Maybe an Olympic spoiler? And some poor sportsmanship

[Jilly_in_VA]

Israel's Linoy Ashram caused a huge upset in the Olympic rhythmic gymnastics individual all-around final, becoming the first non-Russian champion since 1996.

The 22-year-old toppled the long-standing reign by beating gold medal favourite Dina Averina of the Russian Olympic Committee into second place.

Averina was left in tears as the scores were revealed, and said she felt her awarded marks were too low.

"It's very hard to talk at the moment," Averina said afterwards

https://www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/58127312
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Rhythmic "gymnastics" is something I have trouble seeing as a sport. To me it looks more like a circus act. But you should at least be gracious enough to congratulate the winner.

[hlthe2b]

1. Knowing I will offend avid golfers, I will still point out that rhythmic gymnastics is a lot more

physical... So...

[Ferrets are Cool]

2. +1

[Jilly_in_VA]

3. So are other circus activities n/t

[hlthe2b]

4. Athleticism is the issue. Not whether or not you like the costumes or equipment.

For heaven's sakes. If golf can be an Olympic event, those that actually require extreme continuous physical athleticism should. Olympics have long balanced classical sporting events with more artistic events, albeit very athletic artistic events. Synchronized swimming might likewise seem too artistic for some tastes, but is one of the older modern Olympic events--first appearing in LA in 1984.

[Jilly_in_VA]

9. So when are they including trapeze? /s

Actually, I am all in favor of including power tumbling. My former DIL has a brother who started out in gymnastics but for various reasons switched to power tumbling and earned numerous awards in that before retiring from the sport. I watched some of it when the Nationals came to Knoxville and was enthralled by the athleticism.

As for synchronized swimming, while I don't like the costumes and makeup a lot, I can see it as a sport a lot more than rhythmic gymnastics. (At least pairs. More than that is an Esther Williams movie.) All that holding your breath and underwater movement is more akin to water polo than rhythmic is to artistic gymnastics, IMNSHO. There's a big difference. Oh, and I purely don't get golf. But that's me.

[hlthe2b]

10. Plenty of trapeze elements in the gymnastics uneven bars..

[Mosby]

5. This is the first olympic gold medal for an Israeli woman.

Her parents are Mizrahi Jews, from Yemen and Greece.

Eta the ROC was worse:

The Russian Olympic Committee claimed that silver medalist Dina Averina was cheated by the judges, despite the fact that both of Averina’s appeals to her score failed to raise it above Ashram’s and make up the 0.150 difference in points.

"The whole world has seen the injustice,” the Russian Olympic Committee tweeted.

https://m.jpost.com/international/olympics-israel-qualifies-for-group-all-around-rhythmic-gymnastics-final-676084

[zuul]

6. Averina was absolutely a poor sport.

The least she could have done was shake Linoy Ashram's hand. Linoy approached her and was ingored.

I still don't get why any Russians were allowed to participate. Not much of a penalty for doping if your athletes can still compete.

[Jilly_in_VA]

11. I don't either

I guess the rationale was something like, "Well, none of these athletes were involved." Yeah, sure, Boris. Doping is as Russian as borscht. They're just finding new ways to do it.

[a kennedy]

13. Yah, I thought she was a diva of the worst kind. Ugh....🤬

[Cracklin Charlie]

7. I was trying to follow that.

What was the deal about the knot in the ribbon? I couldn’t even hardly see the ribbon, let alone a knot.

I missed all the tears and drama, I guess.

[Walleye]

8. Sore loserism, It's as Russian as borscht.Which makes it also a GOP principle

[zuul]

12. And cheating.

Russia and the GQP are serial cheaters.

[Walleye]

14. Exactly. And if there's one thing I hate, it's a cheater.