Mary Lou Retton (USA) - 1984 Olympics - Compulsory Vault

[lilgiggler35]

I really miss the compulsories. I wish they would bring them back. The gymnasts get so caught up in doing all the difficult stuff and the compulsories forced them to remember the basics too.

[marjan12342]

The jump she does looks so simple.

[LMA629]

That was huge!! Look at the distance she got!

[evoandy]

her amplitutde and her form in the air was absolutely in another class from anyone else in this meet.

[gymnasticsloverxoxo]

Power is only beneficial if the gymnast knows how to control it.

[PhillyGal4Ever]

And it seems the judges at that time did not reward for height and distance. They also seemed to ignore huge mistakes such as Szabo's large step forward in AA bars dismount-and Retton's hand down in one of her floor exercises. Either they ignored them or they were just not deductible in that COP. There is no need to get upset over my remarks. They are my opinions as you have yours. The 'so what' in your reply seems almost as if you take my replies personally which is odd out here in cyberspace.

[twilliger123]

exactly, and she didn't spread her legs as wide as the Mississippi on her landing like Szabo did in her optional vault!

[lollynyc]

Pam Bileck's compulsory vault was 15 times better than Mary Lou, yet PB got a 9.75 and MLR got a 9.9? Politics much?

[ooplopoo]

i agree. pam stuck her landing . . .

[PhillyGal4Ever]

I don't even remember poor Pam Bileck's routines (or that of most of her teammates except for Kathy Johnson). And I agree-Bileck's compulsory vault was better than Retton's.

[vontrappster]

What in the world are you talking about??? Do you have ANY idea how vault is judged? There is more to vault than a stuck landing. EVERYTHING about Retton's vault was vastly superior to Bileck's vault, sans the hop...which is why she was docked -0.10 P. and scored a 9.90. She'd have gotten a 10.0 without the hop. Her vault was brilliant.

[can1052]

yeah, she had tons of power and distance. Landing was the only deduction.

[Gymguy05]

compare PBs distance and height to MLR's... maybe thatll shed light on the situation

[PhillyGal4Ever]

Not in the compulsory vault. She took a huge hop forward-comparable to Szabo.

[ballinagra13]

I love Szabo, but she took huge hops forwards on both her vaults as well. And you can see that Retton got a great deal more distance.