So here we are. The
Olympic Games are underway and now that the excitement of being able to watch
anything and everything has dwindled somewhat it’s time
for the serious business of picking what I actually want to watch. One of my favourite Olympic sports is
artistic gymnastics and my fascination with it started back in 1984.
The Soviet Union boycotted the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics in
retaliation for the US boycott of Moscow 1980.
Of the Soviet allies, only Romania bravely defied the boycott and sent
their team to the Olympics where they ended up an impressive 2nd in
the medal table behind the hosts. One of the Romanian medals came in the women’s artistic
gymnastics team event where they narrowly won gold, by a single point, over the
USA team. This rivalry set things up
nicely for the All-Around competition, the most coveted prize for the best
individual gymnast across all 4 disciplines.
Ecaterina Szabo |
Mary Lou Retton |
In the absence of the Soviet gymnasts, including the famous
Natalia Yurchenko, Szabo was the favourite for the title. She was a Hungarian immigrant whose name was
changed from Katalin to the Romanian Ecaterina by a communist regime keen to
hide her ethnic origins and normally that’s the sort of story that makes you a
crowd pleaser – plucky young immigrant from a brave defiant nation etc. But this was Los Angeles, and American dreams
needed to be realised: there had never
been an All-Around Olympic champion from outside Eastern Europe and it was
Retton who was set to make history and capture the hearts of the nation. After
trailing Szabo for the first two rotations, Retton gained a perfect 10 for the
floor and then, propelled by the strong home support, she flung herself at the vault
with amazing strength and gained another 10.
She beat Szabo to the All-Around title by 0.05 of a point and became
America’s sweetheart and a household name.
Ecaterina sorts her hair out |