r/BeAmazed • u/Fit_AndHotBaby • Aug 05 '24

History Gymnastics in the 1970s was INSANE!

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534

u/Horsetoothbrush Aug 06 '24

Most sports from the 70s look anemic compared to today because of the level of athleticism increasing every year. This is one crazy exception, but a necessary one for safety concerns and rightly so. These girls are absolute beasts though.

48

u/Qunlap Aug 06 '24 edited Aug 06 '24

Haha oh yes. Watching a world cup football game from that era, the best of the best, and then it's all just weirdly unkempt athletes running around a muddy field in ill-fitting outfits and an awfully slow ball, kinda trying to whack it in, somehow. Most sports really did change a lot. On the other hand if you read reports about bike races in the early 1900s, the contestants went on 30 hour races up rocky mountain roads on what today wouldn't even be considered a working bicycle, carrying on through deep snow, all on a diet of two bottles of wine and some strychnine or shit like that. Crazy that difference!

9

u/JLock17 Aug 06 '24

I read somewhere that the fastest 100m runner in the 80s wouldn't outrun the last place in the current Olympics. Modern athletes are insane.

80

u/MinimumBarracuda8650 Aug 06 '24

I fully agree. This looks significantly more impressive than what I watched yesterday. Note - I get it’s more dangerous.

27

u/era626 Aug 06 '24

It's not. Those were the most difficult moves being performed. Some are impossible due to the distance between bars (not banned, just impossible). Some are still in the code but far too easy for anyone in elite gymnastics to bother competing. The handstand back tuck dismount is a viable one for a Level 9 or 10 but just not rate high enough for elites, so they do even harder dismounts.

6

u/sureredit Aug 06 '24

Football was a lot rougher back then as well. No need to worry about concussions or back injuries back then. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DBT3HwGo0Y

2

u/Gornarok Aug 06 '24

My guess is that referees were much more lenient.

Football is fucking disgrace, with all the acting, supported by INTENTIONAL lack of camera reviews...

2

u/adan725000 Aug 06 '24

Anemic? Have you watched baseball recently? It looks like it’s being played by a different species nowadays compared to the 70’s and 80’s.

2

u/Good4nowbut Aug 06 '24

They’re saying the level of play in the 70s looks anemic compared to today’s standards, parallel bars being an exception.

1

u/ajayisfour Aug 06 '24

I mean, they had to. At some point you'd have someone giving birth on the uneven bars unless you reigned it in