Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Via Natalia Kalugina. 1968 Olympic champion, Larissa Petrik, BB.  How difficult to make such simplicity beautiful. http://youtu.be/EMUEo5P1dGE

It's worth watching these timeless videos.  Check out the routines of Alla Shishova, especially on beam.  She was ahead of her time.  Also observe the magnificent artistry of Olga Mostepanova and Natalia Yurchenko.  Neither gymnast had intricate choreography, but they were both captivating.  Their work conveyed emotional as well as technical impact.  Yurchenko moves slowly, floating through the air.  Who would think that such a light, slender gymnast as Mostepanova could find all that air time in her tumbles?  Technique, not muscle, gave these gymnasts their power.  Their artistry came from the consummate grasp of technique, something that cannot be expressed as execution or entertainment.  Ilienko, Bicherova, Frolova are other classical members of this team.  They will all be remembered for a very long time. The Soviet team managed to fall off beam even in those days, but their superior difficulty and technique lifted them above ...

For those of you coming to the story about pregnancy doping late, and wondering what on earth those translations I published this morning are all about, some context -  The Observer published a history of cheating in sport on the 15th November that featured allegations of pregnancy doping in the USSR gymnastics team at the 1968 Olympics. The allegations were pivotal to their story, although they could have chosen a different example to make their point. I have now published three articles on RRG about this - the first an opinion piece with reference to sources refuting the allegation, and this morning translations of two Russian language reports from 1998 and 2001, including a Vladimir Golubev interview with Karasyova in which she describes the whole story as a 'monstrous' lie.  The chronology has become clearer, and a few confusions been cleared up. I wanted these pieces to go on the record in the English language.  I have written to the Observer readers' editor twice ab...

  Olga Kharlova (left) in 1966, with the USSR World Championships team.  This is before her marriage to gymnast Valeri Karasyov. Lauren Cammenga found the original Kommersant story about the bogus pregnancy doping story.  The date of the article is 10th December 1998, and not as reported in my original article on RRG of 29th November. Do you agree that The Observer should now print a correction to its story of 15th November? SPID-Info is up the Creek 35,000 Rubles Author: Maxim Stepenin Translator: Lauren Cammenga Olga Karasyova, a USSR, European, world, and 1968 Olympic champion in artistic gymnastics, has been awarded 35,000 rubles in damages from the newspaper SPID-Info . The Ismailovsky District Court awarded this, a record-breaking amount for suits of this kind, in emotional damages for a 1997 interview supposedly conducted with Karasyova. In reality, the interview supposedly given by Karasyova was given by an impostor from Germany. It was the German ...

At the recent press conference, both Aliya and Vika gave short interviews.  You can finds videos of them and the ROC's website. Olesya Mikheeva has found time to provide some translations - thank you!! Aliya's Interview. “Operation was done on November 3rd, so about 3 weeks ago, so now I’m recovering/ rehabilitating until December 7th, I’m not allowed to jump/run/go upstairs, I’m still wearing a cast. This is the last week of this. After that, I will start a more difficult recovery to build muscles, rehabilitate so in February I can get back to jumping. “ The interviewer asks about her injury and she says she had a meniscus injury. (don’t know how to translate the details) When can you start training again? “I think I’ll start training again when I’m out of the hospital because I’m still concurrently rehabilitating my back so until the New Year I will be doing that.” The interviewer asks something about the judging and Aliya gives a quote, but I’m not quite sure how to translat...