1952WAGAAU

1952 Olympic Trials for women. They did quite well here. But they got no support from the USOC for practices after that, and went to the Games a bit earlier than other teams just so then they could get as much training as possible. They were thus not as good by the time of the competition. Worse, they were allowed no international competition between their bronze medal performance in 1948 and 1952, and they discovered to their horror the sport was completely different. This affected us everywhere but especially the team drill, a group rhythmic exercise worth 80 points of the team score. They were 9th after comulsories, went to 13th in optioinals, the team drill dropped us to 15th of 16 teams. The AAU learned nothing, giving no international competition from 1952 to 1956.
Clara Schroth, compulsory bars.
Quick clip of unknown gymnast followed by Meta Elste, compulsory bars.
Schroth, optional floor, note that floor was not yet done to music.
Marian Barone, optional floor.
I think this is Barone, missing her vault, but she hit the second one.
Dorothy Dalton, optional vault.
Unknown gymnast, vault, then Dalton, optional bars.
Tumblers. Won by Barbara Galleher, who claimed to be 16, but was really 12!