Reflecting on the low-vault moment 20 years on, Liddick is still amazed by the incident, and the fact her young student had the courage to speak up against officials. "As I became older, Peggy became a mentor and friend, even supporting me to become an internationally accredited judge post-retirement." "Peggy’s empathy, understanding and passion to help me achieve my dreams, despite this tragedy, built a solid foundation of mutual respect and open communication in our partnership towards our shared goal. "Shortly after she became national coach, my father was killed in a commercial plane crash while I was in USA competing with the national team," Slater said. The pair first met when Slater was on tour in the US in 1997, before Liddick was announced as the coach of the Australian team. One of the major factors in Slater's courage was the close relationship with her coaches, and national coach Liddick in particular. I still can’t believe it happened and that it was me that rang the alarm bells, little 16-year-old Allana from Australia," she said. "This in fact was quite a defining moment for me as a person and athlete, reminding me of my inner strength, confidence and ability to trust my gut. The error quickly became a huge point of controversy for the Games, with a number of gymnastics figures outraged by how such an error could be made during an Olympic final. "I couldn’t believe this was happening and that I was the athlete to say something halfway through the competition," she said. Sure enough, Slater's observations were correct and the vault was raised 5cm. Lapchine asked Australian head coach Peggy Liddick, who had the apparatus supervisor re-measure the vault. "I stood against the vault with my hand up against my mid-body and said, 'Look, the vault is too low, look where it comes up to on me.
However, I insisted he stop for a moment and let me show him where the vault measured on me," she said. "Initially he wanted me to get off the landing mat to allow the next girl her turn. After her warm-up, she walked up to the vault and measured it against her body. Slater first asked the other gymnasts whether they thought the same, before approaching personal coach Nikolai Lapchine. "But as I stood at the end of the vault runway for my warm-up, it immediately struck me that the vault was too low - my gut instinct based on staring down the runway at the vault for 10 years." "Half the competitors had competed on vault and I was still unaware of the numerous falls occurring on vault, particularly gold medal favourite Svetlana," she said. And the teenager from Perth was dead right. “Does the vault look low to you?” she said to those around her.įrom years of sizing up similar vaulting horses in gyms around the world, the whole thing looked off to Slater.
This was the stuff of an amateur competition, not the Olympics.Īustralian champion Allana Slater hadn't seen the falls when she began the rotation but immediately sensed something was wrong. It was only when raging favourite Svetlana Khorkina of Russia stepped up, ran in and also fell on her backside that raised eyebrows turned into serious questions. More falls followed and when Annika Reeder of Great Britain lined up, missed her landing and hurt an ankle, the 15,000-strong crowd in Pavilion 3 at Sydney Olympic Park figured the tension was getting to the group. When American gymnast Elise Ray fell on her back after vaulting during the Olympics' gymnastics all-around finals on September 21, 2000, many put it down to nerves.
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