I was 12 when LA Olympics, I remember this and also, the movie about Nadia was on local TV, and we were having basics of gymnastics at school, what a time!
I lived in LA in ‘84, the whole city was electric. But a gold medal should have gone to Peter Uberoth for the unbelievable job he did of putting it all together. We were at the handball match when he got up to leave. The whole audience gave him a standing ovation.
I know I already posted but I just cannot get over the beauty and perfection of Szabo's beam. I don't know that I've ever seen a more balletic, flawless routine.
@@stevebbuk9557 Agreed. I was a competitive gymnast for nearly 20 years and a judge. Szabo got screwed. She was clearly the better gymnast in this AA competition. Grace, speed, stage presence and strength. Retton would not have won the gold outside of the United States.
@@jabber12345 Judging standards were very different back then: judges were extremely generous in their scores, overlooking form breaks (remember that in the 1980's, they handed out perfect 10s like candy bars). You could also argue that Mary Lou Retton's floor routine that night was not worth a 9.95. As for the optional portion of the team competition, when she touched the floor mat ...
I remember this like it was yesterday. Mary Lou was a burst of joy and light; she accomplished more than winning the gold medal, she won our hearts forever more. Thank you, Mary Lou. God be with you now and please get well.
It sounds like Cathy absoloutely hates commentating with this guy lol, and I love that when he tries to simplify something or make it sound easy, she's always advocating for the gymnasts and pointing out how difficult the sport is.
Szabo had a fall on the uneven bars in one of the team rounds. That figured into her score coming into this. It was ultimately what cost her the gold. She was a really good gymnast.
Yep. Without that fall, it wouldn’t have been that close of a battle. Even if she’d had a better landing on her bars dismount in the finals, she still would have pulled out the win.
I don’t think in a good way though. “Artistic” should be removed from in front of gymnastics. IT’s tumbling only now and lack of artistry. However I do have a huge respect for the athletes…just miss the unique grace and creativity of old gymnastics. It’s just robotic and thumping boring scoring and choreography now.
I agree, though I was only 5 years old. It seemed to be a very poignant time for politics and pop culture. I can’t speak much to sports but I sure do remember everyone making a big fuss about how amazing Rhetton was. I only remember the commercials she was in for Wheaties and probably some other brands or causes. I didn’t remember knowing about the Olympics but I may have watched some but doubt I would have chosen it over my beloved shows.
Mary Lou was dancing on the floor on the music of a Romanian folk song! And knowing she had a Romanian coach...well, the winner might be considered half Romanian, at least!
Rusty Bear me too! I was rooting for Ecaterina, I loved her demure and discreet behavior. Very serious. Retton was more excited but the audience was hers anyway. And the scoring was so generous at the time: they gave away 9.9 and 10 like leaflets.
Gran regalo para esta atleta Mary Lou Retton, las calificaciones altisimas para ella y hasta el caer mal y lesionarse y ganar , como se vio que estaban en Estados Unidos
The night that this happened, I went to bed after working most of the day. I was told the next morning, that Mary Lou won by my Father. I still kick myself for not seeing this when it did happen, but I watched the replay. The Olympics are the Greatest Sporting Event in my eyes, and this moment has to be one of the Greatest Moments in Olympic/Sporting History.
My love of gymnastics started when I was 6 watching this! Loved Mary Lou but also Julianne and Kathy Johnson too! They don’t get enough credit. This started the US boom of gymnastics here! My favorite gymnasts of all time are: Nadia, Mary Lou, Olga K (that bars omg), E. Mukina 😢, Christy Philips (beam), Elena S (RIP 😢), Daniela Silivas,Svetlana boginskaya, Shannon Miller and I really admire Oksana Chusovitina who is literally almost 50 and has competed in 8 OLYMPICS! In my opinion…she’s the GOAT 🎉by far in longevity! Simone of course is amazing…but I prefer the more artistic gymnastics.
Le boum de la gymnastique a été déclenché aux États Unis quand Márta et Béla Károlyi ont pris en main l’équipe nationale américaine. Parmi les protégées de Béla Károlyi se trouvent la célèbre gymnaste Nadia Comăneci, ainsi que Mary Lou Retton (première Américaine à obtenir la médaille d'or olympique au concours général), Betty Okino, Kerri Strug, Dominique Moce …
Not very. All the Europeans competing in America knew it would help to get crowd support if they played well-known American music, and since this was in LA... lots of them did. Unfortunately, a lot used that awful "Hooked on Classics" with the repeated boom-chick orchestration on absolutely everything. ("Boom chick" is the pre-cursor to "boots and pants")
Love her but that routine shouldn’t have been a 10. The landing on the last pass was low and she went forward and the front tuck on the second pass she went backwards on the landing but she’s still amazing and such a great leader for others! Inspirational
Times were different back then, with lower judging standards. If you look for perfection, and in particular, expect to see stuck landings because a routine officially scored a 10, you will find flaws. It all began with Nadia Comaneci, who scored the first 10 in Olympic history with her compulsory bar routine -- despite failing to stick her dismount (she slid slightly on her landing). If it were any other gymnast at another time, she would have been deducted for that flaw. As it was, gymnastics scores became highly inflated after that: in the 1980's, judges were handing out 10s like candy bars.
@@traceytillman7453 Gymnastics competitions are typically won by fractions of a point: when you have a narrow margin of victory, there will always be naysayers who insist that the wrong athlete won. That's what you can expect when it comes to a sport where the judging is subjective.
I'm not saying I disagree with this comment, I agree she took steps but Szabo also took steps on her beam dismount though it was less noticeable than Mary Lou on floor, they scored differently back then
I think Mary Lou was definitely a powerhouse, even for years to come she would’ve been considered powerful. But I think it’s obvious she wouldn’t have won had USSR not boycotted. It wasn’t half as an exciting games as it should’ve been with the absence of the USSR. Szabo was fantastic but I felt like she got away with a lot of low landings etc and Mary got away with obvious steps on the floor and a jump back on her front flip on FX.
If the USSR had been there the whole event would have been tainted with biases scoring and unfair favoritism. The competition was MORE enjoyable because the team who had the judging in their pockets wasn’t there to spoil things. You show your lack of respect for a truly deserving champion, one who earned her gold medal the same as those who came before and after You mention the hip and such for Mary Lou but seem to forget in 1988 the number of 10’s handed out that were in no way perfect.
Do you have the interviews with the Reporter Diana Nyad to interview Nancy Hogshead and Carrie Steinseifer in Swimming for the 100m Freestyle? I would like ask to be uploaded.
Part of what made this win so exciting was how she won. She finished with two perfect tens. After the beam and the bars, we thought she had lost the gold. She came back. It was a remarkable comeback.
Tens back then seemed to be handed out like candy bars. Mary Lou was truly brilliant, so ahead of her time. No one should ever consider this gold to be anything less just because of the boycott.
@@jmorg044 she wasn't so ahead of her time but her double layout on floor and her layout full tsukahara on vault could still be used to win titles for years after, I don't think k she was necessarily ahead, but her skills could still be used for years to come
The German gymnast that fell in warm ups, did the other girl shake the beam? Even if that is not true. Half a second to wait for your turn to warm up will not hurt you, but could kill someone else.
53:36 Did you know what Bela did could have been a .30 penalty? Of course as the casters said, anything less than a ten and the spectators would have ripped the roof off of Pauley pavilion!
@@paulnick19Don’t know if he “jumped” over but he definitely was not allowed to be in that part of the arena. There were only so many credentialed coaches for each team allowed to be on the floor, while the others had to be behind the barrier, as Bela was for most of the competition. You can see the other American coach, Don Peters I think it is, approach Bela and tell him to back off before he gets in trouble.
Before there was Kerri Strug, before there was Gabby Douglas, before there was Suni Lee, before there was Simone Biles, and before there was Nastia Liukin.
Inoticed that Szabo's leg form was questionable - eg, in her beam dismount her legs were very splayed apart or 'cowboy'ed'...this should have been a deduction. Same thing in her FTDPB in her fllor exercise - again she splays her legs apart badly.
I was 9. I was so inspired! I wanted to learn gymnastics. I wish someone had put me in a class. I felt too old to start at 9 though!! Someone told me that.
Me too! I was 9 and glued to the TV! Tried gymnastics after this like so many girls but they were like no girl lol😂 I grew to 5’10”. Mary Lou is still my hero!
I used to disagree -- until watching a videotaped replay of Retton's floor routine on the second day of the team competition. She should have been deducted 0.30 for touching the mat; instead, she received a 9.9. That gave her an extra carryover of 0.10 heading into the AA finals (her advantage over Szabo was 0.15 instead of just 0.05), where she actually got outscored by Szabo 0.10. Otherwise, had Retton been properly deducted, Szabo would have won the gold medal -- assuming that the rest of the competition proceeded in exactly the same way. Of course, sport is nothing if not full of contingencies: Retton might have been forced to be more perfect on the night of the AA finals, had her advantage been smaller.
@@JLFAN2009the deduction was only 0.1 for MLR which was the correct deduction for that error in that code of points . Szabo’s fall in optional bars was the difference between gold and silver . It wasn’t MLR ‘s fault
@@shane802 Nobody is saying that it was MLR's fault: no matter what, one should never slam the gymnasts for the imperfections in the system of scores and determining winners. Rather, the fault lay squarely with the JUDGES: either they didn't see her mistake on floor (where she touched the apparatus) or they didn't deduct properly for it. The question is: just what exactly did the Code of Points state, as of 1984? In a previous video (which has since been removed from TH-cam), the presenter showed a copy -- according to which MLR should have been deducted 0.30, not just 0.10. It seems fair, since touching an apparatus is close to a fall, which back then incurred a deduction of 0.50 -- which was the case with Szabo's fall in her bar dismount during the optionals. Do YOU have a copy of the Code applicable to the LA Olympics? I'd like to see the source behind your claim that the deduction was correct: it's difficult for me to see that floor routine as having been only 0.1 away from perfection -- notwithstanding the fact that judging standards were extremely loose, and it was the decade in which judges handed out 10's like candy bars.
In the new life rule Szabo would have won. Overall she gave the better performance. Even with the form breaks she was better overall. An unfortunate fall in Bars cost her the all around. Still an unbeatable haul with 4 golds and a silver (even better than Biles 2016 performance).
If MLR had been properly deducted for putting her hand down during optional floor, Szabo would have won also. And if the Soviets hadn't boycotted, neither of them would have won 😅.
@@jmorg044 the medal haul was better. Of course the difficulty is of different levels as there is more than 30 years separating them. You're pretty stupid to not know the distinction.
I agree I know that is an unpopular opinion, but let’s face it if Ekaterina had not fallen on the bars she would have won. With that being said, Mary Lou was a very powerful gymnast, and had the best floor exercise at that time.
MLR was definitely overscored on that floor routine...two very obvious mistakes that were overlooked...never should have been a 10...Szabo was the true all around champion in 1984...i will die on this hill ❤❤
I agree! Even as a proud American, I gotta give it to Szabo. IMO, she was far superior to MLR in all aspects of gymnastics with the exception of explosive power. I find it fitting that Katia went on to win 3 of the 4 event finals!
@markb7613, there was me thinking it was just me. I totally agree. Szabo was far superior in performance Americans only really started doing well when it was Russian coaches training them.
que hermoso recuerdo. Las caras de las termes, Mary Lou, Ecaterina y Simona. Las tres con un sentimiento distinto. Fue histórico y a pesar que fue discutido, fue una hermosa competencia.
Mary Lou wasn't happy with the 9.80 on the beam. That's obvious. Unfortunately, the beam was usually her weakest event. She finished with her best two events.
Качество видео, конечно, плохое, но "лайк" за прекрасные воспоминания - это было моё время спортивной гимнастики хотя я уже и заканчивала в те годы свою гимнастическую карьеру.
That would definitely have been true in the men's competition, but perhaps not in the women's. The Romanians were always right up there and even in quality with the Russians.
@@linda9081 they weren’t, simple as that. Trying to diminish Mary Lou’s victory because of their CHOSEN absence is no different than saying Davidova only won because others had mistakes. It’s who’s THERE that counts, and who HITS!!
Guess what? Things will always be different with different variables. You dont know what would have been. All that counts is what happened that day. Its so dumb to claim different circumstances would cause different outcomes.
I just dont see how you can get a 10 on beam. The scoring is just not compatible with today. Even if you are comparing the excution. Its much more stringent today
A win is a win at the end of the day. Mary Lou was ahead of all. With all her strength and force and elegance and energy and consistency. Impressive. Good job! These moments will live forever
I thought that stood the same back then. In '96, Phelps had beautiful handstands. Of course the scoring was different by then, but, the other girls didn't have those hs's as straight as hers. Maybe it was because of the difficulty level? Well, whatever the case, I agree with you 100%.
Szabo can't compare with Mary Lou Retton. Szabo was only better on the balance beam than Mary Lou Retton. Other than that Mary Lou Retton was INCREDIBLE. The Romanians were famous for being great on the balance beam.
It's obvious, even if the Russians had been there, that the US team had turned a corner at this point and was headed for greatness. I think Miller deserved the AA gold moreso in 92. I've watched that year's performances and she did better than the girl that won or Mary in this one. The biggest takeaway I think is that we started to see the pull away from danty gymnasts to stocky ones that dominate the sport today with Mary Lou Retton.
I was wondering why the strict Romanian coaches rationed and restricted their gymnasts' water intake but after hearing that male commenter announce every athlete's weight , I now can kind of understand why this was done. It's not like the gymnasts were wrestlers and had to "make weight " to compete in a lower weight class. And it's too bad that Cathy Rigby didn't admonish the other announcer for contributing to the future of eating disorders among such athlete's, especially because she suffered that same fate
They also did this in women's major beauty pageants. It's both bizarre and sad. A woman's weight is totally irrelevant, but yet, society made it relevant. Women have had to work that much harder to be taken seriously in their merits & accomplishments, when the world has reduced them to absurdly shallow body standards.
Why would she have? I remember the weight was listed with all the other stats in 1992 (i was too young for this olympics) but it had the name, hometown or country, the apparatus they were on and their height and weight. Why would she have said anything when everyone watching could see? I'm not sure if it was olympics or qualifying, but i definitely remember height and weight being public.
Zhou Ping from China and Mary Lou Retton both getting 9.80 for their balance beam routines spoke volumes of the blatantly absurd judging. Zhou was a lot more precise and had an exquisite acrobatic series. Mary Lou was choppy and had no real acrobatic series...and still lost her balance a couple of times?!
With the requirement to do an acro series only one of the elements had to have flight. So her step down to a back tuck would have been sufficient t meet the requirements. McNamara's BB score was the strange one.
I find it fascinating at the complete difference in Chinese gymnasts from this era to the next. They seemed to shrink in size and their gymnasts was on another level. Here, Ping is lackadaisical and boring to watch. A stark contrast to the Chinese talent in a few years to come.
10 for Szabo on BB and for Retton on Floor? Perfect performances? Does that mean they couldn't do better? The point system was really lacking at the time... they all scored between 9.8 and 10 regardless of the execution and the number of mistakes. It's not really a good way to emphasize quality when there's no room for distinction between decent, good, very good and excellent.
I'm so sick and tired about all the scandal they made about her winning on boycotted games. The stupid camera men were running here and there.Things would have turned out a lot different if everyone was there.The tens were out of control, the judges did not do a good job. Cathy Rigby was a poor commentator making it obvious how bias and critical she was to non American gymnasts. Not to mention the TV circus about her going back and forth to Bela outside the competitors area every time she did "good".
At least it was fair. They fairly handed out tens. If you want to criticize an olympics, you should put your energy to the sydney olympics and their vaultgate scandal. That was a disgrace.
This was a period in gymnastics when the team compulsories and optionals counted in the final scores. Mary Lou Retton was given excessively high scores for all four compulsory routines (her form, toe point and amplitude on the simple skills left a lot to be desired) and her optional bar and beam routines were given an average of 9.8s, when they really deserved 9.6s/9.7s (at least her beam did). Her floor routine here was given a 10 with 2 visible errors and poor dance?! Yes, Ecaterina Szabo had a fall on bars (and she was hammered for it) during the team competition but she was valiant, came back with a vengeance and had substance in all her routines. Mary Lou fans point out her "cowboyed" double backs. She was deducted for it on floor. While the judges ignored Mary Lou's bent knees on bars, wavering on beam, landing mistakes on floor and "scoot" on her "perfect" 10. Ecaterina Szabo was the real Olympic champion.
Of course she was, she wasn’t American. God forbid any US athlete- then or now- would win. You people need to just knock off the American hatred, it was Romania and the USSR that ruined gymnastics for many years!
Szabo watched MLR's FX routine from the vault runway. You can see her at the beginning talking to her teammate and watching at 38:40 and then alone at 39:40. What you don't see in this footage but is available in others online is that she applauded for Mary Lou Retton when she finished.
Gymnasts in general seem to have sportsmanship. If you watch Silivas in the beam final in 85 worlds you see Shushunova watching her intently and applauding when she hits her skills.
I was 12 when LA Olympics, I remember this and also, the movie about Nadia was on local TV, and we were having basics of gymnastics at school, what a time!
was the movie before olympics?
I lived in LA in ‘84, the whole city was electric. But a gold medal should have gone to Peter Uberoth for the unbelievable job he did of putting it all together. We were at the handball match when he got up to leave. The whole audience gave him a standing ovation.
Thank you for uploading the whole thing.
I know I already posted but I just cannot get over the beauty and perfection of Szabo's beam. I don't know that I've ever seen a more balletic, flawless routine.
I agree. The competition was devalued though with the absence of the Soviet gymnasts.
@@stevebbuk9557 Agreed. I was a competitive gymnast for nearly 20 years and a judge. Szabo got screwed. She was clearly the better gymnast in this AA competition. Grace, speed, stage presence and strength. Retton would not have won the gold outside of the United States.
I agree but she shouldn't have gotten a 10.0 though. She hopped her dismount and severely cowboyed.
@@jabber12345 Judging standards were very different back then: judges were extremely generous in their scores, overlooking form breaks (remember that in the 1980's, they handed out perfect 10s like candy bars). You could also argue that Mary Lou Retton's floor routine that night was not worth a 9.95. As for the optional portion of the team competition, when she touched the floor mat ...
I remember this like it was yesterday. Mary Lou was a burst of joy and light; she accomplished more than winning the gold medal, she won our hearts forever more. Thank you, Mary Lou. God be with you now and please get well.
Nadia Comaneci and Malindi Elmore should go to prison for helping me become a crazy sex addict.
More even than that even. She lighted the way, I feel for all the champions who came behind her.
Amazing quality. Thank you so much for posting this!
Is it just me or does Kathy Johnson do the same release I asked about in your Ricna video?
Love how they keep playing 'Eye of the Tiger' and the Rocky theme in the background. 😅 Rocky III was a massive movie year before...so makes sense. 😅
Ty for posting this in its entirety 😊
It sounds like Cathy absoloutely hates commentating with this guy lol, and I love that when he tries to simplify something or make it sound easy, she's always advocating for the gymnasts and pointing out how difficult the sport is.
Szabo had a fall on the uneven bars in one of the team rounds. That figured into her score coming into this. It was ultimately what cost her the gold. She was a really good gymnast.
Yep. Without that fall, it wouldn’t have been that close of a battle. Even if she’d had a better landing on her bars dismount in the finals, she still would have pulled out the win.
It’s interesting to note how much women’s artistic gymnastics has evolved since then.
I don’t think in a good way though. “Artistic” should be removed from in front of gymnastics. IT’s tumbling only now and lack of artistry. However I do have a huge respect for the athletes…just miss the unique grace and creativity of old gymnastics. It’s just robotic and thumping boring scoring and choreography now.
О, да! Очень изменилась. Стала более атлетической, много сложной акробатики, мало артистизма и хореографии.
@unknown-lf6zx Men has no artistry esoecially on floor and they got htrough it fine
Evolved or devolved?
@@carolharris2401yeah. And mens gymnastics is boring and all the same. It's tumbling. It's a shame the women's have gotten so much worse.
1984 was the most incredible year in the United States of America! You missed out if you didn't experience 1984!
I agree, though I was only 5 years old. It seemed to be a very poignant time for politics and pop culture. I can’t speak much to sports but I sure do remember everyone making a big fuss about how amazing Rhetton was. I only remember the commercials she was in for Wheaties and probably some other brands or causes. I didn’t remember knowing about the Olympics but I may have watched some but doubt I would have chosen it over my beloved shows.
Because they got the Romanian coach! Wake up!
Hearing Frank Stallone's "Far From Over" in the background really brings me back to ten years old...
Mary Lou was dancing on the floor on the music of a Romanian folk song! And knowing she had a Romanian coach...well, the winner might be considered half Romanian, at least!
Memories! I remember watching this when I was 10
Rusty Bear me too! I was rooting for Ecaterina, I loved her demure and discreet behavior. Very serious. Retton was more excited but the audience was hers anyway. And the scoring was so generous at the time: they gave away 9.9 and 10 like leaflets.
Kips were still a huge part of bars routines back then and now they are quite infrequent. Suni has done routines without any except at the mount.
Prayers for Mary Lou in 2023! I pray she recovers! She was my childhood hero and a big reason gymnastics boomed in the USA! Prayers
She'll be alright
That floor's color is beautiful!!!
so was juliannes bra
Kerri Strugg and awesome Dawesome did the same thing in ‘96; beautifully. I love watching the double layouts.
Gran regalo para esta atleta Mary Lou Retton, las calificaciones altisimas para ella y hasta el caer mal y lesionarse y ganar , como se vio que estaban en Estados Unidos
Any chance you can post the footage from both the compulsory and the optional rounds of the 1984 Olympics as well?!?!
The night that this happened, I went to bed after working most of the day. I was told the next morning, that Mary Lou won by my Father. I still kick myself for not seeing this when it did happen, but I watched the replay. The Olympics are the Greatest Sporting Event in my eyes, and this moment has to be one of the Greatest Moments in Olympic/Sporting History.
I love looking at the old time vault and beam. It's so interesting how the equipment has changed.
Ce mari staruri❤la gimnastica în lume erau romania😮😮😮romancele prea frumos lucrau la gimnastica😮😮😮😮❤
40:00 Mary Lou floor exercise music is romanian song Sanie cu zurgalai.
Mary Lou Retton's vault is one of the greatest moments in Olympic history
Congrats, Mary Lou Retton becomes first American Women to win the gold medal and Olympic All-Around Champion in 1984.
Выиграла потому что вытянули,и потому что русские тогда не приехали.Сабо была лучше американки
@@Лесик-ы8д Oh.
The 1980s were so great for the free world
Goodness ! Zzabo was sooo good! She made her skills look like a walk in the park.
meh not really
Truth! That was an amazing routine.
My love of gymnastics started when I was 6 watching this! Loved Mary Lou but also Julianne and Kathy Johnson too! They don’t get enough credit. This started the US boom of gymnastics here!
My favorite gymnasts of all time are: Nadia, Mary Lou, Olga K (that bars omg), E. Mukina 😢, Christy Philips (beam), Elena S (RIP 😢), Daniela Silivas,Svetlana boginskaya, Shannon Miller and I really admire Oksana Chusovitina who is literally almost 50 and has competed in 8 OLYMPICS! In my opinion…she’s the GOAT 🎉by far in longevity! Simone of course is amazing…but I prefer the more artistic gymnastics.
Le boum de la gymnastique a été déclenché aux États Unis quand Márta et Béla Károlyi ont pris en main l’équipe nationale américaine.
Parmi les protégées de Béla Károlyi se trouvent la célèbre gymnaste Nadia Comăneci, ainsi que Mary Lou Retton (première Américaine à obtenir la médaille d'or olympique au concours général), Betty Okino, Kerri Strug, Dominique Moce …
I am Mary Lou’s age. I remembered in the 80s…we considered Mary Lou as being hefty. Lol. I can’t believe it. How things have changed.
my underwear also changed
How weird is it that Szabo has The Battle Hymn of the Republic as her floor music?
Not very. All the Europeans competing in America knew it would help to get crowd support if they played well-known American music, and since this was in LA... lots of them did. Unfortunately, a lot used that awful "Hooked on Classics" with the repeated boom-chick orchestration on absolutely everything. ("Boom chick" is the pre-cursor to "boots and pants")
Love her but that routine shouldn’t have been a 10. The landing on the last pass was low and she went forward and the front tuck on the second pass she went backwards on the landing but she’s still amazing and such a great leader for others! Inspirational
Times were different back then, with lower judging standards. If you look for perfection, and in particular, expect to see stuck landings because a routine officially scored a 10, you will find flaws. It all began with Nadia Comaneci, who scored the first 10 in Olympic history with her compulsory bar routine -- despite failing to stick her dismount (she slid slightly on her landing). If it were any other gymnast at another time, she would have been deducted for that flaw. As it was, gymnastics scores became highly inflated after that: in the 1980's, judges were handing out 10s like candy bars.
Not a Ten and never was. Two hops second pass and last one. Never impressed
Kati should have won
@@traceytillman7453 Gymnastics competitions are typically won by fractions of a point: when you have a narrow margin of victory, there will always be naysayers who insist that the wrong athlete won. That's what you can expect when it comes to a sport where the judging is subjective.
I'm not saying I disagree with this comment, I agree she took steps but Szabo also took steps on her beam dismount though it was less noticeable than Mary Lou on floor, they scored differently back then
Szabo had her errors as well but the right girl won that day.
I think Mary Lou was definitely a powerhouse, even for years to come she would’ve been considered powerful. But I think it’s obvious she wouldn’t have won had USSR not boycotted. It wasn’t half as an exciting games as it should’ve been with the absence of the USSR. Szabo was fantastic but I felt like she got away with a lot of low landings etc and Mary got away with obvious steps on the floor and a jump back on her front flip on FX.
If the USSR had been there the whole event would have been tainted with biases scoring and unfair favoritism. The competition was MORE enjoyable because the team who had the judging in their pockets wasn’t there to spoil things. You show your lack of respect for a truly deserving champion, one who earned her gold medal the same as those who came before and after You mention the hip and such for Mary Lou but seem to forget in 1988 the number of 10’s handed out that were in no way perfect.
Nice to know. She's beat them before.. Ridicules comment
@@kimthreadgold2755 just saying the truth. I can’t help if you can’t handle it.
Mary Lou execution was blah no 180 degree on her split jumps , step backs szabo fir me
@@azbycx56 I disagree totally . The Russians would’ve dominated
Wish they would go back to the old scoring system
@@russcohen3779 absolutely not!! There’s a very legitimate reason they did away with it. Look at 1997 beam final if you want a perfect example.
Jim McKay R.I.P
莎寶應該是金牌？
36:39... Is that judge the same one who became famous for her reaction to the McKayla Maroney vault???
I want to watch the team finals but cant find it
look in your underwear drawer
Do you have the interviews with the Reporter Diana Nyad to interview Nancy Hogshead and Carrie Steinseifer in Swimming for the 100m Freestyle? I would like ask to be uploaded.
Part of what made this win so exciting was how she won. She finished with two perfect tens. After the beam and the bars, we thought she had lost the gold. She came back. It was a remarkable comeback.
Such a great moment. Wanted to give Szabo a hug though. Poor kid.
I remember this this, when i was 1 yr old :D
naw betch nope
From bronze, grans the gold, so epic!
Katy merita pt gratia ei aurul dar stim ca jocurile erau facute.🙏☘🌷
Boy they gave out 10s like they were Tic Tacs back then!
Tens back then seemed to be handed out like candy bars.
Mary Lou was truly brilliant, so ahead of her time. No one should ever consider this gold to be anything less just because of the boycott.
How was she ahead .. I have to hear this
@@jmorg044 she wasn't so ahead of her time but her double layout on floor and her layout full tsukahara on vault could still be used to win titles for years after, I don't think k she was necessarily ahead, but her skills could still be used for years to come
Lou retton and davidova never deserved to be AA champions. Both were one competition wonders, never true champions.
@@stephanfourie6879 neither was your mom
@@JB-sg1vy No my mom never did gymnastics, you are right LOL!!!
The German gymnast that fell in warm ups, did the other girl shake the beam? Even if that is not true. Half a second to wait for your turn to warm up will not hurt you, but could kill someone else.
Having someone run at you like that is just wrong! I hope she was ok.
Simona Pauca was WONDERFUL
53:36 Did you know what Bela did could have been a .30 penalty? Of course as the casters said, anything less than a ten and the spectators would have ripped the roof off of Pauley pavilion!
What ?? Really! He jumped over the barrier??
@@paulnick19Don’t know if he “jumped” over but he definitely was not allowed to be in that part of the arena. There were only so many credentialed coaches for each team allowed to be on the floor, while the others had to be behind the barrier, as Bela was for most of the competition. You can see the other American coach, Don Peters I think it is, approach Bela and tell him to back off before he gets in trouble.
Before there was Kerri Strug, before there was Gabby Douglas, before there was Suni Lee, before there was Simone Biles, and before there was Nastia Liukin.
Inoticed that Szabo's leg form was questionable - eg, in her beam dismount her legs were very splayed apart or 'cowboy'ed'...this should have been a deduction. Same thing in her FTDPB in her fllor exercise - again she splays her legs apart badly.
I was thinking the same thing, the scoring standards were so different in the past
True but imagine the form deductions Retton should get on every event, except for possibly vault.
Anyone except to see a wolf jump after the punch front on beam
I was 9. I was so inspired! I wanted to learn gymnastics. I wish someone had put me in a class. I felt too old to start at 9 though!! Someone told me that.
Me too! I was 9 and glued to the TV! Tried gymnastics after this like so many girls but they were like no girl lol😂 I grew to 5’10”. Mary Lou is still my hero!
Both ladies performed well, both shouldve won the Gold, a tie that will wouldve been fair.
懐かしいですね。今見ても観客はアメリカ贔屓で、他の国の選手は演技をやりにくかったと思います。ルーマニアのagacheが個人総合に残れなかったのが残念｡もちろん、どのような状況でもベストな演技が出来ないといけないかもしれないけれど、アメリカの観客の応援は度が過ぎていました。ソ連が出ていたらという面でも本当に残念な大会でした。
Ekatarina Szabo was the best. The championship was stolen from her.
I used to disagree -- until watching a videotaped replay of Retton's floor routine on the second day of the team competition. She should have been deducted 0.30 for touching the mat; instead, she received a 9.9. That gave her an extra carryover of 0.10 heading into the AA finals (her advantage over Szabo was 0.15 instead of just 0.05), where she actually got outscored by Szabo 0.10. Otherwise, had Retton been properly deducted, Szabo would have won the gold medal -- assuming that the rest of the competition proceeded in exactly the same way. Of course, sport is nothing if not full of contingencies: Retton might have been forced to be more perfect on the night of the AA finals, had her advantage been smaller.
@@JLFAN2009 thank you
@@JLFAN2009the deduction was only 0.1 for MLR which was the correct deduction for that error in that code of points . Szabo’s fall in optional bars was the difference between gold and silver . It wasn’t MLR ‘s fault
@@shane802 Nobody is saying that it was MLR's fault: no matter what, one should never slam the gymnasts for the imperfections in the system of scores and determining winners. Rather, the fault lay squarely with the JUDGES: either they didn't see her mistake on floor (where she touched the apparatus) or they didn't deduct properly for it. The question is: just what exactly did the Code of Points state, as of 1984? In a previous video (which has since been removed from TH-cam), the presenter showed a copy -- according to which MLR should have been deducted 0.30, not just 0.10. It seems fair, since touching an apparatus is close to a fall, which back then incurred a deduction of 0.50 -- which was the case with Szabo's fall in her bar dismount during the optionals. Do YOU have a copy of the Code applicable to the LA Olympics? I'd like to see the source behind your claim that the deduction was correct: it's difficult for me to see that floor routine as having been only 0.1 away from perfection -- notwithstanding the fact that judging standards were extremely loose, and it was the decade in which judges handed out 10's like candy bars.
In the new life rule Szabo would have won. Overall she gave the better performance. Even with the form breaks she was better overall. An unfortunate fall in Bars cost her the all around. Still an unbeatable haul with 4 golds and a silver (even better than Biles 2016 performance).
If MLR had been properly deducted for putting her hand down during optional floor, Szabo would have won also. And if the Soviets hadn't boycotted, neither of them would have won 😅.
Not better than biles Nawwww
@@jmorg044 the medal haul was better. Of course the difficulty is of different levels as there is more than 30 years separating them. You're pretty stupid to not know the distinction.
I agree I know that is an
unpopular opinion, but let’s face it if Ekaterina had not fallen on the bars she would have won. With that being said, Mary Lou was a very powerful gymnast, and had the best floor exercise at that time.
@@thesovgcTrue
I remember that 9.85 on the uneven bars now. What the hell?
Prayers for Mary Lou
Mary Lou such a powerhouse of energy and all American girl. Gold medal well deserved. Fun to watch again after so many years.
Quem foi o time campeão por equipe?
Romênia
1. Romania 2. USA 3. China
You have to understand Mary Lou Retton was the gold medal not Ecaterina Szabo. Take a closer look!
MLR was definitely overscored on that floor routine...two very obvious mistakes that were overlooked...never should have been a 10...Szabo was the true all around champion in 1984...i will die on this hill ❤❤
I agree! Even as a proud American, I gotta give it to Szabo. IMO, she was far superior to MLR in all aspects of gymnastics with the exception of explosive power. I find it fitting that Katia went on to win 3 of the 4 event finals!
@@FigureNastics Absolutely fitting! 😊😊
@markb7613, there was me thinking it was just me.
I totally agree. Szabo was far superior in performance
Americans only really started doing well when it was Russian coaches training them.
Oh Hell no! Mary Lou Retton was clearly the gold medal winner!!!
@@MichaelCrouch-qp4wy She may have been the winner the other gymnast was overall better, Ecaterina Szabo
5:10 favorite commentary line on this earth
I really love this arena
i had sex in it
que hermoso recuerdo. Las caras de las termes, Mary Lou, Ecaterina y Simona. Las tres con un sentimiento distinto. Fue histórico y a pesar que fue discutido, fue una hermosa competencia.
What does "las termes" mean ? Google is translating it to "termites" 😭😭😭
Uneven bars are now way better than back then
@@thesovgc I meant tres (3). Las caras de la tres. jajajaja
Mary Lou wasn't happy with the 9.80 on the beam. That's obvious. Unfortunately, the beam was usually her weakest event. She finished with her best two events.
That was the same national anthem used at the 1996 Olympics crazy
The national anthems for each country don't change. Once they're selected, they remain that country's anthem.
Round of applause for Olga Mostepanova, the five time 1984 Olympic champion!
Качество видео, конечно, плохое, но "лайк" за прекрасные воспоминания - это было моё время спортивной гимнастики хотя я уже и заканчивала в те годы свою гимнастическую карьеру.
Would have been a much different outcome if the Russian gymnasts had been there.
maybe, maybe not
That would definitely have been true in the men's competition, but perhaps not in the women's. The Romanians were always right up there and even in quality with the Russians.
@@linda9081 they weren’t, simple as that. Trying to diminish Mary Lou’s victory because of their CHOSEN absence is no different than saying Davidova only won because others had mistakes. It’s who’s THERE that counts, and who HITS!!
Yeah, with the political tensions at the time, we probably would have booed the Soviets.
Guess what? Things will always be different with different variables. You dont know what would have been. All that counts is what happened that day. Its so dumb to claim different circumstances would cause different outcomes.
Lavinia Milosivici got credit for Zhou Ping's mount.
Ping's mount was breathtaking!
I just dont see how you can get a 10 on beam. The scoring is just not compatible with today. Even if you are comparing the excution. Its much more stringent today
A win is a win at the end of the day. Mary Lou was ahead of all. With all her strength and force and elegance and energy and consistency. Impressive. Good job! These moments will live forever
Kim zmwskal Reminds Me Alit Of Marylou. Same Body Type! Nice She Won But Carly Patterson Won The Olympic Gold In A Fully Contested Olympics!
Nadia comaneci❤era albitra? 😮Super star la gimnastica😮😮Nadia comaneci😮😮❤❤
What a competitor
who...bela?
These announcers 😵💫🤣
Laura cutina❤Ecaterina szabo❤prea,😮prea😮 mari staruri😮😮felicitari❤campioanelor😮😮😮😮
Retton honestly did not deserve a 10 on floor, a 9.85 in my opinion. Szabo a 9.95 on beam. But obviously politics played a part in those days.
They still do!
I was only 5 in 1984. I barely remember seeing any of this. I'm guessing a gymnast could score a 10 with hops on landings. Odd.
In today's games, the girls would have been penalized for not being completely vertical on those handstands
I thought that stood the same back then. In '96, Phelps had beautiful handstands. Of course the scoring was different by then, but, the other girls didn't have those hs's as straight as hers. Maybe it was because of the difficulty level? Well, whatever the case, I agree with you 100%.
Mary Lou Retton was the Gymnastics "Wonder Woman" of the 1984 Olympics!🇺🇲
Szabo can't compare with Mary Lou Retton. Szabo was only better on the balance beam than Mary Lou Retton. Other than that Mary Lou Retton was INCREDIBLE. The Romanians were famous for being great on the balance beam.
It's obvious, even if the Russians had been there, that the US team had turned a corner at this point and was headed for greatness. I think Miller deserved the AA gold moreso in 92. I've watched that year's performances and she did better than the girl that won or Mary in this one. The biggest takeaway I think is that we started to see the pull away from danty gymnasts to stocky ones that dominate the sport today with Mary Lou Retton.
Yes Miller was robbed
A size 3 shoe! Wow! A feel like big foot now. Lol
I was wondering why the strict Romanian coaches rationed and restricted their gymnasts' water intake but after hearing that male commenter announce every athlete's weight , I now can kind of understand why this was done. It's not like the gymnasts were wrestlers and had to "make weight " to compete in a lower weight class. And it's too bad that Cathy Rigby didn't admonish the other announcer for contributing to the future of eating disorders among such athlete's, especially because she suffered that same fate
They also did this in women's major beauty pageants. It's both bizarre and sad. A woman's weight is totally irrelevant, but yet, society made it relevant. Women have had to work that much harder to be taken seriously in their merits & accomplishments, when the world has reduced them to absurdly shallow body standards.
@@djm4854 Very well said!!!
Why would she have? I remember the weight was listed with all the other stats in 1992 (i was too young for this olympics) but it had the name, hometown or country, the apparatus they were on and their height and weight. Why would she have said anything when everyone watching could see? I'm not sure if it was olympics or qualifying, but i definitely remember height and weight being public.
Mary lou retton olympics gymnastics all around miracle gold medalsists
53:13 Mary Lou vaults for the gold.
Zhou Ping from China and Mary Lou Retton both getting 9.80 for their balance beam routines spoke volumes of the blatantly absurd judging. Zhou was a lot more precise and had an exquisite acrobatic series. Mary Lou was choppy and had no real acrobatic series...and still lost her balance a couple of times?!
With the requirement to do an acro series only one of the elements had to have flight. So her step down to a back tuck would have been sufficient t meet the requirements.
McNamara's BB score was the strange one.
I find it fascinating at the complete difference in Chinese gymnasts from this era to the next. They seemed to shrink in size and their gymnasts was on another level. Here, Ping is lackadaisical and boring to watch. A stark contrast to the Chinese talent in a few years to come.
If your not a gymnast your self then you don't know what your talking about.
10 for Szabo on BB and for Retton on Floor? Perfect performances? Does that mean they couldn't do better? The point system was really lacking at the time... they all scored between 9.8 and 10 regardless of the execution and the number of mistakes. It's not really a good way to emphasize quality when there's no room for distinction between decent, good, very good and excellent.
28:20 😮
I'm so sick and tired about all the scandal they made about her winning on boycotted games. The stupid camera men were running here and there.Things would have turned out a lot different if everyone was there.The tens were out of control, the judges did not do a good job. Cathy Rigby was a poor commentator making it obvious how bias and critical she was to non American gymnasts. Not to mention the TV circus about her going back and forth to Bela outside the competitors area every time she did "good".
At least it was fair. They fairly handed out tens. If you want to criticize an olympics, you should put your energy to the sydney olympics and their vaultgate scandal. That was a disgrace.
This was a period in gymnastics when the team compulsories and optionals counted in the final scores. Mary Lou Retton was given excessively high scores for all four compulsory routines (her form, toe point and amplitude on the simple skills left a lot to be desired) and her optional bar and beam routines were given an average of 9.8s, when they really deserved 9.6s/9.7s (at least her beam did). Her floor routine here was given a 10 with 2 visible errors and poor dance?! Yes, Ecaterina Szabo had a fall on bars (and she was hammered for it) during the team competition but she was valiant, came back with a vengeance and had substance in all her routines. Mary Lou fans point out her "cowboyed" double backs. She was deducted for it on floor. While the judges ignored Mary Lou's bent knees on bars, wavering on beam, landing mistakes on floor and "scoot" on her "perfect" 10.
Ecaterina Szabo was the real Olympic champion.
Of course she was, she wasn’t American. God forbid any US athlete- then or now- would win. You people need to just knock off the American hatred, it was Romania and the USSR that ruined gymnastics for many years!
No retreat n won fair and square
Szabo is the queen of the cowboy double backs. She was overscored on every event and still won 4 golds. Stop being an American hater.
❤❤
Într-adevăr Mary lou😮a fost buna😮😮
How can anyone not ♥️ that million-dollar smile from Mary Lou Retton (even 40 years later)? 😁
Rumanía !
Szabo watched MLR's FX routine from the vault runway. You can see her at the beginning talking to her teammate and watching at 38:40 and then alone at 39:40. What you don't see in this footage but is available in others online is that she applauded for Mary Lou Retton when she finished.
Were you in the arena? If so, you're very lucky.
@@Thebraids Nope. I watched at home
@@Thebraids 😭
so? im sure she was not applauding after vault! lol
Gymnasts in general seem to have sportsmanship. If you watch Silivas in the beam final in 85 worlds you see Shushunova watching her intently and applauding when she hits her skills.
1984年はロサンゼルスオリンピックの年でしたね!