SPOILER ALERT! The Russian reaction.

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Was anyone else troubled by the reaction of the Russian girls who were walking away from their teammate in tears when she fell on floor? I can't imagine the disappointment of just missing your dream and there may be other cultural considerations, but it seemed like they were turning their back on their teammate and that just seemed to be bad form. It seemed even worse because, even if that gymnast had scored a perfect routine, they still would have been the silver medal team.
 
I think historically the Russians have always had a diva attitude. I don't think they are ever really a "team". It's more of an every man for himself kind of situation.
 
The Russians were really emotional at floor. After the first fall I saw a lot of hugging and crying, but after the second fall they knew it was doomed. Remember that the USA was yet to perform. The Americans went after the Russians. If they'd done very well on floor, and then the Americans had screwed up (and remember, America had several shaky floor routines in prelims), they could have still had the gold. They expected Afan to go out there and kick butt and she was almost finished, it was her last pass, and ... she fell. After the 1st mistake there was still hope, but after two major falls from two of their best performers on floor, they knew it wasn't going to happen. I think it was just overwhelming.

The Chinese sort of gave Huang Qiushuang the cold shoulder too when she had that huge mistake on floor, this after she'd already had not so great a day on beam. You could tell she was really disappointed with herself ans she sort of just walked off on her own. I mentioned it to my husband, who is Chinese, and he said "she's lost so much face and caused them to lose so much face, of course they can't even look at each other right now."

I think a lot of it is cultural (Americans are notoriously huggy and demonstrative with emotions, other cultures not so much), but also, it is an awkward situation. Those girls know they let their team down, and they might not feel like getting hugs and "there theres" from the other girls. I think afterwards there is probably a lot of "it wasn't your fault, we all sucked" sort of talk.

So I give the girls a pass for their in the moment reactions to extreme disappointment. I do dislike it though when the coaches are completely cold when their athletes make mistakes, but then again, maybe some athletes don't want someone hugging them and telling them it is ok after a fall, because in their minds clearly it is not ok.
 
I think it's just this, and I don't think there is much to be read into it. When someone is crying, they let them cry and then talk to them when they're done.

My word choice was poor and after rereading what I wrote I didn't communicate correctly. The girls who were walking away were in tears.
 

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