Word: davidova
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Maxi Gnauck, 15, an East German sprite with closely cropped hair and a tiny chassis (4 ft. 10 in., 71 lbs.), went first on the vault. Her robot-like consistency cracked under the pressure, and she had to settle for a 9.75. Next up was Yelena Davidova, 18, an elfin Soviet with a Dorothy Hamill haircut, on the parallel bars. Only 4 ft. 8 in., 75 lbs., she had scored a stunning 10 in the floor exercises the night before, mixing rubber-body tumbling and kiddie-porn dance routines (hip grinding to a snake charmer's song...
Comaneci was last, and she approached the beam needing a 9.9 to tie Davidova, a 9.95 to win outright. Until this Olympics, she had not scored below 9.95 Son the four-inch wide apparatus, and there seemed no reason why she could not lift her score again. But her knee bent ever so slightly on a difficult 360° rotation, and she lost her balance for a millisecond after a patented front flip with a half twist. Even so, she seemed tinged with gold...
Then bedlam. An argument broke out among the six judges. The Rumanian coach ranted. The crowd chanted Davidova's name and clapped in unison. A smaller Rumanian claque shouted "Nah-dee-yah! Nah-dee-yah!" Nadia stood motionless, arms akimbo, eyes far away. Twenty-eight minutes after her dismount, the scoreboard flashed the disheartening news: 9.85, only good enough for the silver...
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