Skip to main content

30 years ago ... Olga Mostepanova

By

Yesterday in Moscow, gymnasts, dignitaries and athletes from all sports celebrated Physical Culture Day.  The Russian Gymnastics Federation has a great selection of pictures on their website, and I will post my favourites for you here.

The one that captured my heart though - as I realised it was 30 years ago since the summer of the Oloumoc Alternative Olympics - was this picture of the all around champion at those Games, Olga Mostepanova, who scored a perfect 40 in the all around, the only gymnast ever to do so.  She was the ultimate gymnast, in so many ways.

Videos of this competition are rare, the 'Holy Grail' of gymnastics.  But just look at this video of Olga on beam during the individual competition.  You will rarely, if ever, see an example of more ample perfection, technical, artistic and competitive.  I often wonder what would have happened in Pauley Pavilion (the venue for the Los Angeles Olympics) if only politics hadn't taken an ugly turn that summer.  Olga deserves a higher profile in the annals of gymnastics champions - she was the epitome of the Soviet artistic gymnast.  When I interviewed Alexander Alexandrov, way back in 1989, as head coach of the Soviet women he picked her out as a historical example of the ideal, alongside Natalia Kuchinskaya.  I can't really think of a much stronger recommendation.

http://youtu.be/M-dBbhMEsJs

Olga is about 45 now and as you can see looks not a day older than 30.  She works as a coach at the famous Moscow Dynamo club, has a large and happy family of five beautiful children.  She is strong minded, positive and full of smiles.  A successful person, gymnast and coach.

You can read an interview with Olga from last August here : http://rewritingrussiangymnastics.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/olga-mostepanova-from-beautiful.html


Another beautiful Moscow gymnast, from the CSKA club, Nastia Grishina.  Get well soon, Nastia.


2000 Olympic Champion, Muscovite Elena Zamolodchikova leads an exercise class

Zamolodchikova with Moscow Dynamo gymnast, Russian team captain, Emin Garibov





Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

30 years in elite sport: Oksana Chusovitina

By
You've been competing internationally for over 30 years. How has gymnastics changed over that time? Is there anything about your sport that has remained the same for decades? First of all, the age has changed. More mature athletes are competing now, which makes me happy. Secondly, the apparatuses. They've become more comfortable and sophisticated. Gymnastics in general has become more challenging, but in my youth, people performed mostly the same elements as they do now. Back then, this was par for the course, but now it surprises many. It's a bit amusing. Has the nature of the training itself changed? For me personally, absolutely. Now, my life isn't just about my athletic career. I'm involved with the Oksana Chusovitina Academy, which was personally opened by the President of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev. It has 155 students, both girls and boys. I used to train three times a day, but now I train once. The entire afternoon is taken up with the academy and organi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tribute to Russian gymnast and gold medallist Angelina Melnikova

By
Angelina Melnikova, now 23, is 2021 World AA champion in artistic gymnastics.    She holds a gold medal with her team from the 2020 (2021) Olympics, her second Games.    Visit her home, and no doubt there would be a secure cabinet full of all the various honours, awards and medals she has earned through her career. Angelina Romanovna Melnikova has her primary home in Voronezh, the place of her birth.    The club where she trains is the same one where champions Viktoria Komova, Vera Kolesnikova and Liubov Burda made their names.    1980 Olympic Champion Elena Davydova began her gymnastics life there, too. Melnikova is untypical of most Russian gymnasts.    Her first Olympics, in 2016, were characterised by uncharacteristic mistakes that came in the wake of a nasty hamstring injury.    As the youngest gymnast she seemed unsure and tearful - but still helped her team to a silver medal.   A Russian gymnast beginning so in...
1 comment
Read more

‘My daughter likes gymnastics. For us, this is the big success’. Aliya Mustafina talks to Match TV

By
Via VK.com.  Google translate A big interview with Aliya Mustafina was published on MATCH!. We provide a small excerpt below, and the full version is available on the website at the link below  ❓ Aliya, you are now the head coach of the junior artistic gymnastics team. What does your typical day look like? 💜 My current life is similar to what it was when I was competing. In the morning, I have breakfast and go to work by 9:00, we train for four hours, have lunch, rest and train for another three hours. During the training camp, the athletes live at the base. They live and train on the same territory. ❓ Do you manage the gymnasts' personal trainers or do you evenly distribute the responsibilities? 💜 We work in contact with the personal trainers, I listen to their opinions. For example, if the trainer believes that their athlete needs to be given a little rest or do fewer repetitions of a particular exercise, we do so. ❓ Describe the current generation of children. Do they nee...
2 comments
Read more

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more