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.

 

[naimushina]

On which routine?

her beam routine especially, it was extraordinary

 

[RAFIKI]

The further back in time we go I feel like the fewer useful contributions I have about the actual gymnastics. I guess that's because I don't have an understanding of what's hard and what's not for the time and what the judges overlook vs are hot on deducting. FX is the easiest to translate but I'm a bit lost judging UB routines relative to each other. I guess this is how four year fans feel when they can't predict the scores.

Arena/format

• I've always been interested in the live piano playing for FX but the live orchestra for anthems is a whole extra level. Awesome!
• Speaking of music I was struck at how quiet the arena was. No background music and the audience were pretty quiet in between applause and whistles.
• The green uniforms for officials were something!

Gymnasts

• Surprising to see so many gymnasts moving springboards themselves. I was also taken by how few gymnasts were standing up and moving around before and after events. Mostly they'd go straight to their chair and sit down.
• Bekesi and Burda stood out as having more power in their RO-flics.
• Janz's (?) butterfly series on FX was cool.
• Neat to see Zuchold do her namesake skill the week after rewatching Harrold do it in 2015. I found her gymnastics pretty distinctive, the diagonal BB mount was fun.
• I was pretty confused about how many were allowed per country as the coverage went on, I kept thinking "surely we've seen three Soviets already!"
• Korbut's BB was fabulous. Enjoyed the bit in her book where they talk about building up to the climactic back somersault. Did you catch the judges laughing/smiling afterwards? Who presented her with flowers after BB? The red socks/leg warmers were special!
• Given her results, you'd expect Tourischeva to be talked about a lot more. Wonder why she doesn't come up so much? Lack of memorable skills? Successful during the transition to different body types?

Gymnastics

• Wide FX lunges and the salute trends caught my eye. Looking forward to seeing how these evolve during these rewatches.
• Amazing how fast the scores would come up, especially on VT when the camera would pan over to the scoreboard right after landing.
• I have always enjoyed the speed of this era of UB routines.

Nostalgia/personal

• I wasn't alive for this but my Mum was a big Korbut fan and she was utterly delighted when I showed her Korbut's routines on YT many years ago.
• I'd seen a few of the Soviet routines from this one but it was fascinating to see how they fit in to the actual competition, particularly Korbut's BB.
• It meant a lot to tour the Munich Olympic park and be in this arena at 2022 Euros.

 

[RAFIKI]

I do dislike the use of digital flags though.

Wholeheartedly agree.