McKayla Maroney started the US off on the right foot last night with a beautiful vault that she scored a 16.233 on.

And the judges' reactions were absolutely perfect:

Again, zoomed in:

Here's video of the vault, in case you missed it:

NOTE: We apologize, but the International Olympic Committee, the multi-billion-dollar international organization that has currently manages the ~2000-year-old Olympic Games, has asserted that ~30-second news clips of Olympic events violate broadcast rights. We disagree strongly with this. We think the short clips are newsworthy and clearly fall under the definition of "fair use." We also think it is outrageous that a private corporation like the IOC would assert "ownership" of news clips of athletes whose training and expenses are paid for by you, the taxpayers of the countries they represent. Moreover, we think it is preposterous to suggest that a handful of short clips presented randomly could in any way threaten the billions of dollars of revenue raked in by the IOC and its media partners; on the contrary, we suspect that, by further promoting the excitement of the games to people who aren't actively trying to "watch the Olympics," these clips generate more revenue and enthusiasm for these companies. However, in light of the reality of the situation--the IOC has billions of dollars and we have chicken-feed--we have removed the clip. If we knew where to tell you to go to find well-organized and freely available news clips to watch a few seconds of the athletes whose training and expenses you pay for and who purportedly represent you, we would eagerly do so. Alas, we don't.