Sunday, August 8, 2010

Awful Times In America: 1987 US vs. USSR


Back in the day, blatantly cheating the Soviets out of titles at the American Cup wasn't enough for the USGF. They invited the Soviets to the US for another round of dubious results at the annual US vs. USSR. The Americans used the event to test their top gymnasts against the up-and-coming Soviet stars.

The 1987 edition featured particularly fascinating results. The scores are just beyond imaginable. Remember that scoring is all relative. Kristie Phillips actually defeated Natalia Laschenova for the All-Around Title. It happened. We can only surmise that the Soviets were paid handily for attending this shit show year after year. While they did win the Team Competition, the scores were much too close. It is a miracle that the Soviets ever attended the '91 Worlds. It took some serious skill for Bela to fix this AA win for Kristie. It is unimaginable what Kristie's floor score alone cost Bela.

While her routine wasn't shown, Margaret Thatcher would like to point out that this is one of the countless competitions that saw Missy Marlowe falling off beam like the '80s Alissa Czisny that she was. Back then, her home club happened to host meets in attempts to boost her performance and home-town scores. We cannot believe the Olympic Trials judges actually allowed her to go to Seoul as anything more than a spectator.



11 comments:

  1. That quad was really shitty in American women's gym, as far as I can remember. I've never watched this meet (Heck, I never really have or had any interest in the is tournament), but i can't believe they had the hutzpah to place Kristie Phillips ahead of Laschenova (I always wished she would have won the world AA in 89). I never understood the hype of Kristie Phillips, much like I didn't understand the hype of Elise Ray. They just need to end this stupid meet, in my opinion.

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  2. It was an interesting meet because the Usa judges destroyed Joyce Wilborn. They or Bela clearly did not want her to do well and they did not want her to be shown on tv. Spare me. Kristie Phillips beating Joyce Wilborn on Vault?

    I was at that meet and the worst two kids were Kristie and Phoebe. The Judges totally raped Joyce and Jennifer Sey in this meet. Not too badly just a tenth minimum, however when you consider that Kristie was overscored by .3 each event it was hideous.

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  3. hahaha kristie has the potential to win gold on beam in seoul..... stfu....

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  4. Seriously, this crap is getting old. While I can't speak for this competition, ANY gymnast is capable of being beaten -- Soviets included. For years, the Soviets and Eastern Bloc countries totally s--- on our girls, screwing them out of medals time and time again (Rhonda Schwandt comes to mind). Yet we never about that, do we???

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  5. Yes we do. Back in the day, the US would perform well. Unfortunately, they never did well as an entire team. One or two performances wouldn't be scored well because the overall team was sloppy and the scores preceding the good routines were much lower.

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  6. Let's talk about how the Soviets liked to replace athletes in Olympic AA finals, shall we? Isn't it interesting that the person who was expected to make finals ALWAYS ended up with a mysterious injury of some sort??? Hmmm....cheating, perhaps? I'm not saying the Americans are innocent, but don't pretend the Soviets never did anything wrong.

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  7. I mean, technically it is within the rules to replace an athlete. They used to need to be injured or they suffered the consequences. Frankly, I wish we were able to replace athletes in the US without all sorts of lawsuits.

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  8. Thanks so much AJ! I was actually at this meet as a young teen. I distinctly remember being awed by Laschenova (although to be fair I also remember to this day that she bent her knees badly on her giants on bars). Watching it again, I am amazed at her springiness. She had AMAZING power. Her full-ins on floor look effortless- even just her simple leaps on beam have so much height. Thanks- this was really fun to watch again- although painful, too, to see the two teams side by side- it's like they were each doing a different sport!

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  9. "Frankly, I wish we were able to replace athletes in the US without all sorts of lawsuits."

    I second that!

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  10. I await the day when you comment on the 1996 US vs. the World meet.

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  11. Did Frolova really only score 9.3 for that FX? (That's what the results seem to say but Gymn-forum is not always accurate.) I note that by the time they got to the 1987 World Championships the USSR was nearly 12 full points ahead of the USA!

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