Skip to main content

The Lost Generation of the Olympics: Gymnastics and the Holy Grail

Once upon a time, there were six little girls ...

The little girls became gymnasts, and the gymnasts became Champions - but never Olympic Champions.

Politics got in the way. 'Their' Olympics, the 1984 Los Angeles Games, disappeared as their country boycotted the Games for political reasons. History vanished. They became a lost Olympic generation.

Irina Baraksanova



Tatiana Frolova



Natalia Ilienko



Olga Mostepanova



Natalia Yurchenko



There was one exception. Elena Shushunova went on to compete at a second Olympics, becoming All Around champion at the Seoul Games in 1988



The 'little gymnasts' (in fact they were extraordinary athletes) competed at the Oloumoc Friendship Games instead of the Olympics. At these Friendship Games, Olga Mostepanova became Champion in the AA, Floor, Vault and Beam, scoring an unequalled total of 40 in the All Around; a level of perfection never seen before or since. There is very little video of this competition available, and what does exist is very poor quality. This competition is known to gymnastics fans as the 'Holy Grail' of gymnastics.

Some video of the 1984 Friendship Games



The Russians are not threatening a boycott of the 2016 Olympic Games. Nevertheless, if their gymnasts missed the Games this year it would be for political reasons outside of the gymnasts' control. Clean athletes would be suffering because of political games, history would once again disappear. In gymnastics, few, if any, of the athletes - particularly the women - ever get a chance to compete at a second Games. And history is irreparably damaged as Olympic potential vanishes into thin air.

Irina Baraksanova, born 4 July 1969, Tashkent. Soviet national team 1983-86 0 Olympics
Tatiana Frolova, born 26 April 1967, Bryansk. Soviet national team 1980-85 0 Olympics
Natalia Ilienko, born 26 March 1967, Alma-Ata. Soviet national team 1980-84 0 Olympics
Olga Mostepanova, born 3 January 1969, Moscow. Soviet national team 1984-87 0 Olympics
Natalia Yurchenko, born 26 January 1965, Norilsk. Soviet national team 1980-85 0 Olympics
Elena Shushunova, born 23 April 1969, St Petersburg. Soviet national team 1984-88 1 Olympics

Comments

  1. "Now let all these foreign pseudo-clean sportspeople sigh with relief and win their pseudo-gold medals in our absence," Isinbayeva wrote on Instagram
    John

    ReplyDelete
  2. Political boycott also took away the greatest American male gymnast chances of winning Olympic medals. Kurt Thomas won silver in AA at 1979 worlds. He also won gold medal in floor event final and in horizontal bar event final. Finally he also won silver in parallel bars and in pommel horse while helping team win bronze. He also has a gold in floor in 1978 worlds.

    Todd

    Let's hope cooler heads prevail in this current situation.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just wanted to include/add Thomas did compete in 1976 Olympics but won no medals. His greatest shot for medals was in 1980 which US boycotted.

      Todd

      Delete
    2. I haven't even begun about this generation of Soviet gymnasts - all game changers who influenced the direction of the sport. Should do a parallel post with the work of such all time greats as Balabanov, who was just so underrated because of his lack of Olympic exposure. Hey ho - very busy just trying to keep pace with what's happening today :-)

      Delete
  3. Gymnastics needs Russia

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ugh. I understand there are a million reasons why this was never going to happen - and it might not have made some people any less bloodthirsty - but I really wish Russia would've cut their losses on the 60+ track athletes and moved on. They're (still) trying to make them into the big martyrs and that was NEVER going to happen with the level of drug use uncovered in that program.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I think the ban would be ok . Sports are basically finished as we know them & like the markets after sanctions they never come back. Sport will limp on without Russia but its the end of the international era. Its time we loked at what is taking over the world.Sport is just a diversion.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

More thoughts on US gymnastics, Karolyi - and Zaglada

I’d like to add some thoughts to my earlier post about USA gymnastics and Bela Karolyi:  1. What Bela did, he did. He would agree that his actions were his responsibility. 2. Abusive relationships in USA gymnastics (and no doubt elsewhere) pre-existed Bela’s move to the USA and still exist today. 3. Harsh training existed and exists in all of the ‘artistic’ sports and dance-related forms - eg ballroom dancing, ballet, ice skating, circus.  The training involved in most of these activities is founded on an assumption of the benefits of early specialisation.  It revolves around  ‘ideal’ forms, shapes and postures that are difficult to achieve without early years training - women especially.   4. Wherever prodigious early talent exists, there are predators whose main desire in life is to take advantage of that talent - music, entertainment, maths, sport.  The boundaries very easily become confused.  Who owns the talent?  Who decides how many hours to work, at what level?  FOR WHOSE BENEFI

Britain 1, Russia 2 in Junior European Gymnastics Championships

Sergei Eltcov, Kirill Potapov, Artur Dalolyan, Nikita Nagorny, Valentin Starikov It was a close-ish competition, but Britain came out on top everywhere as a team, except for pommel horse where the British had a bad day, and rings, a strong piece for a Russia.  In truth, they are two brilliant teams.  Many of these gymnasts will turn senior next year, swelling the ranks of their respective teams.  I can't wait to see them fight for medals at the a Rio Olympics.  Coached by two Russians (Andrei Popov and Sergei Sizhanov from the historic gymnastics city of a Vladimir), the British team carries the classical mark of the Russian school. CORRECTION - The British Junior team head coach is now Barry Collie.  

Tutkhalyan, Bondareva will fight to compete at Youth Olympics

Olga Bulgakova, courtesy of RGF Key points of a short interview with Olga Bulgakova, Head Coach of the national junior team http://www.allsportinfo.ru/index.php?id=83100 They had expected a little better result on floor and vault.  They need to review and change their tactics, work on the mistakes.  Bars and beam were the most successful pieces. The girls reached their minimum targets.  They use the results of competition for analysis, to understand where things aren't working, and correct any weaknesses. Seda Tutkhalyan and Maria Bondareva will be considered for the Youth Olympics in Nanjing.  Seda's programme is more complex.  But this was a major competition for both girls and both had errors.  There is still some work to do. Seda has complex routines, dealing with them is very hard.  If her routines had been less difficult of course that would have been easier to handle and she would be more stable.  But that wouldn't offer much promise.  She has a very promising progra

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more