After Čáslavská scored two 10.0s at the 1967 European Championships, a flurry of 10.0s appeared in national competitions during the lead-up to the Mexico City Olympics. Two of the recipients were Erika Zuchold and Karin Janz.
At the East German Championships in July of 1968, Zuchold scored 10.0s on both optional floor and vault, and Janz scored a 10.0 on her optional vault.
What follows is a translation of an article from Neues Deutschland.
On November 6, 2021, at the 83rd Congress in Antalya, Turkey, Watanabe Morinari will face off with Farid Gayibov for the FIG presidency.
When Watanabe was elected president, it was a big deal. Let’s take a look at what was said in the Japanese press at the time.
How much did it cost to be an FIG member in 1968? What was the FIG’s budget in 1968? Will Israel finally be approved to compete in the European Championships?
All that and more in the notes from the 1968 FIG Meeting.
Let’s take a look at the compulsories for the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, including the piano sheet music!
The bar routine turned out to be brutal. Every single team had at least one gymnast score in the 8s (or lower) — even the Soviet Union.
Before the ESPN Body Issue existed, Cathy Rigby posed nude for Sports Illustrated. At the time, it was a big enough sensation that Arthur Gander, the FIG president, commented on the matter.
Let’s take a look at what he said…
Warning: This article will touch upon body image issues and eating disorders.
Note: This is part of a series of posts on the FIG leadership in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Other posts include:
As we saw with Villancher’s commentary on the 1968 women’s Code of Points, gymnastics does not happen in a vacuum. It interacts with the culture around it.
To help you understand where the FIG leadership stood on some social and cultural issues, the next two posts will be dedicated to the FIG president’s reaction to the worldwide counterculture movement (broadly defined) that whipped through the world in the 1960s and 1970s.
First up: The 1971 European Championships and Arthur Gander’s response to Ole Bendiktsen’s long hair.
In 1968, the Women’s Technical Committee President Berthe Villancher visited the United States. During her tour, she explained the 1968 Code of Points. This included her unwritten rules and preferences.
Let’s take a look at what she said.
Note: Villancher’s comments have been filtered through Jackie Uphues, who chronicled Villancher’s time in the United States for Mademoiselle Gymnast May/June 1968. (Jackie Uphues might be better known as Jackie Fie to some readers.)
Unless otherwise indicated, all quotes are from Mademoiselle Gymnast May/June 1968.
The 1968 Code of Points was to be ready by May 1, 1968. Opening ceremonies for the 1968 Olympics were set for October 12, 1968. That’s not a lot of time to read the Code and adjust routines.
Thankfully, compared to the men’s Code, the women’s Code was much shorter. Let’s take a look at some of the most salient parts.
Compulsories: The bane of some gymnasts’ existence, and the bane of some judges’ existence, as well.
Let’s take a look at the 1968 men’s compulsories and how they were judged…
The 1968 men’s Code of Points exploded.
Gymnastics was quickly evolving, and the Men’s Technical Committee was trying to be more prescriptive on what they wanted to see and in which direction they wanted the sport to go.
I’ll do my best to give you the CliffsNotes version of a 194-page document.
