Coach Williams: Blogging in Beijing

Aug. 11, 2008

NORMAN, Okla. -- Throughout the 2008 Summer Olympics, SoonerSports.com will keep fans up to date with blogs from former Sooner Jonathan Horton and head men's gymnastics coach Mark Williams from Beijing.

Today's account comes from Coach Williams as he recaps the first day of team competition in Beijing and previews Monday night's finals which will be aired live on NBC at 9 p.m. CT.

Stay tuned next week to hear more from Coach Williams and Horton as they continue their journey in Beijing.

Bound for Beijing Central | Horton Blog #1 | Williams' Blog #1

BEIJING, China (Monday, Aug. 11)

Hello again from Beijing, China. This past week the team struggled through the replacement of another one of our Olympians, brought in one of the alternates the day before competition, competed in the qualification day and began preparing for the team finals.

After our podium day, Morgan Hamm withdrew from the team due to the injury he had to his ankle. A day later, Sasha Artemev stepped in for Morgan and was asked to compete in the all around. It was an emotional roller coaster, having to go through this type of change so close to the competition. Never before in the history of men's USA gymnastics Olympic teams have we replaced two athletes within two weeks of the start of the Games.

Saturday was the qualification meet and USA competed in the first session. Warm-ups began at 10:00 a.m. and the competition started at 12:00 p.m. The format had five gymnasts competing on every event with four scores counting for the team.

The USA's first event was the still rings and the team put together five good routines. Jon was solid, scoring a little below his average but he had a nice routine. The vault came next and again the USA team competed well. Jon took a side step on this double front for a 15.95. The parallel bar team did very well too. Jon did a very good pike and tuck Belles and again scored in the top three for the USA team. The high bar team did an amazing job with consistency while catching big releases and finishing with very difficult dismounts. Jon had is best high bar routine of the year scoring 15.575. This turned out to be enough to qualify him to the high bar finals scheduled for August 19. He finished sixth in the qualification round. A pretty amazing accomplishment! Floor exercise was next and the team did pretty well but not their best. Jon had a solid routine with some hops on his landings. The last event was pommel horse and though some of the scores were a little low, everyone did their job. Jon had one of his better horse routines for the year but only scored 13.95. Sasha did a tremendous set for a 15.25 to finish the meet in sixth and put him in the pommel horse finals.

The final tally had the USA team finishing sixth to qualify them into Tuesday morning's finals. NBC will be covering the finals on Monday night live in Oklahoma.

China was the top team in the qualifying round, followed by Japan, Russia, Germany and Korea. I stayed to watch the second session that had China, Japan and Russia competing. The last session had Germany and Korea and I watched them compete from the dining hall. The last two teams in the finals are France and Romania.

Jon finished eighth in the all around (AA), hitting all six of his routines. Sasha was 19th and made the finals as well. The AA finals will be held on August 14th. Jon will compete first on PH and rotate in the Olympic order finishing on floor. This is the same rotation he had last year at the 2007 World Championships in Germany.

We left the competition venue last Saturday feeling pretty good about the team's performance. The next step was preparing for the change in format going into the team finals. In finals, each team will only put up three gymnasts and each score will count for the team. This three-up and three-count protocol puts consistency and high start scores as the priority. There will be less guys competing but every routine will count for the team score.

Tomorrow is the team finals competition day. The team had a couple good days of training and are prepared to again start on the still rings come 10 a.m. on Tuesday. It's an early time to be doing gymnastics but I'm sure the guys will be up for it.

Outside the training and the competition day, the rest of our time in China has been taken up by traveling back and forth to our dorms, eating, sleeping or communicating with our families at home.

The personal coaches have been on some wild cab rides but still somehow manage to figure our where we're going and eventually get to where we need to be. If this is 60 percent of the usual traffic in Beijing, I don't want to be here when it's at full force.

My only other highlights have to do with being a part of the Olympic mix. I did get to run around the track with the 100-meter track star, Tyson Gay, rode the bus with fencing gold medalist, Mariel Zagunis and watched the basketball team for a few minutes workout near our dorm. Also, Duke coach, Mike Krzyzewski, was on hand at the 24-hour fitness gym I worked out in to do the grand opening.

We've also gotten used to seeing the Olympic security force stationed every twenty feet or so at every venue. Each time we go in or out of the village, the personal coaches' housing, practice gyms, walk from one area to the next, there are security checkpoints to go through. Where we are staying, we've seen the same guy at his post for hours in some very hot and humid conditions.

Yesterday I did go and watch the USA women's gymnastics team in their qualification day. Except for a couple of mistakes on the uneven bars, the team looked very good. My cab couldn't find the right facility so I had to run the last mile to the competition hall. The Olympic Green area was packed so I missed the first two rotations. I got to see the team's uneven bars and beam. With China and the USA first and second, respectively, after prelims, this should set up quite a battle between the two teams in the finals.

So that's what has been going on lately. Please wish the team luck for their efforts in the team finals and I will check back in again soon.

-- Coach Williams

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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