Kim Zmeskal - 1992 Olympics Team Compulsories - Balance Beam

Kim Zmeskal - 1992 Olympics Team Compulsories - Balance Beam

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• kim
• zmeskal
• gymnastics
• olympics
• balance
• beam

[CamilleNadia]

This was absolutely shocking to watch. She NEVER screws up on that move, and she never recovered from that.

It's a perfect example of what excessive pressures and expectations can do to an athlete.

It's amazing how IMMEDIATELY the commentators went from cheering her on, then trashing her.

STFU, people!

[malheureux001]

this routine is so hard to watch, because she never made a simple mistake like that. she was a brilliant gymnast who had one bad day.

[metsdudenj]

@intldawn Well, her injury didnt help, she had a serious stress fracture which of course causes over compensation and doubt. By 1993 she had also gained a lot of weight. I agree, she should have tried one more year, but her body was shot, lots of injuries, and that leg injury took a while to heal

[intldawn]

@metsdudenj It was a miscalculation, but on a move she should never miscalculate. Unfortunately, it ended up foreshadowing her entire Olympics, making critical and uncharacteristic mistakes. Don't forget, she was the world champion on beam going into the this competition. I always felt bad that she didn't come back in '93 to compete again and this remained one the enduring memories of her career.

[metsdudenj]

Everyone is carrying on how this was the end of her career, the pressure got to her, blah blah. She simply had too much momentum on the backhandspring and was slightly off on it, it happens, not a defining moment,simply a miscalculation.

[hjaidar]

@beckerbombs What do you mean by old guard? because Zmeskal was 16 at 92, that's mean that she was born in 1976 same year as Gutsu and Milo, but she is from february 6, Gutsu born sep. 5 and Milo born Oct. 21 or Is it about they won world AA medals in 91?

[svetaswan]

I might be one of the only ones here who doesn't really remember watching this live (I was only a casual fan then).

I can imagine how shocking this was to the devoted gymn fans. Shocking & surreal. People probably had to watch the replays before they believed that she fell.

It's harder to imagine how Kim experienced this. This probably felt like an out-of-body experience to her - she probably has *never* had any idea or memory of how she got thru the routine.

[37tonya]

every time I see this I keep hoping that she stays on the beam......this is still hard to watch.

[ahrensgay]

People ACTUALLY compared Dumbasskal to the great Comaneci? NEVER!!!!

[metsdudenj]

Not one of the comments here takes into account that she had a stress facture in her foot. That threw off her timing, confidence and stabliility in landings. That aside from rushing the move is why she fell. She overcompensated and put too much into the backhandspring and fell. I know because I was close with some of the athletes and coaches at the time.

[scorzi]

Read the book "Little Girls in Pretty Boxes". It lists all the gymnasts and figure skaters from the 80's and 90's (a lot of whom won at the Olympics or made it to the Olympics) who blast the "win at any cost" machine of those two female sports. The whole thing was they built this poor girl up like she's perfect, and the pressure was too much (which it would be for any of us) and she made a mistake, and of course in professional sports once you make a mistake everyone abandons you.