Defying Gravity: The Untold Story Of Women's Gymnastics - General Discussion

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Defying Gravity is a 6-part docuseries that explores the untold story of women's gymnastics through its greatest champions. It features 2021 Team USA Olympics hopefuls, as well as gymnasts including Laurie Hernandez, Aly Raisman, Jordyn Weiber, and more. The show will also explore the body image issues and ageism often associated with the sport, and will delve into the USA Gymnastics sexual abuse scandal.

“It has been one of the greatest privileges of my directing career to be able to share the stories of so many incredible women in the sport of gymnastics,” series director Bess Kargman said in a statement. “Defying Gravity spotlights the fierce passion, courage and tenacity of so many inspiring athletes – including Nadia Comaneci, Laurie Hernandez, Katelyn Ohashi, Aly Raisman and so many more. I am elated the world will soon get to learn more about their powerful stories.”

The first episode of Defying Gravity: The Untold Story of Women's Gymnastics premieres on September 21 at 12 p.m. EST on Glamour's official YouTube channel. The episodes will premiere free with ads each week, while YouTube Premium subscribers will be able to access all six episodes on the premiere date.

Promo:

First episode airs on 9/21/20

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The first two episodes are available now!

Episode 1: How Gymnasts Find Their Voice on the Floor

Episode 2: Uneven Bars: The Closest Thing To Flying

 

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Once every few years, I think about how old I am and what my parents were doing when they were my age, so it cracked me up when Bart said their son is now 14 and that when Nadia was that age, she was the best in the world.

I loved seeing so many gymnasts from different eras being interviewed. I had to laugh when Daniela Silivas said that she hates all the comments about her permed hair and that "everyone had hair like that in the 80s." Girl, no.

And Svetlana Boginskaya's guitar routine - that brought back memories!

Katelyn Ohashi is a great example of what many gymnasts go through - that pressure to excel as an international elite gymnast can make you lose your joy, but so many of them have been able to regain that happiness through collegiate gymnastics. The difference between her old elite floor routines and her collegiate routines is a world apart. She clearly had so much fun as a UCLA gymnast, which is not what I saw in her as a young elite gymnast.

I found it kind of funny that Aly Raisman said that you have to have a smirk or a smile during floor to set yourself apart and connect with the audience because I don't think I ever saw her smile, lift her eyes from the floor, or have any kind of fun during her floor routines. Her tumbling was always solid, but I never saw anything to indicate that she was enjoying floor or interacting/acknowledging the existence of the crowd.

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One thing that drives me CRAZY is how often I see gymnasts on bars with their knees and toes together but with their ankles apart. I swear I don't remember seeing that until more recently and it always stands out to me. It was really obvious when they showed footage of some of the younger gymnasts and then they showed footage of Svetlana Boginskaya and some of the older gymnasts.

I'm glad they brought up being weighed and eating disorders. That is a huge issue in gymnastics and it needs to be addressed over and over and very publicly. Kudos to Cathy Rigby for being so open about it back in the 80s. As bad as it was for the Americans, it was even worse in other countries. I remember interviews where the American gymnasts said that whenever they hosted international meets, they would hide food in the bathroom for the other girls to eat. The Russian and Romanian gymnasts were sometimes being told they could have five almonds on competition days and no water.

 

Edited September 29, 2020 by ElectricBoogaloo

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Episode 3: The Aggressive Mentality of Balance Beam

 

Edited September 29, 2020 by ElectricBoogaloo

[Quof]

OMG, the vocal fry is too much.

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8 hours ago, Quof said:

OMG, the vocal fry is too much.

I only noticed it on a couple girls in the first two episodes. It wasn't like watching an episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians to my ears. I feel terrible saying this, but Aly Raisman's monotonous robotic voice with barely any change in inflection was far more noticeable.

[Jeddah]

I’ve only seen the first episode so far. It’s really good! 

On 9/27/2020 at 5:02 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I had to laugh when Daniela Silivas said that she hates all the comments about her permed hair and that "everyone had hair like that in the 80s." Girl, no.

That was my favorite part. What do I think of when I think of her? That hair. Sorry, but it’s true.

How much does Bart Conner love Nadia? That was adorable. He just lit up every time he talked about her!

The documentary does seem a little disjointed. If I had to sum up the first episode, I really couldn’t. It covered a little bit of everything; gymnastics through the decades, future Olympics, training regiments, college gymnastics, iconic 80’s hair, Soviet gymnasts at the White House. It was all interesting, just all over the place.

I got angry about the 2012 all around all over again. Aly deserved that bronze! I’m so glad she came back and got silver in 2016.

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41 minutes ago, Jeddah said:

got angry about the 2012 all around all over again. Aly deserved that bronze! I’m so glad she came back and got silver in 2016.

Same. That’s exactly why I hate the stupid tie breaking rules. I miss when they just let two people with the same score share the podium. 
 

41 minutes ago, Jeddah said:

How much does Bart Conner love Nadia? That was adorable. He just lit up every time he talked about her!

When I first learned that they were dating, I thought it must be so amazing to be able to find someone who shared their love of gymnastics and understood what it was like to become famous for it, but once I saw them together I loved them as a couple even more. It’s so sweet to see how much he obviously adores her after all these years. 

I remember tiny Daniela Silivas with bangs, a ponytail, and a white scrunchie so I think I subconsciously block out the memory of her perm whenever it’s not right in front of my eyes. 

Edited September 30, 2020 by ElectricBoogaloo

[Growsonwalls]

19 hours ago, Jeddah said:

I got angry about the 2012 all around all over again. Aly deserved that bronze! I’m so glad she came back and got silver in 2016.

Eh. I go back and forth on that one. Aly was a solid gymnast and better on floor and beam. But her bars work is horrific, and Aliya is one of the strongest bar workers. I've always loved Aliya too.

I find something very weird about Olga Korbut. Her face and smile remain the same but she sounds weirdly disconnected and inarticulate.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Seeing all those videos of Suni and her dad doing back flips together and knowing that it will never happen again made me tear up, but when she later said that her dad had told her that when she went to the Olympics, they would do back flips there I was like nooooooo, don't make me cry!

[andromeda331]

Its a good series. I liked seeing all the different gymnasts. I remember so many of them. Seeing old routines and how they changed over the years. I'm glad they brought up the eating disorders too. Along with the pressure. I still hate the stupid tie breaker rule. Its dumb. If its a tie then they both get the medal. I accidentally got hooked on college gymnastics during the quarantine Katelyn's amazing. 

Edited October 1, 2020 by andromeda331

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S1.E4: Unlocking Gymnastics’ Most Powerful Event: The Vault

 

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I'm glad they didn't show Julissa Gomez's final vault. They showed enough other falls to make people who aren't regular gymnastics watchers see how dangerous vault can be.

I remember when they changed the vault and I'm glad that the sport finally recognized that they had to find ways to make the event safer, especially considering how exponentially dangerous it was becoming due to the increased difficulty.

Bonus: the new vault table allows the men to do Yurchenkos. Before the changes, the men's vault was placed lengthwise so they had a much smaller area to get their hands on the vault so it was deemed too dangerous for them to do Yurchenkos.

I had to laugh when Nellie Kim said that Elena Produnova proved that it's possible to do a Produnova and land it perfectly because even Elena landed in a deep squat most of the time. To me, that's not landing a vault perfectly. I mean, I don't want to take away from the fact that she was able to get all the rotations in, but she was still landing with her ass about an inch above the ground almost every time she did it in competition.

I could watch that McKayla Maroney vault on a loop for like an hour (and I did right after it happened). I wish they had talked about how amazing Simone Biles is on vault too. We got footage of her doing one vault but she is a freaking powerhouse.

I always love seeing Oksana Chusovitina. I can't believe she's throwing these skills at 45 years old!

I've been wondering since the first episode who the silhouetted gymnast is doing all the demos for the show because she has beautiful form. I noticed her pointed toes even when they didn't use slo-mo.

Edited October 6, 2020 by ElectricBoogaloo

[andromeda331]

Loved watching how the routines on the vault changed over time. But I'm glad they mentioned how dangerous the old vault was.  So many injuries. Thank God they changed that. I still can't believe Oksana is still doing gymnastics at 45. That's amazing. McKayla was amazing. Simone of course is awesome. I laughed too at Elena proving it was possible. Ah no. Possible means you can do the routine and land on your feet. She landed on her butt. Not like Simone who can do everything and land on her feet. 

[HartofDixie]

On 10/6/2020 at 1:16 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

S1.E4: Unlocking Gymnastics’ Most Powerful Event: The Vault

 

I wish they interviewed  McKayla Maroney.

Edited October 8, 2020 by HartofDixie

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S1.E5: Abuse and Healing in Women’s Gymnastics

 

[Whimsy]

I watched all six episodes over the last couple of days.  The opening few minutes of episode 5 had me crying.  You can just see and feel the pain, especially with Olga.  

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No matter how many times I see these women talk about the abuse they suffered from Larry Nassar, it always makes me cry. And as Olga Korbut pointed out, the pain from the abuse she suffered is still there even after fifty years.

What makes me angry every time is a combination of what so many of the gymnasts have pointed out over and over: (1) the adults were supposed to protect the children and they did not (2)  when abuse was reported, the adults chose to ignore the reports (3) adults, knowing that there were abuse reports, allowed the abusers to continue to have access to hundreds of victims at a time (4) the adults aided and abetted the abusers by telling the children that they misunderstood, that they hadn't been abused. It just broke my heart when one of the girls said that she reported the abuse and was told that there were "only" X number of complaints (I think she said it was six?) and she asked how many people had to report abuse before anything was one. ONLY six reports? One is too many, assholes!

Although they barely mentioned Olga's story, the internet told me that he got her drunk on cognac and then raped her (in addition to years of sexual and physical abuse). He was investigated in 1981 after one of his 17 year old gymnasts attempted suicide and left a note saying that he was the reason she wanted to die because he had been sexually abusing her since she was 14. This was 1981 Soviet Russia so of course nothing came of it.

In 2018, four other gymnasts came forward and said that he had sexually assaulted them. They said he would drive the girls home after practice and then sexually assault whoever was the last one in the car. They also said that he gave them sex toys and child pornography. His response to these accusations was to say that young gymnasts were always trying to become the coach's mistress or wife.

Olga first went public about her coach's abuse in 1999. She discussed it on a tv show in 2018 and people in the audience blamed her for what happened. You can read more about the accusations against Olga's coach here. Of note: the article casually mentions that the coach's current wife (in 2018) was a former student of his.

[hookedontv]

@ElectricBoogaloo Thank  you so much for posting these episodes here.

I was always fascinated with watching gymnastics as a child (a one-handed cartwheel was about as far as I got myself) and remember so many of these athletes, including Nadia and to a smaller degree, Olga and Cathy Rigby. 

Such a beautiful and brutal sport. The pressure on these kids is absolutely enormous. Like everyone, it is infuriating to me that adults failed these kids so miserably. Everything from creating and basically condoning eating disorders, ignoring serious injuries, not caring about the emotional well-being of these athletes, to the horrendous sexual abuse that people were well aware of and chose to do nothing. Nothing. 

It was nice though to see some regain their love and joy for the sport, like Katelyn Ohashi. And some of the athletes (can't remember all names) who went on to coach and have been able to create a more nurturing and understanding environment focused on positive reinforcement and encouragement.

On 9/27/2020 at 5:02 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I had to laugh when Daniela Silivas said that she hates all the comments about her permed hair and that "everyone had hair like that in the 80s." Girl, no.

^^^ This. I had a wavy perm in the 80s with a bob haircut, similar to Molly RIngwald. It did NOT look like Daniela's hair. Daniela is rewriting history to save face LOL. 

I am looking forward to the last episode. 

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S1.E6: Building a World-Class Gymnastics Team

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In the final installment of our six-part documentary series, American icons Jordyn Wieber, Aly Raisman, Samantha Peszek, Dominique Moceanu, and Amanda Borden reveal how they overcame adversity to help their teams achieve greatness.

 

 

[hookedontv]

Thanks again @ElectricBoogaloo for posting the final episode (though I'm not sure sure my manager thanks you because I just watched this during work...)

I think this wrapped up very nicely. It is a shame how the gymnasts are referencing the 2020 Olympics and that's obviously not happening. And at this rate, I'm not sure it will even happen in 20201. All that hard work. I hope they keep on training and can continue on.

I cringed when they showed Kerri Strug's vaults. I remember watching this on TV during the games, and I felt like I was the only one who wasn't blown away by her doing the vault so injured. I had hoped she would have been pulled out before the second vault, it was clear she was in terrible pain and I personally didn't find anything noble about it. I felt like it was Karolyi bullying her into doing it and an example of how much influence these coaches had over their athletes. They were parading her around afterwards when they got the medal and the look of pain and fear on her face was clear. I felt really bad for her. I did feel that this episode glossed over Kerri's pain and suffering. Maybe that's just me, I couldn't see past that. 

On a lighter note, can we talk about the tragic eyebrows on some of these gymnasts throughout the years? Someone needed to remove the tweezers. I'm looking at you, Jordyn!

[andromeda331]

Thanks for posting the episodes. The abuse one was so infuriating. So many adults knew and they did nothing. They didn't care. If they did they would have done something. He was a doctor someone who easily could have been replaced. But nope. They did nothing and let him contiune to abuse more gymnasts. They should be arrested and charged too. The poor girls working so hard to try and make their dreams come true while being abused in everyway. 

I loved watching the last episode. But now knowing what they all went through. Its bittersweet. The Atlanta was so amazing. Yet at the same time you watch it now knowing how the Karolis were treating the gymnasts and there's Nassar. Right there having already molested hundreds of gymnast and would continue for another nineteen years. Nineteen! There's no excuse for that. I loved Amanda Borden walking about that team gymnastic and seeing the USA in first place. I remember that too. It was the first time it had ever happened. I still remember every moment from watching that competition. Being excited and nervous at the same time. US women's gymnastic team had come so close so many times and something always happened or questionial scoring. Remaining in first for the first three rotations. Then came the vault. It should have been an win. But then Dominique's fall. Was it going to happen again? Being so close only for something to go wrong. I felt for Dominique too. It would be so hard to be the one that messed up. Maybe it was nerves, excitement, pressure or none of that and just a fall. Then Kerri and her injury. I really didn't think she could do the second vault. I didn't think anything at the time about being pressured/forced to do it by Karoli I assumed that it was just like any athlete who got an injury but tried to keep playing. She did it and stuck the landing. It was so amazing. She did a great job. They all did. They were all so amazing. But you didn't have to bully, pressure or break gymnasts to accomplish it. I loved seeing the Beijing, and London competitions. Again bittersweet knowing now how many of them had been abused by Nassar. Who once again could be stopped decades ago! But didn't. I love pointing out they had one job. To protect the gymnasts and failed. Exactly right. Throw each one in jail. There is no excuse for not stopping him sooner. 

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Producers Guild of America award!

Outstanding Sports Program

“Defying Gravity: The Untold Story of Women’s Gymnastics” (S1) (YouTube)

[andromeda331]

4 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Producers Guild of America award!

Outstanding Sports Program

“Defying Gravity: The Untold Story of Women’s Gymnastics” (S1) (YouTube)

That's great!

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10 hours ago, andromeda331 said:

That's great!

Honestly, when I initially saw that it had been nominated, I just assumed that they weren't going to actually give the award to something that aired on YouTube. I'm glad that I was wrong!