#maxi gnauck

[gymfanconfessions]

“ Karin Janz, Maxi Gnauck, and Dagmar Kersten appreciation post <3 “

[freifraufischer]

A Gymnastics Mystery: Was the 1981 World Championship Stolen?  Part 1 - An Introduction

In 1981 Maxi Gnauck was the most dominant gymnast in the world when she pulled up short in the middle of her Team Optionals floor routine with an ankle injury.  Leaving the floor meant that she was effectively out of the all around competition in a year when she had dominated every competition she entered.  A few minutes later she would be seen sprinting down the vault runway in the back of the television shot as she continued to lead her team to medals throughout the rest of that World Championships.

With her out of the competition the Soviet Union would sweep the All Around podium at the 1981 World Championships in Moscow, with the gold going to an age falsified 12 year old Olga Bicherova.  Bicherova’s true age already taints this world championship but I’d like to walk you my reader through the events of that year and see what you think.  Fair warning... I can’t make up my mind if Gnauck was forced to throw the World Championship that year or if it was a true injury.

Because I’m going to show a lot of video this post will be broken up because tumblr limits how many videos you can embed in a single post and I think it’s important to actually see the competition routines.

First... let me tell you about probably the most dominant bar worker of all time... and how she was more than a bar worker.

Maxi Gnauck was born in Berlin in 1964, competing in her first international senior competitions at age 15 in 1979.  At her first European championship in Copenhagen in 1979 she would take a bronze medal on the uneven bars.  She would never walk away from another competition with less than a gold on bars for the rest of her career retiring in 1985.  A six year senior career, still competitive at age 21 in the 1980s is itself a remarkable feat in an age when the sport was progressively being seen as the domain of younger and younger girls.  A winning streak lasting that long would be remarkable in any age putting her in the ranks of legends of the sport.  

But she wasn’t just a bars worker.  She was a true all arounder.  To save time going through her medal record to establish that this is the graphic from wikipedia...

We remember her as a bars worker because that’s where her Olympic gold comes from, but she was a one who was challenging the Soviets for all around medals over a five year span coming in behind Kim, Davydova and Mostapenova.  But in particular I want you to look at 1981 in that record and you can begin to understand where this mystery starts.  

In my next post on this subject I’ll walk you through that 1981 season but for now I want to introduce you to the kind of gymnast Maxi Gnauck was when she stormed onto the scene in 1979.  The 1979 World Championships also has a cloud over it involving if the Romanian government sabotaged their own team by faking an infection in Nadia Comăneci’s wrist forcing her to withdraw from the competition (Nadia to this day insists the infection was real).  There generally isn’t a suggestion that there was any kind of deal made between the Romanians and the Soviets and the Romanians would win their first team championship in 1979 thanks to a non-hands beam routine from Nadia.  Whatever conspiracy there was seems to have been within the Romanian government and national team (read Bela Karolyi).

With Nadia out the All Around was open for Soviet Nellie Kim.  It’s worth remembering that during this time Kim had a reputation for being friendly and gracious.  Even in the west many considered her world championship not just deserved but satisfying after she had competed in the shadow of Nadia.  What no one expected was for the 1979 World Championship AA to be a fight.

Kim won that All Around by .275.

This is the ABC coverage of the 1979 World Championships AA.  

In the years leading up to this Nadia had been considered athletic but doing lower difficulty, clean gymnastics.  Nellie Kim was the difficulty chucker unrewarded by a code of points capped at 10.  So what is Gnauck.  Well, as you can see from her floor she was perhaps one of the greatest tumblers of her time.  Start at 9.36 for Gnauck’s floor.  And as you watch that remember... that is essentially a dead floor.  20.03 will show you her balance beam where she has a major balance check which like cost her the gold.

Most often the label put on Gnauck at the time was “elfin” and though I don’t think you would reach for balletic terms to describe her gymnastics I do want to show just how good her extension and mastery were.

Maxi Gnauck (GDR), Compulsory FX, 1980 Olympic Games

Again the controversy in 1980 would surround Romania and Nadia.  There is very little argument these days that Romanian judge Maria Simionescu attempted to steal the olympic gold for Nadia after the Romanian gymnastics legend had a less than legendary beam routine.  Here is a Sports Illustrated article about the incident (though be warned like most contemporary journalistic pieces dealing with Nadia it’s super weird).  But when you say that Nadia was still over scored (even as she didn’t get that AA) you often overlook that she tied for the silver.  With Gnauck.  Bela Karolyi was too busy throwing a fit to pay attention to the gymnast who now had to share a medal with Nadia that she should have held outright.  But Bela’s tantrum would focus on Gnauck a few days later in the bars final.

Maxi Gnauck (GDR), UB, 1980 Olympic Games EF

Emilia Eberle (ROM), UB, 1980 Olympic Games EF

Watching old school bars is not my favorite thing, I’ll admit, but I think even a modern viewer can understand why Bela’s screaming (literally) that Eberle should have won gold rings false.  Form matters and form was what Gnauck had on bars in spades. 

Gnauck’s bars are precise, relentless.  She never made a mistake.  She could be counted on to hit that set no matter what.  And coming out of 1980 into the next season she was maturing and growing more powerful.  She could only get better...

Next time:  1981 the nearly perfect year...

[gym-oldies]

[illyria-and-her-pet]

Ahead of Their Time WAG Routines: Late 70s/Early 80s Edition

Maxi Gnauck 1979 Worlds. The first WAG floor routine with what I would consider "modern" difficulty. She did a tucked full in, triple twist, and arabian to double twist! Two E Skills!!! I repeat in 1979!!! On the floor that was basically a carpet!!! Idk when springs were added to the floor, but the first time I ever heard them mentioned in commentary was 1983 Worlds. 

Cristina Grigoras 1980 World Cup. She did her eponymous front tuck 1/2 and a double front dismount on beam!!! Two F skills!!! (blah blah blah Grigoras is now E skill cause FIG is too lazy to differentiate between when the 1/2 twist happens but it should still be a F because doing the 1/2 twist after the salto is so much harder) In 1980!!!

Ma Yanhong 1981 Worlds. A jump to full turn mount, clear hip 1/1, hecht 1/2, and hecht front salto full dismount on uneven bars!!! Her eponymous dismount is one of the highest rated at F and she is still the ONLY gymnast to ever perform it!!! This routine only scoring 9.9 and losing to Gnauck’s simpler routine that got a perfect 10 with a shuffle on the dismount is one of the biggest robberies of all time!

Elena Gurova became the first female gymnast to ever perform the double twisting yurchenko at the 1984 DTB Cup when she was only 11 years old!!!

[like-dudnik-in-1989]

One of the most infamous routines in the history of this sport. 2017 Montreal didn’t invent anything.

Maxi Gnauck was, without a doubt, the best gymnast in the world in 1981. Early in the season, at Euros, she dominated winning four golds (AA, BB, FX and UB) and a silver medal (VT). She arrived to Worlds in Moscow as one of the big favourites to win the title, as the Soviets and Romanians were having a transition season and, even though Davydova, Eberle and Filatova were still around, they didn’t have a star as sparkling as Gnauck. Soviet Alla Misnik, a one hit wonder, had won three medals at Euros, one of them in the AA, but she didnt even make the Worlds team. And Ilienko, Bicherova, Agache and Grigoras (she was the one that prevented Maxi to sweep all the medals at Euros winning vault) were new team members, but neither could match Gnauck dominance in all four events.

But, during optionals, she shockingly got injured during her first tumble on floor and couldn’t finish her routine. Needed a 9.650 to tie Davydova’s AA top qualifying score (which she could have easily done) but only scored a 2.500, and therefore finished out of the AA. She still qualified to VT, UB and BB EFs, winning ALL THREE. Bicherova ended up beating Filatova and Davydova for the AA gold, becoming later one of the stars of the quad, but I’m sure Maxi would have beaten her. The only good thing about this injury is that it paved the way for Ilienko to become FX World Champ with one of the most artistic and memorable routines ever.

this is her winning beam set, what a gymnast she was

[lobaznyuk]

Countdown to the Olympics: 63 days (9 weeks)

Maxi Gnauck of Germany wins the gold medal on bars at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Her success at this Olympics earnt her the title of East Germany's Sportspersonality of the Year. Gnauck won a total of 27 medals across the Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cups, and European Championships and is considered one of the most successful WAG gymnasts that Germany has ever produced.

[classic-gym-routines]

Maxi Gnauck takes the bronze medal in the floor exercise final during the 1980 Olympic Games with an extremely difficult routine for the time, consisting of a full twisting double back, a triple twist, and an Arabian tucked front through to a double twist. Maxi was also one of the first women to ever compete a triple twist. (x)

[gymfanconfessions]

“Maxi Gnauck is so incredibly underrated as a bars worker... some of her old routines would still hold up today.”

[freifraufischer]

1984 DTB Pokal AA Highlights - German Commentary

The German television archive diving youtube channel OLGA posted another amazing find in high quality. This video is highlights from the 1984 DTB Pokal hosted in Stuttgart in early December 1984. Maxi Gnauck and Elena Gurova tied for first, with Simona Pauca in the bronze.

As always please go like and leave a nice comment. This youtuber is doing amazing work by going through television archives and finding gym from both Germanys. They have talked about how so much of it is rotting on the shelves so they are in a race against time before this material is lost forever.

[gym-oldies]

[illyria-and-her-pet]

Gymnasts from the same era who don’t try to stop bills that protect gymnasts from sexual abuse and have medals from competitions that weren’t boycotted

Olga Mostepanova performing one of the best beam routines of all time at the 1984 Alternate Games where she became the only gymnast to ever have a perfect 40 all around competition. At the Alternate Games, she won team, all around, vault, beam, and floor gold. She would have made that other gymnast irrelevant if the boycott didn’t happen. She has 5 world medals (3 gold, 2 silver).

While most gym fans acknowledge that Mostepanova and the Soviets would have swept the floor with that other gymnast, Hana Ricna gets very little recognition. She came in 2nd to Mostepanova at the 1984 Alternate Games and was the first to do the stalder tkatchev on uneven bars, which is still a very popular skill today. She had one of the most difficult uneven bars sets at the time because she did 3 major releases: her eponymous skill, “the Ricna” (E), the Deltchev (D), and the Comaneci (E). She has 2 world medals (1 silver, 1 bronze).

Ma Yanhong’s 1984 uneven bars gold is the only title from 1984 that I‘m 100% sure would have still happened even if there was no boycott. My favorite routine from her is that one she did at 1981 Worlds. She did a jump full turn to the low bar mount, clear hip 1/1, hecht 1/2, and her famous F rated dismount. Sadly, she was robbed here and only given a 9.9, so she came in 2nd to Maxi Gnauck who was given a perfect 10 despite having a less difficult routine and a hop on the dismount. She has 3 world medals (1 gold, 2 silver).

Maxi Gnauck is known for her uneven bar work, but she was also a great all arounder and floor worker. In 1979 and 1980, she was able to do a tucked full in and triple twist on the floor with no springs. At the 1984 Alternate Games, she came third in the all around and won bars and floor. Springs were added to the floor by then and she did the best piked full in and triple twist in that era. She has 9 world medals (5 gold, 1 silver, 3 bronze). She also has 4 medals (1 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze) from the 1980 Olympics, which were also boycotted, but the countries that boycotted wouldn’t have really made a difference in any of the results in that games except for maybe on uneven bars.

Natalia Yurchenko’s vault entry is probably the most innovative skill to ever happen in gymnastics. For decades now, almost every top gymnast has done a yurchenko style vault. She won the team and all around gold at the 1983 World Championships, but suffered an injury in vault finals that took her out of the rest of the championships. She came back from the injury to win the team and vault gold, as well as the uneven bars silver at the 1984 Alternate Games. She also made the 1985 Soviet team that won gold at Worlds. Other notable skills she did were her tkatchev + deltchev combination on uneven bars and loso mount and yurchenko loop on beam.

Tumblr only allows you to embed 5 videos, but special shout outs to baby Elena Shushunova who won the all around bronze at the 1984 Alternate Games and then went on to have one of the greatest careers ever in 1985-1988 and Julianne Mcnamara, the American gymnast that actually has a medal from a non boycotted competition with her 1981 uneven bars bronze.

And of course shout out to Ecaterina Szabo who won 4 gold medals and actually beat that other gymnast in the all around final in 1984. Sadly, there was no new life and she fell on uneven bars in the team optionals, so the score carried over and she lost by 0.05. She has 10 world medals (2 gold, 6 silver, 2 bronze).

[like-dudnik-in-1989]

Gutsufan ha subido hace poco a su canal unos videos de la copa del mundo de zabgreb de... 1982 !! Y con comentarios en español, porque parece ser que en esa época retransmitían las pruebas de copas del mundo :) Lo dejo aquí por si a alguien le interesa, que salen maxi gnauck, natalia yurchenko, olga bicherova, etc (quería ponerlo en inglés pero no me salían las palabras, y como te he visto escribir en español alguna vez...)

Sí, soy de España! jajajajjaja. Muchas gracias! 😘 

if anyone wants to watch, gutsufan YT channel uploaded videos from the 1982 World Cup (I think that’s when Yurchenko debuted the Yurchenko vault? or did she do it at worlds next year?) with spanish commentary if any of you speak spanish or want to learn it. With Yurchenko, Bicherova, Gnauck, Agache, Ilienko, Ma Yanhong, McNamara,... Good field! 

Yeah... I would love if Teledeporte could broadcast at least one or two world cup events next year to promote the sport, giving that they will actually count for Olympic qualification. It’s almost  infurating that back in the 80′s, with just two TV channels, there were more Spanish gymnastics broadcasts than nowadays with all the sport channels or streams we have, either public TV or cable. For example, Eurosport España covers skating GP events, they could do something similar with gymnastics. Although it’s true back then the World Cup was a major event, it was almost like individual Worlds giving that the World Cup only happened in non-Olympic even years. 

[stockholmgirl]

Maxi Gnauck - 1980 Olympics - EF Floor

Score: 9.90 - Bronze Medal (Total: 19.825)

[lobaznyuk]

Maxi's last name is spelled "Gnauck" 🙈 i don't usually bitch about grammar but since your series is so perfect i thought you'd like to know 😅😅

i don't know how i managed that haha thank you!

[gymfanconfessions]

“Maxi Gnauck had the ugliest gymnastics of the 1980’s I’m sorry”