Nellie Kim - Later Life

Later Life

After Nellie Kim's competitive career was over she worked as a coach and a judge. She coached the South Korean, Italian and Belarus national teams. In 1984 Kim became the International Brevet Judge and judged many international competitions, including European Championships, World Championships and Olympic Games. Her judging license was suspended by the FIG for a while only once – after the 1990 World Cup, she was judging again in Barcelona. Since 1983 she has been the President of the Judging Committee in Artistic Gymnastics of the Republic of Belarus.

In the 1990s Kim moved to the U.S. and in 2002 was residing in Minnesota.

In 1996 Kim was elected to the Women's Artistic Gymnastics Technical Committee of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), and moved to the U.S.A. soon afterwards, where she lives with her daughter Nellie.

At the FIG Congress held on 22 October 2004 in Antalya, Nellie Kim was elected President of the Women's Artistic Gymnastics Technical Committee. She helped design the 2006 alteration in the Code of Points, which will end the use of the perfect 10 and introduce uncapped scoring for gymnasts. Some of the main causes for the change were judging scandals at the 2004 Summer Olympics, with Alexei Nemov and other gymnasts involved. FIG officials, including Nellie Kim and Bruno Grandi, believed that one of the possible ways to prevent such scandal in the future and make the clean execution and artistry the main priorities, was a radical change of the old Code.

This move has been controversial among fans and athletes alike. Kim and other FIG officials pointed out, that this alteration was designed with the help and advice from FIG member federations and many judges, as have all previous codes. They also underlined that this system will be tested on major international events before final adoption.

In her 2005 interview Nellie Kim said that unlike her predecessor in the post of the President of the WAG TC, Jackie K. Fie, she does not receive any salary from the federation of the country, represented by her in the FIG. And therefore she works for the FIG on the basis of pure enthusiasm.

In 1999 she was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame.

Despite the Cold War, a documentary film about Nellie Kim was filmed in the USSR by the Americans in the mid-70s before the Olympics and was aired in Canada in 1978.