Ron Galimore to be enshrined in USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame

Ron Galimore was the first Black U.S. Olympic gymnast.  His father is Florida A&M University and Chicago Bears legendary half-back, Willie Galimore.  The late Mr. Willie Galimore was inducted into the National Football Foundation, College Football Hall of Fame in 1999. In terms of a total football player, he was the best Florida A&M ever had ... (Quote from Costa Kittles, former Florida A&M assistant football coach).  

Tallahassee, Florida -- Ron Galimore still remembers the moment when he realized he wouldn’t get a chance to compete for an Olympic medal.

In 1980, Galimore, a Rickards High grad, was the first black athlete, male or female, to be named to the U.S. Olympic team. Since he was a child, he had dreamed of representing his country on the global stage.

But the United States boycotted the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. At first, the weight of the decision didn’t hit him. It truly dawned on him when the U.S. Olympic Committee flew him out to Washington, D.C., for a celebration in lieu of the games.

“It was at one of the functions where Patti LaBelle was singing,” he said.

“That’s when it hit me that I wasn’t going to be able to go. When you have a goal like that and you work for 11 years, when all of the sudden when you wake up and that’s not in front of you anymore, you feel lost. It took me about five years to brush myself off.”

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RON GALIMORE on Rings (START AT 28:17 through 29:31) 


USA GYMNASTICS HALL OF FAME (Press Release)
INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana – Seven individuals representing five different gymnastics disciplines comprise the 2016 class of inductees for the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame. The four Olympic athletes and two coaches are: athletes – Ron Galimore of Indianapolis (men’s gymnastics), Paul Hamm of Glen Ellyn, Ill. (men’s gymnastics), Alicia Sacramone of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. (women’s gymnastics), and Julie Zetlin of Los Angeles (rhythmic gymnastics); and coaches – Valeri Liukin of Parker, Texas (women’s gymnastics coach), and Jurek Pol of Slidell, La. (acrobatic gymnastics coach). George Hery of Fallbrook, Calif., will receive the Lifetime Achievement award for his efforts in trampoline and tumbling. The induction ceremony is slated for Saturday, July 9, during the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials – Women’s Gymnastics and USA Gymnastics National Congress and Trade Show in San Jose, Calif.

“Each of these individuals has had a significant impact on our sport,” said Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics, “and contributed in a number of different ways. Congratulations to the inductees.”

Ron Galimore, men's gymnastics
Galimore, one of the country’s top gymnasts, was a member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Team, becoming the first African-American to make a U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Team. He was the first four-year NCAA national gymnastics champion and earned the first perfect 10 at a NCAA National Championships.

While at Iowa State University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in speech, Galimore was a 12-time All American and was named Athlete of the Year in 1981. A member of the U.S. Men’s National Team from 1977-81, he holds the record for most U.S. national vault titles at four and is tied for the record of three national floor exercise titles. After finishing his education at Iowa State and retiring from competition, Galimore participated in two touring gymnastics shows/competitions sponsored by Madison Square Garden; served as the assistant coach for Iowa State; and worked for ABC during the 1984 Olympics Games.

Galimore was the founder and athletic director of the Ron Galimore Athlete Training Center in Tallahassee, Florida, from 1985-94, and a project manager for Marketing and Financial Management, a firm that specialized in sports marketing (1984-85). Currently, Galimore is the chief operating officer of USA Gymnastics, and he resides in Indianapolis with his wife, Loree.