Didn't say anything about the Russain lifters, but your way off base about the gymnasts. Storey was beat up by the US media because they know China is going to kick their asseson the gym mat
Hahaha, taking the kids to train their lives away at 3 years old for over a decade and the Chinese women aren't even that much better than the USA women. All that work and you would think they would be far and away the greatest team on the planet, yet the USA women have two girls who are in contention for multiple gold medals and will put China to the test to win the team gold. They would've qualified ahead of China if they didn't make a few mistakes. Even with all those mistakes, they still qualified just under them.
I wonder what it would be like if gymnastics were as popular in the USA as it was in China and the government pulled children into programs at 3 years old. Probably win 2x as many medals as China.