http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCW1ju1-p2Y

Mary Lou Retton is an American gymnast who won the all-around gold medal in women’s gymnastics at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, California. Retton was coached by Bela Karolyi, who had coached Nadia Comaneci in Romania before defecting to the United States. In this video, both Retton and Karolyi recall the moments leading up to Retton’s all-around gold medal win, which made her the first American to receive the all-around gold medal, as well as the first female gymnast from outside Eastern Europe to hold the title.

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Mary Lou Retton Wins Gold appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvW-3ra14ng

Natalie Hawkins, the mother of American gymnast and gold medalist Gabby Douglas, talks about what it’s like to raise a talented athlete. Hawkins describes how hard it was to send her daughter over 3,000 miles away so that she could have adequate training for the Olympics. She also goes on to explain how Douglas’s host family, the Parton family, made it much easier for her to accept the distance as she saw how they welcomed Douglas into their home with open arms. In this video, Douglas and her mother also talk about how much Douglas missed her family while she was away from them. She recalls almost giving up on her dream for the gold when she got homesick a few months prior to the competition. Hawkins knew that her daughter had sacrificed too much to turn back. Listening to her mother’s advice allowed the 16-year-old Olympian to win two gold medals in gymnastics for both the individual all-around–the first woman of color of any nationality to win the event in Olympic history–and team competitions in the 2012 London Summer Olympics.

The post Gabby Douglas
‘I Need to Make This Dream Become Real’ appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGMbdv760rU

A year after her famous accomplishment of becoming the first female gymnast to earn a perfect score in the Olympic games, a young Nadia Comăneci is interviewed. Having won three gold medals during the 1978 Summer Olympic games in Montreal at the age of 14, Comăneci is asked about her new found celebrity status as one of the most famous female athletes around. She also comments on the rumors that have spread about her gaining weight since the olympics, being sick, and even being injured in the 1977 Vrancea Earthquake that affected her home country of Romania. The interviewer also asks her about her shy personality and the possibility of passing on gymnastics to her children one day.

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A Young Gymnast and Superstar appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1M3Wz5jn6s

Nadia Comăneci, the first female gymnast to ever get a perfect score at the Olympics, is interviewed on how that experience affected her. Having achieved this feat at the age of 14 in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Comăneci comments on how she got involved and interested in gymnastics.

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A 14-Year-Old’s Perfect Score appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gOtwbYiRfM

Gymnasts that were set to compete in the 1980 summer Olympics in Moscow explain their feelings and views on the president’s decision as well as describe how it has affected their mentality as far as training is concerned.

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An Athlete’s Opinion on the 1980 Olympic Boycott appeared first on Witnify.