Gymnastics News #21 - Tumbling on to Tokyo

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VGThuy

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What did you think of Vanessa Atler though. I thought she was one of the most talented U.S gymnasts ever and it is sad her career turned out the way she did. Maybe if she competed in a later era she could have been a stellar 3 event gymnast and just dropped bars altogether which was the start of her mental issues.

That's pretty much what I think of her, haha. I will give her mad props for being the first to support the gymnasts when the sexual assault allegations were first coming out especially considering how her friendship with Jamie didn't end well during that period, it shows a lot of maturity and understanding of the topic to go out on a limb and publicly support the victims. Not many people did, and Atler was facing a firing squad of people on Facebook who called the victims all sorts of things and were in deep denial about it.
 

judiz

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Three of the gymnasts who went public with their stories of abuse will be interviewed on this Sunday's 60 minutes.
 

skatingguy

decently
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Based on these statistics that is the likelihood.
  • “About 1 in 10 children will be sexually abused before they turn 18 *,+”
  • “About 1 in 7 girls and 1 in 25 boys will be sexually abused before they turn 18*”
  • “It is estimated that 7-12% of children are sexually abused*”
  • “As many as 400,000 babies born in the U.S. this year will be sexually abused before their 18th birthday unless we do something to stop it*
http://www.d2l.org/site/c.4dICIJOkGcISE/b.8766307/k.A6B6/Prevalence_1_in_10.htm
 

danafan

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That was so sad to watch. Jeanette Antolin was one of my favourite gymnasts from that era. To know she was going through that, on top of now knowing that her coach was a predator too. So sad :(
 

Aceon6

Wrangling the duvet into the cover
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It's a shame that USA Gym is still sticking its head in the sand. It happened. Maybe not to 100% of the athletes, but it did happen with a frequency that should be alarming to everyone involved. They need to address it along with along with addressing the "tear them down to build them up" training environments that lead to girls low self esteem, eating issues, and fear of reporting.
 

viennese

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That was so sad to watch. Jeanette Antolin was one of my favourite gymnasts from that era. To know she was going through that, on top of now knowing that her coach was a predator too. So sad :(

It is heartbreaking to hear these women speak
out - so many years later - about this abuse.
And infuriating. So many safeguards should have been
in place to protect athletes, who look to coaches as
mentors, practically as parents.
 

danafan

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I was shocked by USAG's social media feed last night, during the 60 minutes show. I wonder how Tasha feels about being used this way? I mean she was teammates with Jeanette and Jamie on the US national team as well as UCLA (though IIRC Schwikert started competing for them after Jamie and Jeanette were done competing).

A friend of mind started a change.org petition asking for Steve Penny to resign. Here's the link: https://www.change.org/p/usa-gymnas...r_starters_page&utm_term=des-lg-no_src-no_msg

Also now Antolin is talking more about her experience and is alleging sexual abuse against her coach Don Peters :(

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/antolin-744521-nassar-team.html
 

judiz

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I was shocked to read about Don Peters because he was the face of USA gymnastics when I first started following back in the 1980's. I was a big fan of Tracee Talavera, Julianne McNamara and Kathy Johnson. If you go on their Facebook pages, you will see that the 2004 team still socializes together.
 

jenniferlyon

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Dominique Moceanu Says USA Gymnastics, Karolyis 'Set The Stage' For 'Atrocities' In Physician Sex Abuse Case

http://people.com/sports/dominique-...e-for-atrocities-in-physician-sex-abuse-case/

“I have tremendous admiration for the gymnasts who have bravely come forward to share their painful stories. I, personally, was not assaulted by Dr. Nassar. However, after years of suffering other forms of physical and emotional abuse and neglect under the Karolyis, as well as being ostracized and overlooked by USAG when I did speak out, I have first-hand knowledge of how the culture set the stage for such atrocities to take place,” she wrote.
 

Rob

Beach Bum
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Wow. That is amazing. I have a photo of my shredded FHL tendon taken inside my foot during arthroscopic surgery - looks like that, but less graphic (and black and white). Looked like an unraveled rope. That really does look like a mop.
 

ilovepaydays

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Noooo! I was always hoping he could put it all together one day

Maybe I am wrong in my analysis - but for the next quad, I am betting on Yul Moldauer and Akash Modi being the ones to watch in the U.S. for Tokyo.

I actually think that Whittenburg's best bet is to be an event specialist.
 

bardtoob

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bardtoob

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The routines where Nadia and Kim lost the AA at the 1980 Olympics:

TO ROM Nadia Comaneci Bars - 1980 Olympic Games 9.500

AA 1980 Olympic Games URS Nellie Kim FX - 9.45

Utimately, Kim's error was more costly because it occurred in the actual AA while Nadia's error occurred in the Team Optionals.

Nadia's redemption would be a perfect 10 in the AA Bars, where, ironically, at the end you can hear the crowd groan as Nellie Kim falls on the floor.

2nd AA Nadia Comaneci UB - 1980 Olympic Games 10.00.avi

Kim's redemption would be sharing the Floor EF Gold with Nadia, where the judges awarded her a 9.950

Nellie Kim - 1980 Olympics EF - Floor Exercise
 
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tylersf

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What did you think of Vanessa Atler though. I thought she was one of the most talented U.S gymnasts ever and it is sad her career turned out the way she did. Maybe if she competed in a later era she could have been a stellar 3 event gymnast and just dropped bars altogether which was the start of her mental issues.
Atler was my favorite US gymnast at that time. I would have just used toe-on/stand/jump connections or the glide/kip/shoot-through connections to get to the HB instead of that free-hip which she always mistimed in competition. The Rybackis kept letting her use that connection (not even that hard) that made her lose all the time. I think her career could have been salvaged at that time if they had only protected her on bars. Her vault/beam/floor were all event finals worthy. Atler did have a breakdown/injury at 1999 World which didn't help her cause either. She went to Valery Liukin a year too late. 2 years with him probably would have gotten her to the Olympics, possibly some medals, maybe even a few golds.
 

tylersf

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It was time for gymnastics to step up to the next level.

Ludmilla had a good career with 3 Olympic teams and multiple gold medals at Olympics/Worlds. I am a Ludmilla fan too, however, from 1973-76, she didn't add too much to her routines (side aerial on beam, Tsukahara vault), possibly due to injury. I felt that Korbut tried to keep up with bigger upgrades (Full-on, Full-off vaults, Double backs in Montreal - only one double attempted, full-in back out in warmup).

Women's gymnastics from 1973-75 wasn't that exciting until Nadia came on the scene. Shaposhnikova and Davydova were still trying to get it together from 1975-1979 before they peaked in 1980.

The antithesis of ugly gymnastics:
She (Tourischeva) would have been a very worthy 1976 Olympic AA Champion had it not been for the disruptive increase in difficulty by Nadia and Kim.
 
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