I've always wanted to see the 1995 Nationals Compulsories. Crushedvelvetleo has delivered on youtube and was even kind enough to notify me about it. Frankly, we need to know what other goodies this youtuber will bestow upon us. A year before the Atlanta Olympics, it is interesting to see the team battle it out.
The USA and Romania collaborated on the bar routine. The FIG did not know just how offensive Dracula's daughters would become on the apparatus.
Ludmilla Tourischeva choreographed the beam routine and the Bulgarian choreographed the floor routine. Compulsory vault was chosen by committee.
Even though they'd go on to win team gold a year later, the Americans presented a mix bag of compulsory prowess.
Dominique Dawes rode the short bus for compulsories:
Amanda Borden:
Shannon Miller:
Dominique Moceanu:
You've wanted to see them forever and here they are, the compulsories of Kristen Maloney:
How would you score this?
Maloney did not look all that bad. When you consider that the juniors were not doing compulsories and it was her first year doing them as a Senior, then it was not bad. If I remember, her compulsories were actually stronger then her optionals especially the next year.
ReplyDeleteAmanda Borden was the one that showed the least amount of improvement over the quad, mostly because her compulsories were so good early on.
Moceanu was the QUEEN of the cartwheel on beam! Miller was simply exceptional.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing how bad Dawes was at compulsories. She was always working with Geza on them because she was God awful.
Amazing stuff! Thank you! I have always wanted to see these and never knew they existed.
ReplyDeleteMoceanu's cart wheel is a myth. Brain dead Tim Daggett repeats.
ReplyDeleteDawes was over scored every time she compted compulsories.
Moceanu's vault was horriblew and she scored what? Her bars was even worse. She missed every handstand.
ReplyDeleteIf you needed more proof that title was fixed for her you have it above.
Shame on usa-gymnastics
Shannon did win compulsories.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.gymn-forum.net/Results/USNat/Women/1995.html
Shannon had some small errors. Moceanu obviously got Karolyi bonus.
PS, Elfi was the one who talked about Moceanu's cartwheel and it was grea.
great*.
ReplyDeleteMiller had some beam issues but she nailed her vault. Actually danced on floor and hit most of her UB handstands.
ReplyDeleteThey never should have been that close in scoring.
Dominique Moceanu out scoring Miller on vault was blatant cheating.
ReplyDeleteI agree anon. She took a step and had a huge leg separation in pre flight.
ReplyDeleteAmanda's bars were unfortunate.lol Never seen her mess that up so badly.
Was it just me or was Maloney really out of sync with the music?
ReplyDeleteI am really upset we did not get to see Dominique Dawes UB autrocity. I know that is spelled wrong.lol
ReplyDeleteMaloney's floor was better then Dominique Dawes. That is pretty sad.
ReplyDeleteWEll, Dominique Dawes was injured at this time. She was always pretty awful at compulsory beam, but she was decent on floor in this compulsory video. However, she performed this FX routine better at the Olympics because her injuries were healed. So in Dawes' defense, she was hurt in these videos. But I really think that Moceanu and Miller were definitely the best in the whole compulsory round on that team. But Moceanu was more overscored than Dawes, to me. Mainly in optionals. Moceanu's optionals didn't deserve to be as high as her compulsory scores.
ReplyDeleteThe difference between Miller and Maloney on vault is astounding.
ReplyDeleteDawes was a wreck on compulsories the entire quad. Her injuries didn't cause her to just be all sorts of wrong on her sets. She really worked on not being so wonky with Geza Poszar. He visited her gym quite a bit and she worked with him at training camps (they had 1-2 a yr back then) and at meets. He also worked with the team leading up to international events. She worked with him when she went out to get her floor routine in 95. USAG/USGF invested a lot of time and money into Dawes. They absolutely had a vested interest in fixing her compulsories and Geza was the one tasked to do it as he was the National Team Choreographer.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.gymnastike.org/videos/speaker/1540-geza-pozsar/86083-geza-pozsar-on-choreographing-the-magnificent-7
Wait, why did someone above say Amanda's bars were unfortunate? I watched it and it looked alright. Am I missing something?
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised Maloney's vault even counted as the correct one. It's sooo awful. How can you manage to mangle a compulsory vault like that, yikes.
ReplyDeleteIt was utterly hideous, although I don't know what else it could be credited as if not an attempt at a pike open Tsuk.
ReplyDeleteDawes was a headcase, and compulsories only made that worse. there were so many things in those routines that flipped her out. She rarely got through them in practice. By summer 1995, she was a burned out headcase in considerable pain. Bad combination. I feel like she and Kelli were were barely on speaking terms around this time.
ReplyDeleteMuriel Grossfield used to come with Geza all the time. She'd watch Dawes flub something and them go off and smoke a cigarette. I found her fascinating!
Are you kidding me about Amanda's bars? Did you see how off she was on her handstands?
ReplyDeleteDawes injury didn't hurt her comsulsories. She was always a mess at them. Her 96 ones were only slightly better.
I agree about Moceanu's over score. In fact her whole career before 96 was overscored. Her form was a mess. Her knee's were always bent and no one ever acknowledges that.
Moceanus flexed feet bugged me more. KJC rippedd on her form in 95. Miller shouldve won compulsories by .85.
ReplyDeletePretty scary to think that this was year 3 at performing these routines and so many had problems with them! Compulsory beam was a demon as was that free hip hecht to the high bar.. so many choked on those.. I remember seeing at the Olympics how every team f****d up compulsory beam for the most part and finally realizing how hard this routine was.. Simply amazing how that happened.. Lyudmila was laughing as she was judging floor I'm sure..
ReplyDeleteHow the hell was Ludmilla allowed to judge when she was oversaw the Ukrainian Team's training?
ReplyDeleteI've often wondered the same thing. ^^
ReplyDelete