Olympic Champions - Los Angeles 1984 Vault - Kati Szabo

[zeldafreak701]

Whether or not you believe she should've won the AA gold, she DIDN'T deserve to win vault gold. Retton was a deserving ten hands down. The judges just felt sorry for her because she was 'supposed' to win the AA.

[afgymnast96]

that vault was NOT a ten! maybe I'm crazy, but I'm pretty sure she had horrible form(her legs were about a foot apart!) and it was a bit sloppy except for the landing

[MERLINA2007]

most of her vaults were horrible. How come she was able to win the gold medal over Retton??

[eagleduzt]

runs like a fuckin LOON lol

[gayskatingfan]

I totally agree. I thought the only gold Szabo might have deserved in LA was the team gold obviously and floor gold. In no way do I feel she was robbed of the AA gold like some. She had a fall on a bar routine, another big error on the same bar routine , and a big error on her compulsory beam. Plus she stuck almost no landings in the AA. However her vault gold was a farce. On beam Pauca was robbed of the gold on her own, no way Szabo should have come back to tie after her compulsory set.

[Catboy]

Yes. Ekaterina should have won, but these was one of the Olympics of the Cold War.

[Simba85]

That is the weirdest run-up to a vault Ive ever seen! Normally the gymnasts look like robots.

[TuesdayPillow]

Yeah her arms don't stay bend when she pumps them backwards. It almost looks like she's churning butter.

[LiangJackShan]

I KNOW!!!

[msalasan]

they did that all the time. did you look at filatova's double pike on floor? same thing and never penalized. i guess it wasn't so important at the time.

[gymnasticsloverxoxo]

@briaberger It was a very hard vault, in 1992 Onodi won gold with that vault without a full twist in it. Not to mention the judges are viewing it from the side so as you can see from the side view of the first vault you can not see the leg separation.

[gayskatingfan]

Mary Lou was robbed!!

[ancamg]

ha,ha, you must be joking! She was so lucky the Olympics were home!

[ispaht]

Not to mention, the Soviets weren't there.

[MelleAndKev]

@ispaht If they were Natalia Yurchenko would have won this title hands down.

[todosobretodo]

Szabo deserved her beam and floor golds, but there is no way on earth she should've beaten Mary Lou Retton on the vault.

[gayskatingfan]

Totally agree. I saw Mary Lou's vault that got only a 9.8 in the event finals and it was far too harsh.

[russianskatingfan]

I actually agree with you for once. Retton was completely robbed of the vault gold here. I think it was a pity gift given to Szabo to make up for the so called wuzrobbed cries by some of her losing the AA which she didnt deserve over Retton either anyway (she fell on bars and team and that is why she lost the AA and deservedly so).

[radicaldaniel]

@russianskatingfan oh give me a break, please take a look at the so called perfect 10 Retton was rewarded at the AA FX with a low landing at her third pass, what are you talking about

[russianskatingfan]

Yeah I agree. There is no way she deserved a 10 for that vault even under 84 scoring standards. Even under standards of that time a 10 should have some semblance of true perfection about it and with glaring form breaks she had on that vault the 10 was completely wrong. A tie wouldnt have been too good, though I would still give it to MLR on her own, but Szabo on her own was crazy. By the way I didnt put you on spam, I have no idea how that happened.

[todosobretodo]

Mary Lou can take consolation in at least one way here. Szabo scored 9.90 and 9.95 on her vaults. Mary Lou is the ONLY female gymnast to ever score a 10 on the vault in the Olympic event final!