The 'Nerves of Jelly' award

Ekaterina Lobaznyuk (RUS) - Just before she was to go up on BB during team finals, Ekaterina suffers a severe case of raw nerves and breaks down. The other girls try to comfort her, and then Arkaev comes and calms her down. She composes herself and ends up doing a solid routine, but it was still interesting to see the warm and fuzzy side of Leonid Arkaev.

The 'Striking Resemblance' award

Elena Produnova (RUS) and Denisse Lopez (MEX) - Red hair, freckled face, similar facial features. Amazing!

The 'Rudest Fans' award

The Chinese crowd - Anytime someone fell or messed up the Chinese fans would laugh derisively. They were especially cruel to the Japanese women and men, probably for historical reasons. Still, its no excuse to behave so rudely, and I will not miss the Chinese crowds. Also, there was this one idiot with a traditional ceremonial drum banging away. During team finals I dismissed it as good old home crowd fanaticism, but during EF he would intentionally hit the drums when the non Chinese gymnasts were doing dangerous release moves or dismounts and I found that disrespectful and out of line. He should have been removed by security and SHOT!

The 'Sure Sign That the Apocalypse is Almost Here' award

Blaine Wilson getting fourth in the men's AA. But there's more! Bart Conner explained to me that all scores are truncated to the thousandths of a point and not rounded off. This happened to two of Blaine's scores, and had these two scores not been truncated Blaine would have taken third place over Jordan Jotchev of BUL and the world would have indeed come to an end. Just think. If he just pointed his toes he would be on the medal stand.

The 'Hard Luck' award

Dmitry Karbanenko - European AA medalist had a miserable prelim session and failed to make the AA. (He didn't even try after doing so poorly the first few rotations). Usually a shoo-in, but recently he has been beset by devastating personal problems. I hope he rebounds soon!

The 'You Really Do Need a Longer Pair of Shorts' award

Ioannis Melissanidis - Seems like his shorts are getting shorter all the time. Pretty soon it will be a G-string!

The 'Most Neonic Leotard' award

Alexandra Gordeeva (UZB) - Bright hot pink leotard stood out on the competition floor like a Ukrainian team jacket in the stands.

Coolest Local Custom award

Bowing in Korea - The Korean people bowed all the time out of respectful habit. Most travelers probably won't know how to react to such courtesy at first. I was tempted to tip them a dollar.

Most Disgusting Local Custom award

Spitting - Quite common to see the Chinese townfolk hocking a throat oyster on the open streets.

Farmer blowing - I have yet to master this technique.

Nose picking in public - I'll give the Chinese people a break on this one. The dust and smog in the air was so thick that it is not unusual to accumulate large amounts of gelatinous desposits in the nasal cavity. I myself had acquired some abnormally large booger snots, but at least I waited till I was in the bathroom before I went digging.

The 'Power Couple' award

Svetlana Khorkina and Ivan Ivankov - Seen walking arm in arm at the post competition banquet, both wearing elegant and tasteful all black outfits.

The 'I Thought I was in Moscow' award

The city of Tianjin - Take away the bikes and the Chinese signs and you would swear you were in Russia. Very similar architecture and construction materials.

The 'Not as Bad as I Thought It Would Be' award

Opening Ceremonies - Fortunately not a repeat of the hideously drawn out and interminable affair in Lausanne 1997. Very theatrical presentation with lots of color.

The flight to Korea - Although a long flight, I was able to get a lot of sleep on the way. Thank goodness for sleeping pills.

The 'No Respect for Experience' award

Chinese women - Liu Xuan was the only veteran among a group of babies. Even during EF, it worked out that if they took Liu out of UB they would still have a Chinese girl competing, so they did it. Swinery! Bi Weijing told a colleague that she thought it sucked that they took Liu out of EF (not in those exact words however).

The 'Excessive Anal Retentiveness' award

Security at the arena - Tianjin was a great city and I had a lot of fun there. But at the arena itself it was a different story. I was initially hassled and given much grief by the organizing committee security and from what I hear many other photographers and journalists experienced similar treatment. This was even more so during the Opening Ceremony and Closing Ceremony since high government officials were attending. Granted, this is a country that is very much used to supression of its people and the media, but still I think many foreign correspondents were not pleased with the overall treatment of the press. As the meet went on, the security people started recognizing me and eased up. Many other volunteers bent over backwards to help me too, but many times their efforts were stymied by the security forces. At the very last press conference, even the FIG head of press relations, Slava Korn, apologized to the media for the 'rigidity' of the security this time around. Much applause, but it was too late.

China is curently bidding to host the 2008 Olympic Games. I believe they might have the resources to pull it off, but if they want to greatly improve their chances of getting it and have good press coverage, they have to lighten up quite a bit. Were I to vote based on my experience at China Worlds, it would be a resounding 'NO!'

The 'Taking the Same Flight Home' award

Team KAZ - Had the same flight to Seoul/Kimpo before transferring.

The 'Worst Airport in the World' award

Beijing Capital International Airport - Ungodly. This is one $@*&!% up airport. I should take it back that China may have the resources to pull off the 2008 Games if this is the only way to get here. Checking in was a complete nightmare and some of the people in my tour group barely made it to the plane in time despite arriving over two hours ahead of time.

The 'I Hope I Get That on Every Flight' award

Empty seats - On the flight back from Kimpo to LA, the plane was about 87% full. Still a lot of people, but having the occasional empty seat really made things more breathable and feel less like a sardine can.

The 'Bloated Title' award

Chinese Government Officials - During the Opening Ceremonies they introduced several top government officials. Usually this is routine and no big deal, but things got kind of tedious when they started introducing folks like the Premier of the High Government Cabinet Ministry of the Assistant Deputy Undersecretary Lieutenant General of the Department of Diplomatic Affairs and Agriculture of the People's Republic of China. Yeesh. Get a real job.

The 'Mat Mover' award

Svetlana Tarasevich (BLR) - Only did FX and then helped prepare the other apparatus for her team.

The 'Most Impressive Team' award

Chinese men's team - Except for a couple of slips by Lufu Yu on HB and FX, the Chinese men were incredibly stable and solid during team finals. Unlike the women's team finals, the men's team finals left absolutely no doubt who the winner was.

The 'Way Too Crowded' award

The Forbidden City and Summer Palace - We visited thses two locations on a Sunday and the crowdsof locals were just unreal. I've had it with Chinese people and culture for a while. I probably won't be able to look in the mirror for a month!

The 'Best Hotel' award

Tianjin Hyatt Regency - Very modern, clean and great restaurants and service. Together with the cheap prices it was a fantastic stay.

The 'Greatest Irony' award

Steve Rybacki - During prelims, his former star Vanessa Atler removes the Comaneci from her UB, which has caused her much grief in the past, and she does a fairly clean routine with no real problems. Then his current star Jaime Dantzscher goes up on UB and blows it. Steve must be going nuts.