[Hyack]

Gymnast McKayla Maroney's sour face at silver medal wins on the web

Most athletes are ecstatic to win a medal at the Olympics, but not so, it seems gymnast McKayla Maroney feels she has been cheated out of the Gold. I've always noticed the catty looks by the gymnasts, but this has gone viral.

$1:

It's a sour face for a silver medal at the Olympics, and it's making American gymnast McKayla Maroney an Internet sensation.
Maroney was considered a top contender for a gold medal in the vault after the U.S. women's gymnastics team won the team gold medal earlier in the Games, But the young athlete fell as she tried to land her second vault on Sunday and her mistake gave the gold medal to Romania's Sandra Izbasa.

McKayla Maroney's sour faces

[Xort]

If you want to win a medal by your actions and ability then don't do it in a judged event, or a sport that gives a ref punitive powers.

[raydan]

Still better than the duck face.

[Brenda]

Holy crap, Ray!
And there is no way to unsee that!

[CDN_PATRIOT]

Brenda Brenda:

Holy crap, Ray!
And there is no way to unsee that!

0:

cannot-be-unseen.jpg [ 30.92 KiB | Viewed 952 times ]

-J.

[DanSC]

Xort Xort:

If you want to win a medal by your actions and ability then don't do it in a judged event, or a sport that gives a ref punitive powers.

The OP is misleading. She wasn't cheated out of the gold for the individual vault. She sat down on her landing for her second vault. It wasn't the judges who cost her the gold medal. The fast she won the silver medal shows just how fantastic her first vault was.

[CDN_PATRIOT]

At least she's hot



-J.

[DanSC]

She's 16 ಠ_ಠ

[raydan]

DanSC DanSC:

She's 16 ಠ_ಠ

So that's why I can't find any sexy pics on the Net.

[jeff744]

DanSC DanSC:

She's 16 ಠ_ಠ

Legal in Canada.

[xerxes]

Can't say I blame her too much for the sour puss. You train years and years in your one thing and then come up short. Who here thinks they wouldn't be disappointed?

[Freakinoldguy]

I happened to hit on her doing the vault one morning when I was having a coffee and if you think she was disappointed you should have heard the colour commentator from NBC.

Before this kid had even made her first vault the colour commentator was running her mouth about how McKayla Maroney's had already won the medal and all she had to do was show up.

Apparently I wasn't the only one who noticed this bias.

$1:

The other night, my wife, my parents, and I were watching the individual gymnastics finals for the women's vault. I'm not sure why it bothered me so much, but when the commentators gave their "expert" opinion on how things would play out, I semi-lost it.

I don't have an exact quote -- damn those trolls who keep NBC's copyrights enforced on YouTube -- but it went something like this: "It's pretty obvious that USA's McKayla Maroney's going to win gold. All the other girls are just focusing on silver. It's a foregone conclusion."

Excuse me? Why in the world are we even having the competition if it's a foregone conclusion? Shouldn't they just compete for silver while Maroney gets the gold based on the "expert consensus"? Have these commentators never heard of the Miracle on Ice, watched the Cardinals' ridiculous run to a championship last year, or seen the heavily favored Patriots lose twice to the Giants in the Super Bowl?

Sure, preparation matters in sports. But once the game starts, you can throw it all out the window. No one knows for sure how things will play out, but it's what happens on the vault (or the field, or the court) that really matters -- nothing else.

I was put in the uncomfortable position of still rooting for Maroney, knowing that if she did win, not much attention would be paid to these brazen statements of fact. But those of you who watched know what happened: Maroney fell on her second vault, and Romania's Sandra Izbasa ended up taking the gold.

So much for the foregone conclusion.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48573793/ns ... tley_fool/

[DanSC]

Thing is, McKayla Maroney was as much of a lock to win gold in the individual vault as the USA women's basketball team are a lock to win the gold medal. She had dominated the vault for the past two years, winning events by almost a full point. The event is scored by the average score of two vaults, and she only lost by 0.108.

Here's her vault from the women's team all around for reference.



It LITERALLY made the judges' jaws drop.



In fact, the men's individual all-around champion Kohei Uchimura did the same style of vault in his event. Despite having a higher vaulting table than the women, he didn't even get close to vaulting has high as Maroney.

In short, I can't fault the NBC announcers for saying Maroney was a foregone conclusion. She was as close to a forgone conclusion as you can have in sports.

[Hyack]

Here are both vaults from the individual contest....I think her problem is she started to believe all the hype about her being invincible in the event.

[Hyack]

xerxes xerxes:

Can't say I blame her too much for the sour puss. You train years and years in your one thing and then come up short. Who here thinks they wouldn't be disappointed?

Damn near every other athlete I've seen throughout these games who earned a medal, whether Gold, Silver or Bronze seemed greatly pleased to have earned it. From the expression on Maroney's face it looks as if she feels the medal is below her, as if she doesn't give a damn about it since it's not the Gold she thought she was going to walk away with. As for her interactions with her fellow competitors when she saw her score, it was one of the poorest examples of good sportsmanship I can ever remember seeing.