One day to go!

Opening ceremony was pretty cool, great in the beginning and the end but lagged a bit in the middle I thought. I know it's a great opportunity to show your culture and history, probably the best ever chance really- and they did do a great job. LOVE the flame and the idea behind it, thought it looked a bit crap until it joined together. The soundtrack was absolutely incredible.

Not following MAG quals that much, but I am sooooo gutted for Kieran Behan. If you don't know his story, look it up. Basically, it's amazing that he can even walk, let alone qualify to the Olympics. He stumbled on one pass and fell on another. He's had even more troubles with injuries this year, probably the reason. Also fell on vault, but that was never going to be finals worthy. Obviously he's going to be devastated to not qualify but I hope he is able to concentrate on what an achievement his Olympic experience is as a whole. GB have beaten China in their subdivision! How incredible would it be if they got on the podium? China had several issues, they really are scrappy this year in both of their teams. Just about 20 hours until subdivision 1, woohoo!

Interesting that Japan did a China on it and had to count a lot of mistakes and falls. I doubt either can be counted out of contention- especially not Japan. Not liking how Chen Yibing pretty much blamed Guo, forgetting his own fall and 12.9 PB score! Devastated for Phillip Boy, who had a very rough time on high bar and appears to have screwed his ankle up- wincing on floor after. Not surprised USA were so dominant- it would be nice if it went Japan, USA, GB! LOVE how strong they were, I hope they can repeat and medal. It's so great to see a non 'big 4' country do so well when it doesn't have decades of medals behind it.

And now to bed, to lessen the amount of hours until prelims- less than 12! Warning: I will post a highlights/analysis of all subdivisions as they are happening, but I'll post a warning or spoiler alert in each post title.

Ireland's gymnastic hope for London

Kieran Behan is the second gymnast ever, male or female, to qualify to the Olympics for Ireland. Yes, ever! As I mentioned before, Ireland pours very little money into most Olympic sports and this is no exception. Facilities mean going abroad to train- Kieran trains in England, but competes for his home country. His story is more incredible than that though, at age 10 an operation to remove a tumour from his leg resulted in him being consigned to a wheelchair for a year. Shortly afer that when he bravely resumed training, he fell from the high bar in his gym onto his head and sustained damage in the part of his brain which controlled balance, of all things, and had to relearn everything. On this occasion he was told he would never walk again and it took 3 years before he could train. He also ruptured ACL's in both legs!

He qualified for the Olympics at the London test event. For a country which will only take home a handful of medals this year and for one which is an utter unknown in the gymnastics world, this is a huge deal. Kieran is a floor specialist, his difficulty is less than others (but he is upgrading) but his execution scores extremely well. He qualified third at europeans this year, but finished seventh in EF after making mistakes. He will obviously be against a deeper field in London, but here's hoping he can salvage a medal now that he is upgrading. Even if he doesn't- what an incredible story and what a brave man. Go Kieran! I'm not into MAG really at all, but will definitely be watching this.

Here's Kieran qualifying in third.