Miyuki Malsuhisa (Japan)
Olympic Report by Dick Criley COMPETITION TWO In Competition II , Poland ' s M. Kubica did not compete which allowed Yugoslavia 's J. Brodnik to enter. The biggest jump in position was made by E. Gienger (W. Ger .) from 24th to 14th and the eiggest drop wa s by Russia ' s Mikhaelian from 9th to 20th. The 1.00 score gain registered by Japan's Okamura reflected the fact that he was no longer the first man up for a team score. The +0.80 scores awarded Andrianov and Klimenko see m to indicate a political influence, especially since the top 3 Japanese were penalized In comparrson w ith their previous AA optional total. Only Voronln and Mikhaelian could not be scored up because of their own break s. In Competition II , the Japanese women, especially Matsuhisa and Hirashima, made gains over their previous AA POSitiOns (6 and 10 places respectively) as did West Germany's Uta Schorn (8 places). US team members Chace and Pierce dropped 10 and 8 places respectively but Hungary's Marta Kelemen dropped 14 places. The greatest difference in scores between team and AA sets were Korbut (-2.05) and Kelemen (1.15) while East Germany's Richarda Schmeisser picked up 1.70 as did Russ ia 's Antonina Koshel.
Women's All-Around Finals Going into the women's all-around finals, Tourischeva was tied with Karrn Janz for first p lace followed by Erika Zuchold and Olga Korbut. The gymnasts were divided into 4groups of 9 each with apparently random asslgnmenL It was difficult to keep track of who was dOing what on each event. It was even more difficult for the coaches because they could be with only one girl at a time . Five US girls qualified into Competition Two : Rigby, Chace, Pierce, Moore, and Metheny.
10
Nancy Thies was tied with 5 other girl s at 35th 'a nd was dropped from the final competitions, presumably because there were already 5 others from the US in the finals and th e intention was to permit representatives of other countr ies to enter the AA finals. In the first round , all of the Russians performed well, getting high scores on their events.Tourischeva performed aYamashita and full twisting handspring to receive a 9.65. Rigby's first event was the beam , and she included the aerial walkover she had left out in Competition One. She received the same score, 9.35, as the first time she performed her optional. Her routine also included a handstand, snap-down, with a back handspring to a switch foot walkout, a swing-up handstand, a sWitch-leg back walkover, her press to handstand mount, and her rudolph dismounL She showed good amplitude and exciting dance elements. In contrast, Turischeva was to have breaks on the beam . Monika Csaszar, who was scored higher than Cathy, had similar composition and used a full twisting front for her dismount. Also on the bea m , Kaethi Fritschi of Switzerland performed a well-controlled sidewards aerial and received but 9.1 for her efforts. Olga Korbut was on Floor Exercise in the first round. She hit her arched dive roll better here than she did in the final competition and ' received a 9.8 from the judges. Her routine did not include a full twisting sa lta and used on ly the backward dive to chest roll for originality. Her dance was jazzy and cute and was described also as "darling" and "ex plosive ". Erika Zuchold received a 9.6 for her FX and tumultuous applause from the audience. Her routine was a hard act for Kim Chace to follow, but Kim performed a difficult routine with excellent tumbling and had to be content with a 9.4. Joan Moore followed Kim and was way underscored at 9.5. Joan mounted with aerial walkover into RO, ff, double twist, and later included handspring to layout front. Both US girls deserved higher scores than they received .
After the first round , Rigby was sti ll in 10th place behind Bekesi (Hun), Chace was still 18th. In the second round , Korbut was vaulting, receiving 9.65 for a Yamashita vault. Both Chace and Moore found it necessary to take steps after their vaults for recovery . Kim performed a handspring and Joan a high Yamashita. Meanwhile over on the beam, Saadi (URS) was looking good: cat jump, with y, turn, aerial, full twisting dismount for a 9.4. Zuchold on vault outclassed the others of her group with a 9.7. Roxanne Pierce was sure-footed on the beam except for a little half turn jump, and a loss of balance to fall from the beam . Upon remounting, she performed her one-arm front walkover with aplomb. In the floor exercise, Cathy Rigby 's " Roll Out the Barrel " netted her a 9.55 in one of her best floor performances. This was enough to boost her to ninth over Bekesi . Bekesi had only a 9.3 on the balance beam, just .05 behind Cathy. Janz was among the last up on the floor exercise and treated the audien ce to a light and spritely performance which was awarded 9.7. At the end of the second round, Chace had dropped to 20 thanks to herfall while on beam . Moore moved from 26 to 21 on the strength of her FX, Rigby was in 9th and Korbut had taken over first place, followed by Tourischeva, Janz, and Lazakovitch. Pierce's bad break on beam dropped her down to 33. The most significa nt happening of the third round was the ser ies of bad breaks which befell Olga Korbut on the unevens. She hit her feet on the stradd le glide mount, which broke the tempo so that she could not kip to grasp the HB; there were at least two other major breaks in the routin e and her score was 7.50 which dropped her to tenth rank. The other Russians were pushing hard as were the Hungarians. For the US, Rigby performed the flight aspects of her first vault well but stepped out off balance, but her second vault gained her a 9.4, which boosted her to 8th place. Janz performed a full twisting Yamashita for a 9.65 which boosted her into the