Gymnastics Nostalgia: Underrated, underdiscussed, or you left us too soon gymnasts

[RichardL]

Yeah, I went to her Wikipedia page and saw the note about how she's the only three-time junior elite national champion in history, dropped in like a flex when in reality it's an example of gross mismanagement. There is no reason to be competing title-winning elite difficulty three years before your senior debut.

 

[RedBirdie]

In 1998, she finished third in the juniors. Four years as a junior elite! That's on top of level 10 in 1996 and 1997. No question she was immensely talented, but there was no reason for her (or anyone else) to be a ten year old level 10! I hate that USAG even allows that.

 

[RichardL]

In 1998, she finished third in the juniors. Four years as a junior elite! That's on top of level 10 in 1996 and 1997. No question she was immensely talented, but there was no reason for her (or anyone else) to be a ten year old level 10! I hate that USAG even allows that.

I remember her first senior Nationals in 2002 and it just felt so bizarre that she had been competing for so long and that we had been talking about her for so many years. I predicted Postell to be the higher-performing of the two when they were little, though, and of course Postell did win a World BB title making a team that Uzelac missed due to injury, but neither of them did anywhere near as well as I thought they would back in the early aughts.

 

[Passion]

I wish Uzelac didn't break her toe at Nationals and at least could have went to 2002 Worlds.

Who do you think she would have replaced if healthy? So many gymnasts were injured that year between Nationals and Worlds.

The team was:
Kupets UB/BB
Postell VT/BB
Humphrey VT/FX
Sheehan UB/FX

Did she ever have a second vault?

 

[RedBirdie]

At one point she also did a piked Cuervo.

 

[Kara]

I'd have a healthy Uzelac replace Sheehan and do beam instead of Kupets.

 

[Lisaelaine80]

I was such a big Uzelac fan when I was younger.

She never really put it together as a senior, but she had unique and interesting gymnastics on just about every event:
Vault: Khorkina ii
Bars: perfect toe-on 1.5 pirouette
Beam: Bhs + pike full combo
Floor: Only saw her compete this once, but as a four pass routine it was incredible difficulty and very well done: 1) DLO, 2) Arabian double front 3) 2.5 twist punch front full 4) Piked full-in

She broke my heart.

 

[Lisaelaine80]

Brandy Johnson. Just a senior for three years. Made the Olympic team, her first senior international event to finish 10th AA (highest American finish). Placed 5th on vault (would have been silver with new life rules).
Then was one of the top gymnasts in the World in 1989. Inconsistent optional falls on bars and floor left her out of those event finals. She ended up finishing 7th in the AA (again highest American finish). Got the silver on vault tied with Bontas.

1990, Injuries crept up and she retired at the end of 1990.

So much potential. Wonder if she could have continued to Barcelona.

My first heartbreak.

 

[RichardL]

The weird thing that year is that the eventual team would never have been the team at all without a 2024-style slew of injuries plus Hatch not yet being released competitively by Cuba.

https://static.usagym.org/PDFs/Results/nationals_artistic_2002.pdf

(Does that link work?)

The team should have been:

Schwikert UB FX
Yim BB FX
Postell VT UB BB
VT: I don't think Tricase had two vaults, so you would use Humphrey

I'm still not sure why they used Sheehan over Postell on bars in the end. No real reason.

 

[Kittentoes]

I loved Elena Gurova as well. Saw her at Champions' All when she was 12. She had some amazing moves and I've never seen a full twist bhs on bb to match it. However the one team she made - 87 - they gave her a horrible fx.

Ugh, now that music is in my head.