| Ellen Berger | |
| Death Date: | (age 76) |
Ellen Berger (1920/1921 – 16 April 1997) was an East German artistic gymnast, coach and International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) judge.[1]
Berger began her career as an artistic gymnast in Leipzig, ending her active career in 1951.[1] [2] In 1953, she became the East Germany women's national artistic gymnastics team coach, a post she held until 1976.[2] Among others, she coached world and Olympic champion Karin Büttner-Janz and world champion Erika Zuchold.[2] In 1968, she was elected to the Technical Committee of the FIG, and became President of the Committee in 1976.[1]
Berger is known for being associated with multiple controversial scoring instances at the Olympic Games. In the 1980 Games, she ruled that a British judge, Helen Thomas, had accidentally awarded Nadia Comaneci a 9.5 in the women's floor event instead of a 10 by pressing the wrong button. A British official denied this, stating the score had been changed following a Romanian team protest. Comaneci's 10 allowed her to win the joint gold.[3] In the women's all-around, Berger entered Comaneci's balance beam score as a 9.85 after thirty minutes of debate, overruling the Romanian head beam judge, Maria Simionescu, who had refused to do so.[4] This result put Comaneci into joint second place.[4]
In 1988, Berger infamously deducted the United States half a point in the women's team event after alternate Rhonda Faehn had stayed on the podium during the compulsory uneven bars routine of Kelly Garrison-Steves, violating an obscure rule.[5] The deduction sent the United States into fourth place behind East Germany, with United States coach Béla Károlyi claiming that it was politically motivated and accusing Berger of cheating.[5] [6] FIG President Yuri Titov upheld Berger's call.[5] [7] Former United States coach Don Peters speculated that Berger may have been seeking retaliation against Károlyi for an incident in the 1984 women's all-around event. Károlyi (then not a team coach) broke the rules by jumping the press barricade twice to greet Mary Lou Retton after a routine, but faced with a raucous American crowd, Berger backed down from imposing a penalty that would have cost Retton the gold.[8]
Berger resigned from the FIG in 1992, and died in 1997 of a heart attack at the age of 76.[1]