Word: szabo
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...memory of the spectators develops into a composite of both images-the terrific and the terrible-much more touching as an entry than either could be individually. The happiest circumstance, of course, is when they take turns. First U.S. Gymnast Mary Lou Retton rejoiced as Rumania's Ecaterina Szabo sighed, then a couple of days later Ecaterina laughed and Mary Lou made a petulant face. The athletic world, like the real world, is seldom so equitable. Fairness is not really the essence of sport...
...second series, Retton gave a creditable performance on the beam, but she had one serious loss of balance after landing a back somersault. The judges marked it, by the book, for a 9.80. Szabo moved to the floor exercise. There again, she was as athletic as she was balletic, alternating stunning twists and turns with lyrical dance movements. Her 9.95 put her in the lead by .15 with only two events remaining...
Retton had her turn on the mat next. Nowhere is the difference in the two performers' styles more apparent. If Szabo is European velvet, Retton is muscular American brashness. No one can generate her speed or leap to her heights; she can do numbers in floor exercises known only to men. On her first tumbling run, she pounded out enough time in the air to pull off a layout double back somersault, and exploded into a dazzling smile. It did not dim for the rest of her routine. When she landed her final twisting somersault, she had notched...
...Retton on the vault in the final event. As she waited her turn, her personal coach, Bela Karolyi, leaned across the photographers' barricade from his seat in the stands and showed her a piece of paper on which the arithmetic had been done: score a 9.95 to tie Szabo for the gold, score a 10 to stand alone as all-around champion. Anything less would mean the silver. He bent down to hold and shake her shoulders; she nodded intensely...
...exemplar of what Bela Karolyi calls "the new kind of gymnast." Says he: "She's strong and powerful and athletic; not a little flower, a little flyer." Karolyi, who discovered and trained Comaneci and presided over the early development of Retton's principal rivals from Rumania, Szabo and Agache, knows a trend when he sees one. In his 4-ft. 9-in., 92-lb. dynamo, he knows he has found a star...