Dianne Durham, the first black national champion of American gymnastics, dies at 52

Dianne Durham, the first black national champion of American gymnastics, dies at 52

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She only hurt her foot in an earlier, almost perfect balance beam routine – but she did not think of the pain, she told a CBS reporter. She ‘had too much fun to bother’, she said.

She also did not allow the pressure to be one of the only black participants in the 1983 US Gymnastics Championships – she was ready to become the first black champion.

Dressed in purple patterned trousers, Durham pauses on the carpet, takes a deep breath – and then she jumps.

In less than two minutes, she bursts through an effortless floor routine and floats through the air with the grace of a trained dancer and the power of someone much older. With a double turn, she ends up with her arms in victory.

The crowd roared. Fans holding a big banner with the message “We love Dianne” stand up.

Durham’s overall performance earned her four gold medals and the distinction as the first black gymnast to become the American everyday champion.

Durham makes a turn during the individual final of the balance beam at the 1983 American National Gymnastics Championships.

That remarkable achievement is rarely mentioned among the important moments of American women’s gymnastics. But her career, however short, still set a precedent for the black gymnasts and Olympians that would follow.

Durham, who became a gymnastics coach, passed away Thursday, U.S. gymnastics has confirmed. Her husband, Tom Drahozal, told CNN that the 52-year-old died after a short illness.

“Her personality was bubbly and she was a very charismatic individual who was respected and admired by many people,” Drahozal said. “Whether it’s the highest level or relaxation class, all the students admired her because she treated everyone the same.”

From national champion to retired

A native of Gary, Indiana, Durham moved to Houston, Texas as a teenager to train with gymnastics coach Béla Károlyi at the Károlyi Ranch (now notorious for being one of the sites where former American gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar young girls sexually abused, for decades. after Durham’s time there).
On the farm, she trained with future greats, including Mary Lou Retton, who in an interview with CBS Sports in 1983 said that although the two were friends, Durham was her ‘best competition’.

Durham beat Retton during the 1983 Championship with her impeccable performance. Károlyi hugged her afterwards when national TV cameras focused on her astonished, ecstatic reaction.

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Her appearance at the championships had to be the beginning of an in-depth career that would suit her like Retton and other gymnasts from that era, when women gymnasts began to become international stars and Olympians in the USA.

But Durham’s Olympic dreams ended with an ankle injury in the trials for the 1984 Olympics. She believed that Károlyi would make a request to include her in the training group as she could not complete the trials, she said. told an interview with ESPN in 2020, but because she could not compete in the world championships that year, she was disqualified from the Olympics.

“The city of Gary was 100,000% behind me, and I felt I had let my family down,” she told ESPN. “Everyone has uprooted their lives for me.”

Retton overtook the Olympic team and won gold. Durham, another teenager, retired from the sport in 1985.

Her career set the standard for black gymnasts

Black women and girls became Olympic gymnasts, including Dominique Dawes, who in 1996 became the first black gymnast to win an individual event at the Olympics. In 2012, Gabby Douglas became the first black gymnast to become the Olympic Games’ everyday champion. And since her debut in 2016, Simone Biles is considered the best gymnast the sport has ever seen.
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The three women who succeeded Durham tumbled and twisted and broke records while overcoming racial prejudice and prejudice in a sport previously dominated by white women. That much has not changed in the nearly 40 years since she participated, Durham writes on Facebook.
“In my own life and gymnastics career, I have experienced discrimination and prejudice,” she wrote on Facebook in June, days after George Floyd’s assassination of Minneapolis police. “It did not stop me from achieving all my goals, but it did play a role in preventing me from achieving some of my biggest goals.”

But when she competed as a teenager, she said, she never once thought of the history she could make as the first black national champion.

“Do you know how many people had to tell me that?” she told ESPN. “I could not understand why it was such a big deal.”

It took time for Durham to pick up the weight of her accomplishments – something that was not easy to do, given how quickly she was shunned from the spotlight.

But she continued to work in gymnastics, eventually directing, judging and managing her own gym, Skyline Gymnastics, in Chicago, near her hometown of Gary, reports Gymnastics in the USA.

Durham and her husband lived in Chicago until her death.

In 2017, she will be inducted into the Hall of Fame for Region 5 Gymnastics, the U.S. gymnastics division that covers parts of the Midwest. She is not eligible for the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame – it is only open to those who have won a medal in the Olympics or world championships.

“As an icon and pioneer in our sport, Dianne has opened doors for generations of gymnasts to come after her, and her legacy continues every day in gyms across the country,” said Li Li Leung, CEO of the United States. , gymnastics said.

Durham was very fond of gymnastics, though the sport and its gatekeepers did not always reciprocate, and when she was on the mat, she spun through the air with the ease of a champion.

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