Back in the day gymnastics

[ClaudiaWinklepanda]

Anyone remember that amazing move on the asymmetric bars (as was) where female gymnasts would hit the bottom bar with their hips with a massive wallop and fold themselves in half?

The vault looked like it had been borrowed from a local school hall, and compared to now the gymnasts looked they were just pottering up to it rather than sprinting like mad.

Bloody loved the gymnastics as a kid (still do).

Yes, one of my earliest TV memories was of Olga Korbut doing those old style asymmetric bars, one of those TV moments that everyone is talking about the next day.

It wasn’t an “amazing move” 😂. It was fucking painful, left large bruises from waist to thigh and reportedly damaged internal organs of some of the elite Russian/romanians.
the bars were also wood, not fibreglass like they are now, so very solid. We used to pad our leotards with massive foam pieces in training but it still hurt.

the beam was also solid wood, and the floor just carpet.

no handguards to assist with swinging, just tape the blisters 😂

Simone biles is utterly amazing but when you look back to what the 80’s gymnasts did on dead floor (no springs underneath), vault on that lethal horse with a rudimentary springboard (again no springs), wooden bars and beam, they were equally incredible.

Oh yes toomany, they definitely were incredible back then.

Sorry to hear you suffered for your sport with the foldy-in-half move. I'd love to have seen the stuffed leotards, no mention of that in the Bella The Gymnast comic strip.

Yes I used to watch gymnastics in the 90’s and I’ve noticed the difference since watching the Olympics again this week. I did a load of googling this week and found out the training regime from 70’s to early 2000’s was brutal and cruel for so many gymnasts. Read a horrible account about how girls were starved of food and water and not allowed to close bathroom doors incase they tried to drink the toilet water. This was even at international events. Dominique Moceanu recalled how she smashed her head on the beam and fractured a tibia age 14 at the Olympics and wasn’t even sent for a check up, she was performing again mins later.
Then there’s the physical abuse in training, the verbal abuse and also the sexual abuse. Horrific. It’s an incredible sport to watch but it’s extremely questionable from an ethics POV.

And her mesmerising floor routine.

https://x.com/Dmoceanu/status/1420396388614037509

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/02/02/us/karolyi-ranch-gymnastics-abuse-allegations

amp.theguardian.com/sport/2022/jun/16/british-gymnastics-report-anne-whyte-review-uk-sport-gymnasts-abused

I find the whole Eastern European former USSR gymnasts completely fascinating and used to love the old school documentaries they would show if their training camps. I didn’t know at the time how cruel it all was. I just though Christ they are disciplined!!

Yes and the floor routine. Some of them were so young, it is shocking looking back.

The dead loop. We used to do it in gym when messing around and get shouted at

I have always loved the gymnastics.
Nellie Kim, Olga Korbut, Nadia Comeneci, all brilliant.

And simone biles is mesmerising.

This is a good read: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/nadia-comaneci-and-the-secret-police-9781350321298/

She was incredible and had such a beautiful dancers style to her floor routine

Have a look at this one, one of my favourites:

not the difficulty on the rumbles, without the advantage of a modern floor.

as awesome as Simone is, I miss this type of routine.

She started out as a figure skater, you can see why!

this is Catherine Lyon’s- utterly amazing British Gymnast in the early 2000’s who would have blown the world stage apart.

unfortunately abusive coaching meant she was physically and psychologically damaged before she got the chance. She was the main instigator of the review into British Gymnastics. Not that I think much has changed, as long as they have an “elite” pathway linked to age kids will be pushed to meet that level.

Watch athlete A. It gives a whole different view of 'old school gymnastics'.

You missed out the elegant and fabulous Ludmilla Tourischeva, who kept her head and landed a perfect dismount despite the asymmetric bars collapsing while she was finishing her routine!

Nellie Kim! I'd completely forgotten about her!

Not strictly back-in-the-day I suppose, but Katelyn Ohashi performed with such joy and musicality too.

Athlete A isn’t even “old school”. Simone Biles is one of the survivors, and Larry Nassar was working for the US team until 2016.

biggest tragedy in gymnastics

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elena_Mukhina

There was Julissa Gomez as well. And Christy Heinrich.

Gosh I didn’t know about them. Awful. What happened to Julissa is horrific

I remember that awful move very well. Thank god they banned it. How did anyone think it was a good idea to allow a move that was obviously causing injuries?

Athlete A wasn't "old school gymnastics" in the sense of 1970s/80s. Maggie Nichols was a team mate of Simone Biles - they are a similar age and both competed to make the 2016 Olympics.

The strict age-linked elite pathway that British Gymnastics still uses is ridiculously out of touch. It results in the loss of talent, effectively pushing out gymnasts who develop later or enter the sport later.

Training elite from a very young age also seems to be linked to decreased longevity as an athlete, as it's so hard on the body.

Jade Carey (US medallist in both Tokyo and Paris) was a gymnast from a young age, but didn't decide to start elite training until she was 17 - if she had lived in the UK I doubt she'd have been given the opportunity.

The injury (and several others including San Lan who was paralyzed) is what led to the updated equipment on vault. The new shaped padded vault table and also that the backflipping, Yurchenko, vaults must also have the padded cuff around the springboard as Julissa's injury was caused by her missing the springboard with one foot.

But gymnastics is a dangerous sport - like many others