1987 EUROPEAN GYMNASTICS CHAMPIONSHIPS AA & EF'S- PART 1

[FrmRussiaWitLuv]

Does anyone know what happened to Alla Priahkina? Why didn't she make the '88 team? My guess is she was injured, but that's only a guess.

[37tonya]

OMG. Look at those romanian leos....UGH.

[tomsk14]

I love Monica Phelps.... Shes a legend.....

Voineas floor is just fantastic, so innovative, even in 2010 we would enjoy a routine styled in this way......

[garyj79]

@tomsk14 - shame about her weird husband!

[FL74USA]

@garyj79 Why whats wrong w/ her husband ?

[garyj79]

@FL74USA - I used the terminology 'weird' in my message above 4months ago, looking back maybe 'creep' would have been more accurate - he was jailed fairly recently for sexually abusing girls at their gym in the UK ! she was nitpicky when it came to commentating...pity she couldnt see what was happening right under her nose !

[FL74USA]

@garyj79 Was Monica a former gymnast or is she a coach ? I really prefer her commentating over the American commentators. I love when she calls the gymnasts " fat " in not so many words

[garyj79]

@FL74USA - Hi, yes she was a former British gymnast, dont know whether she coached afterwards,prob! - I dislike her way of commentating tbh, nitpicky and almost offensive - shouldnt really call someone 'fat' unless they are - unless they want these young women to develop eating disorders - the British commentator Christine Still and Mitch Fenner (BBC) are far better and informative than Phelps, as I said above, its a pity she wasnt so nitpicky when it came to where her husband was sticking it !

[delicatecutter]

I live for Baitova bars and Voinea floor!!

[vasa78]

This competition was the first I saw on TV and means so much to me. I fall completely in love with Daniela Silivas , Svetlana Baitova and Camelia Voinea with her fantastic floor routine. I watched the video over and over again.

[FLACSC74]

I love Jentsch FX routine to German classical music. This was the best FX routine from the DDR between 1985 - 89. Great Expression and finishing all the dance movements

[Yangyun4ever]

Loved Baitovas UB routine, the transition after the Deltchev (whatever it was) is my favorite unevn bar skill!

[lostlyrarose]

I feel like the bars and tumbling in 87/88 was harder than the 91/92 season...

[GymFloozie]

"A lost soul," the commenator says. I love the British - they're so high-level and dramatic. (Differentiated from the U.S. commentators who are simply hype.)

[KarenLovesGymnastics]

I don't like the Karolyi's or Belu's style AT ALL! They make their gymnasts so unartistic with, like, two exceptions.

[audie83]

The legendary Larissa Latynina 2 time Olympic AA Champion ('56-60) could have easily caught the low bar on that bars dismount!! Wow! Still impressive over a half century later!

[audie83]

Thanks again a million timees over Gymangels!!

This to me was truly Silivas' magnum opus. Her greatest achievement (outside of the Olympics of course-she equaled Nadia's 7 perfect 10.00's there as well as winning 6 out of 6 Olympic medals-three of them gold).

[No1ZmeskalFan]

Priakhina reminds me of Elodie Lussac from France. The look and quick style of their gymnastics.

[Salpy17]

Thanks so much for posting this!  I've been wanting to see this competition for years.

[dAnThEmAn178987]

i love you gym angels!!! youre my angel hahaha, you are up there with youtube gymnastics uploader greats such as ashleyakaflipper and dionnewarwick

[molly2222]

Amazing acrobatic virtuosity and the original choreography, I love Camelia Voinea.

[molly2222]

87 was a great year in gymnastics history. I love the Romanians. Voinea is not only a great dancer but also a tremendous tumbler!!!! Silivas won the AA title with unprecented score of 39.975

[elamantebilingue]

Daniela Silivas was absolutely phenomenal. She won the AA with a 39.775 and captured the gold on UB, BB and FX...and silver on HV.

[molly2222]

Thank you, so much for posting this GYMANGELS!! I also enjoyed your 87 WC. You are a truly gymagel!!

[Yomoyo78]

The most talented gymnast there was Priakhina.Unfortunately she never realised her full potential.Her routines were absolutely brilliant and wonderful to watch and would still rate well today.Maybe she could have had some better dance,but what gymnast doesn't? Hope someone can post some more of her routines one day soon.

[vncntdl]

Well, I agree with the various comments about the "mechanical" nature of later Romanian gymnasts, but isn't this also true of the Bela-Marta reign in American gymnastics - in particular, the gymnasts that Bela personally coached? There is little attempt at innovation or grace or style, just mechanized "hit" routines.

[elamantebilingue]

I completely agree. Kim Zmeskal is a clear example of acrobatic gymnastics as opposed to captivating and artistic gymnastics.

[jaakers75]

Thank you once again. I agree that the style of the Romanians of that time (Silivas, Dobre, Voinea) has nothing to do with what came later. Starting with Bontas and carried on with Gogean and Amanar. Those inexpressive faces, too much tumbling-centered performances with no grace. I miss the old gymnastics...Thanks for this videos!

[audie83]

I could not have said it better. Bontas really was the beginning of the end of elegant Romanian gymnasts with excellent bars. There were only a handful of exceptions in the '90's (Marinescu from Bucharesti could dance versus the Deva trained gymnasts).

[espinaca79]

This competition is legendary. I miss this kind of gymnastics. Thankx for posting this. I never got this before!

[No1ZmeskalFan]

I was just never that impressed with Silivas. Dont get me wrong, she was good. But to me, she was the start of this mechanical, repetitive style of Romanian gymnastics followed by the likes of Gogean, Milosovici, and Amanar. Im not taking anything away from these guys, but other than Voinea and Dobre, I prefered the Russians

[espinaca79]

The gymnasts you mentioned were completely different to Silivas. Silivas and Dobre were the last romanian gymnasts of an era that collapsed when the Revolution took over. Adrian Goreac and Maria Cosma were the coaches back then and their work is totally different from Belu's and Bitang's who coached Milo and Gogean. Her work was exquisite, precise, artistic and more polished. This girl was 15, went to the mecca of gymnastics of that era, and defeated the whole soviet system on their home turf!

[Salpy17]

I agree. Silivas was a unique performer. She always showed that she truly enjoyed the performance. Gymnastics has not been the same without her. Plus, the code-of-points was totally different back then. I think that after the "Silivas era" routines became really boring because the gymnasts were just trying to compose routines that maximized the amount of points they could earn. I think it's getting better now, though.

[audie83]

Silivas and non-artistic-couldn't dance Romanians like Gogean, Milosovic, and Amanar are no where in the same league as Silivas who always presented elegant lines and superior tumbling coupled with superb dance technique. I could not disagree with you more.

[audie83]

It is strange also that as Zmeskal's no. 1 fan you would have a problem with the mechanical repetitive style of the 1990's Romanians like Milo, Gogean, and Amanar. Zmeskal was no more than that. Her bars were mediocre ala the 90's Romanians and her floor was great tumbling with no dance-just perky moves. She, Grivitch and the other Karolyi kids looked hardly different from each other with the exception of Okino who could dance, and had a tall exotic look about her.

[KarenLovesGymnastics]

Even if you don't like Silivas' style, there is NO WAY you can say she's mechanical or think Gogean and Milosivici are similar to her in any way other than were they were born at. There's just no way!

[Tereshenko]

Thanks for posting this! Baitova's bars are amazing. Too bad she fell. It probably ruined her career. I think this is a real testing place.

[missyc79]

Thank-you so much for posting this. I have always wanted to see this competition. Where did you get your footage from? Is it your own? Thank-you again. This is a great competition. I love Svetlana Baitova's roll onto the lower bar on the unevens!

[YouFriller]

Steriods and GDR? They go together like coffee and milk! How could such a relatively small country produce so many elite gymnasts and other high class ahtletes? They were slendid gymnasts but it was pretty obvious that they used steriods.

[metsdudenj]

does anyone thing martina jentsch used steriods? she looks very butch there, and in seoul she looked a lot thinner and her features are very masculine, just wondering, a lot of the ddr gymnasts looked manly, even kersten, who mysteriously disappeared for two years

[espinaca79]

I knew something about this. It is also known that famous swimmer Kristyn Otto and her team used strange substances. I didn't know Dagmar Kersten dissapeared for two years.

[metsdudenj]

what exactly did you know? Information pls

[espinaca79]

I was a child back in 1988. That was the first time I watched any Olympics. After Ben Johnson cheated several stories about other sports surfaced. The german swimming team trained in Mexico City in the 80's (I live there) and mexican commentators sometimes remarked how bigger their bodies looked in comparison with other swimmers.

[espinaca79]

Well, it was well known in the 1980's athletes from Germany were given special drugs to enhance competitive performances. The swimming team trained in Mexico City in 1988 and I remember some comentators were surprised to see how their bodies looked.

[xxdrbangbangxx]

yeah they look like boys

[audie83]

Well-Oksana Chusovitina also looks rather boyish. And the lovely Dagmar Kersten was on the same team as Martina-it could just be genetics. Who knows?

[audie83]

Thank you for posting this!! I have always wanted to see Silivas greatest All-Around triump-defeating the Soviets on their home turf at '87 Euros. She truly was in a zone! Brilliant individual event performances from Priakhina, Voinea, Jentsch.