Ooooh, thanks for the links. I'm going to have to make some time to watch those on the desktop, so they're big enough that I can focus on them.
If you want to march back in time - it'll help to know the names of the top gymnasts, if you don't know of them and want to search on you tube...
Laryssa Latynina - USSR 1960s
Ludmila Tourischeva - USSR late 60s/early 702
Nelli Kim - USSR 1972, 76
Olga Korbut - USSR 72, 76
Cathy Rigby (top American 1972 - long time peter pan on Broadway)
Nadia Comaneci - 76, 80 (but find videos of her in 1978 and see when puberty hit her, LOL)
Maria Filatova - 76, 80
Emilia Eberle - Romanian, 80 or therabaouts
China hit the scene in 1979 at the World Championship - although they were pretty much one trick ponies on bars for awhile...
Romania surpassed the USSR in 1979 at the World Championship - and then superseded them fairly regularly after the USSR disintegrated into all the smaller republics and states/countries...
Top US gymnasts before Mary Lou Retton in 1984:
72 Cathy Rigby
76 (can't remember)
78 Marcia Frederick won a medal at a world championship
circa 1980 - Kathy Johnson, Leslie Pyfer, Tracee Telavara and Julianne McNamara (the latter two were both too young to compete at the world championships in 79 and then of course lost their chance in 80 with the boycott)... I do believe Julianna McNamara was still hanging in there internationally by 1984, but no longer the best on the US team - the window is VERY brief for female gymnasts...
As far as I know - the US gymnasts were never TRULY competitive internationally until Karolyi came to the US and raised the bar. Prior to that, the idea of "perfection" was not exactly a strength of the Americans. Beam was always a waterloo when compared to the solid performances of the USSR and Romanians.