Felipe Majo Imbecile. She should never even have been there and would NOT have been there if RITA BROWN had not engineered it by having the ludicrous 'second trial' at HER HOME CLUB!
I really liked Wendy as a gymnast as well and think she had a lot of talent.m what I didn't like however is they then had a private selection committee and kicked Kim Kelly to the curb who placed in this competition. Why bother having an Olympic trials and rankings when the selection committee was going to do whatever they wanted any way? Their defense...at the end of the day, we have to take the best. What ever happened to fairness and integrity? These gymnasts sacrifice so many yeas in hopes to make it to the Olympics and the selection committee can do whatever they chose to do. So the Olympic trials competition have become a sham. Who ever places in the top at these competitions should go. Want to see something sad? Watch the Kim Kelly biography about this on TH-cam someday and I think some of the comments you are referring to might be around that. Anyone that insults Bruce or any other gymnasts should be ashamed of themselves.
This is very true, there was a lot of politics at play, and I am shocked Dawes actually stayed on the team. Campi was the sixth gymnast, but got so hurt she couldnt compete and that's where Wendy got on. I think the way they kicked Kim Kelly to the curb was awful. Why even rank the gymnasts if you were going to hand pick them anyway? Wendy was better on floor, vault and bars in optionals, I get it, but Kelly was a great beamer and in retrospect would have outscored her on optional floor given Wendy's poor floor optional and who knows if she would have made the difference for silver
I'm surprised Dawes stayed on as well. Kelli Hill must have had more power than we thought at the time, LOL. fortunately, Rita Brown has done nothing since, essentially. Bruce was only better than Kelly on bars sometimes--she looked like Two-Ton Tessie on bars almost as badly as she did beam. I don't remember whose compulsories were better but it's hard to believe it would have been Bruce!
uhm, no. Bruce scored a 9.950 on vault, 9.825 on bars, and a 9.712 on beam. Her floor exercise score was thrown away because it was the lowest. KIm never scored that internationally.
I didn’t like her gymnastics and I also think she or Betty shouldn’t have made the team. They were the weakest links. But “womens” gymnastics, especially in ‘92 was always controversial, I mean look how Tatiana Gutsu was given a second chance.
Ugh. One of the most graceless and hideous 'gymnasts' ever to make an Olympic team through pure excremental POLITICS. Guess where the 'second trials' were held in 92? Brown's Gymnastics, which just happened to be Bruce's home club. Funny about that. Eggbeater full-ins, body positions a football player would find crude, two of the ugliest flat feet on earth, a stiff head and neck, hands like claws--what a delightful gymnast to watch.
Wendy was obvi the weakest member of the team but who would you have chosen to take her place? Kim Kelly? Hilary Grivich? both of those gymnasts were worse than Wendy Bruce IMHO. Plus she actually surprised me in Barcelona, all of her scores were counted except on floor she really had the meet of her life there. The US lacked depth back then and were pretty much guaranteed no higher than the bronze (maybe silver) despite their sixth member.
Drew Blumfield No, neither of those gymnasts were worse than Bruce--and they were both FAR more consistent (her getting lucky in Barcelona did not change the fact that Kelly, for example, BEAT HER at both Championships AND Trials, in the days before BARTA's reign of terror took over, when the Trials were still supposed to pick a team.....), with better form if not as much raw power. I really don't think a team which had Miller, Zmeskal, Strug (hideous though SHE was, she was successful internationally), Dawes could be referred to as 'lacking depth.' We now field teams with girls like Locklear who can only make a decent score on one event (the atrocity of three up three count destroyed what was left of gymnastics after the morons deleted compulsories....) rather than brilliant all-arounders as we did in the past. In fact, other than perhaps Biles and Ross (both have their weak events but they are rather strong all-around) we have not had excellent all-arounders since at least Johnson and Liukin--and there was always bars for Johnson and vault for Liukin as their betes noires. Depth had nothing to do with the very biased judging of the Soviet era, when Americans simply DID NOT WIN gold medals in gymnastics. it required the brilliance of Kurt Thomas and Marcia Frederick, etc, to begin that change--and we still saw the same atrocious bias in the 'victory' of Gutsu (projectile VOMIT) over Miller in the 92 Olympic AA.
name I can agree on the whole Kim Kelly fiasco as being unfair since as you said she beat Wendy but tbh she was scary inconsistent and I can't entirely blame them for keeping her off the team. It was definitely unfair but was it the wrong choice? That issue is still kind of gray for me. As for Grivich, she didn't deserve to be anywhere near that Barcelona team. She was inconsistent and awful on bars. The only reason she made the worlds team the year before was because of her coach. Sandy Woolsey should have made that team instead but was booted out because of politics. And even though they were basically guaranteed a medal since the Chinese sucked, Miller and Zmeskal really carried that Barcelona team. Okino was injured and even though Kerri Strug was a good gymnast, she made small mistakes on nearly every event which is why Zmeskal beat her out of the all around with a fall. IMHO Dawes didn't become a good all arounder until after the 1992 Olympics; her only good event in Barcelona was her floor. Wendy Bruce beat her on all other events and that;s saying something lol. As for good US all arounders I could name plenty: Carly Patterson, Gabby Douglas, Jordyn Wieber, even Aly Raisman almost got a bronze medal in the AA in London. Obviously every gymnast will have a "weakness" (bars for jordyn and aly and consistency/beam for gabby) but compared to China, Romania, and even Russia the US has fielded the best all all arounders since the mid 2000's. I will agree with you on the Eastern Bloc judging which kept Americans out of the medals but IMHO the US didn't start getting good at gymnastics as a whole until the 90's starting with Zmeskal and Miller. And I'm not even going to start on the Miller-Gutsu debate cause that would take forever lol.
Drew Blumfield Yep, Woolsey was totally screwed that year, which was probably one reason she quit before Barcelona. she was a wonderful bar worker--a great loss. If you remember, Bela's girls after Romania always sucked on bars (it was hardly just Grivich--Strug was hideous, Zmeskal very ordinary, Okino only good because she was tall, lol. Amanda Uhurek was beautiful on everything but came to her senses before Bela could ruin her, lol...) Dawes was not consistent in Barcelona but Bruce was never good anywhere else (like Missy Marlowe who was good at the TRIALS, lol, and then very bad and inconsistent as usual in Seoul.) Dawes was, even when young, a far superior gymnast to Bruce--better line, better tricks, better form, better everything--as was everyone who made or SHOULD have made the team, including Grivich. Bruce's bars were terrible, in case you don't remember--a pregnant cow heaving herself around. Patterson's bars were nothing and her floor should have been a lot better and harder; Douglas was no great shakes on beam unless she hit, which was ONLY sometimes; Raisman, one of my favorites, was so bad on bars she was reminiscent of Vanessa Atler! (another tragedy) Raisman, btw, should have had that bronze--Mustafina has been gifted by judges her whole 'career' and those two bronzes in the recent worlds were a disgrace. You are totally wrong, lol, about when the US got good at gymnastics; Kathy Johnson was a terrific gymnast and should have won at least one gold on floor; Marcia Frederick DID win a worlds gold on bars; Cathy Rigby should have won gold on beam at the 70 worlds. Etc. Not to mention the 1984 men's team, Kurt Thomas, etc. Kelly Garrison-Steves had a great beam routine. I could go on and on.
***** Furthermore, there was 'nothing' in any way 'gray' about Bela's, the Browns' and the rest of the coaches' collusion to screw Kelly out of the Olympic berth. Rita fucking BROWN even managed to get that farce of a 'second Trial' (illegal, of course, on the face of it) in HER OWN HOME GYM to facilitate her cheating. I will not even go into the farce of Okino (always overrated, never had a decent bar dismount or a floor with even ONE big trick) and Campi 'making' the team without doing full or flawless routines at the 'second trial'--which was the condition given before the 'second trial even took place!!! Kelly, unfortunately, had breasts and hips; she was not fat, she just had a young woman's body. Bela and company wanted what they called, publicly, a 'thin' team--which means anorexic. Zmeskal couldn't do her gorgeous DLO, and probably fell off beam in compulsories, because she was so WEAK from Bela and BARTA's starvation diets. This was the case for all Karolyi gymnasts, by the way. I should also mention that Liz Crandall, a VERY underrated and talented gymnast of Stormy Eaton's, was also screwed off the world team in 91. Dwight Normile even wrote a harsh editorial in International Gymnast called 'Deserted Devils'--which was exactly the case.
beautiful Double Pike landing!!
Anybody know the music?
Information Society ‘Lay All Your Love On Me’ song originally by ABBA
Lay All Your Love On Me by Abba
Wendy did a great job at the olympics. Almost all her scores counted, so I don't get some offensive comments about her.
Felipe Majo Imbecile. She should never even have been there and would NOT have been there if RITA BROWN had not engineered it by having the ludicrous 'second trial' at HER HOME CLUB!
I really liked Wendy as a gymnast as well and think she had a lot of talent.m what I didn't like however is they then had a private selection committee and kicked Kim Kelly to the curb who placed in this competition. Why bother having an Olympic trials and rankings when the selection committee was going to do whatever they wanted any way? Their defense...at the end of the day, we have to take the best. What ever happened to fairness and integrity? These gymnasts sacrifice so many yeas in hopes to make it to the Olympics and the selection committee can do whatever they chose to do. So the Olympic trials competition have become a sham. Who ever places in the top at these competitions should go. Want to see something sad? Watch the Kim Kelly biography about this on TH-cam someday and I think some of the comments you are referring to might be around that. Anyone that insults Bruce or any other gymnasts should be ashamed of themselves.
This is very true, there was a lot of politics at play, and I am shocked Dawes actually stayed on the team. Campi was the sixth gymnast, but got so hurt she couldnt compete and that's where Wendy got on. I think the way they kicked Kim Kelly to the curb was awful. Why even rank the gymnasts if you were going to hand pick them anyway? Wendy was better on floor, vault and bars in optionals, I get it, but Kelly was a great beamer and in retrospect would have outscored her on optional floor given Wendy's poor floor optional and who knows if she would have made the difference for silver
I'm surprised Dawes stayed on as well. Kelli Hill must have had more power than we thought at the time, LOL. fortunately, Rita Brown has done nothing since, essentially. Bruce was only better than Kelly on bars sometimes--she looked like Two-Ton Tessie on bars almost as badly as she did beam. I don't remember whose compulsories were better but it's hard to believe it would have been Bruce!
uhm, no. Bruce scored a 9.950 on vault, 9.825 on bars, and a 9.712 on beam. Her floor exercise score was thrown away because it was the lowest. KIm never scored that internationally.
I didn’t like her gymnastics and I also think she or Betty shouldn’t have made the team. They were the weakest links. But “womens” gymnastics, especially in ‘92 was always controversial, I mean look how Tatiana Gutsu was given a second chance.
Ugh. One of the most graceless and hideous 'gymnasts' ever to make an Olympic team through pure excremental POLITICS. Guess where the 'second trials' were held in 92? Brown's Gymnastics, which just happened to be Bruce's home club. Funny about that. Eggbeater full-ins, body positions a football player would find crude, two of the ugliest flat feet on earth, a stiff head and neck, hands like claws--what a delightful gymnast to watch.
Wendy was obvi the weakest member of the team but who would you have chosen to take her place? Kim Kelly? Hilary Grivich? both of those gymnasts were worse than Wendy Bruce IMHO. Plus she actually surprised me in Barcelona, all of her scores were counted except on floor she really had the meet of her life there. The US lacked depth back then and were pretty much guaranteed no higher than the bronze (maybe silver) despite their sixth member.
Drew Blumfield
No, neither of those gymnasts were worse than Bruce--and they were both FAR more consistent (her getting lucky in Barcelona did not change the fact that Kelly, for example, BEAT HER at both Championships AND Trials, in the days before BARTA's reign of terror took over, when the Trials were still supposed to pick a team.....), with better form if not as much raw power. I really don't think a team which had Miller, Zmeskal, Strug (hideous though SHE was, she was successful internationally), Dawes could be referred to as 'lacking depth.' We now field teams with girls like Locklear who can only make a decent score on one event (the atrocity of three up three count destroyed what was left of gymnastics after the morons deleted compulsories....) rather than brilliant all-arounders as we did in the past. In fact, other than perhaps Biles and Ross (both have their weak events but they are rather strong all-around) we have not had excellent all-arounders since at least Johnson and Liukin--and there was always bars for Johnson and vault for Liukin as their betes noires. Depth had nothing to do with the very biased judging of the Soviet era, when Americans simply DID NOT WIN gold medals in gymnastics. it required the brilliance of Kurt Thomas and Marcia Frederick, etc, to begin that change--and we still saw the same atrocious bias in the 'victory' of Gutsu (projectile VOMIT) over Miller in the 92 Olympic AA.
name I can agree on the whole Kim Kelly fiasco as being unfair since as you said she beat Wendy but tbh she was scary inconsistent and I can't entirely blame them for keeping her off the team. It was definitely unfair but was it the wrong choice? That issue is still kind of gray for me. As for Grivich, she didn't deserve to be anywhere near that Barcelona team. She was inconsistent and awful on bars. The only reason she made the worlds team the year before was because of her coach. Sandy Woolsey should have made that team instead but was booted out because of politics. And even though they were basically guaranteed a medal since the Chinese sucked, Miller and Zmeskal really carried that Barcelona team. Okino was injured and even though Kerri Strug was a good gymnast, she made small mistakes on nearly every event which is why Zmeskal beat her out of the all around with a fall. IMHO Dawes didn't become a good all arounder until after the 1992 Olympics; her only good event in Barcelona was her floor. Wendy Bruce beat her on all other events and that;s saying something lol. As for good US all arounders I could name plenty: Carly Patterson, Gabby Douglas, Jordyn Wieber, even Aly Raisman almost got a bronze medal in the AA in London. Obviously every gymnast will have a "weakness" (bars for jordyn and aly and consistency/beam for gabby) but compared to China, Romania, and even Russia the US has fielded the best all all arounders since the mid 2000's. I will agree with you on the Eastern Bloc judging which kept Americans out of the medals but IMHO the US didn't start getting good at gymnastics as a whole until the 90's starting with Zmeskal and Miller. And I'm not even going to start on the Miller-Gutsu debate cause that would take forever lol.
Drew Blumfield
Yep, Woolsey was totally screwed that year, which was probably one reason she quit before Barcelona. she was a wonderful bar worker--a great loss. If you remember, Bela's girls after Romania always sucked on bars (it was hardly just Grivich--Strug was hideous, Zmeskal very ordinary, Okino only good because she was tall, lol. Amanda Uhurek was beautiful on everything but came to her senses before Bela could ruin her, lol...) Dawes was not consistent in Barcelona but Bruce was never good anywhere else (like Missy Marlowe who was good at the TRIALS, lol, and then very bad and inconsistent as usual in Seoul.) Dawes was, even when young, a far superior gymnast to Bruce--better line, better tricks, better form, better everything--as was everyone who made or SHOULD have made the team, including Grivich. Bruce's bars were terrible, in case you don't remember--a pregnant cow heaving herself around. Patterson's bars were nothing and her floor should have been a lot better and harder; Douglas was no great shakes on beam unless she hit, which was ONLY sometimes; Raisman, one of my favorites, was so bad on bars she was reminiscent of Vanessa Atler! (another tragedy) Raisman, btw, should have had that bronze--Mustafina has been gifted by judges her whole 'career' and those two bronzes in the recent worlds were a disgrace. You are totally wrong, lol, about when the US got good at gymnastics; Kathy Johnson was a terrific gymnast and should have won at least one gold on floor; Marcia Frederick DID win a worlds gold on bars; Cathy Rigby should have won gold on beam at the 70 worlds. Etc. Not to mention the 1984 men's team, Kurt Thomas, etc. Kelly Garrison-Steves had a great beam routine. I could go on and on.
***** Furthermore, there was 'nothing' in any way 'gray' about Bela's, the Browns' and the rest of the coaches' collusion to screw Kelly out of the Olympic berth. Rita fucking BROWN even managed to get that farce of a 'second Trial' (illegal, of course, on the face of it) in HER OWN HOME GYM to facilitate her cheating. I will not even go into the farce of Okino (always overrated, never had a decent bar dismount or a floor with even ONE big trick) and Campi 'making' the team without doing full or flawless routines at the 'second trial'--which was the condition given before the 'second trial even took place!!! Kelly, unfortunately, had breasts and hips; she was not fat, she just had a young woman's body. Bela and company wanted what they called, publicly, a 'thin' team--which means anorexic. Zmeskal couldn't do her gorgeous DLO, and probably fell off beam in compulsories, because she was so WEAK from Bela and BARTA's starvation diets. This was the case for all Karolyi gymnasts, by the way. I should also mention that Liz Crandall, a VERY underrated and talented gymnast of Stormy Eaton's, was also screwed off the world team in 91. Dwight Normile even wrote a harsh editorial in International Gymnast called 'Deserted Devils'--which was exactly the case.