Kim Zmeskal

Although she would rebound with performances on the floor, vault, and bars, Zmeskal was in 32nd place after the compulsories and 5th on the American team, who were second behind the Unified Team after the compulsories.

Kimberly Lynn Zmeskal Burdette (née Zmeskal on February 6, 1976) is an American retired artistic gymnast turned gymnastics coach and the 1991 World All-Around champion.

This gave Zmeskal the opportunity to observe and interact with her heroine, Mary Lou Retton, who went on to win the Olympic all-around gold medal in 1984 when Zmeskal was eight.

In 1989, at the age of 13, Zmeskal became the U.S. Junior National Champion.

She also took first place in the American Classic, the Swiss Cup Mixed Pairs (with Lance Ringnald), and the Arthur Gander Memorial.

Zmeskal went on to become a three-time consecutive U.S. National Champion.

In international events, she began a rivalry with the Soviet Union's Svetlana Boginskaya.

A three-time United States national all-around champion (1990–92), Zmeskal is also the 1992 world champion on both balance beam and floor exercise, and was a member of the bronze medal-winning U.S. team at the 1992 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain, the first U.S. team medal won at a fully attended Olympic Games.

She also posted the highest optional all-around score in the qualification round in Barcelona.

Known for her explosive power and tumbling on vault and floor, Zmeskal is regarded as one of the greatest female gymnasts of all time and arguably the best in the world during the early 1990s.

In 1990, Zmeskal won her first senior title in her debut at the American Cup.

Later that year in Denver, she won her first U.S. Senior National All-Around title, more than four-tenths of a point ahead of her friend and training partner Betty Okino.

She also won silver on bars (tied with two other gymnasts), balance beam, and floor exercise in the event finals.

Zmeskal was unable to defend her American Cup title, losing to Okino by a margin of just .225 points, but won the event finals for beam and floor.

She then defended her U.S. National All-Around title in Cincinnati, where she also won the national title on floor alongside Dominique Dawes and placed second on beam.

She would further rebound with scores of 9.900 on uneven bars, 9.912 on the beam, 9.925 on floor, and 9.950 on the vault during the finals of the team competition, moving Zmeskal into 12th place and into the all-around competition by finishing third among the American women.

Her combined score of 39.687 for the night was the highest of any competitor.

The American women won the bronze medal in the team competition behind the Unified Team and Romania with a total score of 394.704 points, their first ever team medal in a non-boycotted Olympic Games.

She also qualified to the event finals on vault and floor exercise.

Although she earned enough points to compete in the all-around competition, Zmeskal would falter during her first event of the competition, floor exercise, stepping out of bounds on her last tumbling pass.

A member of the silver medal-winning U.S. team from the 1991 World Championships (the first team medal ever won by the U.S. women at a world championships), she was the first American woman to ever win the all-around title at the World Championships, as well as the first to win a world championship medal of any color in the all-around.

At the 1991 World Championships in Indianapolis, she helped the team win the silver medal, the first team medal for the American women in World Championship history, beating out the Romanians to finish second behind the Soviet Union.

She scored a perfect 10.000 on the vault in the final rotation of the optional rounds, one of only two perfect 10's at the championships, and becoming the first (and only) American woman to ever score a perfect 10 at the World Championships.

Zmeskal also became the first American to win the World all-around gold medal, posting scores of 9.962 on the vault, 9.937 on uneven bars, 9.962 on the beam, and 9.987 on the floor to defeat reigning world champion Svetlana Boginskaya with a total score of 39.848.

She also won bronze on the floor and placed seventh on vault in the event finals.

Her all-around win also sparked the beginning of a dynasty of American dominance in women's gymnastics (since 1992, seven American women have won world all-around titles, and 12 of the last 21 all-around world championship titles (including 10 of the last 14) were won by an American) and the reemergence of power and athleticism in the sport.

She currently coaches gymnastics and owns Texas Dreams Gymnastics in Coppell, Texas and annually hosts the Kim Zmeskal’s Texas Prime Meet.

Zmeskal was born in Houston, Texas, to Clarice and David Zmeskal.

She has one younger sister, Melissa and one younger brother, Eric.

From a young age, Zmeskal trained with coaching great Béla Károlyi, who had bought Sundance Gymnastics in Zmeskal's Houston neighborhood.

Having recently become world all-around champion, Americans had high hopes for Zmeskal and the U.S. team heading the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games, with Zmeskal earning the cover of both Time and Newsweek magazines before the Games.

Proving her all-around title wasn't a fluke, Zmeskal added two more World titles at the individual apparatus World Championships in Paris, winning gold on the balance beam and the floor exercise with upgraded routines and increased difficulty.

At the U.S. National Championships in Columbus and the Olympic Trials in Baltimore, Zmeskal battled an emerging Shannon Miller, with Miller defeating Zmeskal at the Trials although Zmeskal earned the highest score at both events, in a controversial finish.

Nonetheless, Zmeskal won her third consecutive U.S. National All-Around title, becoming the first female gymnast to ever win three consecutive national all-around championships, won national titles on beam and floor, and placed second on vault and uneven bars.

Despite being picked as the clear-cut favorite for the all-around title and multiple gold medals, Zmeskal's Olympics began poorly as she fell off the balance beam during her compulsory routine on the first night of competition.

“I've learned that you don't have to win first place to win” is how Zmeskal reflected upon her Olympic experience, recognizing her performance during the Team Final (in which no individual medals were awarded) as her greatest athletic achievement- overcoming a sizeable score deficit due to a compulsory beam fall as well as an injured tibia to qualify to the 1992 Olympic All Around final.

She attended Northland Christian School before graduating from Westfield High School like many of Károlyi's other top gymnasts to accommodate her training schedule, graduating in 1994.

She faltered again in the final rotation with a shaky beam routine and finished 10th in the all-around final.

Zmeskal finished off the podium in event finals as well, placing 8th on the vault after sitting down her second vault, and 6th in the floor final (although many commentators and coaches alike felt that she should have at least tied for the bronze medal).

It would later be revealed that Zmeskal was suffering from a tibial stress fracture before and during the Olympics began.