Gymnastics behind the scenes

Do you ever see the vault in gymnastics where there's a shot running right next to the gymnast? There's a little remote controlled camera on rails for doing this.

How do they do this? There's some sort of sensor set up at the start of the track, behind where the gymnast starts her run. I guess it's some sort of RADAR to measure distance or speed so that the little car carrying the camera is where they want it.

Also, notice all the chalk marks and tape next to or on the track? The gymnasts and their coaches use these or put their on marks down as reference marks for where to start their run, their jump and even help in lining up equipment. In the shot below, you see lots of marks next to the track and the remote camera in action. Oh, yeah, there's a gymnast, too.


A coach rearranges pads, equipment for each gymnast's needs.



There's much more setup on the uneven bars. The gymnasts and coaches / trainers spend a lot of time trying to get just the right amount of chalk on the bars. As the day goes on, chalk gets caked on from previous sessions. The buildup can make things difficult, so they spray the bars with water, scrap, etc. Sometimes they even climb up to scrape them down.

Now here's something very curious. At the Beijing Olympics, gymnastics are held in the National Indoor Stadium. The stadium is brand new, as are all the urinals, toilets, sinks. Here's what's strange. They all had odd stickers. Many of the stickers said "Beijing 2008". They just seemed strange.



Peel one back, and it turns out the stickers hide the "American Standard" brand name! (Pardon the quality of these pictures. When I saw this, I was the only one in the washroom and wasn't sure how much time I'd have.)

Why cover up "American Standard"? Some sort of pride / shame thing about using something "American" in their pride and joy? Plain old anti-American stuff? Or just that American Standard isn't a sponsor -- perhaps a competitor is -- and they can't have brand names of non-sponsors showing?