US in second and Japan in 4th I believe. I guess the US must have left an opening. Anyway, congrats to everyone, but I have to admit China was really in another league.
Sarge at 12:38 AM JST - 13th August

"Japan takes team silver"

Or, China takes team gold.
KitsuneYoukai at 03:56 AM JST - 13th August

Congrats to the teams, winning anything is still winning.

On the note about Asians being more strong, stout or whatever, isn't the reason for them winning now. Remember everyone, Asians or for that matter China weren't at the top before winning these gold medals so Princess get to know Olympic history. I agree with other posters that it is all in the training. If you can lift and hold your body weight with strength to endure those positions it matters not how tall or how many muscles you have. Eventually like it always does, someone else will come in and change things.
Smythe at 04:08 AM JST - 13th August

No matter who won or who did not do as good as they should have-----it was all petty darn amazing. I was impressed with any that competed.

Wait till you see the diver do their stuff or possibly you have. Again I was in shock & to think some were only 4'6" in height for to us North Americans that is really small in height.
LIBERTAS at 07:00 AM JST - 13th August

Sarge" Japan takes team silver" Or, China takes team gold!

Excellent point! I saw Kitajima's fellow competitors to a man all swim over and congratulate him, and I thought, "Why can Japan not celebrate others' successes like that? It doesn't detract in any way from Japan's own success." So headlines like, "Tani gets bronze" "Gymnastic team gets silver" and "Dare-demo knocked out!", all of which fail to acknowledge the gold and other winners show Japan up as petty. When they get over that then I'll support a games for Tokyo and a permanent UNSC seat. Until then, Japan shows itself up as a jealous and mean-spirited childish country, unworthy of international spotlight or responsibility.
flammenwerfer at 09:00 AM JST - 13th August

Come on people, it's not just Japan and not all Japanese athletes! One Japanese athlete is a sore loser and they all get tarred and feathered. There have been some pretty sore losers on display from all over the world. The US swimmer Hoff, the French Judoka who sat sulking for 30 secs after losing the gold medal etc.

On the bar the Japanese were awesome and incredibly one of the Chinese scored much higher with what looked like a less spectacular performance, I wonder how much the crowd cheering subtlely influences the judges?

Its not really a surprise the Chinese won, 17 years of living in a "Gymnastics coalmine" in China training 6-8 hours a day every day you would really expect a flawless well polished performance.

as one competitor in another sport put it "The others are professionals.....that's the thing, all the other people in the room here don't do anything else. I have to go back home to work." Chinese athletes are extreme.
Sarge at 02:15 PM JST - 13th August

And this just in - the Chinese girls beat the American girls for the gold.
flammenwerfer at 12:12 AM JST - 14th August

last night when the 19yr old judoka won the bronze medal, she said she was very disappointed and that anything but gold isnt worth anything... i think this is very sad- Bronze is an amazing achievement and she should be very proud of how far she got.

she obviously isn't a Seinfeld fan, he had some interesting thoughts on the Olympics. His idea about silver could explain why the J-mens team weren't happy - being the #1 losers!

The Olympics is really my favorite sporting event. Although I think I have a problem with that silver medal.'Cause when you think about it,you win the gold-you feel good,you win the bronze-you think 'Well at least I got something'.But when you win that silver it's like 'Congratulations,you almost won. Of all the losers-you came in first of that group.You're the number one loser. No one lost ahead of you!'
SuperLib at 02:06 AM JST - 14th August

I've thought about the Seinfeld bit a few times...heh. I usual think of the part where he talks about training your whole life then losing by 0.01 seconds...

Ah, just found it....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2wJ1wH_Ztw

It was like from now to now. Now to now. Nownow... Nnnnn.....
flammenwerfer at 09:00 PM JST - 25th August

watching the aussies womans Basketball team, reminded me of this discussion, we now have the worst losers of the tournament by far. Crying and blubbing after the game and all the way on the podium as they "only" got silver and were beaten in the final! it was like someone had just died. No concept of being gracious in defeat and happy to get the silver. It wasn't even close either - they were thrashed!