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| Nelli Kim, Perfection Overshadowed | ||||||||||||||||
| Nelli Kim was born on July 28th, 1957 in Chimkent, Kazakhstan (USSR). | ||||||||||||||||
| She was a beautiful girl, with an asian face that captured the attention; no wonder, his father was korean, and her mother was tatar. | ||||||||||||||||
| She began gymnastics in 1966, at the age of 9, coached by Vladimir Baidin. | ||||||||||||||||
| Her most disputed competition was the 1976 Olympic Games in Montr�al, where she had a nearly-epic duel with Nadia Comaneci. Nelli was the only one who could mesure up with the romanian, five years younger. | ||||||||||||||||
| 19-year old Nelli was superb on Floor and Vault, where she was the first gymnast to get 10s in both apparatus getting Gold medals on both. | ||||||||||||||||
| She also returned home with a Gold in the Team all around exercises and a Silver in the all around. | ||||||||||||||||
| She retired in 1981, after wining the World Championships, married Vladimir Achasov in 1977 and divorced in 1979. | ||||||||||||||||
| In 1981 she married again, this time to a cycling champion, Valery Movchan. | ||||||||||||||||
| Nelli Kim worked as a coach in Minsk and became a brevet judge; in 1990 she was the head coach of the Korean national team, and in 1991 of the South African team. | ||||||||||||||||
| Kim was the first female to perform a tucked full-twisting Tsukahara on Vault, the same one she used in the apparatus finals in Montr�al. | ||||||||||||||||
| She now lives in Minneapolis with her daughter. | ||||||||||||||||
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