Emilia Eberle Comes Forward; Anna Pavlova Injured
Hello everyone! I am pleased to see that I’m getting a fair amount of traffic to my blog, and I want to give a special shout out to my friends from St. Catharines, Tallahassee, West Hollywood and New York City!
There are a few important tidbits of news circulating in the gymnastics world this week. To begin with, it has come to light that former gymnast Emilia Eberle (now known as Trudi Kollar) and choreographer Geza Pozsar are writing a book describing the alleged physical and emotional abuse they suffered or witnessed in Romania at the hands of Bela and Marta Karolyi. They have American Dominique Moceanu in their corner, too. She has been speaking out against the Karolyis’ training methods since before the Beijing Olympics, and has now encouraged others to do the same. More to follow when the tell-all book is eventually published….
Emilia Eberle, 1979 Chunichi Cup, Uneven Bars
Now for a bit of bad news: over the weekend, Anna Pavlova (one of my favourites!) tore her ACL on her 2.5-twist Balance Beam dismount at the DTB Cup in Stuttgart, Germany. She was carried off the podium by her coach/mother. Best wishes for a speedy recovery!
Here’s a montage which highlights her career up to and including the injury. Interestingly, it’s set to her Floor Exercise music from the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
Anna Pavlova Montage
November 20th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Do you know why Emilia changed her name to Trudi?? Very interesting turn of events. I enjoyed the montage showing Pavlova evolve from a promising young gymnast to a very accomplished leader of her team. I really hope she recovers quickly and continues her success!
November 20th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Hi RJL,
This gymnast’s full name is Gertrud Emilia Eberle, and she was asked to compete for Romania under her middle name because it sounded more ethnically Romanian. Her first name, Gertrud, reflects her Hungarian roots.
I also hope that Pavlova recovers quickly from her injuries. I think she was scheduled to undergo surgery today in Moscow. Let’s hope that Chusovitina recovers from her Achilles tear soon, too!
Gymbit