Support MGoBlog: buy stuff at Amazon
for those that watched or watching (thanks NBC) the womens team gymnastics, they keep referring to the US team as the fab 5. Doesnt really bother me but everytime they do my 10 year old son starts screaming at the tv saying theyre not the real fab 5. i think tomorrow he'll prob write a letter to NBC.
Yeah i know. Cool story bro....
i'm pissed, they completely just degraded what that name meant to Michigan Athletics and what it meant to the history of basketball.
but it doesnt affect me in a direct way.
so whatever.
Not sure if serious...
Its actually fools sending msgs about "Fab Five" like I/we would be jealous of the US Gymnastics gold squad for the term. #clowns
It's ok, give it another month and everyone will forget everything about who these girls are and what they did/didn't do. It's the reality for 95% of the Olympic teams
I'm not sure about that. Gymnastics is such a big part of the Olympics and I will never forget that these girls won the gold for the US.
I think your point about the 95% holds true because I'm not going to remember who won some random event.
gabby douglas is ross douglas' cousin. so says ross' twitter. don't know how to embed.
Olympic memories can fade pretty quickly, so this women's gymnastics team should enjoy the fanfare while they can. How many will recall their names in ten or fifteen years?
I'm pretty old and didn't watch any of their performances other than the floor exercise routines during the team finals, so I've already forgotten the names of two members of the "Fab Five" or "Fierce Five" (or whatever they'll be called) 2012 USA women's Olympics gymnastics team, thanks to Aly Raisman, Jordyn Wieber and Gabby Douglas getting most of the attention. Needed to use Google to recall the names Kayla Ross and McKayla Maroney.
Many Americans alive today who were old enough to have watched Atlanta’s 1996 Olympic Games might be able to recall Kerri Strug’s dramatic vault during the team competition. But how many of them could name the other members of the 1996 Team USA women’s gymnastics team that won the USA’s first team gold medal and were dubbed "The Magnificent Seven?" Besides Kerri Strug, The Team, The Team, The Team: Shannon Miller, Dominique Moceanu, Dominique Dawes, Amy Chow, Amanda Borden and Jaycie Phelps
For that matter, how many Americans alive today who were old enough to have watched Los Angeles’s 1984 Olympic Games and who easily could identify Mary Lou Retton as the women’s all-around gold medalist in those games would think that the USA women’s gymnastics team also had won the gold medal that year? The Romanian women won the gold medal in 1984. The USSR boycotted those Olympics, just as the USA had boycotted Moscow’s 1980 Summer Olympics.
Before the documentary released this year about the team, how many Americans alive today who were old enough to have watched Barcelona’s 1992 Summer Olympics would even remember all the members of the USA’s 1992 Olympic Basketball Dream Team? The Team, The Team, The Team: Charles Barkley, Larry Bird, Clyde Drexler, Patrick Ewing, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Christian Laettner, Karl Malone, Chris Mullin, Scottie Pippen, David Robinson, John Stockton. Extra credit for knowing that Barkley was the leading scorer and that Laettner had 25 more points in the tournament than Larry Bird (because, due to his back injury, Bird played in only two games.)
Addtional extra credit to those who could name the members of the 1980 men’s Olympic basketball team that never got to Moscow. The Team, The Team, The Team: Mark Aguirre, Rolando Blackman, Sam Bowie, Michael Brooks, Bill Hanzlik, Alton Lister, Rodney McCray, Isiah Thomas, Darnell Valentine, Danny Vranes, Buck Williams and Al Wood
I'd remember that at least I had 15 minutes of fame compared to us talking about them when nobody has ever heard of us. That plus you know...the gold medal they can whip out and remind everyone.
The point of typing-out and conveying this thought to others is.....???
I'm by no means a gymnastics fan, but I can remember Carly Patterson, Shawn Johson, and Nastia Liukin all competing for the US. I won't remember most of the gymnasts on this team, I'll probably jsut remember them as Jordyn Wieber, Gabby, and the other 3.
If Aly Reisman wins the All Around on Thursday night, you're going to see LOTS and LOTS of her in forthcoming years. She's hotter than Nastia IMHO and, hence, massively camera-friendly. (Uh...she is 18, right? If not, I withdraw the observation...)
Gabby might even be back in 4 years, she's got that Magic Johnson smile, her popularity is going to have staying power for sure too.
I'm still 20 and I feel creepy looking at these gymnasts like that. I was a big fan of Nastia in 08, so I'm naturally biased in this discussion.
Raisman is 18
Wieber is 17
Douglas is 16
Maroney is 16
Ross is 15
It's hard to picture Raisman back for the 16 Olympics, as Ross looks to have the best shot coming back from this team. 20+ is ancient for olympic gymnastics.
Women's gymnastics is that 5%. This is by far the most popular Olympic sport for the US audience. These girls aren't going to be forgotten -- you're going to see these girls for YEARS. The fact that some of them, when they reach adulthood (eventually), are not hard on the eyes, is only going to ensure that. And if Aly or Gabby wins the all-around gold on Thursday night, you might as well just stick a statue of them outside the... no, wait, bad idea...
That doesn't mean the "Fab 5" moniker will stick with this team -- BUT, the "Magnificent 7" moniker remains in full force, 16 years later. If you say "Mag 7" to any good sports fan, they should know what it means. So my bet is, it's here to stay.
And, officially, we only had 4 members in that class anyway
/stillwaitingforanapology
"This (women's gymnastics) is by far the most popular Olympic sport for the US audience."
It's certainly popular, but "by far?" I'd say for this Olympics swimming is at least as popular.
Women drive the audience for this stuff. Women aren't serious sports fans generally so these gals will likely be forgotten individually pretty quick. As a team, maybe not. Hard to say. I only remember the 96 team because of the girl vaulting on the bad ankle.
With a sport like basketball, men follow them for months and months, not a couple nights for about 2 hours each night which is what it comes down to with Olympic Gymnastics.
I'd completely forgotten Luikin won all around gold in China and I'll bet I am not alone.
BUT, the "Magnificent 7" moniker remains in full force, 16 years later. If you say "Mag 7" to any good sports fan, they should know what it means.
I don't know about that. I watched the 1996 Olympics and remember Kerri Strug's vault and Bela's "You can do it!" speech. (Also, I remember her being in an episode of King of the Hill.) But if you'd asked me one month ago who the "Magnificent Seven" were, I couldn't have told you. I remember it now because NBC has reminded me. But a month from now I'll forget it again. I think most sports fans are like that. After the Olympics end, we don't think much about those sports again for four years.
I'm not sure I've heard them referred as that for 16 years, and it's only come back now because there's another deep team with a nickname. I think you ask the average person on the street who the Magnificent Seven are, sports fans or not, and you're going to get this:
The girls have stated that they want to be called the Fierce Five.
The Beatles were called the "Fab Four". Fab Five was not an original idea in 1991.
Somebody has been reading Wikipedia! I'll bet no one on MGoBlog knew about the Beatles being called the Fab Four since we all live under rocks. /s
Seriously, if the Russians hadn't stumbled all night long they would have been the сказочные пять
And if Ohio State would have scored more points they would have beat us. That's the name of the game.
Seriously, if the Russians hadn't stumbled all night long they would have...
Lost by a smaller margin? What's the point of this statement, other than to show off your knowledge of the Cyrillic alphabet?
The first Fab Five at Michigan was a recruiting class in the early '80s. But it doesn't matter - say the name "Fab Five" and everyone knows who you're talking about.
I think its a hommage to our Fab Five. Cause you know every time they use the term "Fab Five" for a team, most sports fans will automatically revert to thinking about the Fab Five of Michigan. So really....it's free marketing for us! (Dave Brandon approves this message)
It is your kid and we don't care. What ten year old wouldn't say that. Sorry
Let em have their moment.
Congrats to the womens Fab 5 Olympic gymnastics team!! They deserve the praise, the fame, the GOLD. I am sure they have worked their butt off...let's remember they are all still kids who have accomplished more than most of us at such a young age. Call the what you want, but in the end they are... OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST. I am happy for them and now a days it is nice to see the true raw emotion that the Olympic athletes bring.
GO USA & GO BLUE!!
Someone on this board has done something better than Olympic gold, and judging by my thread they haven't, then they have accomplished more than all of us, not just most of us
I thought this was going to be about Mason Plumlee's tweet.
"@cstevenson22: The USA gymnastics Fab Five is definitely better than Michigan's Fab Five. These girls actually win championships." dagger
That's quite the generalization. Try telling that to anyone dealing with Red Wings marketing.
A short-term memory sports fan is a short-term memory sports fan, regardless of gender. It's just like anything else - the sports you obsess over and care about, you will tend to remember more details about. The sports you watch because they happen to be on TV - obviously much less likely to recall years later.
That being said - Jason Lezak, Michael Johnson, Marion Jones, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, and Rulon Gardner, are burned into my memory for one Olympic reason or another. And certainly not because I follow their sports every year.
The Fierce Five were favorites, so their team win lacked the underdog drama of something like Rulon Gardner, or Lezak's ridiculous final relay leg. There's still time in the all-around and event finals for some memorable storylines, but we shall see.
Points. I like what you wrote. For those lazy people out there that don't care and/or forget what they watch, so be it. Short-term memory fans will be themselves and there are many of them out there. However, I and many others (probably a "minority of people but a very big group nonetheless) remember much of what I/we watch, especially come Olympic time. I love the international competition. The stage these athletes perform on is something to be in awe of and I admire them for it; and I remember it.
The funny part of the whole Strug valuting on the injured ankle thing is that they had already won the gold medal when she did it. They didn't even need her to do it. I don't think they realized it because someone on the other team had just boffoed and tanked their score, so Strug didn't even have to vault, but the info didn't get to the team in time.
Kerri Strug's vault : '96 Olympic gymnastics : : Battle of New Orleans : War of 1812
Now that's some info. I did not know! Thanks for the knowledge. I'm surpirsed I've never head this in passing or some other trivial way. Making it seem as though we (the USofA) won in a very clutch and "walk-off" type way is more glamorous; probably why that remains a hushed detail regarding the Gold medal performance,
Deep breaths.
ommmmmmmmmmm
you mean to say that most gymnastics teams don't have rosters that look like this: 6'10 245lbs, 6'8 215lbs, 6'9 250lbs, 6'5 210, 6'6 220lbs!?!?!?!?
I'm shocked.
There's gambling in this establishment!?
The new Fab 5 play basketball?
