The true story
In gymnastics, the all-around champion is the athlete with the best total score across every event. At the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, the race for the women's all-around gold came down to two gymnasts: Mary Lou Retton of the United States and Ecaterina Szabo of Romania.
Mary Lou was just 16 years old and only 4 feet 9 inches tall, but she was powerful and fearless. Going into the last event, she was a tiny bit behind. She did the math with her coach: to win, she needed a perfect 10 on the vault. Not a 9.95. A 10.
Mary Lou sprinted down the runway, flew off the vault, twisted through the air, and stuck the landing without a wobble. The judges flashed a 10. The crowd went wild. She had won the gold medal.
Then she did something amazing. Gymnasts got two tries on the vault, and only the best one counted, so she didn't need to go again. She went anyway, and scored another perfect 10.
Mary Lou Retton became the first American woman ever to win the Olympic all-around gold in gymnastics. She won five medals at those Games and appeared on the front of the Wheaties cereal box. Her smile became one of the most famous pictures of the 1984 Olympics.
Talk about it
- Mary Lou didn't need her second vault, but she did it anyway. Why do you think she did?
- How do you handle pressure when everything depends on one try?
- Why do you think gymnastics scoring changed so that a 10 isn't the top score anymore?
Try this
Math challenge: Olympic judges once scored from 0 to 10. If five judges gave scores of 9.9, 10, 9.95, 10 and 9.85, what is the average? (Answer: 9.94)
Good for: Math (decimals and averages) · Olympics units · Perseverance
