Changing the Rules

Julissa D'anne Gomez (November 4, 1972 – August 8, 1991) was an American gymnast. She was born in San Antonio, Texas.

Gomez was an international elite gymnast in the 1980s. She trained with Béla Károlyi in Houston from the age of 10, later she moved to Missouri to train with Al Fong. In 1986 at the U.S. Championships, she placed fourth in the all-around in the junior division and won a place on the U.S. National Team. 1987 she was representing the United States in international meets. Strong on the uneven bars and balance beam, she was considered a contender for the 1988 U.S. Olympic team.

Gomez qualified for the vault finals at the 1988 World Sports Fair, but observers had noticed her struggle leading up to the competition, including her former coach Béla Károlyi, teammates, and coach Al Fong. Her technique on the Yurchenko vault was as shaky at best. Julissa was unable to perform the vault consistantly at practices. Sometimes missing her feet on the springboard. Julissa's coaches insisted that she needed to train and compete the Yurchenko vault to keep high scores.

During warmups, she continued to practice the Yurchenko. During one approach, her foot slipped off the springboard, and her head hit the vaulting horse at high speed. The crash paralyzed her from the neck down. An accident at a Japanese hospital, she became disconnected from her ventilator. Julissa had severe brain damage and left her in a "vegetable" state. Gomez's family took care of her for three years before she got an infection and died in August 1991 in Houston, just three months before her nineteenth birthday.

Her tragedy is one of the most serious accidents ever to happen in gymnastics. In 1989, the International Gymnastics Federation decided to increase vaulting safety by allowing U-shaped springboard mats, like the ones used in practice. The mat is now mandatory: as of the 2006 Code of Points, performing a Yurchenko-style vault without the safety mat is a automatic score of zero.