×Gabrielle Douglas vs. Jordyn Wieber: Is it 2008 all over again?

SAN JOSE -- The cast of characters is different, but in some ways it feels like we've sat through this play before.

The fact that Gabrielle Douglas beat Jordyn Wieber over the two day Olympic Trials competition to grab the guarenteed Olympic team spot signals two things: a) 2011 World champion Wieber is beatable on occasion and b) Douglas is a gymnast who, on occasion, can do it.

Aside from the Trofeo di Jesolo in 2011 (won by McKayla Maroney) Douglas is the first gymnast to beat Wieber in an all-around competition in more than two years. In fact, it's hard to remember the last time Wieber didn't place first in an all-around competition (The 2012 American Cup, where Douglas tallied the highest all-around score competing as a reserve doesn't count. Nor does the 2010 U.S. Junior Championships, which Wieber withdrew from partway through due to injury.)

That puts Douglas in a rather special place with the opening ceremonies of the London Olympics 26 days away, doesn't it? She knows it, too.

"Everyone says it's Shawn and Nastia all over again," Douglas commented following the conclusion of the U.S. Olympic Trials Sunday night. "And we are going to push each other to great and amazing things. Which is awesome, because that's what competition is about."

Still, Wieber vs. Douglas isn't quite a Liukin vs. Johnson fight. The Nastia vs. Shawn Olympic all-around throwdown was billed as a kind of final battle between grace and power in modern gymnastics.

This isn't that. Though both Wieber and Douglas are immensely talented, neither of them is quite the ballerina figure Liukin was. Still, there are some parallels: Wieber, who has been compared to both Johnson and Carly Patterson, is the one with the accolades, the consistency and the undefeated streak as long as her arm. In other words, she's the Shawn Johnson of 2012. (Johnson went undefeated as a senior elite except for the 2008 American Cup and the Olympics themselves.)

That would make Douglas the Liukin, the supertalented gymnast who has hung in there and improved steadily with every Olympic year competition, making fewer mistakes and coming closer and closer to the undisputed leader. Douglas certainly did that Sunday in San Jose, in spite of a few wobbles on beam. Wieber, meanwhile, had a characteristic night, going cleanly through each event. Could she have been better? Yes, a little. But perhaps not as much as Douglas could have.

Not that Wieber seems bothered about the whole thing. She actually said she likes competing with the target on her back, that it pushes her to be better more than it would if she were the no. 2 chasing a no. 1.

In the end, what we're looking at going into London is almost a dead heat between two all-around favorites. In that way, it is like 2008.

×Gros fail de papa liukin sur la parade aussi
ca m'amuse car je trouve qu'il pare extrèmement bien, toujours accompagnant jusqu'a la fin des lachés et tout, mais alors la!

×J'ai trouvé un lien de téléchargement "torrent" du deuxième jour, mais je ne sais pas si le partage de ce genre de lien est autorisé sur le forum ? En tout cas, je veux bien le donner par MP sinon.