1983 World Invite (Olympic Test Event) Retton vs Durham

The Battle of the US Top Gymnasts and a few others at the Olympic Test Event in LA 1983

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• retton
• durham
• gymnastics
• McNamara
• Johnson

[charimander]

Can anyone please repost this competition?

[metsdudenj]

I wish this hole competition will be reposed. It was on like a year ago

[metsdudenj]

@kradunzel Im not over the blatnat cheating that went on in Seoul. I had never seen such ridiculous judging in my life, except in the 1991 Pan Am games.

[kradunzel]

@metsdudenj

"and you know it..."

It's your opinion, and you are entitled to it. It sounds a lot like sour grapes/water under the bridge. Hopefully you'll move beyond it some day.

To some degree, the complaints about the judging diminishes the actual advances the US made in the 90s.  US gymnastics in the 90s was light years ahead of US gymnastics in the 80s...the same way the Soviets were light years ahead of everyone in the 80s.

[metsdudenj]

@kradunzel The East Germans were overscored in Compulsories and you know it. Their vault scores were ridiculous high as were their beam scores. Ill give them bars, they were good there. The US was underscored on vault and bars, and you know that also. SO the US in reality did outscore them, but the Eastern Bloc judges were the ones who made sure the traditional guard kept the first three positions

[metsdudenj]

@kradunzel The East Germans were overscored in Compulsories and you know it. Their vault scores were ridiculous high as were their beam scores. Ill give them bars, they were good there. The US was underscored on vault and bars, and you know that also. SO the US in reality did outscore them, but the Eastern Bloc judges were the ones who made sure the traditional guard kept the first three positions

[kradunzel]

@metsdudenj

First you said that the US outscored the GDR in 88 compulsories when actually, they were behind, and now you are making imaginary adjustments for your own perceived "unfair and biased deduction"?

I guess living in your own imaginary world works for you...

[metsdudenj]

@kradunzel The US had the unfair and biased deduction so they were basically only .5 behind the GDR. They would have won the bronze medal over the GDR. The US was clearly the third best team in the 88 Olympics and would have been the bronze team medalist in a fully attended 84 olympics. The GDR would have been fourth. BUL would have been fifth. The US team was miles better than the 83 world team.

[kradunzel]

@metsdudenj

"Huge breaks were still getting 9.9s"

Like Retton's hand on the floor on her second pass?

"Why all of a sudden did they outscore GDR, BUL, CZE..."

The GDR team outscored the US by almost a point in the compulsory round.

Could it be that the US improved since 84? Romania beat them by two points and the USSR beat them by THREE POINTS. You don't see a difference in the gymnastics during the compulsory round?

[metsdudenj]

@kradunzel The judging at Olumouc was ridiculous. Huge breaks were still getting 9.9s. You state that the Eastern Bloc would have built up a huge lead with compulsories, but I disagree. The US team often experienced unfair judging in those early rounds. Why all of a sudden did they outscore GDR, BUL, CZE and CHN at 88 in compulsories? Ill tell you why. The judging wasnt dominated by Eastern Bloc countries and was finally fair.