and made the U.S. teams for the 1987 Pan American Games and the 1987 World Championships. At the Pan American Games, she won gold medals in the team and balance beam competitions and placed third in the all-around. At the World Championships, she contributed to the team's sixth-place finish. 1988 At the 1988 National Championships, Garrison placed second in the all-around, behind Phoebe Mills, and won the gold medal on beam and 3rd on floor. Her finish at Nationals qualified her to the U.S. Olympic Trials in Salt Lake City, where she again placed second behind Mills and secured a spot on the 1988 U.S. Olympic women's gymnastics team. Olympic Games At the 1988 Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, Garrison competed on all four events in the team compulsories and optionals, scoring 38.975 in the former and 38.85 in the latter. The United States placed 4th, behind the Soviet Union, Romania, and East Germany. Garrison also qualified for the all-around and balance beam finals, and placed 16th and 7th, respectively. Garrison was also involved in a controversy, involving a rarely used rule, that meant the difference between 3rd and 4th place for the United States. During her uneven bars routine in the compulsory round of the competition, the team alternate, Rhonda Faehn, pulled the springboard away after Garrison began her routine, then crouched beside it and remained on the podium until Garrison dismounted. At the time, coaches and alternates were not allowed to stay on the podium when an athlete was performing a routine at the Olympics. Faehn was caught by an East German judge, Ellen Berger, and the team was deducted five-tenths of a point, putting the Americans in 4th place behind the East Germans by three-tenths of a point. Without the deduction, the United States would have won the bronze medal ahead of East Germany. This would have been the first Olympic gymnastics medal in team competition for a U.S. women's team in a fully attended Olympic Games. (The U.S. women won several medals at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, but those Games were boycotted by the Soviet Union and East Germany.) The president of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) at the time, Yuri Titov, apologized to the Americans after the compulsories. Eponymous skills Garrison has two eponymous skills on the balance beam that are listed in the Code of Points. References 1967 births Living people