I'm sorry but am I the only one thinking that the U.S. gymnasts were scored extremely low??? Sasha's pommel horse routine was amazing and with all the scissor kicks had to have more of a difficulty rating than what it received and he should have at least been 16 or over not in the 15's it was like that all night the amazing difficulty of the U.S. men on the high bar also spinning with one hand and sticking their landings with quadruple flip dismounts got a difficulty rating in the 6's????? while China always got 7's in difficulty and didn't stick their landings and got high 16's like 16.75 what is up with the scoring??? I think China must have the gold so bad the judges helped them and we should have at least won the silver since we did falter but also we faltered after horrible unfair scores which can shake confidence when you do a perfect routine and stick your landing with extreme difficulty and get a low 15 score. Hope the women are not scored so badly as the U.S. me were.

Once again the athletes were superb and the judges were political. China's constant 7's for difficulty were shameful against the 6's identified for the U.S.

the difficulty ("A" score if you check the score sheets) is not subjective. China racks up the A score by exploiting holes in the code of points. However, the "B" score is the execution score, and China, while good, recieved some B scores that were just too high. Given that their A scores are so high anyways, and their B scores are good, as long as they don't fall, they'll win. The frustrating part here was China didn't need the extra boost from the judges-they would ahve won fair and square.

In fact, the execution ("B") scores of the American men were higher on high bar than the Chinese. Its just that the Chinese do boring, safe, lazy gymnastics that exploits holes in the rules and continues to drag the sport down. I never worry about the Chinese falling because they hardly let go of the bar-of course, I use their high bar routines as bathroom breaks. So not the case with the American men.

Tracee Hamilton: Maybe, I wasn't looking at the same American gymnasts as you were. Granted, there was poor showing on the pommel horse by two of the gymnasts, but the team as a whole didn't choke at the end.

The last two events, the Americans gave some awesome performances. When one member on the uneven bars faltered, the next two teammates gave spectacular performances. The same with the pommel horse, two guys (who were on the team only because the Hamm brothers withdrew) faltered, but the last gymnast's performance had me jumping up and down. Wow!

The judging was subjective and China's total points didn't match their flawed performance.

The USA and other countries received undeserved lower degrees of difficulty and lower scores.

It seemed like the "fix was in."

Thank God swimming isn't judged subjectively. Go Phelps! Go USA!!!

you all should go back to basketball and track cuz your comments show that you know nothing about this sport

I think the American gymnasts were awesome, and truly inspirational in their performances.

But let's not China-bash, OK? China won the gold, and their performances were awesome. In terms of difficulty, they were really above and beyond the other teams.

I am as proud of this country as anyone else, but let's be reasonable here.

you haters suck. these people won by the rules - by the rules set by you arseholes.

We are not China bashing we are saying that the routines the U.S. men had high degrees of difficulty and were only getting 6's in difficulty the scoring has changed for this Olympics and it's not working did you see the high bar routine did the Chinese spin around with one hand and do quadruple dismounts and stick the landings should thouse routines get a difficulty rating in the 6's???? or Sasha's pommel horse routine which was probably the best ever done on a pommel horse with the helicopter kicks I have never seen anything like it and he scores a 15.25???? enough to win the bronze but a 15.25???? are you kidding me??? I'm not knocking the Chinese I'm knocking the judges we should have had the silver and perhaps the gold because I think we faltered after we realized we had to have perfect routines and we would still not get a 16 no matter what we did.

Don't get me wrong I think its great that our team won bronze but to say there was not some subjective judging going on is crazy. It was almost like they said "hey these guys will be happy with bronze so thats all they get".

China did a good job on most their routines, but the ones they faltered on it didn't look like they were hit with any deductions. Did they do enough to win gold, I'd say yes they probably did.

The Japanese team however was lack luster at best, with very poor performances through out and yet they get silver? Every time they flashed over to one of their routines it was filled with flaws, steps and what should have been deductions.

The American team was the epitome of what the Olympics is meant to be. They came in as underdogs, not expected to win anything and nailed almost every routine except the few faults on the floor and on the pommel.

you guys are not reading what I posted. There is an A score and a B score. The chinese have good B scores, but are experts at racking up the difficulty points for the A score. THAT is how they win. The Americans have good A scores and good to B scores. That puts them at an automatic disadvantage to the Chinese.

Also remember that each team puts up 3 routines on each event and all three rotuines count, no room for error. That means the US had to count a 12 something and a 13 something on pommel horse. Those are not good scores.

Please, before you go screaming about how the Americans were robbed and the judges cheater every which was to hand the Chinese gold, learn some more about the sport and the scoring. Were the Chinese scores high? Yep. We the Chinese, under the current rules, still the best team out on the flor? Absolutely.

Am I trilled that a US team that people were saying had no hope of advancing to the medal round proved everyone wrong and won bronze? You better believe it. Its a great day (nay, a great YEAR!) for US men's gymnastics. They literally accomplished the impossible.

I see what you are saying with the "A" score but with the new rules that is determined from the judeges based on the routine not predetermined ahead of time. China could be experts in getting difficulty scores up but there is no possible way that the U.S. men that did amazing acrobatics on the high bar and the Sasha on the pommel horse were in a 6 something difficulty not a chance did you see those routines they were some of the best I've ever seen and they stuck the landings!!!! They would have been a 10 under the old scoring for sure. One dismount has never been done in the world except by him because of the DIFFICULTY so long story short our "A" scores should have been way higher that 6 getting us the silver and perhaps the gold.

I watched the routines. And then I watched them again. I'm also a gymnastics coach, so I have more than a passing understanding of the rules and how this whole complicated system works. Like it or not, the Chinese are outstanding at constructing boring routines that rack up the difficulty by exploiting loopholes. Their women (and America's Nastia Liukin) do the same thing on bars.

Despite what Tim Daggett will have you believe, a stuck landing does not automatically equal winning. There's way more to a routine than just a stuck landing.

Regarding Sasha's 6.something A score on pommels: PH is BY FAR the hardest event to get a high A score on, and it consistently the lowest scoring event. It sucks that the US had to end on that event, but that's jus sometimes how it works. Sasha's pommel score was very fair in my educated opinion. He was credited with all of his planned skills and recieved 9.2s and 9.3s for his B scores from the judges, which were accurate.

The Chinese A scores were accurate. They got credited with the skill and combinations they performed. There's no grand conspiracy here, sorry, and I'm one of the first to jump on those things. (5 out of 6 of the Chinese "women" are not old enough to compete! Alleged score trading benefitting the Chinese women on floor!) the Chinese deserved to win, maybe not by as much as they did, but they clearly outclassed everyone else. Even if they did put me to sleep doing it.

Okay Birdie you are saying that with all the difficulty Sasha did helicopter kicks just an unbelievable routine he did not deserve a 16 or better or the men on the high bar routines swinging around one handed amazing dismounts did not deserve a 16 or better? The Chinese were getting high 16's consistently and clearly making errors as well as hops on their landings fine give the Chinese 16 or more but give the U.S. high bar routine and last Pommel routine 16 or more it was well deserved and scored way too low no matter how you try to sugar coat it.

and one more thing low scores can effect their chances at the individual events these men train all their lives for this moment and I don't care what anyone says those two phenomenal high bar routines needed a 16 or better and Sasha's pommel routine but Thank God we got the Bronz!!! but should have been Silver definitely even with the mishaps on the floor and pommel which I think was due to their confidence being shaken that no matter how spectacular they were no way were they going to get a 16 I saw China fall off the map after the vault and get a 16?????? Thank God for Sasha saving us the Bronz!!!

Ken, stop ranting for just a moment. Sasha made pommel horse finals, so chill out.

Sasha has a 6.1 A score on pommels, I bleieve. Combine that with a 10.0 maximum B score, and a perfect routine from Sasha can score a 16.1. NO ONE scores 10.0 B scores. A 9.5 or higher is phenomenal. Sasha got a 9.25, or there abouts. That's actually quite good. He had some minor errors. His score was fair. Like I said, PH is hard to get a high A score, and Sasha's is pretty high, in fact.

Regarding the high bar, as I said, REPEATEDLY, the Chinese men have higher A scores because they're willing to codewh*re like its going out of style, while the Americans doing flashier release move gymnastics that doesn't get the combination bonus points. The execution marks the US men recieved surpassed those of the Chinese men. Why? Because the US executes their routines better. Unfortunately, their routines aren't worth quite as much. But it is a far more enjoyable style of gymnastics to watch.

And as I've also said repeatedly, the Chinese men were gifted by the judges, but even if they had not been, they still would have won.

If you actually want to take the time to learn about the sport and the intricate stuff that goes into determining scores, there are a great many websites and message boards to do so.

Thanks Birdie I'm just looking at what I'm seeing spectacular routines but like you said maybe that's not what wins but code wh*ring and trying to do things to up the difficulty level. I sure thought those U.S. routines were full of difficulty but I will listen to you and try to have an open mind and learn more about it thank you.

K, so did anyone see the Chinese's vaults? And they STILL got 16's after not sticking the landings and stepping out of bounds? I hate the new scoring system. It erases all potential for absolute perfection. With the new scoring system what is perfect? What is a 10? There isn't one. The possiblities are endless, I guess.

I wasn't bored by any of the routines, by any team. Thank you Birdie for adding your insight.

At this level, sometimes when technical abilities are so close, you do have to use strategy to win. Which is what China did.

In fact, I don't know any sport where you don't play to the rules-boxing, etc.

Stop hating on China, I can't wait to hear what people say about the women's victory.

Hi Trish we are not hating on China all I was saying is that I saw some of the best high bar routines from the men where they swung around with one hand amazing releases and then a quadruple flip dismount which only one person in the world has been able to do "THAT" gymnast and to say that that is not a difficult and deserves over a 6 in difficulty in my opinion is absurd okay I might not know all the rules but common sense it is the most difficult routine I have seen. Did you see the high bar routine???? oh and they stuck the landings too. They deserved a final score of at least 16. I also thought the Pommel horse routine was just as amazing. I was happy for the girls that they got the silver they did awesome then made some major mistakes and the Chinese girls were awesome I still think they are 14 because again common sense can see that they are not 16 but I don't care they were damn good and deserved the gold and I felt the men deserved the silver because with some higher scores that might have not let the Japanese surpass them. I feel better with birdie explaining the rules so it might not be as bad as I thought but I will never say that the high bar routines that I saw did not deserve a 16 or better and if the rules do say that then they are flawed in my humble opinion.

Sorry Trish my post was answering E I agree with you 100% :o)