RIGBY, CATHY 1952-

American gymnast

Cameo

Cathy Rigby was designated America's finest gymnast and a contender for a gold medal at the 1972 Olympic Games by the media. She was pretty, pixieish, talented, and hard working; just as important, she was good copy. Born with collapsed lungs, a chronic sufferer of bronchitis and pneumonia when she was a child, Rigby overcame her physical disabilities with pure grit. She began gymnastics at the age of eleven after she impressed her father with her skills on a trampoline and worked hard to be the best gymnast in the United States.

Olympian

In 1963 Mr. Rigby took his daughter to coach Bud Marquette, whose Southern California Aero Team (SCAT) is considered one of the finest gymnastics teams in the nation. "In two months, she was better than girls who had been training for two years," Marquette recalled. "She never fooled around." By 1968 she was performing at the Olympic level, but only by American standards. At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, the United States team finished sixth, and Rigby led the team, finishing sixteenth overall. "In 1968 it was all fun and games," Rigby commented. When she returned home, she got down to work.

A Silver Medal

In the four years after the 1968 Games, Rigby trained eight hours a day, seven days a week. In 1970 she was the first American woman ever the win a medal in international gymnastics competition when she took the silver at the World Games in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia. Four feet, eleven inches tall and weighing in at between eighty-nine and ninety-three pounds, the attractive Rigby was pleasant to watch as she bounced energetically through her routines. She became a media favorite as publicity for the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich mounted.

Setback

In the Olympic trials, Rigby fell during her dismount from the high bar. Her spotter was able to break her fall, but the judges were obligated to make major deductions from her score. The next day during her floor exercise routine, she twisted her ankle while landing after a flip and had to withdraw from competition with one day remaining. Roxanne Pierce won the trials, two-time Olympian Linda Metheny was second, and Kim Chace was third; Rigby was not among the first six. But the Olympic Gymnastics Committee felt she deserved a place on the team and they exercised their prerogative to elect her.

1972 Games

In Munich, Rigby led the women's gymnastic team to a fourth-place finish in the all-around competition, and she herself placed tenth in the overall standings, which was dominated by Soviet star Olga Korbut. Rigby returned home the most celebrated tenth-place finisher on the entire American team and retired from competition. She was frequently seen on television endorsing products or providing color commentary for gymnastic events. She married and tried to overcome the effects of ten years of grueling training. Her weight had been critical to her performance, and she developed bulimia, which she overcame and spoke publicly about in an effort to help other sufferers.

Peter Pan

In 1974, faced with pressure to return to training for the 1976 Olympics, she embarked instead on a theatrical career, adapting her acrobatic talent to the stage in the role of Peter Pan, which she played for six years. "Flying is such a joy," she explained. "You just want to hoot."

Sources:

Mark Goodman, "Cathy Rigby, Flying High/' People (6 May 1991): 107;

Anita Verschoth, "Sugar and Spice—and Iron," Sports Illustrated (21 August 1972): 23-27.