- Julissa Gomez
Infobox Gymnast
gymnastname= Julissa Gomez
imagesize=
caption=
fullname= Julissa D'Anne Gomez
nickname=
country= USA
formercountry=
birthdate= birth date|1972|11|04|mf=y
birthplace=San Antonio, Texas
hometown=
deathdate= death date and age|1991|08|08|1972|11|04|mf=y
deathplace=Houston, Texas
height=
discipline= WAG
level= Senior international
natlteam=
club=Karolyi's; GAGE
gym=
collegeteam=
headcoach=
assistcoach=
formercoach=Béla Károlyi ;Marta Károlyi ; Al Fong
choreographer=
music=
eponymousskills=
retired=Julissa D'anne Gomez (
November 4 ,1972 –August 8 ,1991 ) was an Americangymnast . She was born in San Antonio,Texas .Gomez was an up-and-coming international elite gymnast in the mid-1980s. She trained with
Béla Károlyi in Houston from the age of 10. [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/osm/story/0,6903,1654132,00.html "Tales from the vaults"] Rebecca Seal, "Guardian Unlimited", 4 December 2005.] At the 1986 U.S. Championships, she placed fourth in the all-around in the junior division and won a place on the U.S. National Team. [ [http://www.gymn-forum.net/results/JunUSA/Women/1986.html Results from 1986 Jr. Nationals at Gymn-Forum] ] By 1987 she was representing the United States in international meets. Especially strong on theuneven bars andbalance beam , Gomez was considered a legitimate contender for the 1988 U.S. Olympic team.In mid-1987, Gomez left the Károlyis, briefly trained at
US Acrosports , [ [http://www.gymn-forum.net/results/USNat/Women/1987.html Results from 1987 U.S. Nationals at Gymn-Forum] ] and moved toMissouri to train withAl Fong . In the spring of 1988, several months before the Olympics, she traveled toJapan to compete in theWorld Sports Fair . In an eerie foreshadowing of events to come, during the qualifying rounds of the competition, Gomez reportedly spoke about the Soviet gymnastElena Mukhina , who had been paralyzed in an accident in 1980 just a few weeks before the Moscow Olympics. [ [http://www.gymnpics.com/gymnasticgreats/memorial/gomez.htm Memorial at Gymnastics Greats] ] cite book | last = Ryan | first = Joan | title = Little Girls in Pretty Boxes | publisher = Doubleday | location = Garden City | year = 1995 | isbn = 9780385477901 ]While Gomez had qualified for the vault final, she had also been struggling with the event for some time. Many people close to Gomez, including her former coach, Béla Károlyi; her present coach, Al Fong; and several teammates from both gyms, had noticed her shaky technique on her Yurchenko vault. Julissa did not feel comfortable with the vault and was not able to consistently perform it safely even in practice, sometimes missing her feet on the springboard. A teammate from Károlyi's,
Chelle Stack , later stated, "You could tell it was not a safe vault for her to be doing. Someone along the way should have stopped her." However, Julissa's coaches insisted that she needed to continue training and competing the Yurchenko vault in order to achieve high scores.During warmups for the final, Gomez's foot slipped off the springboard as she performed the Yurchenko. Her head hit the vaulting horse at high speed, and the resulting crash paralyzed her. [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE4DB103BF93BA35756C0A96E948260 "Gymnast paralyzed"] "The New York Times", May 8 1988.] A subsequent accident at a Japanese hospital, in which she became disconnected from her
ventilator , resulted in severebrain damage and left her in acatatonic state. Gomez's family cared for her for three years before she succumbed to an infection and died in 1991 in Houston.The Gomez tragedy stands as one of the most serious accidents ever to occur in artistic gymnastics, and helped prompt changes in the sport. In 1989, the
International Gymnastics Federation decided to increase vaulting safety by allowing U-shaped springboard mats, traditionally utilized in practice to give gymnasts a greater margin of error in preflight, to be used during competitions. The mat is now mandatory: as of the 2006 "Code of Points", performing a Yurchenko-style vault without the safety mat results in an automatic score of zero. [ [http://www.fig-gymnastics.com/index2.jsp?menu=RULES "Code of Points"] at the official website of the International Federation of Gymnastics (FIG):Section 8.4, "Specific Apparatus Deductions (A Panel), page 34.] In 2001, the traditional horse was completely phased out and replaced by a larger, more stable vaulting table to provide gymnasts with additional safety.References
External links
* [http://www.gymnpics.com/gymnasticgreats/memorial/gomez.htm Memorial at Gymnastic Greats]
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