REWIND : WEEK EIGHT 11/11 : 1972 Olympics

[MaryClare]

Because this coverage is beautiful, seriously beautiful, a work of art in itself.

The 80s has legendary status in the sport, but actually I think the 70s was better. The leotards, the piano music, everything.

1972 is often seen as the birth of modern gymnastics. But I disagree. It has much more in common with the previous decade.

 

[irichluck21]

OOOOOH good find! Can't wait to watch later.

 

[JaJa]

Evolution of a sport

 

[Bob]

love it.

 

[IratePanda]

The East Germans were so much nicer to watch back then. I really did not enjoy them from 1976-88.

 

[naimushina]

I rlly think Korbut should've received the first 10 here, not Comaneci

 

[MaryClare]

I rlly think Korbut should've received the first 10 here, not Comaneci

On which routine?

 

[IratePanda]

I rlly think Korbut should've received the first 10 here, not Comaneci

And I would have given 10s to Karin Janz on UB and FX. She was brilliant.

 

[Denn]

And I would have given 10s to Karin Janz on UB and FX. She was brilliant.

I forgot that Janz and Tourischeva tied in prelims. (Scores) So you would have also had Janz winning the AA!

I'm not sure I'm all the way there on that. Janz had trouble on the free hip to HS and also had trouble kipping out of that transition to the high bar. Her EF routine, below, was quite a bit better — truly spectacularly performed (for the time), except the dismount, which is maybe why it was a 9.9 and not a 10.0 in event finals?


I also feel that her floor didn't have the amplitude of movement that Tourischeva's did — both in the elements and the dance. And that double full Tourischeva did as a mount pass was a big deal in 1972! So I can see why Janz got 9.7 to Tourischeva's 9.9 on floor.

 

[MaryClare]

THERE IS A FULL F*CKIN ORCHESTRA, in formal attire, seated to the side of the floor area. Purely to play the national anthem of the winning athlete. Handily for them, they only had to learn 3 anthems across the men’s and women’s competition!

Why is everything so cheap and rubbish these days?!

 

[Denn]

Holy crap — I didn't see that!!! I don't think I had any idea that a live band was used back then. I assumed it was a recording on some kind of reel-to-reel tape or something.

My guess is that they jumped from competition to competition. Hmm...

 

[KorbutFan]

Well to be fair Munich ‘only’ had to cater for 7,134 athletes. There were 10,500 in Paris.

I do dislike the use of digital flags though.

 

[Hatsumomo]

Well to be fair Munich ‘only’ had to cater for 7,134 athletes. There were 10,500 in Paris.

I do dislike the use of digital flags though.

And only 25 nations won gold medals then, compared to 62 in Paris. I'm now really curious to find out how that all worked. Did they have orchestras for all the sports? Did they have the Gymnastics Orchestra, the Aquatics Orchestra, the Track & Field Orchestra, etc.? How did they determine which countries' anthems they'd rehearse? Did they get a list of participating nations in each sport so they didn't need to rehearse all 121 national anthems? Gymnastics had somewhere around 30 countries participating in 1972. Did they rehearse all 30 just in case the guy from Cuba etched out a win?

 

[Denn]

Right, that's what I was trying to say: I suspect they hopped around among many different venues.

Rehearsing — not needed. Anthems are short and the arrangements would have been very easy to read on sight. Any decent player should have had no problem, and this is a clearly a pretty decent group of musicians based on their sound quality. The conductor probably said a few words beforehand, and they just played the arrangement.

 

[Hatsumomo]

Right, that's what I was trying to say: I suspect they hopped around among many different venues.

Wouldn't you still need several orchestras since multiple events happen simultaneously at different venues? I can't imagine one orchestra being tasked to perform all of the medal ceremonies. Come in, sit down, play, immediately leave, bus to the next one, rinse, repeat?

 

[Matilda23]

They may be Army/ Military bands and orchestras (more than one).

 

[KristyJ]

Right, that's what I was trying to say: I suspect they hopped around among many different venues.

Rehearsing — not needed. Anthems are short and the arrangements would have been very easy to read on sight. Any decent player should have had no problem, and this is a clearly a pretty decent group of musicians based on their sound quality. The conductor probably said a few words beforehand, and they just played the arrangement.

I can't imagine they wouldn't rehearse at least once. The last thing you want to do is get a nation's anthem even a little wrong at the Olympics.