Olympic Gymnastics 2012 Results: Full Recap and Analysis of Latest Events
For those who watched the men's gymnastics team final there's only one word that can describe what happened—stunning.
The Chinese rebounded from their struggles in the qualification round and won gold with 275.997, which wasn't a surprise at all, as most knew they were a team to contend with in the final.
And that's when the real surprise came.
On their final apparatus, Japan looked to falter and ended up fourth in the team standings—initially. After a protest by the Japanese coach regarding Kohei Uchimura's pommel horse routine, his score was upgraded, vaulting the Japanese into the silver medal.
According to a live results story posted by Bleacher Report featured columnist Avi Wolfman-Arent:
"There is little-to-no celebration from the Japanese.
They look relieved to have survived an embarrassment, but nothing further.
The focus seems to be on Uchimura's dismount, but that's not official.
"
Regardless, this might be hotly contested for a long time.
In the end, Great Britain was dropped from silver to bronze and Ukraine fell off the podium.
Here's a look at the top five teams performances.
Gold: China
1 of 5During the qualification portion of the competition, everything that could go wrong for the Chinese did.
However, the team final was different as they were ten times better and it showed in the final scores.
China was dominant on the vault, parallel bar and high bar, scoring the highest of any team on those apparatus.
In the other three, the Chinese were average, but the fact that they avoided the mistakes that doomed them in qualifications helped them to this gold medal.
The Chinese only had one event (pommel horse) where they didn't have at least one score of 15.000.
The vault was where they were most dominant, totaling 48.316, with the lowest score a 15.900.
Whatever happened in qualifications, the gold medal goes to the team with the best score in the team final and the Chinese showed why they are the best in the world.
Silver: Japan
2 of 5The Japanese were equally as dominant throughout the competition, until they hit the pommel horse.
As a team, they scored 42.365 on the pommel horse and the event almost cost them a medal entirely.
Luckily, the Japanese were second on the rings, parallel bars and high bar, which helped propel them to their position before the last rotation.
Uchimura wasn't as impressive throughout as I would've have expected him to be, and after Monday's performance, I'm not so sure I'd favor him to win a medal in the individual all-around.
One thing to keep in mind is that Koji Yamamuro was injured and didn't participate in the final four rotations.
Bronze: Great Britain
3 of 5Great Britain winning the bronze is the biggest surprise of the men's competition.
Although the controversy surrounding Japan may be discussed for some time, I think the Brits winning the bronze is something they could only dream of.
They were strong on the floor exercise and pommel horse, scoring the highest of any team in the competition, while taking second overall on the vault. Where they fell short was the rings (eighth), and the parallel bars and high bar (seventh).
With a better performance in one of those three events, the Brits would've brought home the silver medal.
Daniel Purvis showed why he's the best gymnast in his country, consistently performing well throughout the competition.
The bronze medal is nothing to sneeze at, and the Brits should be very proud of it. I'm sure the next two teams would've been happy to be in their place.
Fourth: Ukraine
4 of 5Fourth place is always the worst feeling.
For Ukraine, it must be even worse considering they initially thought they had won the bronze medal.
But, after Japan's protest, moving them up to second, Ukraine was forced off the podium.
That's a tough pill to swallow no matter how much you can look back and admire your team's performance.
Ukraine ranked second on the rings, and third on the pommel horse and vault.
Where they struggled was on the floor exercise (eighth), possibly being the difference between a bronze and no medal.
I'm guessing that come 2016, this team is going to up their difficulties just a little to ensure something like this never happens again to them.
It's worth noting the Ukraines would've taken home the bronze if they scored one-tenth better on two apparatus.
Fifth: USA
5 of 5This might end up being the most disappointing performance from a U.S. men's team in Olympic history.
They were one of the favorites heading into the team final, and they fell flat on their face, effectively doing what the Chinese did in the qualification round.
They struggled on pommel horse (seventh), while putting up third-place scores on the floor, parallel bars and high bar.
There's going to be a lot of what if's running through the team's minds, and it will be interesting to see how it affects them at the next world championships and the 2016 Olympics.

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