GYMN-L Digest - 15 Jun 1996 to 16 Jun 1996

There are 5 messages totalling 166 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

1. GYMN-L Digest - 14 Jun 1996 to 15 Jun 1996
2. Questions
3. women's euro's & trials petitioning
4. Look alike
5. petitioning/politics

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Date: Sat, 15 Jun 1996 23:11:12 -0400
From: ***@AOL.COM
Subject: Re: GYMN-L Digest - 14 Jun 1996 to 15 Jun 1996

Understand Andree Pickens' petition was accepted, this from her coach ...
Karolyi sez he's concerned re Dominque M's heel and calf injuries.

Dave

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Date: Sun, 16 Jun 1996 13:32:00 -0600
From: ***@MEDICINE.ADELAIDE.EDU.AU
Subject: Questions

I'll be as quick as possible...

Where were Susana Le and Claire Cribbes at the Australian
olympic trials?
Does anyone have the scores? I am disappointed that Zeena
missed out and would especially like to find out her scores.
What ever happened to....
The Italian girl who competed at the 1990 Romanian
international? She was really good! Did she ever win any
European medals or go to the olympics?
Alexandra Sorokina?
Tatiana Ignatova?
Li Yifang?
Does any one HAVE the ABC radio olympic gymnastics broadcast
times? (Australia) If you do could you please email them to
me? Could be interesting....

Thanks,

Tara


Jenny Smith for the Tatiana Lyssenko lookalike award...

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Date: Sun, 16 Jun 1996 05:04:09 GMT
From: ***@PIPELINE.COM
Subject: women's euro's & trials petitioning

Must take the time to back up"underdog"-his frustration level is certainly
understandable. Tim, I feel your point about the"complete" rules is valid,
but the problem is that the federation and the media went to great pains to
advertise that the trials were "winner take all", conveniently leaving out
the part about " extraordinary circumstances". Remember Dan O'Brian? World
champion in the decathlon. Reebok spent a lot of money on him and Dan
Johnson, but only one of them went to Barcelona, and he didn't win either.
Personally, I would be in favor of Shannon's petition, but why couldn't
they just have been upfront about the whole business from the beginning? If
Moceanu is only suffering from overtraining injuries, she should be at
trials. But fair play by the rules seems to be one of the things the
federation is incapable of doing(anyone care to email Kim Kelly and get her
opinion)?

Women's Euros looked like a great meet, and I cannot praise the Goddess
loud enough. Not only was it the hardest beam set she's ever done, it was
one of the best, and the choreography BLEW me away. Lilia is a real
fighter, and the fouettes on floor were incredible! I've been waiting so
long for an artistic girl to do that. Khorkina has probably now set a
record for the most bar combos in a career, and I think she will go over
big in AA in Atlanta. AA will be a MAJOR dogfight.

Regards,

Eric

love that bogi!

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Date: Sun, 16 Jun 1996 00:26:23 -0700
From: ***@VCN.BC.CA
Subject: Look alike

On Sun, 16 Jun 1996, Tara - wrote:

> Jenny Smith for the Tatiana Lyssenko lookalike award...

Hi! Everyone,

I also have some look alike to add to this:
Simona Amanar (Romania) - Gail Kachura (U.S. Jr)
Kerri Strug (U.S.) - Ludivine Furnon (France)
Marlene Lavoire (Canada) - Michelle Campi (Former U.S. now U of Washington)

On to a different topic for Canadian Gymner, did anyone record the
Canadian Nationals on Sat? Could someone please make me a copy? I was
racing at a regatta today, big oops by the time I realize. Please e-mail me
and we can work out the detail, thanks.

Go! Amanda! Go! Sonics!

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Date: Sun, 16 Jun 1996 04:06:49 -0400
From: ***@MAGNUS.ACS.OHIO-STATE.EDU
Subject: petitioning/politics

I, too, am annoyed at this "sudden" possibility of being able to petition
directly onto the Olympic team when USAG repeatedly assured everyone it would
never happen again. Seems to me that they're basically trying to hand-pick the
team without really admitting it. I can understand their "motivation" in a way:
the Olympics are in the US and they want to field the best team possible, or,
quite frankly, a team that's most likely to medal. But it's still completely
unfair. What has me a bit mystified, though, is that they're willing to bend
all the rules for the girls but NOT for the men. I'm thinking particularly of
Bill Roth. There is no question in my mind that he would have been a great
asset to the US men's team, especially on high bar. And with the 7-6-5 rule in
effect, it would make even more sense to have him on team. It doesn't matter
that pommels is a weak (even disastrous) event for him - the coaches simply
could have had him sit out that event. If USAG wants to field the best men's
team it could, Bill Roth should be on it. How many other US guys are capable of
scoring 9.8 or better on high bar? He could have added several tenths to the
team total.
But being somewhat cynical, I think the reason the girls are getting
special treatment and the guys aren't is that the girls are in contention for a
team medal whereas the guys really aren't. So USAG will abide by all the rules
of fair sportsmanship with the men's team, but with the women - well, the
priority here seems to be to win a medal at all costs, even at the expense of
keeping a girl (or girls...) off the team even if they legitimately qualify.
This happened at 1991 Worlds (ask Sandy Woolsey), the 1992 Olympics (Kim Kelly,
Amanda Borden), and it seems to be happening again. Seems the USAG has turned
into the Soviet Union of the 1980s and 1992 in the sense of "annointing"
certain athletes and making darn sure they get to compete even if they make
mistakes. At '85 Europeans, the Soviets made it clear that they intended
Shushunova and Omelianchik to be their next stars. Then both girls failed to
qualify for the AA in Montreal. But Mostepanova and Baraksanova conveniently
got "injured," allowing Yelena and Oksana to advance to the AA. Fast forward to
1992, where Gutsu was "annointed" at Europeans. Then she made a mistake at the
Olympics and didn't make AA. Suddenly Galiyeva is injured. The USSR was
criticized widely and loudly for this kind of thing, but it's not terribly
different from what the USAG seems to be doing now. Miller and Moceanu have
been "annointed" and I don't think USAG wants to run the risk of some fluke
thing happening at Trials that result in these two not qualifying. They kind of
painted themselves into a corner by saying Trials would count 100%, because
that means that one fall could put a girl off the team, even our best girl. So
now they're scrambling for some way to end up with the team they want. In my
opinion, if they're going to hand-pick the team, they should have the guts and
honesty to say that this is what they're doing instead of misleading the public
and giving false hopes to the "unannointed" gymnasts who are working so hard
for something that's not going to happen because the powers-that-be have
decided they have the "wrong" body type or something (that, I believe, is why
Sandy Woolsey was dropped from the 1991 World Team - despite the fact that she
placed *2nd* at US Nationals!). Plus, if the girls' team is going to be
hand-picked, why not the men too? I suspect that if the US men had been placing
2nd or 3rd as a team at the last two Worlds and the Barcelona Olympics, USAG
would have found a way to put Bill Roth on the team. I just think it's very sad
that back in the days when the US girls were NOT medal contenders, the team
selection procedures seemed extremely fair. Like they are for the men right
now. But our girls' success has only led to all sorts of manipulations,
maneuvering, corruption, lying and what have you. It's no wonder there seems to
be such a lack of comraderie among the girls on the teams we eventually do
field. The whole system can't help but create bitterness and resentment. The
USAG seems to have forgotten what the spirit of the Olympics is all about...

Beth

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End of GYMN-L Digest - 15 Jun 1996 to 16 Jun 1996
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