Gymnasts Born In 1982, How Did Their Careers Turn Out To Be?

These gymnasts were the most immediately affected by the new age rules. Up until 1996, the minimum age requirement was 15 years old, starting in 1997 it was raised to 16 years old. This generation was set to turn senior in 1997 but had to wait until 1998 and the bad news about 98, there were no World Championships, so, for many it was just Tianjin 1999 and Sydney 2000.

And talking about Sydney, as we all know the Chinese team was disqualified from their 1999 World Team Bronze and 2000 Olympic Team Bronze after it was discovered Dong Fangxiao was underage. This meant that 1982-borns, Elise Ray and Jamie Dantzscher became Olympic Team Bronze Medallists and it also meant Ling Jie lost her World team bronze medal from 1999 and her Olympic team bronze medal from Sydney.

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Elise Ray (USA) February 6th: The bars silver medallist from the 1998 Goodwill Games she went on to make the 1999 World Team where she placed 8^th all-around and 7th on the uneven bars. The toe-on Tkachev is named after her in the Code of Points.

In 2000 she became the National All-Around Champion and she also won the Olympic Trials. In Sydney, she contributed the highest bars score, a 9.725 toward her team’s original fourth-place finish and placed 8th on beam.

After her retirement, she competed NCAA for the University Of Michigan. In 2016 Elise was named Head Coach of the Washington Gymnastics Program. As a reference former Canadian elite Madison Copiak competes for the University of Washington. 

Vanessa Atler (USA) February 17^th. Just 11 days younger than her teammate, Vanessa was the Junior National All-Around Champion in 1996. Even though she was not age-eligible she competed in the 1997 Senior U.S. Nationals and became Co-National All-Around Champion along with Kristy Powell. At the 1998 Goodwill Games she took the gold medals on vault and Floor, she won the same events at the Copa Gimnástica in Mexico and better yet, she had a good bars routine that included the difficult Comaneci release.

As it is well-known Vanessa began struggling with bars in 1997 and the struggles just became bigger as the years went by. Many have asked why didn’t she stop training them? Well, at the time, a gymnast had to be an all-arounder, there was very little room for specialists.

Struggling with an ankle injury in 1999, Vanessa had a bad World Championships placing 31^st in the all-around after a bad bars routine and a Floor routine that had two falls and to avoid another fall and more injury to her ankle her third pass was only a simple layout.

By 2000 she had switched gyms and was training at WOGA, however, the change in coaching did not provide a solution to her bars issues and after a scary fall from the beam during the Olympic Trials, she was not named to the team bound for Sydney.

In her post-gymnastics life, Vanessa wrote a children’s book called the “Let The River Flow” where she encourages kids to enjoy the experience of the sport and not to focus only on results. She’s also a coach.

Lisa Mason (GBR) February 26^th. She was the vault champion at the 1998 Commonwealth Games and she also finished an incredible fourth on Floor at that year’s Europeans. At the 1999 World Championships she was 25^th all-around and in Sydney, she also advanced to the all-around final. Her best scoring event at the Olympics was beam: during the qualification round she scored a 9.662 and in the individual all-around final she scored a 9.537.

She retired after Sydney but tried to make a comeback as Athens grew closer however not long after she realized she was pregnant with daughter Yarlana who was born in 2005. In 2012 she was invited to do exhibition routines for the London Olympics, the presentations inspired her to make another comeback and she was present in the domestic British scene between 2013 and 2015. In 2017, she welcomed her second daughter, Sienna

Related: A Gymnast Makes a Comeback 12 Years After Leaving The Sport

Ludmilla Ezhova (RUS) March 4^th: In her senior debut in 1998 she made the Russian team competing at home-Europeans. There she won silver with her team and bronze on beam but after that competition, we didn’t see her in any major international meet until 2001 when she reappaered at the Universiade taking gold in the all-around and beam and bronze on bars.

The next four years were the most successful of her career. Se was the silver medallist on beam at the 2001 World Championships, the bronze medallist on uneven bars at the 2002 World Championships, and again a beam medallist (bronze) at the 2003 World Championships. She was named to the 2004 Olympic Team and contributed on bars and beam towards her team’s third-place finish.

Bars and beam were always her standout events. On bars she has a transition named after her (swing backward with 1/2 turn to catch low bar). You can watch the skill at 00:38 from her Olympic bars routine. On beam aside from her two World medals she also owns a bronze from the 1998 Europeans and a gold from the 2002 Europeans.

In 2005 she took time off and got married to Georgy Grebenkov so when she reappeared she was Ludmilla Grebenkova. She continued to compete and eventually made the 2008 Russian Olympic Team that finished fourth due to three large mistakes during the team final. Ludmilla herself had fallen off the beam, the only apparatus she competed in Beijing.

Currently, Ludmilla and Georgy live in the United States. They coached at WOGA for some time but they now run Golden Grip Gymnastics in Plano Texas. They have two children.

Related: Get To Know The Gymnasts Named “Ludmilla”

Jamie Dantzscher (USA) May 2^nd: The National Champion on bars in 1999 she was part of the 1999 World Team that placed 6th in the team final. The bronze medallist in the all-around at the 2000 U.S. Nationals she went on to make the Sydney Olympic Team scoring high on bars and Floor towards the United States original fourth-place finish. After her retirement, she competed NCAA for UCLA.

Maria Olaru (ROM) June 4: Vault was certainly her best event. She was the Junior European Champion in 1996 and in 1998 she took the European silver medal and in 1999 she won a world bronze medal on the apparatus. But in 1999 a much bigger honor came for her, she became only the second Romanian, and to date, the last one, to become World All-Around Champion.

In Sydney 2000 she was part of the team that won Romania’s first team gold medal at a fully attended Olympics and individually she placed third all-around behind teammates Andreea Raducan and Simona Amanar.

Adriana Crisci (ITA) July 24th: She was born in Germany to an Italian father and Greek mother and moved to Turin as young child. At the 1998 Europeans she was 8th all-around. Two years later she was 18th all-around at the 2000 Europeans. Italy qualified a full team to the Sydney Olympics where they finished 11th in the preliminary round. Individually, Adriana placed 27th in the all-around competition. She competed in 2001 but was retired by 2002. She made a comeback a decade later, in the 2012-2016 period and while she did not get international assignments she did compete domestically.

Elena Zamolodchikova (RUS) September 19^th: Celebrating her 18^th birthday during the Olympic Team final in Sydney her participation was not particularly a happy one as she fell from the beam.  Unfortunately for her she also fell during the all-around final but success would finally come to her during the vault and Floor finals where she was the gold medallist.

From all the gymnasts born in 1982, she was the one with the longest career competing non-stop for a decade although she only made two Olympics, Sydney and Athens. She made the 2007 World Team but when Beijing rolled around she was not considered for the Olympic Team.  She reappeared at the World Cup Final in Madrid in December of 2008 and placed fourth on Floor. A few months later after the Summer Universiade in 2009 she retired and became a judge and a coach.

Ling Jie (CHN) October 22^nd. At home World Championships in Tianjin in 1999, she won the World Title on beam and the bronze on the uneven bars. In Sydney, she captured silver on bars. She attended the 2000 World Cup Final where she won gold on bars and bronze on beam. She briefly competed during 2001 before retiring. She’s a coach in her native China and at one point during her career, she coached Zeng Siqi.