Ren's Olympic love got me browsing YouTube to find awesome old Olympic moments.
First off, Olga Korbut's 1972 routine on the uneven bars (which, IMO, used to be cooler back in the day). Just flawless. I love how the announcer notes "that's never been done by a girl," way condescendingly and the other announcer says "not by a human!"
Next, Nadia Comaneci's 1976 perfect 10 performance on the balance beam. Again, far more precise and elegant than anything you'll see today.
I remember watching this one. Mary Lou Retton in 1984 landing a perfect 10 vault and then figuring, hey what the hell, I'll toss off another effortless one.
And we've all seen this one, but really, it deserves to be seen again and again. Watch Kerri Strug stick a one-footed landing on an injured foot to win her team the gold. That's just incredibly brave.
Or how about this woman. Oksana Chusovitina was a gymnast on the Soviet team, and this year could potentially medal in vault and the age of 33. In a sort where most of her competitors are 16 (and some might be even younger, according to Bela Karolyi anyway). I'll be rooting for her for sure.
2 comments:
The Chinese men and women are also just...awesome this year. I got some more Olympic love coming for ya over at my place today :)
OLGA RULES!!!
Nadia reminds me of the fight I had with my father over the possibility of naming a child Nadia. (I was a huge teenybopper fan of Andre Breton's novel,Nadja, so I would have spelled it that way.) In short, all profanity removed, my father didn't like the idea. This was the cold war, people!!!!
And Retton was from West Virginia, making my mama so proud. :)
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