Sally Vee quite a few of their gymnasts showed tons of promise, yet their coaches never allowed them to realize it. I’m thinking of Andreea Munteanu, Stefania Stanila, Anamaria Ocolisan, Laura Jurca, Andreea Iridon, Ioana Crisan and Denisa Golgota in particular.
@Sally Vee I heard there was some investigation into the fact that the girls were over worked at a very young age. I wonder if they have different coaching standards now.
@Sally Vee that's because in Romania children do not want to do gymnastic anymore. Just think that in 2016 we had 100 gymnasts in the entire country (in 2020 much less) , while in the US there are 4 million children who do gymnastic. In the past was different,today parents don't let their children do gymnastic , too much work and we do not have recreational gymnastic.
@Sally Vee in Romania there is no level of recreational gymnastics, or lower levels of competition, nothing. In Romania, gymnastics has become an elitist sport and not a mass sport, its main purpose being to collect prizes, medals and life annuities and not to attract as many children to practice it, so the basis of selection it has shrunk from one Olympic edition to another. We didn't qualify for Rio and we don't have a team for Tokio.
Oh yes. Romania and the USSR dominated the sport for years. The USSR sort fell apart when the USSR collapsed so instead of one powerhouse it was all different countries competing.
It is interesting to see how the body type has evolved from quite skinny and fragile (almost malnourished) to very muscular, athletic and compact. Swimmers and footballers have gone through the same transition.
Imelda M Definitely malnourished in older days- you can find a lot of horror stories about how little the gymnasts were allowed to eat. Modern gymnasts look much more healthy and powerful which, even though problem still exist, is something I’m really glad to see.
Yes they look much healthier now. I think the logic was if they are light they can jump higher - but I don’t know how some of them had the strength and energy for routines when they were underfed. Keeping in mind of course some people are naturally slender, but if that’s not your natural body type it must have been tough. And Simone proves that a muscular gymnast can do amazing things!
Not without conflict, that's for sure. Simone got a lot of racist remarks from European competitors about not upholding the "balletic" and "graceful" body standard of gymnastics
Lavinia Milosovici's routine actually made my jaw drop. It's spectacular. Such energy. I can't find the words to describe how impressed I am! Just... spectacular.
The first springs were introduced to the Gymnastics floor exercise in1978/79 and were only about 2 inches. As the 80s,90s and 00s progressed so did the springs, going from 2 to 4 to 6, to the current 8 inch springs which in turn allows the gymnasts to perform more difficult skills.
Mike M Knowing that, makes one really appreciate the tumbling, jumps and leaps from the 1976 Olympians like Nadia Comenici and Nelli Kim. Wow - back in the day, you basically had a layer of carpeting over the flooring. It’s amazing to think how hard it was to finish their double backs and land on their feet. Their ankles were very sore, for sure.
@@ShelleeGraham With all due respect, our levels were not nearly as hard as the gymnast of the past 20 years. The skills performed in the 80's are performed easily on mats by the top 40 HS cheerleading squads of the US.
I applause all of them, this must be hard!! Like I say she is a rocket, the others perfection easily and light, I don't know, I put in slow motion to see, is just beautiful ❤️
I prefer Sandra Izbașa's routine. She was the only one who combined perfectly power and difficulty with GRACE. The others were like robots, almost not human. Well, except maybe for Daniela Silivaș, who paradoxically while dancing like a robot transmitted more humanity than the others.
This is absolutely fascinating to watch the evolution of gymnastics. I loved the artistry of the earlier routines and the incredible power and athleticism of the current gymnasts, but for me, the perfect blend of both is Lavinia Milosovici! Absolutely beautiful!
its so sweet to think that Aly idolized Lilia and as a kid was obsessed with her floor routine and then she grew up to be a olympic champion on floor as well ❤🙊
I will NEVER forget Ali’s “Ali’s Fight to the Finish!” It was beautiful & perfect when she landed that final dismount! It was so exciting! And I will also NEVER forget Kayla Maroney’s STUCK VAULT!
@@adeleennis2255- I will always remember Lilia's floor routine and that iconic music. She did the same routine earlier in 1996 at the Europeans in Birmingham, where that routine got her 9.912. She just edged out the great Svetlana Boginskaya by the tiniest margin. I also loved watching Simona Amanar, Svetlana Khorkina and Dominique Moceanu from that era.
every time i see lavinia milosovici on floor at barcelona olympics finals, every time i see her waving to the public and then crying in a mix of satisfaction and relief, i get emotional too. i remember this day very vividly because barcelona games was the first olympic games i remember almost everything. i was 14 years old at that time.
Ponor's routine was beautiful. Her dance elements were artistic and controlled; so many gymnasts treat them as something they have to make it through as gracelessly as possible.
Romania are the queens on the floor!! How ultra awesome was Szabo! One of the coolest routines ever, mixing grace and athleticism. Daniela's 2nd pass was just class, literally 2 passes in a row and her funky robotic moves were GOLD. Aly's routine while powerful seemed stiff, which thankfully wasn't the case of the excellent Biles! Its interesting how over the games, the floors have moved from 3 to 4 floor passes. This compile is so brilliant. I would love to see Romania on top of the table once again!
So many people were complaining about how gymnastics was moving away from ballet and "not elegant". Biles dancing in a hiphop manner fits more to what gymnastics is, explosive, high energy tumbling. Ballet is an art that tells a story (and to my very quick google search) does not tumble while gymnastics is a sport. We dont ask them to be elegant while performing a valt or balance beam routines.
What if they change the name from "artistic" to "acrobatic" gym? And call "artistic" the now called "rhitmic gym"? The rhitmic girls are really elegant and feminine...
Talking about thin bodies to the point of malnutrition, watch Comaneci. She's very quick in the air and when she's spinning, she briefly disappears. Their weight and so on was strictly monitored, both in Romania and Russia.They were fierce rivals and both teams fought hard for medals. At that time, there's no way they would be allowed to have strong, muscular bodies like Biles.
@Macdealerx But they had springs. The first were introduced in the late 70s, so Moscow 1980 were the first games with them. They were smaller, but they had them.
In Nadia's days the floor had no springs. It was a simple bare wooden floor with a very thin carpet. It started to evolve in the early 90's to accommodate the skills that required more height and force. The early 90s started with simple springs and now in Simone Bile's days there's springs in between wood and a thick carpet. Saying that Nadia was not as strong as the other gymnasts shoes just how ignorant you are.
that's changing bcs a lot of the romanian gymnasts emigrated to the US, Nadia Comeneci, Bela and Marta Karolyi are US gymnastics now, for example...so, not really a mystery
Lilipod and Izbasa's routines were genius... The music choice is perfect for each of them, the choreo fits perfectly the music while building the energy of an Olympic-winning moment, and the tumbling passes are tailored for their respective COP.
Still can’t get over how clean ally routine was the entire performance. It was absolutely stunning and amazing!!!!!! Still get chills to this day when I watch it.
Incredible to see not only how the sport has evolved, but it was also a wonderful snapshot at how much filming of live sports has evolved! The quality of the video from 2016 is something they could have only dreamed of 40 years ago!
the Barcelona olympics was really when I became aware of olympic gymnastics. All the family sat down to watch Lavinia's floor performance with baited breath, praying she would stick her landings. I was only 7 at the time but I remember thinking that she was the most amazing, beautiful thing in the world.
These were all wonderful. I do wish you would have included Olga Korbut’s mesmerizing performance of 1972 (gold medal performance). Maybe her moves weren’t as difficult as recent gymnasts, but she revolutionized gymnastics, and her charisma and charm have never been equaled. If I had to rate them, I couldn’t but I do think the best gymnasts of all time are Olga Korbut for revolutionizing the sport, Nadia Comaneci for her perfect form and innovation and finally, Simone Biles. Ms. Biles has exhibited the most difficult and precise gymnastics I have ever seen. All three are incredible.
I remember daniela silivas the most... she is athletic, graceful and funky -- a rare combination in a gymnast... and then, there is ecaterina szavo too...
What I loved and miss about floor exercise back in the 70s and when I was gymnast in the 80s is there was more artistry and dance to it, now it's mostly all complex tumbling passes which don't get me wrong are freaking incredible, but for me floor was my favorite because that's where I could incorporate my dance skills as well as my tumbling skills. I think it has lost some of the artistic beauty it had combined with strength and power in the tumbling, as opposed to now where it seems like the only focus is the degree of difficulty in the passes like how high they can get to do as many tucks or lay outs and twists as possible.
Glad to see that this has been noticed. The artistry has definitely diminished in both gymnastics and ice skating and is much less interesting to watch than it was. I enjoyed a couple of the routines at this year's Olympics, especially Andrade's, but it feels as though generally, women's floor might as well just go down the men's route and leave out the music.
Before 1992, half points from compulsory/optional rounds carried into final, top score 20.00. Score for final routine in parentheses. 1980 - Comaneci/Kim: 19.875 (9.95) 1984 - Szabo: 19.975 (10.00) 1988 - Silvas: 19.937 (9.987) Starting in 1992, only the final scores counted. Top score 10.00 1992 - Milosovici: 10.00 1996 - Podkopayeva: 9.887 2000 - Zamolodchikova: 9.850 2004 - Ponor: 9.750 From 2008, modern scoring system in place. No upper bound to scores. Top possible score varies for each gymnast. 2008 - Izbasa: 15.650 2012 - Raisman: 15.600 2016 - Biles: 15.966
@@MrVardaman How did Biles score 15.966 when she nearly fell at the end of her routine. 15.966 out of what? That new scoring system is confusing. If there is a different possible score for each gymnast, how is comparison done to previous years etc? And how is this score even determined?
@@sherwinpeters7397 her difficulty was 6.9 so her max possible score was 16.9. The score is a combination of difficulty and execution, with 10 max for execution. Her execution was 9.066
@@sherwinpeters7397 the reason the max score differs is because of difficulty. They all have a max 10 in execution. More difficult routines have higher d-scores. Comparing scores over time was never as easy as people think. Max scores varied back then, too, since you could start below a 10 of you didn't have enough difficulty. (Probably not in event finals where I suspect all or nearly all finalists had 10 0 start values), not to mention the values of individual elements have changed a lot.
@@robynzelickson6164 Double twisitng double back is named after her debuting it in Seoul 1988, The only one to successfully perform it was Aleftina Priakhina in 1986, but she never got to debute her HEAVY arsenal of moves due to never making it to a Worlds or Olympics
You should have shown Nadia Comaneci at 76 games in my opinion that was her height of career. Amazing too. Blows anyone else out of the water, past or present, and no springs in the floor either. Her bars routine is miles better than anyone today too. She was simply the GOAT.
Yea her difficultly wouldn't even be considered elite. You are comparing two different times. I love Nadia. I think I wore out the VHS watching her story when I was a kid. But the difficulty of today is miles ahead of that time. And springs aren't exactly a trampoline. They give some extra "bounce" but they are more for shock absorption and to prevent potential injuries to lower extremity joints of gymnasts due to the nature of the apparatus, which includes the repeated pounding required to train it.
@@trinalittlefield6294 You said: "They give some extra "bounce" but they are more for shock absorption and to prevent potential injuries" Exactly! Put Nadia and Simone Biles or anyone really on equipment of the 70's and ask them to do the same routine. Nadia is winning it. Simone wouldn't be able to do all those difficult skills she does today and I'm not putting her down for it, she shouldn't be able to. Even so, skills aside Nadia had artistry and grace like a ballerina too. Simone would lose on artistry points and maybe tie on skills, and I'm being generous on that as I actually think Nadia wins on skills too, but Simone is brilliant too just not the GOAT in my opinion.
@@vaskylark they used foam block floors in 76. Simone did a standing full on a baseball field before she threw out the first pitch. I'm not saying she could throw her triple triple, but she'd be ok. Clearly you don't understand Gymnastics. Nadia is a beautiful gymnast for her time, but comparing her to today's athletes and saying it's "just equipment" isn't accurate. Back then, it was a whole different era of gymnastics than as we know it now. The rules and the difficulty level of the routines weren’t anywhere near what we see Biles and her contemporaries perform.
@@trinalittlefield6294 I disagree and I've been following the sport since 1976, even watching the US Nationals on my wedding night back in 1991 haha. I performed on the uneven parallel bars back in the 70's as that was my best event and I was doing skills that are now banned today. I really hate the arrogance of youth to always think they are better and know more than past generations. It couldn't be farther from the truth. The crappy equipment makes the difficulty even harder than today for one. NObody today could do their same routines on the equipment from the 70's and that is a fact. Also, in todays gymnastics we have zero artistry and grace so we constantly see wobbles. It looks more like circus performers to me than a sport that is called artistic gymnastics. Back in the 70's it was half acrobatics and half ballet moves, and on equipment that absorbs zero shock. No, I think 70's gymnastics was far superior and far more difficult. I don't think any gymnasts of today measure up to the gymnasts of the 70's.
@vaskylark Your comment makes absolutely no sense.All sports evolve. Basketball in the 90's was way more exciting than in the 70's and 80's primarily because of the athleticism and high flying dunks. A gymnast using a 70's style today wouldn't win jack because even the judges criteria has evolved to conform to today's athleticism. The level of difficulty compared to the 70's is incomparable.Furthermore Simone Biles has 5(FIVE) routines named in her honor. I can't name a single one of Comaneci's. Perhaps you can help
It’s incredible to see how slim gymnasts used to be back then yet they still had the power and strength to do all the flips. People might think slim means fragile or weak but boy they proved you wrong because look at that immense strength to do those flips and twists!
Wow, from the 90' things got hella difficult and athletic and every clip got more and more spectacular. Every time I thought "wow, she's the best so far" and the next girl was even better. This till Sandra Izbașa, she was PERFECT that day. Amazing!
Daniela Silivas es arte puro en estos ejercicios gimnasticos. Verla elevarse como una pluma, flotar y caer con gracia, siempre con esa sonrisa. Fuera de competencia, es única.
I remember when Sandra Izbasa performed her floor final back in 2008 Beijing and after I knew she was going to win. I was a little sad because I wanted Shawn Johnson to win so badly but I knew after seeing Sandra's routine it was over.
@@thesovgc Why? Just because he didn't fall on his knees and pray for god Simone Biles? Not everyone loves muscular gymnasts and the current gymnastics. I think Artistic Gymnastics ended in 2004 (except Sandra, Nastia and some other gymnasts in 2008) and now we have just Acrobatic Gymnastics. The beauty is gone.
@@thiagomazoti lol the irony! I don't enjoy Biles' gymnasts at all. I like Izbasa's routine but it can't hold a candle artistically to many of the greats from the 80s and 90s, i.e. Strazheva's Rite of Spring, Boguinskaia's Carmen, Omelianchik's Birdie routine, etc.
These young women embody such grace, courage, power, artistry, beauty, balance, strength, guts and did I mention courage? Wow. They move me to tears! Incredible. More please.
I like Lavinia Miloșovici's routine, but I feel like she cleverly decided to incorporate a forward bounce into most landings so that the pressure of making perfect stiff landings would be reduced/eliminated.
Romania had the most beautiful and talented gymnasts! Such grace, fluidity, like poetry for the eyes. Gymnastics shouldn’t be only about tumbling, but also grace and artistry
I’m sure she had naturally curly hair. You didn’t get short perms in the 80s like an old lady-perms were for big hair. You could be proud of thick curly hair back then-people were jealous and no one snarked at you to get it straightened.
I'm not a gymnast, but comparing some of the ladies form to Simone's form, their legs were not very tucked and tight. Simone was very compact in the air. She truly is amazing.
I read in the comments that as they allowed more inches in the springs under the boards. The more things they can do. I know absolutely nothing about gymnastics but that makes sense to me.
The Romanian team received warm receptions everywhere at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics because they refused to go along with the Soviet boycott. Szabo, being a Romanian gymnast using American music for her routine, was a definite crowd pleaser for the fiercely anti-Soviet American audience of the 80's. Ironically, Mary Lou Retton, the American Sweetheart from the 84 Games, used Romanian folk music for her floor exercise.
Technically, noone has ever(till possibly Simone if 2021happens) beaten Nadia. She was simply, THE BEST. Artistic, graceful, strong, precise. Pure pleasure to watch.
@@catalinagrecu5636 Well considering gymnastics is a subjective sport, I am fine with your attempt at demeaming my opinion. When Simone(or anyone else for that matter) has scored 7 perfect scores(at 14 years old) in one Olympic game and 2 more 4 years later, Come back and talk with me then. 🕊️
When you watch this there is no denying Simone’s athletic and acrobatic superiority. You may not think she is graceful but her gymnastic ability is like nothing we have seen before! 2021 is already in the bag, the only thing that will stop her she is an injury and I pray hard this will never happen!
She may not be 'graceful' compared to, say, a ballerina. But Simone has a wonderful, polished style that deserves every bit as much credit. People keep saying gymnasts like her are not 'artistic'. I don't know what they mean. Sounds like a matter of personal preference to me.
you should think about the technological evolution of the apparatus. In the eighties and nineties the apparatus were rudimentary compared to the current ones. Putting it in perspective, we see how the gymnasts were exceptional at that time.
She has zero grace , 20-30 years ago such gymnasts could not make it to the top, there was more emphasis on artistry, just as in figure skating. Sports medicine also advanced and the floor is more springy allowing them to push for more rotations. You have to take each gymnast in the context she competed in.
Trespasser I don’t agree that 20/30 years ago she would not have made it. Dominque Dawes had no grace but dynamic power and they played to that just like Simone and she thrived! Kelli Hill said that herself
Yvonne Saunders girl, I think Simone is amazing and clearly the goat but her artistic side is nonexistent. Having said that her dwts partner has choreographed her new routine so I’m hoping for an improvement
Loved seeing Nastia back there clapping for a Sandra during her routine. Speaks to why Nastia was so loved and respected by Others. I noticed during the AA many others would watch clap during Nastia’s routines especially her final floor routine.
NADIA bola charizmatická, veľmi talentovaná a vynikajúca v tvrdej svetovej konkurencii. Pred rozdelením Československa som niekoľko rokov sledovala všetky dostupné gymnastické športové prenosy 😍NADIA was charismatic, very talented and excellent in tough world-class competition. Before the division of Czechoslovakia, I watched all available gymnastic sports broadcasts for several years...
Adorable to watch!!! So beautiful amazing how they fly upshot then control whole body all the time in the air and landing with a precise balance They must be extraordinarily intelligent !!!!
Catalina Ponor was the first of these that I remember watching live. I was 16 at the time and I remember shouting into the kitchen 'MUM! Why couldn't I do gymnastics?!' Her response? Too expensive. It is though.
I like to watch this in the background of my homework, the jazzy ‘20s classical-ish music helps me focus and the routines are just stellar! my favorite has to be Ekatrina Szabo’s.
