Bart Conner

Bart Conner ( born March 28, 1958 in Chicago, Illinois ) is a retired American gymnast. He was two -time Olympic champion.

Conner started at the age of 10 years with Gymnastics. His first success of importance was the AAU title in 1972. Immediately after his high school graduation, he accompanied the U.S. delegation the youngest member of the Summer Olympic Games in Montreal in 1976. He was 18 years old and participated in all eight competitions in Artistic Gymnastics. But only succeeded him push forward with the U.S. gymnastics team into the top eight.

Corner then began his studies at the University of Oklahoma, which was done with his gymnastic team in the national rankings of NCAA ranked 19th. 1979 at the World Gymnastics Championships in Fort Worth, he was World Champion on the parallel bars with a new movement, known as Conner spin. In this case, the athlete performs a complete 360 ​​-degree rotation on a spars in a splayed position and then pressed into the handstand.

Conner was able to qualify first for the gymnastics delegation for the Olympic Games in Moscow in 1980 and did not support the U.S. boycott of the games. He described the boycott in various media appearances as meaningless and protested against the fact that the Olympic Games be abused for political purposes. As he had, however, recover from an injury he had sustained in the preliminary rounds, a successful performance would have been unlikely. As he continued even after the injury with training, recovery took more than a year.

He finally retired in 1983 at the Chunichi Cup re-injury of the left biceps. After surgery and intensive therapy he could but still qualify for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. He once again took part in all eight competitions in gymnastics. His consistent good scores helped the U.S. team was their first gold medal in the team all-around win. In the individual all-around he came to the conclusion sixth place with a total score, which was lower than that of only 0.35 points from the Olympic champion Koji Gushiken. In the floor exercise and parallel bars he could also qualify for the finals. On parallel bars, he was awarded a perfect score of 10.0 Olympic champion and on the ground he came to fifth place.

Conner married on 27 April 1996, the Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci in Bucharest. The couple met at the American Cup in 1976, whom she could both win. They currently own the Bart Conner Gymnastics Academy and several sports shops and editor of the magazine International Gymnast. They are both also heavily involved in charity work. The couple has a son (* 2006) and lives in Oklahoma.

1997 Conner was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame. He joined in 2006 in two films about Gymnastics, Stick It and Peaceful Warrior.