...she was an excellent performer and severely underrated...that UB performance would not have been executed or performed that well by many of today’s gymnast...that was stunning and innovative...!
She and Linda Metheney were the best the US had had up to that point, but this was back when the US team was mediocre. It wasn't until we imported European coaches that we got as good as Europe.
It was also when the judges weren’t under the thumb of the Soviet Union. Anyone who doesn’t think that was the case needs to look at the history of scoring over those years- it’s blatantly obvious.
The USA was in the first round of compulsories in the morning, a crappy draw, so they were all underscored there, so they ended up 5th, which put them in the third group for optionals - it was done differently then - the top two USSR and GDR went last along with Canada (out of respect for holding the next Olympics and Mexico - for holding the previous - really FIG?) HUN and CZE were in the the next to last group along with two other non-competitive countries - weird way to do it. So if the USA had been competing alongside CZE and HUN it would have been closer. I mean Joan Moore floor should have been a 9.80 at least, it was probably the most difficult of all floor routines there. But I think HUN would have kept the bronze anyway, the Soviet machine would have made sure of that.
