GYMN-L Digest - 6 Jan 1996 to 7 Jan 1996

There are 7 messages totalling 186 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

  1. GYMN-L Digest - 5 Jan 1996 to 6 Jan 1996
  2. Olympic HOPES, not predictions (4)
  3. Gail Kachura
  4. Olympic Hopes, not predictions

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Date:    Sat, 6 Jan 1996 09:34:19 -0500
From:    ***@FREENET.BUFFALO.EDU
Subject: Re: GYMN-L Digest - 5 Jan 1996 to 6 Jan 1996

Who wrote the message about Gail Kachura?  How did you find out
this information?  Can you keep me updatd?  She's my favorite
junior......

CYA L8R

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Date:    Sat, 6 Jan 1996 10:50:48 -0600
From:    ***@VAXA.CIS.UWOSH.EDU
Subject: Re: Olympic HOPES, not predictions

I, too, hope Fabrichnova will be healthy and Chutsovitina will medal, but
I have a few little hopes outside of that:

1)I hope Galieva makes the Russian team. She is an absolutely wonderful
gymnast and I think she got jipped in 1992.

2)I hope Miller and Milosovici manage to medal individually. Both are
veterans who purposely stuck around for 1996 with the intention of winning
a gold medal. While I don't know if that is possible, I hope they don't
end up like Boginskaya did in 1992, with only a team medal (though that
is an honor, as well.) Both deserve more.

3)I hope the scoring and judging will be equitable and fair as much
as possible so that we don't get this "home field advantage" gripping
like what happened in Los Angeles and Indy. I realize scoring can
almost always (and almost always is) disputed, but I hope it will be
at a minimum.

4)And I hope everyone will be healthy. No injuries keeping the best away,
and ruining Olympic dreams.

God bless, all.

(BTW, if Zmeskal makes the team, and the picks of Miller, Dawes, Borden,
Strug and Phelps, plus Moceanu work out, do you realize this will be the
oldest American Olympic team in a VERY long time? Average age for that team
would be approximately (I'm not sure on Zmeskal's age) 18.5 Barcelona was
15.8, Seoul was 16.5 and Los Angeles was 17.5, with Kathy Johnson at 24.
You might have to go all the way back to 1976 to have as old an Olympic
team, and it won't be just the Americans, either. Lots of veterans this
time arround.)

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Date:    Sat, 6 Jan 1996 13:06:35 -0600
From:    ***@SASKNET.SK.CA
Subject: Re: Olympic HOPES, not predictions

>2)I hope Miller and Milosovici manage to medal individually. Both are
>veterans who purposely stuck around for 1996 with the intention of winning
>a gold medal. While I don't know if that is possible, I hope they don't
>end up like Boginskaya did in 1992, with only a team medal (though that
>is an honor, as well.) Both deserve more.

I kind of understand what you're trying to say here, but I'm sorry, I
just don't think *anyone* "deserves" a medal.  You can't give Shannon
Miller a gold medal just because she's Shannon Miller.  This kind of
thinking simply milks the already dripping udder of political judging.

What about Boginskaya and Zmeskal who have *come back* to try for
the Olympics?  I would have to think that coming back is a bit
harder than "sticking around."  Should they have a gold medal, too?

Also we should not base Miller's and Milo's Olympic success on the number
of medal(s) they receive.  As always, I'm sure Shannon's goal is to
simply nail all of her routines.  She doesn't have control over anything
else (ie - scores) and if there are gymnasts in Atlanta that perform
and/or score better than she does Shannon will just have to deal with
it.  As for Milo, in MY opinion she wouldn't go into the Games with
that viewpoint.  Milo probably sees nothing else besides gold.  IMHO
you're only setting yourself up for disappointment with an attitude
like that.  Milo and Miller aren't the only gymnasts hoping to compete
in Atlanta and not everyone can have a gold medal.  If Miller and/or
Milo hit 8 for 8, 12 for 12, or 16 for 16 but don't win any medals,
can we call them "unsuccessful?"  I don't think so.

I have a feeling that the scoring in Atlanta is going to be some of
the worst ever.  There were *far* too many injustices in Sabae and
the Olympics following the qualifier Worlds are usually worse.
Atlanta could bring some outrageous results ... partly because of
the current Code, partly because of the meet being held in the
USA, partly because of the media's attitude towards "success",
partly because of the biased crowd, plus a few other factors.

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Date:    Sat, 6 Jan 1996 14:49:45 -0500
From:    ***@AOL.COM
Subject: Re: Olympic HOPES, not predictions

In a message dated 96-01-06 14:16:07 EST, you write:

>I have a feeling that the scoring in Atlanta is going to be some of
>the worst ever.

Me too.  I think that the Americans are going to be grossly overscored, and
the Russians will be grossly underscored.  To me the graceful original style
of Russsia combined with their incredible diffulculty is much more than that
stock difficulty of most of the Americans

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Date:    Sat, 6 Jan 1996 14:51:17 -0500
From:    ***@AOL.COM
Subject: Gail Kachura

Hi,

Although I didn't write the message about Gail, I am a friend of hers and
I'll try to update everyone when I can. She had elbow surgery on November 7,
1995. She said that she's doing physical therapy, and light workouts in the
gym.  She hopes to be back in competition this season, because she is hoping
to qualify for Championships this year. If anyone wants an address to write
to her, she told me to tell everyone I know "Hi, and please write to me, I
love to get mail"

jessica

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Date:    Sat, 6 Jan 1996 17:26:45 -0600
From:    ***@VAXA.CIS.UWOSH.EDU
Subject: Re: Olympic Hopes, not predictions

Did I SAY that Shannon and Milo were going to have set their goals to
win medals??? No, I didn't. I simply said, that from what I heard, they
had decided to stick around because they wanted to win a gold. Geesh...I
am SURE that Shannon's main goal will be to hit.

As for "deserving" a medal...all I meant was that with the amount of
respect both athletes have garnered, they certainly deserve to have a medal.
PROVIDING they do the job and deserve the scores they receive.

I really don't mind be taken literally, but let's keep a little perspective
here. I don't think this much explanation was really nessecary.

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Date:    Sun, 7 Jan 1996 01:38:28 GMT
From:    ***@IC.AC.UK
Subject: Re: Olympic HOPES, not predictions

Dory said,

> Milo probably sees nothing else besides gold.  IMHO
> you're only setting yourself up for disappointment with an attitude
> like that.

When Milo was in tears after her final AA routine at Sabae Worlds,
many thought that she was in tears of sadness because she didn't win
the All-Around gold after being so close yet again. But the fact was
(or at least this was what Milo said afterwards) that she was in tears
of happiness because she didn't think she would have a chance of
getting any AA medal, and of course at the end of the day she won the
AA bronze, which was more than she had hoped for.

Sherwin

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End of GYMN-L Digest - 6 Jan 1996 to 7 Jan 1996
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