Tuesday, July 6, 2010

History Lesson: 1979 Worlds


Relive all of the drama of the 1979 Worlds. Fort Worth proved a dramatic meet, which would be remembered for the ages. For the US men, it was a coming out party. The young Romanian women managed to defeat the Soviets for the team title despite the hospitalization of Nadia Comaneci for a mysterious wrist infection. Always the champion, Nadia left to hospital against doctor's orders to earn a 9.950 for a one-armed beam routine.

Jim McKay, Gordon Maddux and Cathy Rigby narrate performances with candor and professionalism long forgotten in sports broadcasting.

Was Ma better than Maxi? Could Marci Frederick repeat? Would it be Kurt or Bart on P Bars?

3 comments:

  1. I never understood why Leslie Pyfer quit right after this meet.....before the boycott....must be a good reason. Also was strange that Leslie russo made this her last meet as well, Christa Canary went to college... as did Suzy Kellums........ and still Beth Kline felt that she lost her olympic dream because of the boycott? Those four could have beat her

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  2. Kathy Johnson said that the '79 Worlds were a miserable experience because the USGF had the girls waking up between 4 and 5 am to train at the crack of dawn given that they were competing during the first session for compulsories. They were put on the schedule for a few weeks and were burned out by the time the competition came around.

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  3. Has Nadia ever spoken about her wrist infection and what caused it? Or about her weight gain and loss?

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