Quotes from Gymnasts Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mo Huilan

She was right about being small. When she competed in the Atlanta Olympics at the age of 17, Mo was only 4'6" inches tall. Her petite stature and tremendous strength earned her the nickname "Mighty Mo." However, her status as a crowd-pleaser probably had more to do with the fact that she was amazingly talented and polished, a "complete" gymnast - one that's equally good at all four events.

Answer: Svetlana Boginskaya

Svetlana Boginskaya, known to gymnastics fans as "the Belorussian Swan," competed in three Olympics - twice for the Soviet team and then for her native Belarus, after the breakup of the U.S.S.R. Boginskaya advises gymnasts, "If you love the sport, don't stop!"

Answer: Gina Gogean

The shy Gogean found interviews awkward and the spotlight too bright. She was known as much for her solemn, unsmiling expression as for her impressive consistency. One gymnastics announcer observed that she always looked like she was competing at her own funeral.

However, this didn't stop Gogean from quietly motoring her way to five Olympic medals (including an all-around silver in the Atlanta Games in 1996) and 13 World Championship medals, 7 of them gold.

Answer: Rozalia Galieva

Roza Galieva knew something about perspective. Bad luck plagued her throughout her career. In 1992, she had an excellent qualifying round at the World Championships, but the next day she suddenly took ill. The story there was that a teammate allegedly poisoned her by slipping alcoholic pills into her drink.

She was forced to withdraw from that competition. In 1992, she qualified to the all-around competition in the Olympic Games, but her coaches decided to pull her out in favor of Tatiana Gutsu, who went on to win that title.

In 1996, she competed for the new Russia and was in the best shape of her life. Again, her Olympic dream was shattered when the American crowd's loud cheering drowned out her floor music twice - once during the team competition, once during the all-around.

She was marked off for it both times, and many believe that she was robbed of an all-around medal in that Games as well.

Answer: Svetlana Khorkina

Khorkina is rather notorious in the world of gymnastics: either you love her or hate her, no in-betweens. The self-proclaimed diva has earned much criticism from gymnastics fans for her bad sportsmanship, (among other things, she's actually walked out of several competitions, while they were going on because she had a fall and didn't want to waste her time finishing the meet) and her decision to pose topless in the Russian Playboy. On the other hand, no one can deny that she has brought a new look to the sport.

She and her coach Boris Pilkin have played a huge part in destroying the myth that only young, tiny women can succeed in the sport. Khorkina's amazing longevity in elite gymnastics, her smooth lines, and her spectacular, innovative gymnastics are always a delight to fans.

Answer: Dina Kochetkova

Kochetkova, who hails from Moscow, is perhaps best known for defeating Shannon Miller at the 1994 Goodwill Games. However, she was also the 1994 World Champion on floor exercise, the 1996 World Champion on balance beam, and a member of the silver-medal winning Russian team at the 1996 Olympic Games.

Answer: Yelena Piskun

Although she was never really a star, the quiet Piskun was the backbone of the Belarussian team for most of the 1990s. She was very popular in the United States because of her many appearances at American invitational competitions. She was the World Champion on vault in 1993, and tied for the World Championships title on uneven bars in 1996. Considering that the gym in her hometown of Bobruysk didn't even have a regulation-size vaulting runway or floor mat, her successes in the sport are nothing short of amazing. Piskun retired in 1997 after a knee injury forced her out of the sport.

She now lives and coaches in the United States.

Answer: Lyudmila Turischeva

Although often overshadowed by her more popular teammate Olga Korbut, Turischeva was without a doubt the top gymnast of the early 1970s. She was the Olympic all-around champion at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich (the same Olympics that saw Korbut's astounding rise to popularity). Turischeva's defeat by upstart Romanian 13-year-old Nadia Comaneci at the 1975 European Championships, has often been seen as a turning point for gymnastics, the place in which it stopped being "women's" gymnastics and started becoming a sport for small women.

Answer: Lavinia Milosovici

Be that as it may, who could forget Milosovici? She was on the world stage for most of the 1990s and won a World or Olympic title on every individual event, although that one major all-around title always eluded her. "For me, the motivation is to show everybody that I'm not finished, that I have the power to do more..." She went on to win 6 Olympic medals and 12 World Championship medals, and she reigns as the last woman to have earned a perfect ten in an Olympic Games (she accomplished that feat with her floor exercise in 1992 in Barcelona).

Many believe that it is likely that she will hold that title for a long, long time. In the Olympics held in 1996 and 2000, no one even came close. Most gymnastics fans believe that the Code of Points has gotten so difficult since then, that it has become impossible to receive a 10.

Answer: Henrietta Onodi

Onodi was Hungary's shining star in the late 1980s and early '90s. She capped off her career at the 1992 Olympic Games, when she tied Lavinia Milosovici for the gold medal on vault, and then finished right behind Milosovici's perfect ten to win a silver on floor.

She started training again three months before the 1996 Olympic Games and made the Hungarian team once again. Although she did not medal at that games, she did fall easily into the role of team leader, becoming a mentor to her younger teammates.