It's not the most... uh, impressive of memes, but some people have gotten creative with it...

This seems to be how a lot of people are using this meme.
But our gold medalist is in another castle!

One thing I like, though, is how McKayla herself is taking all of this. I'm sure she could choose to take offense to this meme, but instead, she's gotten in on it herself. All in all, she's being very graceful--and classy--about her result, which is why I still consider her one of my favorite athletes from these Olympics.

Besides, if any other gymnast had taken a fall on a vault, he/she wouldn't even get a medal and would likely be at the bottom of the listings. McKayla took a fall and still got a silver medal because her first vault was just that good. If you ask me, that is downright impressive.

As a longtime gymnastics fan and a follower of Maroney for several years, I get the giggles when I hear "gymnastics" and "viral" in the same sentence. McKayla seems to have accomplished that, though, and I think it's funny. And she's a terrific sport about it. When I saw her and Aly post their own "not impressed" photo on Twitter, I literally laughed out loud right there at work. Bless 'em.

Yes, I love my gymnasts, nose twitches and all. Some of it Maroney couldn't help...she's always had a naturally "witchy" face and couple that with some obvious disappointment and a cheek bite/nose twitch and you've got journalism gold. She'll be fine, though. Nobody seems to really thing negatively about her; instead she's got a wildly hilarious meme that has made her far more memorable than a gold medal ever would.

Plus, not winning gold is even greater motivation for her to come back and stay in gymnastics a few more years. Most gym fans are pegging Maroney as being the gymnast to finally compete a triple twisting Yurchenko (the same vault she did perfectly in team finals, but with an extra half twist) and get it named after her. She could also be the first innovator for a couple different vaults due to the insane height she always gets. I've always said that Maroney is on track to become the greatest vaulter of the modern era, and retiring after two years of senior competition wasn't going to get her that. If she stayed till Rio and kept it up, though...it would be hard to deny her.

Anyway, bless Maroney for keeping things interesting. If she had won vault, it probably would have been like when she won vault at Worlds last year...cool and spectacular, but oh so boring.

Good points, Gymfan. I've enjoyed your analysis and observations about the Olympic gymnastics.

Incidentally, NBC evening news recently had a brief Olympics Q&A, in which they made comments just like yours as to why a bronze medal can be sweeter than a silver.

I've found a video of the opening ceremony's "Abide With Me" tribute -very nice.

I've mixed feelings about the closing ceremony. On the one hand, it was billed as a big concert, and in that respect it delivered. Yet as Puddleglum noted, to me it seemed like a super-sized Super Bowl halftime show. Still, I enjoyed the appearance of so many Brit musical icons.

Only 17 months (or so) to Sochi!

My sister and I made it through maybe 5 minutes of the closing ceremonies. The music was making her angry. We watched some events we had missed seeing. Our cable company had them available for free on demand.