Tuesday, July 10, 2012

BBC2: Faster, Higher, Stronger: Gymnastics at the Olympics



Our British friends are being spoiled by a wonderful gymnastics documentary that airs tonight on BBC2.  We can only hope they will upload it for the rest of us.  Clips after the jump!












3 comments:

  1. I wonder if it will be on BBC Canada tonight? It looks good.

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  2. I've just finished watching it (sorry I don't have the slightest clue how to get programmes from my tv onto my computer otherwise I'd try to upload it).

    It went back to talk about the main stars of gymnastics over time. Started with Latynina, then Caslavska, then Korbut then Comaneci. It had interviews with each of them and a lot of good footage which I hadn't seen before. It did speak about the men's event a little bit, although really only focused on the Japanese team with a little bit of talk about Tsukahara and then Fujimoto (sorry that name might be wrong because I wasn't familiar with him before the programme) who broke his knee during the team final in 1976 but kept going on another two events, eventually dislocating his knee on his rings dismount.

    I really enjoyed the programme but it really could have done with another half hour. It jumped from the 1980 games and Comaneci to talking very briefly about Li Xiaoshuang's triple back on the floor in Barcelona to then talking about the Chinese men's team in Beijing. There was no mention of any of more recent Olympics and the end just felt rushed.

    Good documentary though; I had Sky plussed the whole series just in case there was anything about gymnastics on it but I hadn't realised they were dedicating a whole episode to it until I saw you mention it here.

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  3. I just watched it, too, though I'm in the US. (UK VPN, yo.) I also enjoyed a lot of the old footage, and especially the interviews with Latinina, Korbut and Comaneci. Bela did his usual grandstanding, oh well.

    I got the idea that it was made to give background on the sport to sport(s) fans in a country where gymnastics has never been hugely popular, especially with the home team now hoping to challenge for medals.

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