There must have been taller. Leave a comment if you know of any.
Sandra Izbasa (1.64m – 5′5′’) is likely the tallest Olympic gold medalist. Along with Svetlana Khorkina who was about the same height.
UPDATES from commenters:
A Canadian gymnast, Cara Pomeroy, is 5′9″.
She was Canadian National Bars Champion on more than one occasion (beautiful Stalder and Endo Work, Giant Full to Gienger, Flyaway Double Twist Dismout), and did well in the all-around (won medals at National Championships on Floor and Beam).
Cara went to University of Illinois on a full Scholarship…And scored a 10.0 on Bars in NCAA competition.
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Ashley Miles was probably the tallest in elite gymnastics and to compete at a World Championships at 5′7″-5′8″.
We had Oregon coach John Carney scouting our meet, the Great West Gym Fest before flying out to this competition.
But his hot team was defeated by the Washington Huskies!
… Washington tallied a season-best 196.000 for the evening. Illinois came in second with 195.900 and Oregon State finished third with 195.800. Eastern Michigan totaled 191.475.
“We’re going to enjoy this one tonight,” said Bowers. “This felt really good. For our seniors, this is the highest score they’ve ever had. They’ve never beaten Oregon State in their four years and not in the three years I’ve been here, so this is huge for us, for our team and for our program. I’m just thrilled. I’m not surprised that we could do it. I’m just so glad that we finally did.”…
With female gymnasts, my main two nutrional concerns:
are they getting enough Calcium?
are they getting enough Iron?
A good article on USolympicteam.com
Symptoms
The easiest symptom to notice associated with iron deficiency anemia is fatigue that worsens with exertion. Fatigue is common and can have many different causes (such as other nutritional imbalances, illness or stress). If an athlete experiences normal fatigue throughout the day and is not worsened with exercise, the cause is likely not iron deficiency by itself. The following are also possible symptoms of iron deficiency anemia:
Thirteen-year-old American Jordyn Wieber bested her US teammate, 16-year-old Olympian Bridget Sloan for the American Cup title, 60.20-59.60. Wieber got an early edge from her Amanar vault, and in the end it was that vault that made the difference: Sloan and Wieber tied on bars, and were within a tenth of each other on both floor and beam.
In the men’s competition, German Olympian Fabian Hambuechen pulled out the victory over American David Sender on the last event. Hambuechen’s 15.75 on high bar — an event he won at the 2007 Worlds — enabled him to edge Sender 90.65-90.45. Olympian Joey Hagerty placed third with an 89.55. …
Steff sent us a link of Fabian Hambuechen doing some dives for a German TV Show (kind of show competition; athletes and VIPs alike try to dive, quite funny . Fabian says in the vid that he trained without a coach for this event.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 