Dianne Durham is widely remembered as a trailblazer who paved the way for future black Olympians. But the truth is, Dianne Durham was far more than that. Dianne Durham didn’t just set up other black gymnasts to have future success, Dianne Durham exemplified the highest standards of success and black excellence three decades before Gabby Douglas. To this day Dianne Durham remains one of the most talented black gymnasts the sport has ever seen. It could be argued she was the most talented American of the entire 1981-1984 quad.
Don’t believe me? Well consider this…
In 1981 Dianne Durham won the Junior National Championships. In 1982 she won the Junior National Championships for the second time in a row. Then in 1983 she won the National Championships in her senior debut while also winning a critical international competition, the 1983 Pre-Olympics. Then in 1984 the United States held a dual meet with China. This event was designed to see how their Olympic candidates would perform in international competition on the eve of the Olympics. Dianne Durham won that competition as well, beating six Olympians in the process.
When Durham was around the age of 12-13, she competed in apartheid South Africa and took the top prize with a dominating margin of victory of 1.45 points. It goes without saying that Dianne Durham wasn’t the type of gymnast to get rattled while competing in unfavorable circumstances.
It’s not so much a crazy notion to proclaim Dianne Durham was the greatest American gymnast of the early 1980s, but an honest assessment proven by the results themselves. Eventual 1984 Olympic All-Around Champion Mary Lou Retton had actually lost to Dianne Durham a majority of the time the two gymnasts faced each other. Adding credence to the notion that Dianne Durham had strong potential to dominate the 1984 Olympics.
Three decades before Gabby Douglas, a black gymnast hadn’t just paved the way for future black gymnasts to have success, but had achieved the highest level of success herself. Dianne Durham was every bit as good as Gabby Douglas. The only difference between the two gymnasts, Gabby Douglas was able to demonstrate her talent on the world stage whereas Durham was denied that opportunity.
The general public would never come to know this story because Dianne Durham never appeared in an Olympic Games. Dianne was rendered ineligible for the 1984 Olympic team due to a poorly designed selection procedure that didn’t do enough to account for a scenario where a top gymnast had to withdraw from a qualifying competition due to injury. Further adding to the problem was conflicting accounts as to how precisely Dianne Durham was able to withdraw from a key qualifying competition without it being properly explained to her that by doing so, it would cost her a spot on the Olympic team.
It went down as one of the most infamous moments in USA Gymnastics history that its top-ranked athlete had been eliminated from the Olympic team on a technicality. Even more so considering the racial dynamics involved as it had occurred in regards to a black athlete in a predominately white sport. To this day the exact specifics of how this was even allowed to happen remain cloudy and I have seen coaches blame other coaches, USAG blame the U.S. Olympic Committee, and senior officials blame Bela Karolyi.
As for Dianne’s opinion on the topic of race impacting her career, in 2020 she said the following:
“In my own life and gymnastics career I encountered discrimination and prejudice. It didn’t stop me from reaching all of my goals, but it did play a role in preventing me from reaching some of my biggest goals. I have been blessed to have had the support of family and friends of all races to help me get through the tough times.”
Not only is Dianne Durham statistically one of the most successful black gymnasts who has ever worn an American leotard, she also ranks as one of the program’s most successful gymnasts to have never appeared in a World Championships or Olympic Games. In doing so, Dianne Durham is the rare example of an American gymnast whose career fits a profile similar to that of Tatiana Groshkova. One of the causalities of a sport where a high injury rate combined with short careers create scenarios where a fan favorite never appears in a major competition.
Dianne Durham represented the very best gymnastics had to offer, both inside the gym and outside of it. Her interviews were always filled with positivity and she remained dedicated to the sport first in a coaching role and later as a judge. One of the common themes in messages of condolences in regards to her recent passing was everybody being proud to have called her a friend.
Dianne Durham once said that being inducted into USAG’s Hall of Fame “would heal some wounds and show me that the federation acknowledges that my career mattered.” It was a reference to the other major slight in Dianne Durham’s career. Just like bureaucratic red tape had rendered Durham ineligible for a spot on the 1984 Olympic team, she was also inexplicably not inducted into the Hall of Fame. This in spite of her status as a former National Champion which gives her a stronger resume than many of the gymnasts who have already been inducted.
But Dianne Durham’s career did matter. Dianne Durham proves that there is more to this sport than simply the gymnasts who appeared in its two most prestigious competitions. That there are plenty of fascinating gymnasts who never appeared in either of them. Dianne was a trailblazer for over a dozen black gymnasts that have since won medals at the World Championships/Olympic level. She proved that not only could a black gymnast have success in gymnastics, but they could rise to the highest level and achieve the top ranking in the American program.
But most importantly, Dianne’s career proved you don’t need to be inducted into a Hall of Fame or appear in a major international competition to leave a legacy. Durham’s legacy speaks for itself. When news of Dianne’s illness and later her death became known to the gymnastics community, the legends of the sport quickly paid tribute to her.
Among them were Marcia Frederick, Daniela Silivas, Hana Ricna, Doris Fuchs, Natalia Yurchenko, Betty Okino, and even Nadia Comaneci herself. Because they all saw Dianne Durham as one of themselves and her passing represented an irreplaceable loss. Dianne Durham may not have the Olympic medals to prove she was one of the most remarkable gymnasts the sport had ever seen, but make no mistake about it, she absolutely was.
An Old School Gymnastics Blog 
FEBRUARY 2, 2021 AT 4:46 PM
The Dianne Durham situation and the issue at the 1984 Olympic Trials was very open and transparent. Simply stated, the USOC had to approve the selection procedures for the Olympic Team Selection process. If you were in the USGF Nationals and the Trials, you could not petition. Your scores were used to earn your place / rank. Petitions were only allowed if you missed one or both of these events. Dianne was in the last rotation in the final selection process of the trials. She had one event to go, bars. She had a little problem on Vault ( the previous event ) although scored well. But as Karolyi told us, she hurt her ankle. As we prepared for the last event, Mike Milidonis, a USGF Board member and a staffer at the trials ran up to me and told me that Bela was scratching Dianne from bars. I ran to Karolyi and told him he could not scratch her and that she had to do bars… because there were no petitions. He said, Oh she hurt her ankle”… I said, ” ok, have her do bars and drop off.! ” .. she will still make the team even with a point deduction, she was in 3rd or 4th place at the time ! We told Karolyi this and what he had to do and this was stated to him by 3 USGF staff / and judges as well as Shiela Walker, the representative of the USOC! I said “Bela, this is not Rumania… no petitions… she will lose her chance to be on the team…”
Bela did not listen to any of us even when we pleaded to him to have her do bars. So Dianne took a zero on the event. It dropped her below tenth place. In the press conference afterwards, Bela was asked why he scratched Dianne. He mentioned her sore ankle… then said, ” I am sure the Olympic Committee will put her on the team.” Shiela Walker from the USOC followed Bela and said, ” we told him the ramifications if he pulled her off bars… there are no petitions onto the Olympic Team!” I am of the opinion that Bela did not want Dianne on the team because she was one of our best Gymnasts and could win. From someone who always understood the politics, Karolyi used politics against Dianne. As far as the race issue goes, I have said this many time… Dianne won 2 Junior Nationals and the USGF Senior Nationals in 1983… because she was the best ! Thats why she won !!! Dianne was treated like all the athletes, except by Karolyi. If Dianne had done bars, she would have made the team. And, she might have beaten Mary Lou… who knows..
This was a flawed selection process. It had been used in yers previously and everyone knew how it worked. When Bart Conner was injured in 1984 and dropped out of the National Championships, his scores in the Olympic Trials would could 100% against his ranking. Everyone who competed in the Nationals , especially the top 6, had an advantage over Bart. In the Final Olympic Trials, Bart scores placed him in the top 6 against all the other who had two competitors to earn their place. He made the team and Became a Two time Olympic Champion. If Karolyi had let Dianne do bars, she would have made the team. Who knows what might have happened if she did. As sad and disappointing as this was, the problem was not the process. It was the decision by one person. That is something I will always question and wonder about… especially now !
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Mike Jacki
FEBRUARY 5, 2021 AT 6:17 PM ( with some corrections )
FEBRUARY 2, 2021 AT 4:46 PM
The Dianne Durham situation and the issue at the 1984 Olympic Trials was very open and transparent. Simply stated, the USOC had to approve the selection procedures for the Olympic Team Selection process. If you were in the USGF Nationals and the Trials, you could not petition. Your scores were used to earn your place / rank. Petitions were only allowed if you missed one or both of these events. Dianne was in the last rotation in the final selection process of the trials. She had one event to go, bars. She had a little problem on Vault ( the previous event ) although scored well. But as Karolyi told us, she hurt her ankle. As we prepared for the last event, Mike Milidonis, a USGF Board member and a staffer at the trials ran up to me and told me that Bela was scratching Dianne from bars. I ran to Karolyi and told him he could not scratch her and that she had to do bars… because there were no petitions. He said, Oh she hurt her ankle”… I said, ” ok, have her do bars and drop off ! .. she will still make the team even with a point deduction !” She was in 3rd or 4th place at the time ! We told Karolyi this and what he had to do and this was stated to him by 3 USGF staff / and judges as well as Shiela Walker, the representative of the USOC! I said “Bela, this is not Rumania… no petitions… she will lose her chance to be on the team…!! ”
Bela did not listen to any of us even when we pleaded to him to have her do bars. So Dianne took a zero on the event. It dropped her below tenth place. In the press conference afterwards, Bela was asked why he scratched Dianne. He mentioned her sore ankle… then said, ” I am sure the Olympic Committee will put her on the team.” Shiela Walker from the USOC followed Bela and said, ” we told him the ramifications if he pulled her off bars… there are no petitions onto the Olympic Team!” I am of the opinion that Bela did not want Dianne on the team because she was one of our best Gymnasts and could win. From someone who always understood the politics, Karolyi used politics against Dianne. As far as the race issue goes, I have said this many time… Dianne won 2 Junior Nationals and the USGF Senior Nationals in 1983… because she was the best ! Thats why she won !!! Dianne was treated like all the athletes, except by Karolyi. If Dianne had done bars, she would have made the team. And, she might have beaten Mary Lou… who knows..
This was NOT a flawed selection process. It had been used in years previously and everyone knew how it worked. When Bart Conner was injured in 1984 and dropped out of the National Championships, his scores in the Olympic Trials would count 100% against his ranking. Everyone who competed in the Nationals , especially the top 6, had an advantage over Bart. In the Final Olympic Trials, Bart scores placed him in the top 6 against all the other who had two competitions to earn their place. He made the team and became a Two time Olympic Champion. If Karolyi had let Dianne do bars, she would have made the team. Who knows what might have happened if she did. As sad and disappointing as this was, the problem was not the process. It was the decision by one person. That is something I will always question and wonder about… especially now !
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Great article!!!
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Great gymnast and athlete as I was able to see Diane compete on national television. A super power house!
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It was well known that Don Peters did not want Dianne on the Olympic team too. He thought that the judges would not score a Black gymnast well. A horrible and racist thought to have. However, with Mr. Peters it looks like he was far from a stellar example of how a coach or anyone for that matter should conduct themselves.
Why did it take so long to ban Don Peters? Not stopping Don Peters when it was known what he was doing in the 1980’s led to Larry Nasser and others. The abuse of gymnasts went back to the 1980’s. Shame on everyone in a position of power who ignored it.
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The above comment is completely unfounded and is without any basis. I was a judge at the Olympic trials, and what Mike Jacki says is 100% correct. Everyone told him to not scratch Dianne from the meet. Bela is the one who messed things up. Don Peters had nothing to do with it and I can assure you he did not influence any of us to mark Dianne lower because of race or politics of whatever. I will comment that much of the competition was not televised and Dianne’s injury was definitely hampering her; I believe she even had some breaks in compulsories and was teetering in that 6th spot if I remember correctly. And I disagree that Bela saw her as competition to Mary Lou and therefore wanted her off the team. That makes no sense to me, he simply was pig headed and thought that he could work the magic behind the scenes to get her on the team like he did previously with the Romanian team. Interestingly enough, this was the only time he was denied manipulating the team composition: he clearly did it for the 1991 worlds, 1992 and 2000 Olympic teams as well. I do believe that Dianne would have done well with the team, but I also think her form breaks on a few of the events would have probably hurt her compared to the Mary Lou and the Romanians, but she would have been a solid 3rd American in the AA finals and possibly made a few event finals. I do not believe she would have eclipsed Mary Lou or Julianne at the LA Games had she competed.
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EDITED: Sorry for the grammatical mistakes above,
The above comment is completely unfounded and is without any basis. I was a judge at the Olympic trials, and what Mike Jacki says about Bela is 100% correct. Everyone told him to not scratch Dianne from the meet. Bela is the one who messed things up for Diane. Don Peters had nothing to do with her not making the team and I can assure you he did not influence any of us to mark Dianne lower because of race or politics or whatever. I will comment that much of the competition was not televised and Dianne’s injury was definitely hampering her; I believe she even had some breaks in compulsories and was teetering in that 6th spot if I remember correctly. And I disagree that Bela saw her as competition to Mary Lou and therefore wanted her off the team. That makes no sense to me, he simply was pig headed and thought that he could work the magic behind the scenes to get her on the team like he did previously with the Romanian team. Interestingly enough, this was not the only time he was denied manipulating the team composition: he clearly did it for the 1991 world team selection, as well as the 1992 and 2000 Olympic teams. I do believe that Dianne would have done well with as a member of Olympic team, but I also think her form breaks on a few of the events would have probably hurt her compared to the Mary Lou and the Romanians, but she would have been a solid 3rd American in the AA finals and possibly made a few event finals. I do not believe she would have eclipsed Mary Lou or Julianne at the LA Games had she competed.
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I totally agree with almost everything you said. I think that there should have been a way for Durham to have been on the USA Olympic team in 1984. It would have been nice if the selection procedures would have had a little more flexibility that could have been used in her favor, especially considering her resume, but it sounds to me like, on the surface, it was a matter of “rules are rules”.
It sounds to me from Mike Jacki’s response (if that really is THE Mike Jacki writing in, here), that the selection procedures, as they existed, were applied fairly. On one level, I can live with that. His response also seems to point to a lot of the “blame” being on Karolyi’s shoulders for not seeing to it that Durham did everything she could to qualify to the team. On one level, I have to take that at face value.
On the other hand, intuiting what I do about the sport and its politics, I think that the real culprit for her not making the team was really dirty politics with racial issues being the angle, and Karolyi has to unfairly shoulder the blame. If I am correct, these are the same dirty politics that saw to Dominique Dawes failing to go 4/4 at the 1993 Worlds, 1994 Worlds, and 1996 Olympics. I think that there were probably threats made against Dawes and Durham in those cases. I think that in the early 2000s, Kristal Uzelac was probably another such example, as Vanessa Atler and Dominique Moceanu likely were in the quad before Uzelac. These are, again, if my intuitions are correct, the same dirty politics that are responsible for such a large discrepancy in the results at World Championships versus Olympics in the pre-WWII years if you compare the great successes of European Slavic nations (Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, most notably) at the World Championships where their results are much better than they were at the Olympics IN THE EXTREME. These intuited dirty politics have upended what could have been a very different history in the sport at virtually every World Championships and Olympics ever, really.
The only real problem I have with anything you said is your argument that she was probably the best USA gymnast of the early 1980s. Although I don’t totally disagree with that statement, I think that for so long now, Mary Lou Retton’s reputation has suffered from the backlash against her for not ever competing at a World Championships, and for her not having to compete against the Eastern Bloc at the 1984 Olympics, and the zeitgeist is currently against Retton and has been for some time now, and this skews comparisons versus Durham, and the way that both of their reputations are clouded by the prevailing zeitgeist makes discussing such a comparison a really muddled issue. Although both of those realities are definitely true and definitely realities very much worthy of consideration and notation, those realities don’t necessarily mean that she nevertheless would have done really well at a fully-attended Olympics. When a good bit of footage from the 1984 Alternate Olympics was finally leaked circa 2006/2007, Mostepanova’s display of absolutely stunning technical prowess further cemented her legendary reputation. But if we were to be completely honest, it would be very hard to judge her versus Retton at a fully-attended Olympics if they had both hit because their styles of gymnastics were so extremely different from each other, and they both had strengths that the other lacked to quite a significant degree. Retton outdid Mostepanova in the power and explosivity department to no small degree (Retton, honestly, was the main one who took Power Gymnastics to a new level in the early 1980s) and rightfully would have gained some advantage due to her tumbling and vaulting. Mostepanova would have gained a huge advantage on beam – that routine was one of the best in the history of the sport. Mostepanova would have gained some advantage on bars, too, but not to the extent that she did on beam. On vault, she wouldn’t have lost by too much because although she lacked Retton’s power and explosiveness, her laid-out Yurchenko full was absolutely textbook. Floor is where she really could have lost a lot of ground to Retton, objectively speaking, unless balletic technique were valued as highly as tumbling.
The above paragraph also neglects to mention the most decorated German gymnast ever, Maxi Gnauck, who was really about as good a gymnast for her time as there ever had been – very few, ever, were her equal or superior. It also says nothing of a motivated and peaked Yurchenko, the possibility of a very young Shushunova having a great competition, Agache minus jet-lag medication issues, and Szabo not having fallen. Ma Yanhong deserves a measure of mention here of course, but more as an UB specialist, and she and Durham wouldn’t have been each other’s competitors, really.
In order for somebody to really make a case for Durham to support your strongest statements on her, they would have to take into account what her actual skills and capabilities were and how well she could have done in Los Angeles if she hadn’t been “injured” and was fully motivated for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, which I doubt she ever was (due to the dirty politics that I have repeatedly referenced here – politics or which, of course, I have no factual proof, although there is plenty of supporting suggestive material out there).
From what I have seen of Durham’s gymnastics, if you were to take the best she ever had been on all 4 events and hit to the best of her ability, I think that she would have been duking it out with McNamara for 2nd best on the US team, ***IF*** McNamara’s inconsistency on beam didn’t come to the fore. I say that because McNamara at her very best on all 4 events would have made her results in LA quite different. I think that McNamara would have re-arranged the AA medal podium, as it was otherwise. She would have, at least, displaced Pauca as the AA bronze medalist, and would have turned the race for the AA title more into a 3-way race than the 2-way race it was between Retton and Szabo. Of course, again I have to raise Agache’s medication issues again, here, because at her best, she would have potentially had a say in this.
Durham, at her very best that I have seen her do would have been in the topmost grouping with Retton, Szabo, Agache, and McNamara. I think she would have been in the top 5, although if each of those 5 had hit to the best of their ability and judged fairly, I honestly can’t predict how it all would have come out. I think that either Szabo or Agache would have won AA gold, but other than that, I honestly have a hard time predicting. I think that those 5 would have, in the AA, been in a class all of their own. Durham, at her best on vault (which would have made her a very strong thread for vault gold), would have gained ground on all of those others, except perhaps Retton. Her floor would have been competitive, too, although not as much as her vault. At her best on beam and bars, she also would have been competitive with this topmost grouping, but notice that I, again, only say “competitive”. For example, on FX, she did not quite have Retton’s tumbling ability – never a double layout, that I know of, and her full-ins, that I have seen, were not as good as Retton’s best in LA, although her combo tumbling runs would have given her a little bit of an advantage. On beam and bars, she would have lost at least a little ground against the top 1 or 2 best in the grouping I am talking about. This all balances out to making predictions really hard.
But if we add the best of the Soviets plus Maxi Gnuack to this conversation, Durham would have been very challenged. Of course, that applies equally to all gymnasts. A fully-attended 1984 Olympics would have been the best competitive field the world had ever seen (even greater than the field would have been at a fully-attended 1980 Olympics), and would not have been equaled until 1996.
The only thing I’m not taking into account in the last few paragraphs is the WHAT IF Durham hadn’t suffered under the “dirty politics” I keep suggesting and really had the green light to go for it in LA. There is no telling how much she might have peaked (including adding difficulty and cleaning up her form and technique a little) for the 1984 Olympics (and 1983 Worlds) had this been the case. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case. I do think that it’s entirely possible that she actually downplayed her abilities and showed, to a select few, even more than what we have on publicly available footage. If I am correct about that, then it’s entirely possible that she could have been the best USA gymnast in 1984, even better than a 1984 Los Angeles Retton (although I know I’m not alone in thinking that McNamara might have really, on the whole, been as good as Retton, also). But honestly, we never got to see that Dianne Durham (although a select few might have, secretly).
The real crime is that we have to wonder about this at all.
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One last time…. if Dianne had done bars and just dropped off without a dismount, she would have been on the 1984 Olympic Team. Bela pulled her from the event. It is my opinion he knew what he was doing. Many people told him and people of authority. He made his decision – and knew the consequences. Tragic, sad but typical in a sport where the athlete can be placed at risk.
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100% correct, I was there and watching this unfold, and I cannot fathom why Bela was so pig headed. This is the only reason why she was denied. She should have never been scratched.
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