On April 13, 2007 last season, University of Oklahoma’s Abdullah-Simmons became the first black gymnast to win the NCAA all-around national title.
It was an unexpected and great achievement for Taqiy. (I wasn’t even following him for the All-around.)
ESPN’s Jay Weiner posted a feature profile on him. One point of interest was contested by USA’s Ron Galimore:
In gymnastics circles, some say the unspoken bias was that African-American gymnasts weren’t good all-around, that they excelled on the floor exercise or vault, Amin said, but not other events.
Galimore, now a USA Gymnastics vice president and an international judge, disagreed that such a myth exists.
“I would beg to differ,” Galimore said. “Mike Carter. Jair Lynch. Chainey Umphrey would beg to differ. No. No.”
At any rate, the Abdullah-Simmons family didn’t let it stop them.
“I never paid any attention to that,” Taqiy’s father said of the undertones. “I always told our kids to do all six (events). You’ve got to have a six-shooter. You’ve got to be fully loaded.”
“I definitely heard that, that African-American gymnasts were only good in power events, the floor and vault and, occasionally, rings,” Taqiy said. “It makes it a lot better to know that I was able to be considered a good all-around gymnast and not just, you know, status quo.” …
read the entire article – ESPN
World silver medalist on Horizontal Bar in 1987 Curtis Hibbert from Canada would disagree, as well.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 