The RGF has now published links to the full video of 'Countdown', a programme in which the Seoul Olympics gymnastics competition of 1988 was discussed, with some comparison to today. It is in total an hour long programme.
I wonder if anyone is feeling strong enough to provide some summary translation of the second part, or of fragments they feel are interesting?
I am copying Captain Hook's translations of the first part below, from his comments to my original post about this discussion. My post turned out to be somewhat out of context with the overall programme so I am glad for an opportunity to present the video in its entirety, in the hope that a fuller translation will set the record straight. Many thanks again to the Captain!
Part 1
Part 2
Part 1
Part 2
Host: This Olympics ( I guess he means 1988 Olympics- beginning of this video is cut off ) was very successful for both soviet teams, men and women. They won a lot of gold medals. In other words it was very memorable Olympics for our gymnastics and today we will speak with people who were participants on this event.
Then hosts introduces the guests of the show: 1988 Olympic Champion Elena Shevchenko, regular guest V-Rod, A-Rod and special guest Aliya Mustafina and add that this is unusual for them to have still active gymnast as a guest and they will ask her about modern gymnastics later in the program. They call Aliya 'rare bird' and clumsily trying to decide on what kind of rare bird she looks like, but nothing is come to mind and they postpone solution for later. Then they complimented Elena and first questions directed to Elena and A-Rod as participants of 1988 Olympics.
Elena: answers usual stuff you can here in every other interview of the Olympics participant: existing, to young to fully understand, responsibility, every athlete dream,a lot of work, luck.
A-Rod: The hardest thing was to assemble the team, because soviet gymnastics pool was very strong and they were able to assemble 2 equally strong teams easily. That's why soviet championship and soviet cup were the hardest competitions for gymnasts and trainers. Level of competitiveness was very high and we don't have this now. Level of competitiveness from the other world teams was lower, then now and soviet team trainers often chose bright, memorable personality's over great technicians. The next Olympics was after the fall of Soviet Union and this was the end of soviet gymnastics.
Hosts: sad.
Elena: Confirms the words of A-Rod about the importance of the soviet championship.
A-Rod: He has clear memory about Olga Mostepanova: after winning some big competition before the Olympics she said to the correspondent, that she isn't sure, if she will be the part of Olympic team, it will be clear after the Soviet championship.
Host: blablabla
V-Rod: Modern gymnastics are a lot harder for sure, but we still can learn the high level of execution from the gymnasts of the past. Modern level of execution is lower but we are trying to balance the difficulty with execution. We still better in execution than everyone (my rehashing). Modern gymnastics emphasise difficulty over execution, but in late CoP they try to return some artistry and this is good.
Host: blabla
A-Rod:Yes, artistry is slowly coming back and we are the reason of it. I spoke with many judges and they want soviet gymnastics back. You can look at our London Olympics team: Aliya, Komova, Grishina, Afanasieva and they are soviet class gymnasts, despite higher difficulty level.
Host: We spoke with many athletes from different sports and they all agreed on devastating effects caused by the collapse of soviet union in the early 90-th. we lost a whole generation.
A-Rod: Yes. I can give you example: after watching Xeniya Afanasieva many people are saying with nostalgia: this is real soviet gymnastics. This is brand, mark of quality.
All together: Remembering the great Olga Korbut.
Host: Same level of excitement I experienced while watching Aliya winning beam against all odds. Aliya, what do you think about beam routines from that time (Boginskaya, Shushunova) ? They made our gymnastics famous.
Aliya: They different for sure. It was beauty and class over difficulty, and now difficulty is more important. They were a lot more beautiful, then modern routines.
Host: blablablabla. Where is the balance of difficulty and execution?
A-Rod: Atop of all, rules for the competition is different now. Old rules for team competition were- 6 are competing and 5 scores counts, modern rules- 3 are competing and 3 scores counts. There's no margin for errors and this is very unnerving for a gymnast. We tried this system home and it was really stressful for all gymnasts. High stress level causes high error count.
Host: Elena, what do you think about modern gymnastics? Compare it to your time in gymnastics.
Elena: VT and FE are not that different. UB and BB are much more difficult now. I couldn't do modern UB, its to difficult for me. ( laughing )
Host: So modern WAG is not so different after all?
A-Rod: Aliya's program is much more complicated, than old programs.
I wonder if anyone is feeling strong enough to provide some summary translation of the second part, or of fragments they feel are interesting?
I am copying Captain Hook's translations of the first part below, from his comments to my original post about this discussion. My post turned out to be somewhat out of context with the overall programme so I am glad for an opportunity to present the video in its entirety, in the hope that a fuller translation will set the record straight. Many thanks again to the Captain!
Part 1
Part 2
Part 1
Part 2
Host: This Olympics ( I guess he means 1988 Olympics- beginning of this video is cut off ) was very successful for both soviet teams, men and women. They won a lot of gold medals. In other words it was very memorable Olympics for our gymnastics and today we will speak with people who were participants on this event.
Then hosts introduces the guests of the show: 1988 Olympic Champion Elena Shevchenko, regular guest V-Rod, A-Rod and special guest Aliya Mustafina and add that this is unusual for them to have still active gymnast as a guest and they will ask her about modern gymnastics later in the program. They call Aliya 'rare bird' and clumsily trying to decide on what kind of rare bird she looks like, but nothing is come to mind and they postpone solution for later. Then they complimented Elena and first questions directed to Elena and A-Rod as participants of 1988 Olympics.
Elena: answers usual stuff you can here in every other interview of the Olympics participant: existing, to young to fully understand, responsibility, every athlete dream,a lot of work, luck.
A-Rod: The hardest thing was to assemble the team, because soviet gymnastics pool was very strong and they were able to assemble 2 equally strong teams easily. That's why soviet championship and soviet cup were the hardest competitions for gymnasts and trainers. Level of competitiveness was very high and we don't have this now. Level of competitiveness from the other world teams was lower, then now and soviet team trainers often chose bright, memorable personality's over great technicians. The next Olympics was after the fall of Soviet Union and this was the end of soviet gymnastics.
Hosts: sad.
Elena: Confirms the words of A-Rod about the importance of the soviet championship.
A-Rod: He has clear memory about Olga Mostepanova: after winning some big competition before the Olympics she said to the correspondent, that she isn't sure, if she will be the part of Olympic team, it will be clear after the Soviet championship.
Host: blablabla
V-Rod: Modern gymnastics are a lot harder for sure, but we still can learn the high level of execution from the gymnasts of the past. Modern level of execution is lower but we are trying to balance the difficulty with execution. We still better in execution than everyone (my rehashing). Modern gymnastics emphasise difficulty over execution, but in late CoP they try to return some artistry and this is good.
Host: blabla
A-Rod:Yes, artistry is slowly coming back and we are the reason of it. I spoke with many judges and they want soviet gymnastics back. You can look at our London Olympics team: Aliya, Komova, Grishina, Afanasieva and they are soviet class gymnasts, despite higher difficulty level.
Host: We spoke with many athletes from different sports and they all agreed on devastating effects caused by the collapse of soviet union in the early 90-th. we lost a whole generation.
A-Rod: Yes. I can give you example: after watching Xeniya Afanasieva many people are saying with nostalgia: this is real soviet gymnastics. This is brand, mark of quality.
All together: Remembering the great Olga Korbut.
Host: Same level of excitement I experienced while watching Aliya winning beam against all odds. Aliya, what do you think about beam routines from that time (Boginskaya, Shushunova) ? They made our gymnastics famous.
Aliya: They different for sure. It was beauty and class over difficulty, and now difficulty is more important. They were a lot more beautiful, then modern routines.
Host: blablablabla. Where is the balance of difficulty and execution?
A-Rod: Atop of all, rules for the competition is different now. Old rules for team competition were- 6 are competing and 5 scores counts, modern rules- 3 are competing and 3 scores counts. There's no margin for errors and this is very unnerving for a gymnast. We tried this system home and it was really stressful for all gymnasts. High stress level causes high error count.
Host: Elena, what do you think about modern gymnastics? Compare it to your time in gymnastics.
Elena: VT and FE are not that different. UB and BB are much more difficult now. I couldn't do modern UB, its to difficult for me. ( laughing )
Host: So modern WAG is not so different after all?
A-Rod: Aliya's program is much more complicated, than old programs.
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