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

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

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She had just injured her foot in a previous almost perfect balance beam routine – but she was not thinking about the pain, she told a CBS reporter. She was “having too much fun to let it bother her,” she said.

She also didn’t let the pressure of being one of the only black contestants in the 1983 US Gymnastics Championship bother her – she was about to become her first black champion.

Dressed in a purple print, Durham stopped on the carpet, took a deep breath – and then jumped.

In less than two minutes, she went through an effortless solo routine, flying through the air with the grace of a trained dancer and the strength of someone much older. Ending with a double twist, she landed with her arms raised in victory.

The crowd roared. Fans holding up a big banner that said “We love Dianne” stood up.

Durham’s overall performance earned him four gold medals and the distinction of being the first black gymnast to become the general champion of the United States.

Durham does a somersault during the final individual balance beam competition at the US National Gymnastics Championship in 1983.

This remarkable performance is rarely mentioned among the seminal moments of American women’s gymnastics. But his career, while brief, still set a precedent for the black and Olympic gymnasts who would follow.

Durham, who became a gym trainer, died Thursday, USA Gymnastics confirmed. Her husband, Tom Drahozal, told CNN that the 52-year-old woman died after a short illness.

“Her personality was cheerful and she was a very charismatic person, respected and admired by many people,” said Drahozal. “Whether at the highest level or in recreation classes, all students admired her because she treated them the same.”

From national champion to retired

Born in Gary, Indiana, Durham moved to Houston, Texas as a teenager to train with gym trainer Béla Károlyi at Rancho Károlyi (now famous for being one of the places where former US gym doctor Larry Nassar sexually abused young girls decades ago after Durham moved there).
At the ranch, she trained alongside big futures, including Mary Lou Retton, who told CBS Sports in a 1983 interview that, although the two were friends, Durham was her “best competition”.

Durham overtook Retton in the 1983 championship with his pristine performance. Károlyi hugged her later, while national TV cameras focused on her reaction of surprise and ecstasy.

The face of the Olympics will never be the same

Her appearance at the championships should have been the beginning of a historic career that would put her alongside names like Retton and other gymnasts of that time, when American gymnasts started to become international and Olympic stars.

But Durham’s Olympic dreams ended with an ankle injury in tests for the 1984 Olympics. She believed that Károlyi would petition to include her in the training group, since she failed to finish the tests, she told ESPN in an interview in 2020, but since she was prevented from competing in the world championship that year, she was disqualified from the Olympics.

“The city of Gary supported me 100,000% and I felt that I disappointed my family,” she told ESPN. “Everyone uprooted their lives for me.”

Retton joined the Olympic team and won gold. Durham, still a teenager, retired from the sport in 1985.

Her career set a standard for black gymnasts

Black women and girls would become 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 champion of the Olympics. And since her debut in 2016, Simone Biles has been hailed as the best gymnast the sport has ever seen.
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The three women who succeeded Durham staggered, turned and broke records while overcoming prejudice and racial prejudice in a sport previously dominated by white women. That hasn’t changed much in the nearly 40 years since she competed, Durham wrote on Facebook.
“In my own life and career in gymnastics, I encountered discrimination and prejudice,” she wrote on Facebook in June, days after George Floyd’s death at the hands of the Minneapolis police. “It didn’t stop me from reaching all of my goals, but it played an important role in preventing me from reaching some of my biggest goals.”

But when she was competing as a teenager, she said, she never thought about the story she could make as the first black national champion.

“Do you know how many people had to tell me that?” she told ESPN. “I couldn’t understand why it was such a huge deal.”

It took Durham a long time to absorb the weight of his achievements – something that was not easy to do, considering the speed with which he was removed from the spotlight.

But she continued to work out in the gym, eventually training, judging and running her own gym, Skyline Gymnastics in Chicago, near her hometown, Gary, USA Gymnastics reported.

Durham and her husband lived in Chicago until his death.

In 2017, it was introduced in the Hall of Fame for gymnastics in Region 5, the USA Gymnastics division that covers parts of the Midwest. It does not qualify for the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame – it is only open to those who have won a medal at the Olympics or world championships.

“As an icon and a pioneer in our sport, Dianne has opened doors for generations of gymnasts who came after her, and her legacy continues every day at gyms across the country,” said Li Li Leung, CEO of USA Gymnastics, in a statement .

Durham loved gymnastics, even though the sport and its doormen didn’t always reciprocate, and when she was on the mat, she spun in the air with the ease of a champion.

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