Healdsburg's Olympics Flashback: 'I Took 2nd Place in Free Exercise in 1968'

Even as the "Fab 5" U.S. Olympics women's gymastics team makes the media rounds this week after their successful run in London, one Healdsburg woman is awash in a flood of nostalgia over past glories.

"I was watching the closing ceremonies of the Olympics and I dug out my high school record in the newspaper in 1968, when I took second place in the free exercise and all around," said Healdsburg Realtor Beth Robertson, of .

"Amazing memories," Robertson said of her triumphs at Sylmar High School in Los Angeles, where she was also prom queen, a third place winner for Sylmar Queen and a volunteer ballet class teacher.

"I have an old yellowed page of the newspaper with two photos in it of me with my second place medal on -- one of the gal that took third place and one of the gal that took first place," Robertson said. "I came in second."

Gymnastics has changed a lot since then, said Robertson, whose name in 1968 was Beth Weigand.

"Back then, we only did tumbling, the horse, free exercise and toward the end we had a balance beam -- but it was just a big piece of wood barely off the floor," she noted. "Pretty interesting how far it has come."

Robertson said the memories triggered by the Olympics were so strong that she called a friend who has a relatives in Rio, site of the 2016 Olympics.

"We are now planning a trip to Rio for the 2016 Olympics," she said.