I am a former gymnast, coach and judge and as you can tell by my incessant posting - a still dedicated fan. I love gymnastics, a sport I began when I was four years old, and that I still think is one of the most beautiful things on earth. However, I do not love seeing gymnasts being overworked, badly trained, forced through absurd and unneccessary selection procedures and mindgames, competing with terrible injuries in an almost impossible scoring system under incredible pressure only to be crucified by NBC when they predictably falter.

I wish NBC would bring back Kathy Johnson who was a wonderful commentator, or let Cynthia Potter, who is marvellous doing the diving and is also a gymnastics coach, take over the commenting. One can watch a diving competition knowing nothing and come away with a good understanding of the scoring system and performances - those who do not follow gymnastics are assaulted with coverage more interested in creating dramatic storylines at the expense of the athletes than offering any insight into scoring, judging, or performance. Or let Paul Ziert, who edits International Gymnast and has been very outspoken on recent code issues, the removal of the 10 and training systems, in the booth. Anyone but the "terrible trio" who seem to have stopped paying attention to gymnastics around 1992 and are ignorant of current scoring and judging (hence their hysteria over OOB, a major mistake in the 80's and 90's when hundredths of points decided medals, a minor one today where most competitions are won by margins of at least a point) and the dreadful Andrea Joyce, who barges up to athletes and asks them things like "how does it feel to lose the gold" or "you've been training your whole life for this, and now you failed..." or any number of insensitive, ignorant questions that ought to get her punched in the face.