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Christy started gymnastics at a young age. She was in the gym before she even started kindergarden. By the time she was seven, her coach Al Fong had her training 5 hours a day 4 days a week.
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Dominique was born into a family of gymnastics. Both of Dominiques parents were gymnasts in Romanian and decided that there daughter would become a gymnast before she was even born.
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She outgrew the gynastics programs in San Antonio, so her family uprooted and moved to Houston.
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At age twelve Christy tried out for the national team for the first time and made it. She was training for 9 hrs or more a day on top of going to school. With little free time Christy started to only eat an apple or just a slice of an apple a day.
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With Christy quickly jumping up the national rankings, Al became a popular coach. She was his first gymnast with a shot at the Olympics.
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The doctors told her to stay off it for a month , but Julissa still went to the gym every day working only on uneven bars. Karolyi ignored her during this time.
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She was ranked 13th in the country with 6 months until the 1988 U.S. Olympic Trials and could no longer stand the abusive training from Bela Karolyi.
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After just 7 months at the new gym Julissa knew she wasn't making progress so found a different gym where world-class gymnast Christy Henrich was training.
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Al Fong, Christy's coach, wanted to get her and Julissa as much international exposurea as possible before the Olympic trials. At this meet one of the judges told Christy she was fat and she needed to loose weight.
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She qualifies for individual finals, and had the highest cault of any American.
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Julissa was warming up for the individual finals when she took her second practice vault and did not clear the top of the horse. She ran down the run way whipped a roundoff in fromt of the springboard, but she was out of controll and her left foot landed on the springboard while her right slipped off. She didnt have any power sending her over and her head didnt clear the top. Julissa crashed full speed, head first, into the side of the horse and snapped her neck.
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After a week passed the doctors told Julissa's parents that she was stable enough to be flown back to the states. She had to have a tracheotomy which allowed her to breath easier. Sadly, the night before they were supposed to leave Julissa's tracheal tube came out and she was in a coma. Even if she came out of a coma she would spend her life in a vegetative state.
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Recovering from mononucleosis and a fractured vertebrae in her back Christy missed making the team by 0.118 of a piont. "It was like her whole world was crushed. Like everything had ended," said Sandy Henrich. Afterwards Christy returned to the gym in Blue Springs with her eyes fixed on the 1992 summer games.
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They recommended a long term care facility, but the Gomezes decided to care for her at home, and took a 3 month training course.
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After taking the insult from the judge who told her to lose weight, she began to look at food as the enemy. When she was forced to eat she purged it all back up afterwards. Christy said she had numbed herself from everything.
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Durin this event Christy fell on her head twice, and a United Staes Gymnastics Federation official confronted Al Fong about training Christy too hard. Al Fong called the USGF about his suspicions of Christy's eating disorder, her parents denied there was a problem.
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The meet was held in Oregon, but Christy was so weak she was pulled. Al Fong said that he kicked her out of his gym and told her not to return until she gained weight. Christy had different memories and said, " It got to the point where I was so weak he didn't want to fool with me anymore he just worried about his reputation.
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18 months before her second shot at the Olympics Christy announces she will retire. She was 18 years of age and weighed less than 80 pounds.
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Three years after returning homw Julissa got an infection, the doctors advises that they let the infection take its course and at first her family refused but later decided it was time to let her go.
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She becomes Junior National Champ at age 12.
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Her weight was at 63 pounds and Christy spent 6 weeks in the eating disorder ward. Before her parents took her she lined the bottom of her suitcase with laxatives, and threw up whenever she could.
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She stayed at the hospital for 5 months, and when she returned she threw her scale away. She forced herself to eat, and her weight climbed to 70 pounds. She stopped eating again when she couldn't see bone and stopped seeing her psychologist.
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Five days after her birthday Christy went into a coma, and died of multiple organ failure.
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The team was composed of Jaycie Phelps, Kerri Strug, Amanda Borden, Amy Chow, Dominique Dawes, and Shannon Miller. This team was significantly different from the 1992 Olympic team. After the first rotation America inched ahead into first place. In the final rotation of the team competition the U.S. was on the verge of winning its first team gold medal when Moceanu faltered on her 2 vaults. Strug pulls out the win when she performs a vault with a torn ankle ligament.
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Luminita becoming her coach changes the Moceanu family forever.
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Dominique's injuries kept her from competing in the U.S. Championships in Saccramento in August, and in the World Championships two months later in China. She hopes to be healthy enough to tryout for the Olympics in August of 2000, and Olympics in September.
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