Olympic Gymnastics Restrictive Rule

I got my fill of gymnastics today and then some as I watched the women's qualifications at the Olympics. [As an aside, the Canadian coverage of the Games has been pretty amazing. At any given time I can be watching events on CTV, SportsNet, TSN or RDS or choosing from a multitude of feeds on the CTV iPad app. Plus there's NBC if I really wanted it, but that would be a last resort since they're not showing a lot of things live - especially the marquee events like gymnastics. I could have seen all five subsections today, and I knew all the key results by midday while cable-bound Americans still won't have seen them yet!]

While there were a few stumbles here and there, overall I was pretty impressed by the performances today. And Canada did particularly well, making the team finals for the first time. We also have one gymnast in the all-around and two in the vault final. As expected, the Americans lead the pack, but Russia, China and Romania are all strong contenders. Given the merciless "three up, three count" format of the team finals, nothing can be taken for granted.

And nobody found that out more than American Jordyn Weiber. The reigning world champion was expected to be vying for gold in the all around final at the Olympics. Finishing fourth overall today she certainly would have been too ... if two of her teammates hadn't placed second and third. Unfortunately the rule is only two athletes per country may advance to finals. It's not inconceivable that one of the other girls could have an injury before Thursday's final (real or - the cynic in me must allow for the possibility - exaggerated) allowing Jordyn to advance after all, but I hope that doesn't happen.

What really needs to happen is for the rule to be changed. I know you do want to allow gymnasts from a variety of countries the chance to participate, but it has never seemed right to me. In other events like swimming or cycling or track the score is everything. If the top five athletes happen to be from the same country, so be it. The finals should be a showcase of the best, regardless of where they're from. For someone to be penalised because her teammates are so good just isn't fair. Now that teams are smaller (the "Mag Seven" of 1996 is 2012's "Fab Five") and often include specialists who don't compete on all events (only three of the U.S. team did so, for example), the rule is less relevant or necessary than ever.

Of course it's too late to act now (though there is a fledgling petition underway, apparently); that would be patently unfair to the athletes who legitimately qualified today. But it's certainly time to begin lobbying in earnest for a change before the 2016 Olympics. Hopefully then we will see finals that truly do include the best of the best, no matter what their country of origin.