Jordan is Out and Aly is In

Aly Raisman qualifies to All Around finals as the #1 for USA.  Gabby Douglas qualifies #2. [Photo Source:  NBCOlympics.com]

It was obvious that Aly was in shock and disbelief to find that she was in the #1 spot for All Around rankings after Team USA's qualification round.  So was Jordan and so was everyone else.  It was expected that the team would qualify for Team finals #1 but it was not expected that Aly would qualify for All Around finals.  It was supposed to be Gabby and Jordan according to expectation but due to the two athlete per country rule Jordan got bumped out.  Never mind that she is the current reigning World Champion and finished 4th among all the athletes in qualifications.  Rules are rules and even though she has trained her whole life for this and is obviously one of the best of the best she will not get the chance to compete in the All Around Finals.  My heart breaks for her.  She's done everything right and she deserves to be there.  But of course, so do Aly and Gabby.  Jordan made some mistakes and the judges were really hard on her on beam but even as I watched the competition nothing seemed amiss.  It's not like she fell or anything obvious.  An arched back on bars, a big balance break on beam and out of bounds on floor.  Not perfect, but neither was anyone else.  I just figured that Aly would be odd man out and was preparing to feel really bad for her because she works so hard yet never comes out on top.  Instead, Aly's hard work finally did pay off.  She rocked beam and her last event, floor was amazing.  This day belonged to her and with just one slightly off day for Jordan her dream was crushed.  We'll only see her in Team Finals and individual event finals on Floor.  I'm very happy for Aly and Gabby.  Especially Aly because has been so consistent for so many years and has improved so much on her form.  It's just such a shame for Jordan.  She seemed dazed after she saw the score board.  I think she wanted to head right out of the arena but was corralled back into the media area along with the rest of the team.  She barely held the tears back as she was interviewed afterwards.  This did not go as planned but she still has to put her disappointment aside and step up tomorrow for the team. 

Jordan Wieber burst into tears when she saw her name drop to 3rd [Photo Source:  NBCOlympics.com]

She's not the first deserving gymnast to ever be a victim of the two per country rule and she won't be the last unless it changes.  It should be about the best of the best and not the best of the best minus some athletes if their team is really, really good.  I think if you are in the top 8 but got bumped out because of the two per country rule then you should be allowed into finals.  If they must cap it at 24 then whomever is at the bottom should get bumped out.  It seems kind of ridiculous that person #24 who has absolutely no chance for an AA medal will get to compete for it but Jordan won't.  A rule that's supposed to encourage diversity and make things "fair" sure doesn't seem so fair right now.

Another upset of the games so far is Michael Phelps getting 4th place (no medal) to Ryan Lochte's win in the 400 IM finals.  I don't follow swimming but from what I can piece together it seems that Michael intended 2008 where he won 8 Gold medals to be his last Olympics but then ended up going for 2012 anyways.  It seems that while Ryan was training his butt off for the last four years Michael came into the competition unprepared and maybe slightly overconfident if you asked me.  The commentators said that he didn't get as much training in.  During the interview afterwards he seemed really distracted.  He kept looking off to the side instead of talking directly to the camera and you could tell the last place he wanted to be was in front of the camera after his first Olympic loss since 2004.

This is just two examples just in the first few days of the Olympics of how anything can happen.  It doesn't matter how good you are or how many medals you have at home if you are not THE BEST on THE DAY it counts nothing else matters.

Next Up:  Team Finals