Skip to main content

Happy Birthday, Maria Filatova!

Image
By
Maria posted this picture of Mischa the bear, mascot of the 1980 Olympics
All the best gymnasts are called Maria ... :-)

And today, it's Maria Filatova's special day - Happy Birthday, Maria!!

Maria won gold medals at both the 1976 Montreal and 1980 Moscow Olympics. She was 1978 World Cup all around champion, and four times won gold medals as part of the Soviet team at Worlds and Olympics. In 1981 she won the silver medal all around at the Moscow World Championships, where many people felt she merited the gold. She was a great fan favourite and a great in her own right, competing during a vintage era of classical gymnastics, alongside fellow legends such as Liudmilla Tourischeva, Olga Korbut and Nelli Kim..  You can read more about her here and at her official site, here.

Maria is a good Leo woman, positive and sunny, full of encouragement and happy words for those around her. She was always a great team mate, and still is today, as a coach working at her own club, Kour Gymnastics, in New York. See her here at about 8.55 as she encourages team mate and eventual Olympic champion, Elena Davydova.

And you can appreciate here, her beautiful floor routine from the 1980 Olympics.



Labels:

Comments

  1. Anthony19 July 2013 at 10:50

    "all the best gymnasts are called Maria"... and apparently they all share the same birthday, as it's also Maria Paseka's birthday. ;)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Denial of visas - some background

By
Can I remind everyone interested in Russian gymnastics that the restrictions imposed on Russia following its state-sponsored doping scandal were quite separate from the restrictions introduced following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? The Russian doping scandal came to prominence in 2016, while WADA imposed further sanctions in 2019. Although these sanctions restricted Russia’s participation under its national flag, they did not impose a blanket ban on Russian gymnasts. Athletes who met the relevant eligibility requirements were still permitted to compete. Artistic gymnastics has historically recorded relatively few positive doping tests, and Russian gymnasts were not collectively excluded from international competition as a consequence of the doping scandal. Russian gymnasts therefore continued to compete at the Olympic Games and major international championships, including the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. The situation changed in February 2022, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukra...
Post a Comment
Read more

Viktoria Komova - back pain has forced me to step down

By
I awoke this morning to a very simple statement from Viktoria Komova, on her vk.com site, which Papa Liukin has translated (via the IG forum): 'Dear friends, fans, and gymnastics lovers. Unfortunately back pain isn't allowing me to train to my full potential and get ready for competitions. I've made the very difficult decision to stop training and take care of my health. I want to thank everyone for their support! Without your love and warmth it would've been more difficult to go all the way. Thanks everyone and see you soon! Love and kisses.' Well, first of all, good wishes and best of luck to Viktoria, who has struggled since 2012 to re-establish herself fully as a competitive gymnast, whose talent was so great that she secured gold on bars at two different World Championships, four years apart, whose career was littered with controversy, who must be allowed to live her life as she wishes.   I know that the 'gymternet' will now be overflowing...
43 comments
Read more

WAG Senior start lists are out - Afan does one, Mustafina three

By
Start lists are now available for tomorrow's senior team and event quals.  At present, the Russian roster  looks like this - Beam - Melnikova, Tutkhalyan, Mustafina Floor - Melnikova, Tutkhalyan, Mustafina  Vault - Melnikova, Tutkhalyan, Afanasyeva  Bars - Melnikova, Spiridonova, Mustafina  Things can still change, dear reader, but this is the most reliable official news we have.    It will be good to see all five members of the team compete - I am relieved that Mustafina isn't doing all four but worried for her legs on floor; delighted to see Melnikova and Tutkhalyan making such a strong contribution; and pleased that Afanasyeva is having a chance to try out her training, despite what might be a small injury.  Spiridonova is also looking good for bars, in fact to me she is underused here.   Good luck!  Udachi!  To all the team.  We are very excited to see you compete and do well! The start lists can be found here - http:/...
34 comments
Read more

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more