Maria Filatova – the first ever picture taken of her doing gymnastics! By kind permission of Maria Filatova Kourbatova My first memory of Maria Filatova is a little girl with huge, white ribbons in her hair, so tiny she seemed to have to stand on tiptoe to be able to see over the balance beam. At 4’ 6” tall, she was the smallest competitor at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, yet she was already part of the Soviet senior team, competing alongside such established stars as Ludmilla Tourischeva, Nelli Kim, Elvira Saadi and Olga Korbut. The ‘Siberian Sparrow’, trained in Leninsk-Kuznetsk by Innokenty Mametyev since a very early age, celebrated her 15 th birthday on the 19 th July 1976, the day of the team final. That night, she slept with her first – not her last - Olympic gold medal beneath her pillow. For all her cuteness, Maria Filatova was a fearsome gymnast and competitor. If the crowd were awed by the pyrotechnics of Romanian technician Nadia Comaneci, they we...
Reporting and analysing Russian gymnastics since 2010. Includes original and exclusive interviews with leading coaches and gymnasts, and historical issues dating back to the Soviet Union. The first blog to report extensively on the sport using Russian language sources. I read, I argue, and I have opinions. Be warned.


totally overscored. the champion on this event become worse and worse since hong un jong last year winner. the judges totally unable to differenciate pike, layout, tuck position anymore on this event
ReplyDeleteOMG! what is your problem with the russian girls!! she deserve that gold medal.
DeleteYeah. You wanted simone bile won again. she won many gold medals but you and other Americans want everything selfish and support not suck. Paseka deserved the gold.
ReplyDeleteI find it hilarious that all the russian lovers on this site whine and moan that Komova bars were soooo much better than kocian but hardly any comments here...Pasekas form is awful and she should have been second. At least be consistent...but nobody here mentions Pasekas terrible form on vault or mustafina ridiculous twisting form. Hypocrites.
DeleteOh and by the way, she should have been second to the korean girl, not simone. Simones vaults were almost perfect but she didn't have the difficulty. I can appreciate all the hard work Paseka did to improve her faults big time but she still has really bad form and isn't deducted enough on it.
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