Vanessa Atler Balance Beam - 2000 US Olympic Trials Day 1

[jkmycko1]

Well, you could tell both her and Bella were disappointed, but you could also sense relief on his face that she wasn't injured. And, did my eyes play tricks on me or was that Valerie Liukin that hugged her afterwards?

[BiAnCa11808]

poor thing she had soo much pressure put on her...trust me i would've done much worse if my coach was staring at me 20 feet away trying to do flips on a tiny little beam while trying to keep balance

[96horseluvr]

ahhh if only she hadn't fallen!!! that routine was going so well, and helping her case for the olympics, which SHE SHOULD HAVE MADE

[ddj8877]

I was always rooting for you vanessa, win or lose

[slapmedia]

Vanessa Atler is still my favorite gymnast of all time to this day. If only she'd been born six weeks earlier she'd have been at the 1996 Olympics with the magnificent seven, and if she'd been born a couple of years later she'd have been a specialist on floor, beam and vault. Hence, she is still by far my favorite gymnast ever. Time aside.

[37tonya]

Vanessa doesn't look fat at all but she clearly was not prepared for the trials......I am glad she moved on with her life

[tmwalkerm]

@37tonya she's still involved, she's coaching and working as a choreographer. She went through a lot to get to where she even wanted to have anything to do with gymnastics, I have to give her credit for that.

[hotwaiter]

blaming it on Bela is ridiculous. The coach is SUPPOSED to push his athletes, especially when he's preparing them for the OLYMPICS!! Do we want athletes representing our nation who can't handle any pressure at all? Quit being such pansies.

[MyUnknownSmile]

i do not want a coach who stares and trys to tell you throught his mind u better not screw up...not nice

[tmwalkerm]

@MyUnknownSmile so you would rather have a coach who doesn't even pay attention? Nice fantasy world you live in, its not their job to be nice, its their job to prepare the athletes for pressure situations, and that's exactly what he's doing. Grow up....

[MyUnknownSmile]

he is not a good coach

[tmwalkerm]

@MyUnknownSmile really? he's had how many athletes excel at the world and olympic levels, that makes him a good coach, how stupid are you.....

[Lenae6292]

@peacelovegymnastics8 she said that Valeri Luikin said to her after the meet that she didnt make the olympic team because she was too fat. i heard she was bulimic too which hurt her tremendously.

[tmwalkerm]

@Lenae6292 she was on the show Starting Over and talked some about that, Valeri more or less starved her. Its on youtube, I'd recommend watching that to hear the real story straight from her, there was a lot going on behind the scenes that no one knew about.

[espinaca79]

Bela made it worse, I swear. I think she got distracted by him.

[tmwalkerm]

@espinaca79 that's a bunch of crap, if she was distracted by anything, it was the pressure of knowing she had to hit every single routine perfect to even be considered for the team, Bela was the least of her concerns. Stop blaming it all on him.

[luv4cookie1]

i am glad that the commentors were pretty sympatheic toward her saying "This could of been a BIG physical problem" And not going "Oh my God she blew it she blew her chances of the olympics! She might as well of not come on the beam!" Like usual

[gatonegroize]

outch!!!!!!

[willsbob123]

She missed that beam BIG TIME! I just thought her left foot slipped off, but her hand, and the whole of her right foot! It's remarkable how she actually rotated!

[benrobinson77]

yeah .... she was gradually traveling to the sideways ever since her round-off. it was not very square and over the top of the beam and if you watch the slow mo afterwards, she even finishes the fallen dismount really far off to one side.

[desglacons]

I loved this girl's gymnastics....something happened behind the scenes to mess up her head....coach? USGA?

[benrobinson77]

@desglacons yes i agree. for some reason she was a head case, especially on bars. i feel like she may have had a fall on that Comanechi release move, maybe hit the bar at some point and never recovered from it. and this nervousness may have spread to other events when they really should have just removed that element.

[lostlyrarose]

she really was one of the better US beam workers in 2000.  I still think they should have put her on vault and beam. and when Morgan White got injured, they could have added her to floor. I still think how the scores add up matters the most. She qualified 6th, and without White, she was the 5th best gymnast we had.

[russianskatingfan]

@lostlyrarose yeah my team and lineup order for each event at first would have been:

Vault- Chow, Ray, Danchtzer, Atler, Maloney

Bars- Maloney, Danchtzer, White, Chow, Ray

Beam- White, Atler, Maloney, Chow, Ray

Floor- White, Chow, Danchtzer, Ray, Maloney

Then after Whites injury add Dawes to the team and put her in Whites place on bars and beam. Put Atlers in Whites place on floor. Still no way was Atler doing the AA in Sydney even if she made the team nor should she have.

[4egymnast]

she did not open up in purpose!! her foot slipped!!

[AtlanteanxPrincess]

ahh poor vanessa! smart girl for opening up!

[gymnasticsloverxoxo]

Did she open up on purpose? or did that happen naturally?

[gymnfanus19972000]

She'd probably done that in practise and knew to do that in order to land safely.

[AtlanteanxPrincess]

yea if she'd done the double back she would have underoatated. If u under rotate a front somi, u land on ur back and a back land on ur face but u may have landed on her neck.

[willsbob123]

@gymnasticsloverxoxo Tbh, I think the G force was so powerful she was ripped out of the tuck position.