GYMNASTICS: Fun At The Reese's Cup
Competition at the Reese's Cup went beyond typical gymnastics for the gold.
GYMNASTICS - Reese's Cup 11/18/00 It was called a "competition," but it was more like a joke, an insult to gymnastics as a sport and an art. Perfect 10s were handed out like candy, even to routines that included falls and no real gymnastics at all! Male gymnasts received perfect 10s for taking off their shirts and parading around the arena flexing and hamming around. The competition format was Men vs. Women, and that alone should have been a sign that it would not be a serious competition. The gymnasts who participated in the "competition" were the same ones who are on tour now in the U.S. They included the 2000 Olympic All-around Men's Champion Alexei Nemov, and 2000 Olympic Women's Gold Medalist on Uneven Bars and Silver Medalist on Floor Exercise Svetlana Khorkina. Nemov and Khorkina were the two big headliners, fresh off their victories at the Olympics. Elena Produnova, the Bronze Medalist on Balance Beam, was also there. The men's and women's 2000 U.S. Olympic teams made up the rest of the teams, as well as 1996 Balance Beam Gold Medalist Shannon Miller and 1996 Olympian Dominique Moceanu. Some of the routines were so outrageously non-gymnastic the gymnasts should have been ashamed for having the nerve for even putting such a routine into the competition and hoping to get big points for it. And it was even worse that the most outrageous programs DID get the big points!! There is nothing wrong with being entertaining while performing gymnastics; the problem was that too many of the routines were ONLY entertaining, and included no true gymnastics at all! Some of the gymnasts were able to combine entertainment and athleticism, but those routines did not necessarily score the highest. John Macready had the worst routine of the night. It was a travesty, unbelievable! Macready came out, shirtless, and hung a doll, dressed like a wrestler, on the high bar. Macready ran up to the high bar, and knocked the doll off the bar. He "wrestled" with this doll for a while, and then finally got up, as if just realizing, "Oh, this is a gymnastics competition, huh?" He then mounted the high bar, and swung around aimlessly a few times. He attempted a double somersault over the high bar, but fell off the bar. Macready retreated back to his doll and wrestled with him for a while longer. Then, John Roethlisberger came and joined him, and they both mounted the high bar together, continuing the antics for a few more torturous minutes, before they finally dismounted and went back to their "wrestling." Macready finally managed to pin the doll down, Roethlisberger counted to three, and then announced that Macready had won the match. Macready received 3 (out of 5) 10.0s. How is this possible? He didn't do ANY gymnastics at all! In his one attempt to be a true gymnast, he even fell off the high bar! All he did was writhe around the floor wrestling with a doll, and perform antics with John Roethlisberger. At least other routines such as Alexei Nemov's floor exercise had some redeeming qualities in them. Nemov did ham around, but for a while it seemed that he would not resort to stripping and posing. He did some tumbling and pommel horse skills on the floor, showing everyone why he was the Olympic Allaround Champion…but towards the end of the program…he had to do it. He had been flirting with the audience the whole routine, playfully tugging at his shirt, pretending to take it off but never actually taking it off. Finally, the temptation seemed to overwhelm him and for the last tumbling pass, he took off his shirt, which got the audience screaming hysterically. Maybe that served as a distraction, because Nemov fell on his last tumbling pass, although he did play it off quite well.
Overall, Nemov had some nice gymnastics in his routine. He was fun to watch and he was athletic. He received perfect 10.0s across the board…. On the women's side, they had more gymnastics than the men did. Svetlana Khorkina had some of the most pure gymnastics of the night. On the uneven bars, she performed to music from "Grease," and danced a bit before mounting the bar. Once she mounted, however, she was all business, and focused on executing her elements. She completed two of her signature releases, named "The Khorkina" after her, perfectly, and even stuck her dismount. Her routine was technically not much different from her Olympic uneven bars routine. Finally, some REAL gymnastics, combined with entertainment! See, it IS possible! Khorkina received straight 10.0s across the board as well. The star of the night was really Lance Ringnald, an Olympic team member in 1988. Ringnald had been performing on a cruise ship after retiring from competition, and his entertainment ability helped him greatly in the competition. His first routine was interesting. He sang and tumbled on the floor. At first, it looked like he was just another of the athletes who weren't going to take this competition seriously at all. But then, in his last routine on the high bar, he did do some gymnastics: interesting release moves, and a move all his own, where he does a split on the high bar, and rotates around the bar several times. Ringnald earned, for both his performances, all 10.0s. The winners of the competition: the men. It seemed really ridiculous that they could win a competition, when most of the points they had gained were through stripping and milking it. The women were less wild, they performed their routines with class and athleticism, and they entertained the crowd. But then again, it seemed that no one was taking the competition seriously. All the gymnasts were going nuts, having fun, laughing, and horsing around with each other. The audience sounded more like an audience at a rock concert than at a gymnastics competition. There was no tension or nervousness in the air, only fun and freedom. Perhaps the gymnasts liked it that way….
By Stacey Fong Published: 11/21/2000