Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:00:00) – The views, thoughts and opinions expressed by the host and guests on this podcast are their own and do not represent the views, thoughts and opinions of UCLA Athletics, UCLA gymnastics, or the Bruin Gymnastics alumni community. The content of this podcast is strictly for informational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice.
Tim Daggett (00:00:20) – If you say that you can explain how it feels, you’re lying. It’s so beyond belief. And I just remember thinking of all of the times when I had gotten hurt, all of the times when I thought I couldn’t go on. These two guys were a major factor in me being able to do that.
Mitch Gaylord (00:00:42) – Like Tim is saying, you can’t really put it into words because it’s a feeling. And the feeling I had was different than the feeling I imagined it would feel like if you look back, all it was was this gigantic grin on my face, this huge smile. And I guess you can equate that to happiness. It felt great, and it was a little bit of disbelief that this was actually happening because it was a dream for many, many, many years.
Peter Vidmar (00:01:10) – I was grateful. I’m a person of faith. I was grateful for God for giving me the opportunity to to share this experience with such amazing people. I was grateful for all the guys in the team, but in particular the guys that I lived the dream with every day. That’s Mitch and Tim.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:01:27) – Welcome to the Bruin gymnastics edition of the Resilience to Brilliance podcast, where you’ll be inspired by riveting behind the scenes stories of UCLA gymnastics legends. I’m your host, Kim Hamilton Anthony. Here we go. In keeping with our celebration of the 40th anniversary of the UCLA men’s gymnastics team winning their first ever national championship title in 1984, I will finish out our Bruin Gymnastics Alumni edition, interviewing three men who are not just UCLA legends, but international gymnastics legends as well. Tim Daggett, Mitch Gaylord and Peter Vidmar, who were also celebrating the 40th anniversary of winning the team gold medal in the 1984 Olympics. Tim Daggett also won three individual national titles at that famous NCAA championship in 1984, and his perfect ten on high bar at the 84 Olympics clinched the first ever gold medal for the U.S. men’s gymnastics team, and Tim also won a bronze medal on pommel horse.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:02:36) – Tim is the founder of Daggett Gymnastics and he’s been a sports commentator for over 30 years. In addition to helping UCLA win the NCAA national team title in ‘84. Mitch Gaylord was also the NCAA all around champion. In the 84 Olympics, he won a silver medal on vault and two bronze medals on rings and parallel bars. His prominence on that world stage led to a movie career, followed by his involvement in the finance and fitness industries. He is currently in the home building industry in Austin, Texas, and in 2023, he was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame. And Peter Vidmar is a five time NCAA national champion, including winning two National All-Around titles. In the 1984 Olympics, he scored a perfect ten to win the gold medal on the pommel horse, and he won the silver medal in the all around. Peter spent much of his post gymnastics career on the corporate lecture circuit, before retiring to run a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for three years in Melbourne, Australia.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:03:49) – Recently, he’s working in the banking industry. I had this incredible privilege of sitting down with these three legends to get a behind the scenes look at their storied experience from 1984. Let’s listen. Tim, Mitch, Peter, welcome.
Mitch Gaylord (00:04:13) – Hello, Kim.
Tim Daggett (00:04:14) – Hello, Kim. Great to be on.
Peter Vidmar (00:04:16) – Great to be here, Kim.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:04:18) – Ah, thank you so much. Uh, it was quite a bit of a chore getting the three of you together, but we managed it.
Tim Daggett (00:04:27) – They were very difficult, weren’t they?
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:04:30) – You said they. The two of them.
Tim Daggett (00:04:32) – They. The two of them.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:04:34) – Two funny. Two funny. Well, let me tell you, the reason I wanted to interview the three of you together is because, one, I want to celebrate the rich history of UCLA men’s gymnastics. And personally, I can’t help but to believe that it was UCLA men’s gymnastics team that played a significant role in drawing some of the women to the program. I remember coming to UCLA in 86, and I didn’t know much about the women’s team at all, but I did know the three of you and I knew the great success that you were having.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:05:08) – So thank you for being a part of me coming to UCLA. I appreciate that. So the second reason I wanted to have you on together is because we’re celebrating the 40th anniversary of UCLA men’s gymnastics team, winning the NCAA national team title in 1984, and the 40th anniversary of the three of you winning the Olympic gold medal in 1984. So welcome and thank you again for being here.
Tim Daggett (00:05:39) – Thank you.
Mitch Gaylord (00:05:39) – Thank you.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:05:40) – When was the last time the three of you were interviewed together?
Tim Daggett (00:05:44) – I don’t think all three of us. I think at different times I’ve done something with Pete or I’ve done something with Mitch, but it’s been. It’s been quite a while.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:05:54) – It’s been a while. Do you think it’s been 40 years?
Tim Daggett (00:05:58) – Not quite 40.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:05:59) – Not quite 40.
Peter Vidmar (00:06:01) – It was exciting to hear that we’d be on together. So this is kind of nice.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:06:06) – Well, good. First of all, I’d like to ask you about your relationship with each other. Did you know each other before you went to UCLA.
Mitch Gaylord (00:06:15) – Peter should start that one.
Peter Vidmar (00:06:17) – Well, Mitch and I know each other. Yeah. Um.
Peter Vidmar (00:06:19) – Because, uh, we both grew up in Southern California, and my very first gymnastics meet of my life was a meet, I think, in the San Fernando Valley. And, uh, me and, uh, myself and Bob Kurama, um, who was my teammate at the Culver City Gymnastics Club, went to compete in our first beat. I only did two events. I did floor and vault. I was second on floor, third on vault. Bob was third on floor, second on vault. And there was this little kid that won every single event. And the All-Around. His name was Mitch Gaylord.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:06:52) – Oh my goodness.
Peter Vidmar (00:06:53) – And I just thought. Dang, that guy’s good.
Peter Vidmar (00:06:55) – And um, and that was my first real connection to to Mitch. I didn’t know him. I didn’t I don’t even know if I even talked to you, Mitch, but, uh, I saw you there, and.
Peter Vidmar (00:07:05) – And then maybe we competed 1 or 2 more times as as junior gymnasts. And then we ended up kind of meeting at UCLA together as freshmen in 1979. And Tim came a year later. So that was the connection with Mitch. And I’ll let Mitch, you can you can expound on that. And, Tim, you can mention why the heck do you come out to California from Massachusetts.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:07:29) – Right, all the way out there.
Mitch Gaylord (00:07:30) – Yeah, yeah.
Mitch Gaylord (00:07:31) – Well, I remember those early days competing with Pete, and he he likes to bring up that competition where I won everything. But the very next time we competed, he won everything. And, uh. And that’s when I realized talent alone doesn’t make it in this sport. You got to work your butt off.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:07:48) – Okay.
Mitch Gaylord (00:07:49) – And that Pete was an inspiration from that point forward to me, all the way until we ended up at UCLA, where he was already on the senior national team at that point, going to the World Championships. And it was a huge, uh, factor in my decision to go to UCLA was because Pete was there.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:08:04) – Really?
Mitch Gaylord (00:08:06) – I wanted to be a part, really a part of that and part of that whole, um, program. So it was, uh, it was very interesting the way, the way Pete and I specifically went neck and neck and neck for so many years after that was was fun, challenging, motivating and the key to the success, I think of all of us. And then Tim coming in, my goodness, we had a powerhouse there and it was fun just feeding off each other’s energy in the gym each day, day in, day out.
Tim Daggett (00:08:35) – Yeah. You know, for me, it’s like as they both mentioned, they’re much older than I am. Um, I, I came the year after and and really, it’s it’s the exact same reason, um, I remember, you know, watching Peter qualify for that first world team and thinking, you know, he’s one year older than me and he’s so much better. And I watched videos of Mitch and I’m like, this guy is unbelievable.
Tim Daggett (00:09:05) – And I had thought that they were the best guys in the country. And maybe if they weren’t exactly at that point, I thought they would be. And I just said, you know, I got to figure out what the heck they do because I am I’m not even in their league at this point in time. And so, um, I decided UCLA and, uh, it was one of the most important decisions of my life. And and I’ll cherish it forever.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:09:34) – That’s pretty cool that the three of you saw each other and just motivated each other from afar and and kind of close when you think about Peter and Mitch. Uh, so when you got to UCLA, what was the environment like? What was the the the culture as you trained.
Mitch Gaylord (00:09:53) – The Wild West comes to mind
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:09:55) – Okay.
Tim Daggett (00:09:59) – Well I was very calm. These guys, you know, very explosive in the gym, I was I’m joking, I’m joking.
Tim Daggett (00:10:07) – I also.
Mitch Gaylord (00:10:11) – It was a combination of things, I think. I mean, we were in the old men’s gym before the gym that you saw at the wooden center.
Mitch Gaylord (00:10:17) – And it was it was not state of the art by any means, but it’s kind of cool. It’s like you watch the old, you know, Rocky movies or whatever where they’re training, you know, down in whatever that environment you want to call it. It it wasn’t high tech, it didn’t have the best equipment. It was smelly, it was loud, it was just. But it didn’t matter.
Peter Vidmar (00:10:39) – It was a.
Peter Vidmar (00:10:39) – It was a dungeon on the second floor of the men’s gym facility.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:10:43) – Oh goodness.
Peter Vidmar (00:10:44) – It really was .
Peter Vidmar (00:10:43) – With a of. With a lot of with a lot of pigeons. Yeah, pigeons. We had a.
Peter Vidmar (00:10:47) – We had a lot of birds flying in there.
Peter Vidmar (00:10:49) – Sometimes you tumble in, your hand would go right across. Uh, it was bad that that was the gym.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:10:56) – Wait, the birds were in the gym, and there’s, like, bird poop on the mat?
Peter Vidmar (00:10:59) – Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, a lot. Yeah.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:11:04) – Oh my goodness. Uh, what a recruiting source.
Peter Vidmar (00:11:05) – And what’s interesting is that we had the men’s, the men’s, the, the basic outlay of the gym.
Peter Vidmar(00:11:11) – There was three basketball courts. There was a curtain that separated two of them from one of them, and one of them was the permit, the permanent site of the gymnastics facility. You had the girls equipment, you had one set of bars. You had about three beams. You had the vault runway that we shared, and then you had the floor, and then you had the men’s room at the high bar, the pommel horse, the parallel bars and the rings. That that was our luxurious, you know, gym with the paint peeling off the walls and, uh, you know, and here we are in this environment and and on the other side of the curtain was where the men’s volleyball team played. And so you had we were staring at the girls, and the girls were staring at the volleyball players.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:11:53) – Okay.
Peter Vidmar(00:11:54) – Because they were these, you know, tall, good looking guys, you know, hitting the volleyball. And, you know, we were the short guys in the gym that were pasty white, living in the gym all day.
Peter Vidmar (00:12:03) – So yeah. It was an interesting environment. I mean.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:12:07) – Yes, interesting to say the least. Yeah. So your training regimen, was there anything special that you did at UCLA that maybe you hadn’t done before that helped prepare you for that national championship title?
Tim Daggett (00:12:21) – I can personally say that, um, when when I went there and Coach Sherlock and Makoto Sakamoto, um, basically, I learned that as a human, you can do way more than you ever thought possible. And, um, I remember at one point early on, uh, we used to call a Mr. Mako, Makoto Sakamoto. Um, he he started doing handstand push ups in the gym, um, kind of at the end of workout to see how, how many he could do. And, you know, literally when he’s first starting, he’s doing like five in my freshman year. And he would do this for a long time in his life. And I think he actually at one point had the Guinness Book of World Records for handstand pushups.
Tim Daggett (00:13:12) – I mean, some ungodly number that.
Kim Himilton Anthony (00:13:13) – Oh my goodness.
Tim Daggett (00:13:14) – Over 100, I think it was Pete?
Peter Vidmar (00:13:16) – It was163 and he was age 60. He was age 54 when he did it, I.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:13:21) – Oh my goodness.
Mitch Gaylord (00:13:22) – It’s incredible.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:13:23) – That is really incredible.
Tim Daggett (00:13:25) – He started though, like I said, in my freshman year, he might have been doing it with Pete and Mitch also, I wasn’t there, but he would do these things and he’d be struggling like crazy, you know? And it’s like he’s he’s done five and two months later he’s he’s almost made eight. And then, you know, two months later after that he’s doing 11 and he’s like fighting and his legs are and he’d come down and he’d always he the way he coached. He kind of did it a little subliminal. Subliminal. He he’d always say, well the, the mind always gives up before the body, you know. And he just walked. He’d walk by you, you know, it’s like the mind always gives up before the body. Meaning you could always do more.
Tim Daggett (00:14:10) – And, um, I remember learning that lesson, you know, through actually seeing somebody do that because, you know, and I know it’s true for these guys as well. If you were to look at the magnitude of work that went into it, I don’t think any of us, you know, early on would have said, oh, yeah, we could do that.
Mitch Gaylord (00:14:33) – I learned directly from from Pete, believe it or not. I mean, that came out wrong. Of course I learned from the guy, but he was, like I said, already on the senior team level internationally. And so to be able to see how he trained in person was a gigantic learning lesson for me. I’d never trained like that before, uh, hence I never was at those levels at that time. So it was a major like what Tim’s saying, you can do way more than you think you can. And that was evident every single day in the gym. No matter how tired you were, you would go in there and find out you were capable of more than you thought you were.
Mitch Gaylord (00:15:12) – And that became a real motivating factor, just to keep pushing and pushing and pushing to see how much I could do during the workouts, which I had never done in the past, uh, work through pain, work through fatigue, and found out that it was very mental. I had no idea that that dynamic, that your mind was so much more powerful than your physical ques were giving you you could override them pretty easily. Not in a stupid way. We had some stuff happen in that gym that that was kind of scary. Our teammate Mark Caso actually had a tragic, uh, he broke his neck. And I think we all majorly learned from that as well about the, uh, the risks of being too overly competitive and doing things when you were a little bit too tired.
Peter Vidmar (00:15:59) – I think that, and I think I had a little bit of help in that. Makato Sakamoto coached me from my first day of gymnastics. So. So what he taught, I think he taught us all the value of repetition.
Peter Vidmar (00:16:11) – We did a lot of routines when we got ready for competition. It was just a numbers game and and it’s the last routine on each event, right? You know, the last routine on the floor, the last of the high bar. That’s the real test for you to try to be up. And I think that that helped. What I learned from from Mitch and Tim was they had everything that I lacked. I, um, Tim had had incredible power and he was always aggressive in the way he approached his performing. It was all out, and Mitch was. I think Mitch is probably the most creative gymnast this country has ever seen in terms of developing and and, and skills and being innovative. Uh, you know, you’ve got we all know what the Gaylord flip is, but there’s the Gaylord one, the Gaylord two. There’s other skills he did in practice that none of no one ever really saw, but he was working on all the time. And that just expanded my, my, my mind about what could be done.
Peter Vidmar (00:17:07) – And I was always afraid to take those chances and take those. I was kind of conservative. And so, so we I think we all played off of each other. At least that’s I know that’s what I observed in gym and it was always electric in the gym. There was never a time that all three of us or anybody else was, were all tired and all lazy on a on a certain day. Someone was going on all cylinders that day, and that raised a level of intensity for everybody else in the gym. You know, I think at one point of the 18 members of the national team, seven of us trained in that gym in UCLA. So over a third of the national team was in that one gym.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:17:41) – That’s amazing.
Peter Vidmar (00:17:42) – So dynamic. I mean, and that’s what I miss more than anything is just that relationship and being in the gym and training with guys, it’s not the competition.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:17:50) – Now, one of you mentioned the mental aspect. What are some things that you did to mentally prepare yourself to compete at the highest level and to excel?
Tim Daggett (00:18:02) – Uh. Well, you know, it’s it’s basically what one of the first things I learned was taught by the coaches and these guys here, you know, it’s just you you practice like you’re competing, like you envision yourself actually, you know, at the Olympic Games, you know, with the ability to, you know, do a routine that can clinch a gold medal. And you do that in training, you know, to try to get yourself you try to imagine what it smells like, what the air flow is. You envision Dmitry Bilozerchev walking by you or Yuri Korolev or somebody else, and you try to put yourself in that situation. And then when you are in that situation, you do the exact opposite. You say, no, I’m not here. I’m not at the Olympic Games. It’s it’s just it’s another workout. And there’s Pete and there’s Mitch and there’s Mark and Chris and you know, it’s it’s just it’s just another day. I’ve done it a million times and you know, and and I can do it.
Tim Daggett (00:19:04) – I can do it again. So it for me that was really important. I don’t know about you guys. I think you probably I know Pete, you did because we, we used to play kind of a game like that all the time so.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:19:16) – What was that game?
Peter Vidmar (00:19:20) – We’d be on the high bar and I’d look at Tim and say, hey, Tim, let’s just imagine it’s the Olympics. Just the men’s team finals run the last event of the night. Um, you know, the.
Tim Daggett (00:19:30) – Four hours. Four hours into practice, four hours into practice, end of the week exhausted.
Peter Vidmar (00:19:35) – You’re exhausted. You want to go home, you tore three more blisters in your hand, your shoulder hurts, and gymnastics isn’t fun anymore. And then I’d say, let’s just imagine we’re here at the games and the gold medals on the line, and we’re neck and neck with the Chinese, and we have to hit our routines perfectly to win, you know, knowing that’s never going to happen.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:19:52) – So you thought.
Peter Vidmar (00:19:54) – And here we were at the Olympics under those exact circumstances.
Peter Vidmar (00:19:58) – And that’s when you can kind of you have to recall the training to be able to do that. Tim and Mitch mentioned some other names in the gym. It’s not just us three. In that gym. There was the Caso brothers, Mark and Chris Caso. There were, um, uh, Eric.
Tim Daggett (00:20:13) – Robbie Campbell.
Peter Vidmar (00:20:15) – Gosh. Carnell Spivey.
Tim Daggett (00:20:16) – Yes.
Peter Vidmar (00:20:17) – Other other specialists. Joe Hopfield on the high bar, guys.
Peter Vidmar (00:20:21) – Guys you know, we have these great memories with all of these athletes. They were all hard working. It wasn’t just us. I mean, everybody worked hard in that gym. And, um, you know, I I’d like to be a fly in the wall at the workouts of the guys today, because I look at the level of performance of male gymnasts today and I think, wow, I don’t know if I could ever rise to that. It’s amazing what our gymnasts are doing now. So anyways.
Tim Daggett (00:20:45) – It was. But I just love being in the gym with these guys.
Mitch Gaylord (00:20:49) – I think all of us get asked that question numerous times. Do you miss being in the sport? Do you miss competing? And like you said, Pete, it’s not about the competition. Even though those were fun moments, incredible moments, life changing moments. But the day in and day out is where it was at, is to wake up each and every day with those kinds of goals, focus, vision of where you want to go, working at it each and every day, and the camaraderie of the teammates in that gym was, I think, exceptional. I can’t imagine being anywhere else and getting to the levels that I personally got to without these guys It just wouldn’t have happened. But one of the things you talked mentally I wanted to say, one thing is these guys were talking. I learned the power of focus, and I learned how to block out everything around me, because that was an up and down ladder for me. Like sometimes I was able to do it and then other times in competition, I would let the magnitude of the event get to me and I would choke, and I would always be so upset that that happened and wonder how it happened.
Mitch Gaylord (00:21:50) – And then in the gym, your comfort zone where you’re in day and day out, it’s not. It’s not hard to tune everything out. You’re just in your comfort zone, like I’m saying. But get into a competition, especially when you travel internationally in a foreign country, on a different time zone, and it’s completely foreign to you, different languages. The whole environment feels very strange, but if you can get into that tunnel vision, that zone, the flow that people talk about, uh, you can tune all that stuff out and it’s just you on the apparatus doing your thing that you’ve done hundreds of times in the gym, and you duplicate that.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:22:26) – Is there a secret to getting in the flow? Is there something specific that you did, or was it just the matter of well, hey, I am going to block out everything.
Mitch Gaylord (00:22:37) – Well i’ll let these guys talk on that, but it’s just awareness of it, knowing that you need to do it. You got to.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:22:40) – Okay.
Mitch Gaylord (00:22:31) – And you have to be aware that you need to do it.
Tim Daggett (00:22:44) – Go ahead Pete.
Tim Daggett (00:22:47) – I don’t know. I mean, I, um, I think first, first and foremost, you have to love what you do. I love gymnastics, I love I love the whole sensation of going upside down and flipping. And that’s what as a child attracted me to the sport. Was that being able to to will yourself, to doing all these incredible things? Um, and so with that love then comes that the dreaming right of what if someday, um, I would say that my coach was really good. He never said if, he only said when. By the way, when you make your first national team, this is what you’ll experience. By the way, when you make an Olympic team, the opening ceremonies are going to be awesome, by the way you’ll know. I mean when it was never if.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:23:26) – I like that.
Peter Vidmar (00:23:28) – That’s when I thought wow has expectations for me. And and I think that from that I learned to have expectations then for myself to say, well, maybe he’s being maybe he’s really being truthful.
Peter Vidmar (00:23:40) – Maybe I actually can do this. And so that dream becomes a goal. And then the work, um, the mental and physical work pushes that goal into something that can become reality. It it’s not an easy process. We could simplify with a few sentences here on a podcast. It’s a lifetime effort and work. And I lived in the gym with these guys and saw that there were so many days that it was it was really hard, as you know, I mean, you’ve been through this. You’ve gone through this yourself and with your teammates. It’s just, um, there’s days that it’s not fun. And that’s when I think you learn the most about yourself. You know, when you’ve conquered something that you didn’t think you could, when you actually made it through a workout that you didn’t think you could complete, and you walk away at the end of the day going, and I’m so glad I didn’t give up in the middle of the day. I’m so glad I stuck with it so.
Tim Daggett (00:24:27) – Yeah, for me. I echo everything that they’ve said. Um, I just I found out relatively early on that, you know, because especially nowadays, if you, if you talk to talk to the youth or different folks or you read stuff, it’s. Struggle is like a bad word. And um, for me, I learned that struggling, although difficult in the moment, always produced the best results for me. And so I learned to kind of embrace that and, and and always have that as my goal because, you know, you could do another routine, you could do another flip, another twist, you but the one thing that you could always do more of was struggle deeper and more intensely. And so I learned to kind of really love that term and love that feeling, you know? And so at the end, like we say, you know, at the end of a workout where you’re just like, you can’t even lift your arms anymore. And it’s like it was such a struggle. But then, you know, right after that, you know, you see this, this, this big benefit.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:25:52) – Yeah. Yeah, embrace the struggle I like that. Yeah, I like it. Well, Peter, during the 1984 nationals, had you graduated already?
Peter Vidmar (00:26:06) – I had, in fact, you know, when you introduced us as, uh, as members of the 1984 NCAA championship teams, that’s only two of them. I wasn’t I was the graduate, the graduate assistant coach. I was still training for the games. So we tried to win an NCAA title with me and the team. They needed to get me off the team to win that title finally.
Peter Vidmar (00:26:26) – Tim did it.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:26:27) – They needed you in that coaching spot. Yes.
Peter Vidmar (00:26:29) – I thought about that. But, um, so. I was not a member of that team, so but I was I graduated in ‘83. And, um, you know, of course I’m going to stay in the same environment that I’d been nourished in my, my whole career. So I just stayed training with these guys. And.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:26:45) – And you had won two national titles all around titles your senior and junior year.
Peter Vidmar (00:26:52) – Yeah, I did. I won. Yeah, I did and, uh, and, and Mitch had won some national titles and I think what’s neat about this is that if you look at our team, the 1984 team, every member of the team at some point in their career was the was the USA all around national champion.
Peter Vidmar (00:27:08) – Which won a few times.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:27:08) – Wow.
Peter Vidmar (00:27:09) – I won a couple, Tim won, Jim Hartigan won. Scotty Johnson ended up winning after the Olympics. But we were all able to to say that we were all around champions. So that was kind of a kind of a neat thing, and we were a very dynamic outside of us three, the other three in the team, we’d been together for quite a while leading up to the Olympics. So. So yes, I graduated and just kept on training. I would not have near the success that I had without being in the gym with with Mitch and Tim. I mean, it was just such a privilege and I can’t, as Mitch said, I can’t imagine having gone anywhere else, uh, being in any other environment.
Peter Vidmar (00:27:43) – You know, I just, I feel like I just feel blessed that I had this chance to be with all of them. You know, we can get together, as you heard before we went on the air, uh, the little banter that we have is that that’s lingered since we were in our 20s. It’s great.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:27:59) – For sure. It must have been an amazing environment. Now, I would like to go to that NCAA championship and just talk about what that was like for you. Did you go in expecting to win as a team? What are some of the things that played out that maybe the public doesn’t know about, but what was actually going on behind the scenes?
Tim Daggett (00:28:24) – You know, it was in Pauley. So the the NCAA is in 84 are in Pauley Pavilion. And so we were comfortable with that. But it also was obviously just a few months later going to be where the Olympic Games was going to happen. And all three of us, we, you know, we were going to be on that team unless something remarkably wrong occurred.
Tim Daggett (00:28:49) – Um, because we had, for the last number of years always been on on the major teams. And so it just was, uh, it was. It. My gosh, I I don’t know exactly what the overriding thing is. Obviously it was exciting, um, you know, to, to to try to win an NCAA title. I, I thought we were going to win, uh, you know, I thought we would do it handily. Um, but I also wanted to use it as, you know, as a preparation to, to, to feel exactly what I’m going to feel come, you know, July of 1984. And so, yeah, a lot, a lot of different emotions for me.
Mitch Gaylord (00:29:37) – Yeah. That’s that’s I felt the same way, Tim, is it was kind of a, a preview of what was to come at the Olympics because we were already at those levels and, and we knew that was the goal and that’s where we were going. Um, I do remember specifically wanting to make a very powerful message of we are better than Nebraska.
Mitch Gaylord (00:29:56) – Because it had never happened prior to that. And.
Tim Daggett (00:29:59) – Yeah.
Mitch Gaylord (00:30:01) – You may wonder why Pete was already graduated and I wasn’t. Um, we went in the same year as freshmen, but I had redshirted a year because I had left UCLA for a while to train with Kurt. And then I came back and there was a question of whether I was going to be able to compete anymore in college just because of a bunch of BS back in those days with amateur versus professional stuff. It’s a whole other story that we don’t need to go into, but the fact that I was there one more chance. Here we are. We can do this and we’re going to do it. And we ended up not only winning the team gold at at the NCAAs, but we took first, second, and third in the all around. And that was the statement I think we were looking for is we we dominated and it and it felt awesome. It felt great. And then of course we put that aside and became best buddies with our Nebraska guys because they were on the Olympic team with us.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:30:56) – Exactly.
Mitch Gaylord (00:30:57) – Two of them. Yes.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:30:58) – Two of them. Correct. Yeah. So I want to go back to Mitch leaving his scholarship to go train.
Mitch Gaylord (00:31:04) – I said we don’t need to go into that.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:31:05) – No, no, we won’t go into the details of it, but I want to know what Peter and Tim were thinking when you left.
Mitch Gaylord (00:31:16) – Good riddance.
Peter Vidmar (00:31:17) – Well you know.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:31:18) – Oh my gosh.
Peter Vidmar (00:31:19) – We were always sure.
Tim Daggett (00:31:19) – I was very sad. I’m very sad.
Peter Vidmar (00:31:22) – Yeah. No, it was. I mean. When you lose that dynamic. But but at the same time, when Mitch came back, you could see a transformation. I mean, the work that Kurt Thomas did with Mitch was, was outstanding. Mitch Mitch Mitch’s level of I think. Mitch, Mitch I would say it look like you found yourself in terms of the kind of gymnastics that you wanted to, to display to the world, that that’s how I felt when you came back. It was Mitch came back as as his own performer. You know, he wasn’t fitting into a formula.
Peter Vidmar (00:31:53) – And I think that speaks to, well, to Mitch’s personality. He’s an innovative, creative gymnast. He needs to express himself. And he did, in his own way and the skills he performed. I mean, they’ve stood the test of time over the years. I mean, that right there says it all. So.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:32:08) – Good stuff.
Mitch Gaylord (00:32:09) – Very insightful, Mr. Vidmar.
Peter Vidmar (00:32:13) – I don’t. I’m not trying to put thoughts into. I’m just saying that’s. But that’s the impression I got from observing Mitch when he came back. It was just.
Mitch Gaylord (00:32:21) – It was my.
Tim Daggett (00:32:22) – Yeah, you definitely. You definitely believed in yourself to, you know, a much, much higher level. And and, you know, you were always capable of, of being the best guy. But, you know, I think deep down that experience just taught you that you’re one of the best gymnasts in the world and you can compete with anyone, there’s no question so.
Mitch Gaylord (00:32:47) – Yeah. Well thank you. Yeah. The same thing Pete was talking about when Mako would tell him a presumptive yes, you’re going to be there.
Mitch Gaylord (00:32:56) – I got that through, Kurt. That yes, you’re going to be number one. You you have the talent. You just need the belief in yourself. I lacked that back in those days. And I was in an environment where I personally felt like I wasn’t flourishing because I was trying to. They were trying to mold me into something that I wasn’t. And it’s no fault of the coach, Mako. He didn’t know me as a 12 year old. And so when I came on the scene, you know, like Pete, when I came on the scene at 18, I wanted to do certain things, and there was things he didn’t want me to do. And we butted heads a lot. And it was not it wasn’t for any other reason than we just butted heads, you know, at the time I was really angry like, this coach doesn’t believe in me, and he’s trying to keep me down and all these other thoughts that probably weren’t even true. But I just knew I had to leave for a while, and I ended up training with Kurt, and Kurt just immediately saw where I wanted to go and wanted to encourage me to get there in this particular way.
Mitch Gaylord (00:34:02) – And and it just worked. And when I came back, I was like, these guys are saying a different guy. And I wanted to share that with them. I wanted to come back. Let’s do this together. And.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:34:12) – Uh, I love it.
Mitch Gaylord (00:34:13) – It’s just amazing, amazing experience.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:34:15) – That’s exciting. That’s exciting. Now, was it related to the level of skills that you were doing? Because, I mean, I’m thinking about the Gaylord one, two. You were throwing some skills way back when.
Mitch Gaylord (00:34:27) – Yeah, that was never the issue with me. I could always do fancy tricks and this scary stuff and the risky stuff. It was it was the fundamentals and the basics and the work ethic. Like I was saying earlier and getting that all down. The gym I grew up in, my coach was Dan Conley, and that’s the environment that we were at there too, which was just do the hardest skills you possibly can do. And and it was fun. I had a major love of the sport, but you, you can’t just get to the top with that alone.
Mitch Gaylord (00:34:54) – You have to have the fundamentals and the discipline to go along with it. And I think that’s what the training with Kurt basically put it all together, put all the pieces together.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:35:04) – Nice. Oh, I’m so glad you shared that. So let’s move from the national championship title to the Olympics after compulsories. Mitch, you scored a ten by the way, that helped the team, uh, boost itself ahead of China. So you’re going into optionals. Are you going in thinking we are going to walk away with a gold medal?
Tim Daggett (00:35:28) – Can I? Can I interject at this point?
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:35:31) – Sure.
Tim Daggett (00:35:32) – So
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:35:33) – Sure.
Tim Daggett (00:35:34) – So, Mitch. So, Mitch, in parallel bars in compulsories.
Tim Daggett (00:35:37) – Um, yeah. I mean. He was great, you know, always wonderful routine. He goes up, does this routine. I’m watching him. Um, I think I had already gone, and he lands, sticks it, kind of comes over to me and he goes, oh, God, that was terrible. That sucked.
Tim Daggett (00:35:54) – I was so off here, and I was I was low here and I didn’t feel right. And it’s like because it was practice so many times, the only people that knew that it wasn’t as perfect as it could be was Mitch Gaylord and, and some of the guys that trained with him. But I was like, oh, it’s going to be fine. It’s Mitch. I’m telling you, it’s going to be fine. And then all of a sudden there’s this roar of the crowd and, you know, Mitch gets a ten. So it’s, uh, you know. I just love that story. And I thought I would not get it in if I didn’t say that, so sorry i interrupted.
Kim Hamiton Anthony (00:36:33) – No, no, no. You’re good. I love that you told that Mitch and it and it was a little bit indicative of maybe you not believing in yourself as much as you learned to do after you worked with Kurt. Um, and maybe it kind of came back a little bit, but that’s so funny.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:36:52) – I’m glad you shared that, Tim.
Tim Daggett (00:36:54) – Yeah. Do you remember that? Mitch?
Mitch Gaylord (00:36:56) – I don’t, believe it or not, but as you’re saying it. No, no, it’s funny, because all I remember is the ten.
Tim Daggett (00:37:02) – Yeah.
Mitch Gaylord (00:37:04) – I remember seeing it in disbelief because we had never done it before. And I remember running up there and, you know, whatever. The crowd was going berserk. And when I came back, you know, all the hugs and everything, and it was just a momentum builder for all of us. It’s like we’re we’re there, man. We can do this. That’s how it felt to me. We can really beat these guys. And, uh, yeah, amazing.
Peter Vidmar (00:37:28) – I think that, uh. The moment when I thought, hey, this really could happen was, um, I think we felt that we had the talent to be as good as or better than the Chinese when we saw them in the workout, at least for me, watching their podium training and all that, I thought they’re not unbeatable.
Peter Vidmar (00:37:45) – You know, I we can we can do this, guys. And they, they, they had won the World Championships just six months earlier. And so I, um. Uh, I, I thought when I, when, when the, when the competition began, we were on floor. China was on pommel horse. And I remember glancing over before my routine, and I saw Li Xiaopeng, who was the reigning world champion on the pommel horse, as some fall off. And I turned. I don’t know if I looked at Tim or Mitch or somebody. I said, hey, did you see that? Xiaopengsell just off horse. Those guys are nervous too, man. We can do this.
Peter Vidmar (00:38:22) – It was almost. I feel terrible. Saying that because I love Li Xiaopeng. He lives in in Orange County, California. He’s got a great club. And, um, but I mean that you saw that and thought, wait a second. They’re not perfect. We’re not perfect, but.
Peter Vidmar(00:38:37) – We, we can do this. And that was kind of in a way, it kind of that kind of calms me down and say, hey, you know what? We’re all in the same boat. Go out there and just do your job. And we and we did our jobs.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:38:47) – So what was it like for you to stand on that podium as a team, beating the world champions, China?
Tim Daggett (00:38:54) – I’ll tell you what I because it’s for 40 years for me and for these two gentlemen right here, I think if you, if you if you say you can, if you, if you say that you can explain how it feels. You’re lying because it’s just, it’s so beyond belief. And, you know, I remember personally being on the stand, you know, when the, when you know, the playing the national anthem. And I just remember thinking of all of the times when I had gotten hurt or all of the times when I think I couldn’t go, thought I couldn’t go on. And I had just kept on going and and these two guys were a major factor in me being able to do that.
Tim Daggett (00:39:51) – We just I just fed off of them so much. And I remember just being so proud that that we never gave up. And so that that was it for me so.
Mitch Gaylord (00:40:04) – I just remember, like Tim is saying, you can’t really put it into words because it’s a feeling. And the feeling I had was different than the feeling I imagined it would feel like. So that was very interesting to me, because if you ask any of my family members, you know, I’m a sensitive guy. I get emotional once in a while. And I thought, man, it could be that double edged sword. If I do, if I do win, or if we do win and I’m up on the victory stand, I’m just going to lose it. I’m going to start crying in front of the world, and that’s going to be embarrassing. And if you look back, all it was was this gigantic grin on my face, this huge smile. And I guess you can equate that to happiness.
Mitch Gaylord (00:40:46) – Uh. It felt great. And it was a little bit of disbelief that this was actually happening because it was a dream for many, many, many years and the dreams of reality now. And to echo what Tim said, and I’m sure Pete will say the same darn thing, the fact that we were all up there together meant everything, because we had gone through it together. And here we are and we’re sharing this experience. And here, 40 years later, I’ll get choked up just thinking about it, so now I can show emotion about it. But back then I guess I was the the robot athlete, but, um, overwhelming. Overwhelming, elated, just unreal.
Peter Vidmar (00:41:27) – Yeah, I’m weaker than these guys. I think I actually cried up there, but, uh.
Tim Daggett (00:41:31) – No, I actually. Pete was kind of hyperventilating there for a little bit. I kept I kept tapping him, saying, you’re all right, come on, come on, Pete, you got it.
Peter Vidmar (00:41:42) – Yeah I was hyperventilating. Um, for me, I think a lot of it was what what Tim and Mitch expressed.
Peter Vidmar (00:41:48) – But it’s gratitude for me. I was grateful. I’m a person of faith. I was grateful for God for giving me the the opportunity to to to share this experience with such amazing people. Um, I was grateful for all the guys in the team, but in particular the guys that I lived the dream with every day. That’s Mitch and Tim and, you know, and it wasn’t always easy for us. I mean, we were we were like the top three gymnasts in the country all around. And so while we’re competing with each other, we’re also competing against each other. And you have to push aside those little things if you really want to be a team. And, um, and we did and uh, and I think that the fact that the friendship whenever we see each other is so strong, uh, I think even sometimes stronger than it was back then, um, because we live this dream together and we have the shared memory of, of of this experience. Um, I’m just grateful to know them.
Peter Vidmar (00:42:42) – I’m grateful that that they are, um, examples to me and examples to my children of the kind of persons that they are. Um, there’s something to be said about the caliber of people that I’ve been able to keep company with, and and I’m just grateful for that.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:42:59) – That’s really special.
Tim Daggett (00:43:00) – The feeling is mutual.
Mitch Gaylord (00:43:02) – Yes. Ditto.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:43:05) – Well, each of you have such amazing personal stories as well. We didn’t get into the gold medals that you won individually, and the silver medals and the bronze medals, and I’m not going to put you on the spot right now. One of these days, I would love to interview each of you individually to dig deeper into your stories, but I just want to thank you so much for taking time out of your schedules to be on the podcast. I am beyond excited that you’re here. So thank you.
Peter Vidmar (00:43:35) – Thank you.
Mitch Gaylord (00:43:35) -Thank you.
Peter Vidmar (00:43:36) – Thank you for inspiring many, many people through your work. Kim.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:43:39) – Oh thank you.
Tim Daggett (00:43:41) – I’m a I’m a fan. You know. A fan.
Mitch Gaylord (00:43:44) – As a as the famous speaker, Les Brown says keep on keepin on.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:43:50) – Thank you guys.
Peter Vidmar (00:43:51) – Thank you.
Tim Daggett (00:43:52) – Love you brothers.
Mitch Gaylord (00:43:53) – Love you, man.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:44:00) – Oh my goodness, that was a lot of fun. There are so many things I can take away from my conversation with Tim Daggett, Mitch Gaylord and Peter Vidmar, the wisdom and insight they shared. It can be applied to just about any aspect of life. I thought it was interesting learning about how they demonstrated this inner drive, this positive attitude, and a disciplined mindset that they needed to win. But what caught my attention even more than that was just how much they fed off each other and learned from each other. One was positively impacting the other, and perhaps that person didn’t even know it. It may not have been something they said or intentionally tried to teach each other, but they impacted each other’s lives and careers by simply operating in their brilliance, by being who they were designed to be. They each had something unique and special that they brought to the team, and they played off each other’s strengths, and they they made each other better.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:45:10) – Did you notice how eager they were to highlight each other’s strengths? They didn’t make it all about themselves. It was all about recognizing the strength in each other and in their other teammates who weren’t on this interview, but who played a very significant role. If you think about it, what they just demonstrated for us was resilient leadership. Doing the hard work, getting those reps in, extracting and expecting the very best from yourself and at the same time recognizing and encouraging and celebrating and providing space for others to be their authentic selves. How can you practice this type of resilient leadership, whether it’s in the gym, in your home, or in your community? If you look around. I’m sure there is likely someone out there who is just waiting for someone to see them, for who they truly are. What would happen if you validated them, if you supported them, and maybe even team up with them so that you both can win together. It’s definitely something worth considering. Thanks for listening to this final episode of the Bruin Gymnastics Alumni edition of the Resilience to Brilliance podcast.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:46:46) – If you’ve enjoyed the podcast, please follow us or subscribe wherever you find your podcast. That way, you won’t miss what’s coming up in season two. If you want to find out more about Tim Daggett, Mitch Gaylord and Peter Vidmar, check out our show notes on InBrillianceMode.com/podcast and to connect with Bruin Gymnastics alumni on Instagram. Follow us @UCLAGymAlumni. Any use of this podcast without the express written consent of BrillianceMode LLC is prohibited.
