May 2020 – saleintothe90s

The other night I was watching the women’s gymnastics events final at the 1992 Olympics. I believe Lu Li of China was on the balance beam? when commentator John Tesh (yes, that John Tesh) mentioned that the Chinese team had been docked 1 tenth of a point during the team competition because of their leotards. I started searching, and found this UPI article:

BARCELONA, Spain – Showing a little too much buttock will cost you in women’s gymnastics.

Two gymnasts from China and one from Czechoslovakia were penalized Monday for dress-code violations during their compulsories.

Zhang Xia and Lu Li were docked one-tenth of a point in China’s team score. Daniela Bartova of Czechoslovakia also was penalized a one-tenth, but that penalty will be taken from her individual score because Czechoslovakia is not entered in the team event.

Dress-code penalties are levied for only two reasons – immodesty or wearing a uniform different in style or color from those of teammates.

The penalties were levied by the International Gymnastics Federation’s Jury of Appeals, one day after the women’s compulsories. Officials did not specify the nature of the violation, but the gymnasts’ leotards apparently showed more leg than allowed. 2

I went back and tried to find footage from the compulsories. All I found were the two Chinese gymnasts, Zhang Xia, and Lu Li. Daniela Bartova’s performances on YouTube were not from the compulsories.

I … guess that’s a high legged leotard

That’s definitely butt.

1.
Gutman, Dan. Gymnastics. New York: Puffin Books, 2014.

2.
UPI. “Olympics Notebook.” Accessed May 21, 2020. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/07/27/Olympics-Notebook/5392712209600/.

I’m absolutely terrified of escalators. I don’t like the “up” escalator, because you’re going high up in the air, under no control of your own, you worry about falling over the side, even if you know you’re far too big to fall over the side. The “down” one scares me even more, seeing those all those little teeth on the edge of the stairs, ready to stab your body if you stumble while getting on the step. I know, I still have the scar on my knee from when I stumbled getting on a stair at the old Sears at the old Newmarket Fair Mall in ‘99.

Speaking of Newmarket, this is where this entry started. During this quarantine, I’ve been working on reviving my retail history blog. I have access to Proquest, so I’ve been getting newspaper articles about my two dead malls in the town I grew up in. I found one article about Newmarket that made me incredibly sad, realizing that I had walked by the site where a girl was killed because she was playing on an escalator so many times growing up.

(Daily Press, May 9, 1989)

This was before the mall was renovated into “Newmarket Fair” in 1990. I was five when this accident happened, so I didn’t even know there was a set of escalators there until I found the article.

(from my blog)

The escalators were replaced by a large glass paneled elevator and stairs during the renovations. Newmarket Fair stopped being a mall by the late 90s, and the anchor stores, and then eventually the smaller stores became offices in the early 00s. The building is now called Netcenter.

Month: May 2020

413. “skimpy leotards” at the 1992 Olympics

412. Escalator Accident at Newmarket North Mall, May 8, 1989