The 'Stuffed Penguin Recipients' award

Viktoria Karpenko and Aleksandra Gordeeva. Was unable to get one to Adriana Crisci but will do so at IMSS 99.

The 'Worse Than I Thought It Would Be' award

The trip back to the US - I have concluded that in terms of jet lag, flying west to east sucks a lot more than east to west.

The 'Toughest Subdivision to Photograph' award

Womens subdivision one - Just the fact that its the first subdivision is tough because I went in cold and quickly had to get used to the arena, the lighting and other numerous factors right away in order to get good shots. But this time there were some top notch teams competing right off the bat, including Ukraine, Spain, France and Australia, and things had to be right on from the get go. Things wouldn't have been so bad, but this was when the security people were hassling the photographers the most, making a difficult situation even more so. Swinery!

The 'Party Pooper' award

The band - At the post competition banquet they had this small orchestra playing waltzes and other traditional type music that was not conducive to the youth oriented atmosphere. Needless to say it wasn't too long after the festivities started that the crowd started thinning out. Where's the disco ball when you need it?

The 'Proud Father' award

Li Ning - Brought his baby son down to the delegation seats during the team final awards ceremonies.

The 'You'd Better Be in Great Shape to Come Here' award

The Great Wall of China - Stair steps that are literally one foot tall (and maybe more), sometimes with 50+ nonstop steps before reaching the next landing. Definitely a workout and something that would break every building code in other countries. Most tourists probably can't go more than a mile before becoming exhausted. It makes you wonder how fully armored soldiers were able to travel the wall and fight hundreds of years ago.

The 'Most Irritating Flight Hassle' award

LAX security - After checking in, the security made me check in another bag because I had too many batteries for my cameras. That's a new one. It seems they think that one could detonate a bomb with as many batteries as I had. Whatever.

The 'Like Watching the Grass Grow' award

The TV screens on the airplanes - On most overseas flights the TV screens will show various flight data like time and distance till destination, current position, etc. If that isn't some of the most tedious viewing in the world, I don't know what is.

The 'Ugliest Mascot' award

Na Zha - Who the hell thought this guy up?? Bad enough to see him on the web and on the programs and literature, but to have a 20 foot statue of this crossdressing dwarf out in front of the arena is just too much. Seriously, this guy could give little kids some bad Poltergeist nightmares!

The 'Bad Hair Day' award

Japanese mens team - They all looked like they came straight from the 70's with their scraggly hair.

The 'Most Impressive Display of Strength and Balance' award

Before the awards ceremonies, a sports acro team of two men came out to perform. Apparently they are the world champions and they had this unreal strength move where the big guy does a one arm handstand while supporting the other dude with his other arm. Unreal!

The 'Hungriest Gymnasts at the Banquet' award

Spanish women

The 'Non Uniform Uniforms' award

Mexican men's team - They ordered new leotards before leaving to China, but they didn't arrive in time. So each man wore a different colored leotard for the competition.

The 'Still the Bridesmaid' award

Sylvester Csollany (HUN) - Rings specialist no longer has to deal with Yuri Chechi of Italy, but this time around he still ends up in second place in event finals. Oh well.

The 'Just Barely Made It to Sydney' award

Juija Kovaliova (LTU) - Top finisher of the 99 Moscow World Stars made the Olympic wild card spot for her geographic division. Cool! (The other wild card I believe is from Malaysia).

The 'Flag Runners' award

China, Australia, and USA - During prelims several Chinese fans, an Australian, and later an American started running around the stadium with large flags of their respective nations. I thought it was kind of neat!.

The 'Let's Leave the Party Early' award

Russia - I arrived late and most of the Russians were already leaving at the insistence of Leonid Arkaev. Nikolai Kruykov was the only one allowed to hang out since he won the AA. Cool!

Romanina - Not a Romanian to be seen.

The 'Best Use of 8x10 Prints' award

Bribery - Perhaps bribery is too strong a word, but I originally brought some 8x10 prints to give away to the gymnasts and coaches. After being hassled by security at the venue I gave some of them to various volunteers and officials who bent over backwards to help me. This turned out to be a good idea because then they remembered who I was and I had no problems after that. This was especially effective with my copious Vanessa pics, which would have been difficult to give away after the AA.

The 'Great Idea for a Tourist Attraction' award

A tank at Tiannenman Square - They should just park a tank there and charge the tourists a couple of bucks to have a photo taken of them waving a white handkerchief. I'd pay!

The 'Seen on a Billboard' award

1996 Olympic AA champ Li Xiaoshuang - Seen on some kind of billboard ad for toothpaste. He was also spotted doing commentary for the local TV coverage.

The 'I Can't Wait!!!!' award

Ghent, Belgium, 2001. WOO HOO!!!!!!