The members of the 2000 U.S. Women’s Olympic Gymnastics Team are Amy Chow, Jamie Dantzscher, Dominique Dawes, Kristin Maloney, Elise Ray and Tasha Schwikert, along with Morgan White, who was named to the team but was injured prior to the Games. Alyssa Beckerman was the alternate. Bela Karolyi was the national team coordinator, with Kelli Hill as head coach and Steve Rybacki as assistant coach. …
When do they get their medals?
…
“I was shocked and surprised and totally thrilled for each and every one of these athletes,” said Kelli Hill, the head coach of the 2000 and 2004 U.S. women’s Olympic teams and personal coach of 2000 Olympic team members Dominique Dawes and Elise Ray. “It was earned and deserved 10 years ago.”Hill, who coaches in Maryland, said she had talked to both Dawes and Hill since the news broke. “Elise is just absolutely ecstatic,” she said. “She was absolutely thrilled, just kept laughing.”
When asked if she ever expected China to be stripped of its Olympic medal, Hill said: “No. Never.” …
Gymnastics Examiner – China officially stripped of 2000 Olympic team bronze medal; USA to be awarded team bronze
Click through for reaction from Steve Penny and Tasha Schwikert.
Who will be the next underage athlete to be investigated?
This isn’t the end.
13 comments ↓
Daniela Silivas, everybody knows. I love her, but she was underaged in 1985, I’m sorry.
He Kexin…Nastia wants that UB gold…
This was an IOC thing. DS was underage at a World Championships in 1985. So the IOC wouldn’t have any say.
Will Ukraine get a team bronze medal for Worlds 1999?
But FIG seems to be “happy” about that decision: if they approve this one, they have to follow the example themselves… I still think the girls shouldn’t be punished at all, but the officials.
No the IOC is doing this the FIG condones cheating and will do nothing about any of that.
they knew about the fake injury to Roza, They knew about the fake injuries in 85 and they let it sit.
Do a blog on fairness gymcoaching because this isn’t fair to anyone but this one team.
I want to know when they are going to fix it for everyone because the Soviets cheated for years and they did nothing
Gotta say that of the team, Jamie and Tasha are the most deserving of receiving the medal. They, especially Tasha, held the team together with huge performances in finals.
Dawes, Ray, Maloney, and even Chow were huge disappointments in that final. Chow in particular held the team back with her huge mistake on the DTY (2-3 tenths less than what she would have normally scored) and her beam dismount was a massive disaster (5 tenth deduction). That’s 7-8 tenths the US really needed. The other point could be equally divided among the the remaining members (except maybe Tasha, who pretty much stuck everything to the best of her ability).
I agree with Kennedy.
They don’t even deserve that medal.
What I really love is that there are so many people commenting (on non-gymnastics site) something to the tune of this:
If she is 14 years old and THAT good, she deserves that medal! Why should there be a limit on that at the Olympic Level?
This sucks. I understand wiping the individual results but it’s not the teams fault she was underage is it? And it’s not even her fault they made her compete. What was she going to do? Say no?
If I was the Americans I wouldn’t feel like I’d deserved that medal. I’m not saying they didn’t compete well, I’m saying they were beaten by China and that is still true regardless of their ages.
Taking the medals is the most common sense remedy and also the best way to deter future crimes. I think there was a pattern of this abuse. We should probably ban China from an Olympic cycle.
I’m still waiting for the “Western devil” whining. Haven’t heard any publicly, but I bet the Chinese boards are blistering with their attitude.
“If I was the Americans I wouldn’t feel like I’d deserved that medal. I’m not saying they didn’t compete well, I’m saying they were beaten by China and that is still true regardless of their ages.”
Well, why should China be happy with the medal considering they felt they had to cheat to get it.
The US could have had better results all through 1997-2000 if they had used gymnasts that were too young. If they had cheated.
Yes, Its sad to take away a metal from an entire team when someone was underage but in the end rules are rules. If the US was allowed to use someone under 16 then maybe they would of pulled out in 3rd who knows. I am just happy for the US Girls…. a dream come true just 10 years later.
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