Obviously, the biggest stories of the Beijing Games were China’s absolute domination and Yang Wei’s demolition job on the the entire field. China picked up a whopping seven gold medals, leaving all the other teams in the chalk dust.

Team USA, despite all the drama preceding the games, showed respectability and sheer grit, clawing their way to a bronze medal in the Team Finals. Jonathan Horton proved he is a major international player by playing a spectacular role in the Team Finals, and by blasting an ad lib routine to a silver medal on high bar in the Event Finals. Horton will undoubtedly be one of the favorites to win an All-Around medal at the 2012 London Olympics. Sasha Artemev performed admirably in the All-Around Finals, and finished 12th in the world. He was well on his way to a medal on pommel horse in the Event Finals until his untimely fall. Who will not forever remember his dazzling pommel routine to clinch bronze for the Americans in the final moments of the Team Finals? At 22, Sasha could become one of the dominating All-Around players leading up to the 2012 Games.

The All-Around Finals were pretty wacky, with one stumble and miscue following the next. Supposed medal contenders like Hiroyuki Tomita and Fabian Hambuechen took themselves out of contention with their falls on rings and high bar. That opened the door for Japan’s Kohei Uchimura and France’s Benoit Caranobe to capture silver and bronze. Uchimura is only 19 and is showing some brilliant, clean gymnastics. He will be a serious medal contender in London. Caranobe’s joyful face when he realized he won the bronze was one of the happiest scenes of the competition.

There were some heartbreaks that were felt all over the world as well. When Mario Dragulescu made the closest approximation of a perfect vault we’d seen, jaws dropped in awe. (Watch it here but stop after 45 seconds to avoid seeing what happened next.) He would have medaled, probably even won the gold, if he had chosen an easier vault as his second. Alas, he didn’t, and he planted himself on the mat like a nice row of spring tulips. As Mario is 28, we may not get to see him do that amazing first vault again in competition. And it hurt seeing the honest tears of Diego Hypolito after he turned in a beautiful floor routine which ended in a fall on his last pass. Please watch his routine from an earlier competition with no fall here on our site. He might well have medaled.

We wonder which gymnasts will emerge over the next four years to comprise the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team. Certainly, Jonathan Horton and Sasha Artemev appear to be locks. Joey Hagerty and Justin Spring could be back for more as well. Depending on David Sender’s veterinary school plans, he could make another run. Sender suffered enormous bad luck with that freak ankle injury immediately before the Trials, when he was only jumping to steady the high bar. And this was coming off his impressive performance in winning the 2008 VISA Nationals All-Around title.

In addition to the many fine NCAA competitors, let’s not forget an impressive pipeline of club gymnasts who will likely be ready to go out for the 2012 Games. Here is a partial list of our promising young gymnasts:

• Glen Ishino
• Jake Dalton
• Danell Leyva
• Edward Mesa
• John Orosco
• Donathan Bailey
• Sam Mikulak
• Alexey Bilozertchev
• C.J. Maestas

Pardon us for surely forgetting some other great club gymnasts.

We were heartened by the attention paid in the media, in the blogosphere, and all around the world during the 2008 Olympic games on our great sport. Hopefully, young boys are deciding to give it a try in gyms everywhere, and that our sport reaps the interest and support it deserves.

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