NBC's Uneven Take on Gymnastics Controversy
Stephanie Brown Trafton by Nick Laham/Getty Images
A great night of performances in a variety of sports was tarnished Monday by some unattractive whining from the NBC gymnastics crew. The
controversial tie-breaker in the women's uneven bars certainly didn't seem to make sense, but you have to wonder how much howling we would have heard if an American had come out top. China's He Kexin and
Nastia Liukin of the U.S. had
identical scores, but a seemingly arbitrary formula gave the gold to He. NBC's team - Al Trautwig, Elfie Schlegel and Tim Daggett - took great issue with this, and Trautwig even went so far as to question whether He felt she deserved the gold. Back in the studio, bellowing Bela Karolyi continued his ranting to Bob Costas, who did his best to remain impartial. I don't remember anyone questioning
Paul Hamm's all-around victory four years ago, when a scoring error pushed his South Korean opponent back to silver.
The next event, the men's vault, also involved a tie-breaker, one with a more clear-cut resolution - and no American athlete involved. The NBC team let that one go.
Over at track and field, things were a bit more straightforward. The U.S. team finally came out its slump and piled up some medals. Stephanie Brown-Trafton pulled a stunning upset in the
women's discus, becoming the first American winner in the event since 1932. She later revealed that Mary Lou Retton was her Olympic inspiration. "She was my idol,"
the 6-foot-4, 225-pound Brown Trafton said. "I had a leotard just like hers that I wore all the time. But I grew out of it quite quickly." She put in a plea for a meeting with Retton, which we'd have to guess a
Today show producer is already planning.
American men swept the
400-meter hurdles, led by Angelo Taylor, who also won the event back in Sydney eight years ago. In the
women's pole vault, Jenn Stuczynski took silver behind Russia's Yelena Isinbaeva. The former gymnast, who has been unbeatable in the event, raised her world record for the third time this summer, clearing 16 feet, 6-3/4 inches.
Earlier, American beach volleyballers
Misty May-Treanor and
Kerri Walsh continued to steamroll the competition, and
advanced to the gold-medal match, a feat the
U.S. women's soccer team also accomplished.
