Mary Lou Retton was on Access Hollywood tonight. In her interview she said when she was a gymnast many of the coaches and judges would tell her she doesn't have a gymnast's body because she wasn't skinny and she should lose weight, but she didn't listen to them. She said you could tell which of the girls were starving themselves and they were so skinny and didn't have energy to go through workout, and weren't strong. What's important is to be fit, eat healthy, exercise, have muscle. She also told of a story of someone thinking she was the ice skater Dorothy Hamill in the supermarket, because of the same haircut probably. Here's Mary Lou in the 1984 Olympics where she gets gold all-around; her floor routine: [youtube]lrn03XC7pl4[/youtube] Here's her bars with the Mary Lou Retton skill: [youtube]SPwokPNMpCE&NR=1 [/youtube] Mary Lou also said gymnastics is a lot more competitive today. Here's a video on Dorothy Hamill: "Dorothy Hamill - 1996 U.S. Pro Championships TP" [youtube]KN6Ba42P0t8[/youtube] "1976 Olympic Gold Medallist Dorothy Hamill skates her technical program at the 1996 U.S. Professional Figure Skating Championships to "Getting To Know You" by James Taylor. She finished 4th at this event." Ice skating has gone through similar changes, as you can say about other sports. For ice skating, the top junps then were doubles, now it's triples/triple combinations, quads, quad triple combinations, and throw triples and throw quads too. And, more time then for basics, turns, edge works, dance elements, etc.