“The door was open by Dianne,” Drahozal said.
Durham claimed not to have thought about the importance of her victory.
“People said, you’re the first Black — I’m using Black because African American wasn’t a term in my era — national champion. Do you know that didn’t go through my head one time?” Durham told ESPN.com last year. “Not one time. Do you know how many people had to tell me that? I could not understand why that was such a humongous deal.”
Durham and Retton were the first star American pupils of Bela and Martha Karolyi, who moved from Romania to the United States in the early 1980s. Durham moved to train with the Karolyis in Texas and appeared to be on the fast track to a spot on the 1984 U.S. Olympic Team. She won the McDonald’s International Invitational in Los Angeles in 1983, a meet held at Pauley Pavilion, the site of the Olympic gymnastics competition a year later.