Maxi Gnauck - 1980 Olympics EF - Balance Beam

[twilliger123]

Those are not boots, both of her ankles and feet are taped and she's got ballet slippers on.

[Undermedveten]

Gotta love the moon boots.

[spartyutube]

It looks like she's wearing boots- lol :-)

[gymlovr828]

why is she wearing those shoes?

[reallyoldfan]

@gymlovr828 A possible reason she is wearing those shoes is that the beams then were much harder. I don't know about this particular beam, but even most covered beams had no padding and certainly no spring. So, landing acrobatic skills was painful, and the beam shoes helped. Another possible reason is that some of the beam covers were also fairly slippery and the beam shoes helped with grip, also.

[krakenwave]

@reallyoldfan

You are right, beams used during international comps weren't padded until the 80s.

[gymnasticsloverxoxo]

How did this not medal!?!?! Davydova routine was a mess and she got silver but this didn't medal?

[ferency98]

Remember up until and including 1988, there was no "new life" rule. The gymnasts' scores were carried over from the team competition. Maybe Maxi's scores in team were lower than Elena's and Nadia's. Also, GYMLOVR828, I don't know why Maxi always wore those socks and shoes and the bowl cut hairstyle for so many years.

[akimbohr]

@gymnasticsloverxoxo

I completely agree... Davydova got a gift by judges. If she had got a 9.85, Maxie would tie for bronze.

[gymnasticsloverxoxo]

@akimbohr She should have tied for bronze. Re-watching Davydova's routine I don't think she was all that over scored for this COP the only deductions were the bobble in the very difficult one handed handstand and the hop on the dismount.

[MTVMANN]

@gymnasticsloverxoxo Davydova was better than Shaposhnikova!