The Greatness of 2nd Place

FIRST things FIRST.. do these girls LOOK 16 to you? I honestly believe that the Chinese age better than any of us... but not this well. I don't care if they aren't 16 or older. They were fantastic. I'll give them that. But what bothers me is that it is ILLEGAL to compete in Olympic gymnastics if you are under 16. So... instead of putting together the best team possible with girls of appropriate age... China selects these girls and their passport is all that is needed to authenticate their age. It's cheating and it makes me angry. I'll give the veteran (on the far right) at least 16. BUT IF THATS HOW OLD THE VET IS... how can they expect us to believe the rest are even close. I believe these girls deserved the gold medal for their performances... but shame on the people that set this in motion! I wonder if the girls have any idea... I hope not or thats just breeding dishonesty.

Alright.. on to America!


I want everyone to look closely at the picture above. WHO looks like they are FAKING happiness with a silver medal? I think... it's the only one who couldn't smile big enough to show her teeth.... because she was on the verge of tears.. and not happy tears. It upsets me when people don't see the greatness of 2nd place. Only one team in the entire WORLD did better than you that day. I think that is amazing!

I know that Alicia Scaramone blames herself and the mistakes she made for putting them in 2nd place and she sees that as a bad thing. SHE FELL TWICE and THEY STILL WON A SILVER MEDAL. With injuries...

The announcers say that she is the emotional rock of the team. I have not seen anything out of her that I would describe as a ROCK. She is rattled VERY easily. She's the veteran and she should of understood that she HAD to shake it off.

I feel bad for her, because she won a SILVER medal and she didn't enjoy 1 minute of it. I hope she gets over it soon, so she can savor some of this.

I am so proud of the girls and how they handled everything. THEY ALL MADE MISTAKES. Even God's gift to gymnastics (I think she really is) Shawn Johnson stepped out of bounds. But they were able to see the greatness in 2nd place.

I encourage you to do the same.

*jumping off soap box*... now! :)