AMERICAN GYMNAST

Cameo.

Cathy Rigby was designated America's finest gymnast and a contender for a gold medal at the 1972 Olympic Games by the media. She was pretty, pixieish, talented, and hard working; just as important, she was good copy. Born with collapsed lungs, a chronic sufferer of bronchitis and pneumonia when she was a child, Rigby overcame her physical disabilities with pure grit. She began gymnastics at the age of eleven after she impressed her father with her skills on a trampoline and worked hard to be the best gymnast in the United States.

Olympian.

In 1963 Mr. Rigby took his daughter to coach Bud Marquette, whose Southern California Aero Team (SCAT) is considered one of the finest gymnastics teams in the nation. "In two months, she was better than girls who had been training for two years," Marquette recalled. "She never fooled around." By 1968 she was performing at the Olympic level, but only...