The End of the Perfect 10 by Dvora Meyers

Author:Dvora Meyers
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Touchstone

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When the semicentralized national team training camp system was introduced in late 1999, it was heralded as something new, a melting pot approach—taking the Eastern way of centralization combined with the American tradition of independent gyms. But this idea dated all the way back to the ’70s, if not earlier.

In 1976, Lars Kolsrud, reporting in International Gymnast from a competition between Norway and East Germany, interviewed Helmut Gerschau, one of the East German head coaches, who described the small nation’s gymnastics training system, which was second only to the Soviets’ at the time. He told Kolsrud that he was one of four head coaches, one for each of the primary gymnastics training centers. Ten times a year—or nearly once a month—all of the coaches and best gymnasts were brought together to ensure they all “pull in the same direction.” It also gave the gymnasts the opportunity to work with other coaches and get used to their techniques.

Since 1999, the Americans have experimented with a version of the East German system, with selected athletes (and their coaches) attending monthly national team training camps at the Karolyi Ranch. And it’s not just the system organization that is imported from the former Eastern bloc gymnastics powers—the majority of the coaching talent has also been imported from abroad. In addition to the Karolyis, who were among the earliest of the transplanted gymnastics coaches, you have Valeri Liukin, a 1988 Olympic gold medalist for the USSR, who owns two gyms in the Dallas area and is in charge of the developmental programs in USA Gymnastics. (He is also father and coach to 2008 Olympic gold medalist Nastia Liukin.) Liang Chow, a former member of the Chinese national team, coached Shawn Johnson and Gabrielle Douglas to Olympic gold medals for the United States. Mihai and Sylvia Brestyan emigrated from Romania and started a gym outside of Boston where they coached Alicia Sacramone and Aly Raisman to World and Olympic titles. The list of high-level coaches that moved West from the East in the 1990s is seemingly endless and has had a tremendous impact on the recent successes enjoyed by the American women at the international level. The United States, by far, has been the biggest beneficiary of the breakup of the Soviet Union, at least gymnastically speaking.

Overseeing this large system of camps and coaching personalities is Martha Karolyi. She has been the national team coordinator since 2001, when her more famous husband stepped aside. (Or was forced out, depending on who is telling the story.) At times, NBC has made Martha, not the gymnasts, the star of its domestic gymnastics coverage. The commentators frequently wonder on air about what Martha is thinking—Who does she like? Whom will she choose for the team? During training sessions at major national competitions, the media and spectators pay nearly as much attention to Karolyi observing the gymnasts as they do the gymnasts themselves. I can’t say that I blame them. For some reason, watching a Romanian immigrant in

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