Nastia Liukin had the best score of the 2008 Summer Olympics thus far and Shawn Johnson was also sensational, but as advertised, China has taken home the gold for Women's Artistic Gymnastics Tuesday night (US time). Team USA takes home the silver.
Liukin is the 2005 and 2007 World Champion on the balance beam and the 2005 World Champion on the uneven bars. With nine World Championships medals, seven of them individual, Liukin is tied with Shannon Miller as having won the most World Championship medals of any American gymnast in history.
She became a member of the U.S. junior national team when she was 12 years old and won the National All-Around title at the age of 13. She was the all-around silver medalist at the 2003 Pan American Games. Since 2005, Liukin has been a key member of the U.S. senior team. She is a four-time all-around U.S. National Champion, winning twice as a junior and twice as a senior. She has been the U.S. senior National Champion on the uneven bars since 2005. Liukin has represented the United States at three World Championships, the 2003 and 2007 Pan American Games, and the 2006 and 2008 Pacific Rim Championships. She is also a member of the U.S. team for the 2008 Summer Olympics.
It was Shawn Johnson listed as the favorite for Thursday's Individual All Around with odds courtesy of BetUS.com
Gambling911.com was urging readers to get bets in on this event well in advance of the starting time.
1 Shawn Johnson USA -110
2 Yang Yilin CHN +140
3 Nastia Liukin USA +300
4 Jiang Yuyuan CHN +500
5 Ksenia Semenova RUS +700
6 Steliana Nistor ROU +1300
7 Anna Pavlova RUS +1800
8 Jade Barbosa BRA +2500
9 Vanessa Ferrari ITA +3000
China had been listed with very favorable -600 odds for women's gymnastics, requiring a substantial risk to win ratio. The USA has been listed with +140 odds to win the gold for a $140 win on every $100 bet. Romania came in with +800 odds followed by Russia with +1300 odds. All odds were courtesy of BetUS.com. It was the Russian team with +1300 odds that led early on.
Russia was the favorite for Women's Trampoline this coming Friday.
1 Irina Karavaeva RUS -120
2 Shanshan Huang CHN +140
3 Wenna He CHN +450
4 Olena Movchan UKR +1200
5 Natalia Chernova RUS +1200
6 Anna Dogonadze GER +1500
7 Karen Cockburn CAN +1500
8 Rosannagh MacLennan CAN +1800
9 Tatiana Petrenia BLR +2200
10 Claire Wright GBR +3500
11 Haruka Hirota JPN +3500
The women's gymnastics and swimming were creating quite the splash Tuesday night in the US (Wednesday morning China time). Both events were among the most watched and bet on of the 2008 Summer Olympics thus far.
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Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
