tom-scocca Page 5 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Gymnastics Event Finals, Day One: Live By The Vault, Die By The Vault
Today was supposed to be the coronation of McKayla Maroney as the world's best female vaulter. She had dominated the event since making her senior debut a year ago, winning the world championship title in Tokyo. (There was even a completely unprovable, likely fan-generated rumor that the USOC was pr...
Women's Gymnastics: Gabby Douglas Leaves The Rest Of The World Behind
Where the Olympic men's gymnastics all-around final had been a gradual, predictable victory for favorite Kohei Uchimura, the women's final came down to the last routine and the last score. When the tabulation was done, Gabby Douglas of the United States took the title, becoming the first woman of co...
Fake, Jingoistic, And Stupid: Gymnastics Coverage Is The Worst Part Of NBC's Olympics
If you have a full-time job, no privacy at work, and/or a boss who cares about productivity, you probably didn't spend two hours in the middle of the day, like I did, watching the women's all-around Olympic gymnastics final. This means that you get to see it tonight on NBC, with routines sprinkled b...
Call Him "Baby Shoes," ’Cuz Ryan Lochte Just Got Bronzed
First he gets outraced by a 16-year-old Chinese girl who's not even in the pool with him. Now here's Ryan Lochte, in the middle lane above, getting beaten to the wall in the 200-meter breastbackstroke by teammate Tyler Clary (in an Olympic record 1:53.41) and Japan's Ryosuke Irie, both of whom passe...
Gore Vidal's First Love: The Baseball Star Turned War Hero
As of Wednesday morning, administrators at Rock Creek Cemetery in D.C. hadn't heard yet whether Gore Vidal would actually be filling the burial plot he reserved there for himself some years ago. But Vidal, who died yesterday in Los Angeles at 86, has a couple reasons to get shipped back to his boyho...
Men's Gymnastics All-Around: Kohei "Superman" Uchimura Is Invincible
The gold in today's men's gymnastics all-around went to Japan's Kohei Uchimura, aka "Superman," as it was supposed to. Did that make it boring, like a murder mystery where you know the ending, or like a primetime broadcast of a swimming race whose results were published hours ago? ...
Happy, Healthy, And Hitting Their Spots: How The American Women's Gymnastic Team Won The Gold
Today, the U.S. women's gymnastics team, which entered the Olympics as the heavy favorite for team gold medal, did what every commentator predicted it would—won the title in a commanding fashion, topping the Russians by five points, 183.596 to 178.530....
I'd Rather Go Through NFL Two-A-Days Or Make Myself Puke In The Pool Than Do What Michael Phelps Does
NFL training camp is back underway, and all of your favorite players are being reminded once again: Football practice sucks. That's well documented. The pain. The violence. The hot sun. But you know what sucks worse? Swim practice....
Your Viewing Guide To Today's Women's Gymnastics Team Medal Round
As the women's gymnastics teams enter today's medal round, the United States team—as nearly every article about gymnastics has mentioned—is heavily favored to win the gold. It would be the first for America since the Magnificent Seven did it in Atlanta in 1996. This squad already has its own moniker...
Men's Gymnastics Team Final: Team USA Stumbles, China Soars, And The Officials Vault Japan Over Britain
After exceeding expectations in the men's gymnastics preliminaries, the United States fell below expectations when it counted, in the team final. A squad that had hoped for gold, if everything went right, finished out of the medals entirely....
U.S. Gymnastics Favorite Jordyn Wieber Outscored Nearly Everyone Else In Preliminaries. That Wasn't Enough To Qualify Her For The All-Around Final.
As expected, in the women's gymnastics preliminaries, the United States topped the field. Less expectedly, the margin was only 1.4 points....
Men's Gymnastics: Fierce Competitors, Stuck In Second Place
The United States men's gymnastics team is currently trying to achieve what no American men's team has ever done: win a team gold medal at a non-boycotted Olympics. The favorite is Japan, led by three-time world champion Kohei Uchimura, who is possibly the best male gymnast of all time. But the Amer...
Men's Gymnastics Preliminaries: U.S. Wins, Britain Has Best Hair, None Of It Really Counts
Michael Phelps wasn't the only athlete to prove he was a mere human today. While Phelps was finishing out of the medals in the 4x100 individual medley, three-time world gymnastics champion Kohei Uchimura—dubbed "Superman" for his dominance—fumbled through the men's preliminaries, logging two falls o...
The Deadspin World Freedom Sports Index: Grading Countries On How Much They Allow Their Leaders To Suck At Sports
On the day of the Olympic Parade of Nations, let's consider the relationship between sports and national character. Every year, a few organizations release a list of the countries they think are the freest in the world, and in so doing make clear their own biases. The free-market wonks at the Herita...
Happy Girl, Sad Girl: Shawn Johnson And Dominique Moceanu Tell The Two Stories People Want From Their Sport
American coverage of women's gymnastics falls squarely into one of two camps: tales of plucky, lovable teens wearing their perma-smiles to the winners' podium, or exposés of the sport's seedy underbelly, of eating disorders, abusive training methods, of cruel coaches and broken bodies. It's either N...
Olympics Memory: Beijing's Many Mascots Get An Un-Friendly Welcome
As the London Olympic mascots, Wenlock and Mandeville, greet visitors with their expressionless, chilling, cyclopean stares, we remember the controversial unveiling of the previous Summer Olympics mascots. In this excerpt from Tom Scocca's Beijing Welcomes You: Unveiling the Capital City of the Futu...
If Your Baby Needs A Baby Helmet, Buy Your Baby A Baby Helmet
I'm looking at the Amazon product reviews for the Thudguard Baby Safety Helmet, and as I do with most products, I'm focusing on the one-star reviews. What's the worst case? What are the satisfied customers overlooking? ...
Counterpoint: Ads On Jerseys Are Bush-League Crap, And If You Think They're OK, You're A Stooge
Oh, gee, the NBA wants to build on its incredible globe-spanning success and goodwill by putting ads on its uniforms, because...that's how they do it in the WNBA. And MLS. And various other unpopular and/or foreign sports leagues, and uh NASCAR, which, really? NASCAR was a long-form automobile comme...
Sure, God Made The Universe. But Can He Coach An American Marathoner To Olympic Gold?
March 29 was a busy day for Ryan Hall, the fastest American marathoner ever. He was 137 days and roughly 2,100 miles of road training away from representing the country in the London Olympics. He had to be up early for drug testing....
Those Beijing Olympics "Ruin Porn" Photos Are Faking It
This month, the Atlantic Cities picked up a batch of photos by David Gray of Reuters, purportedly documenting the waste and ruin left behind by the 2008 Beijing Olympics. A lot of people are excited by this. But the pictures are dishonest crap....