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Elena Gurova - Tiny Dancer

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Baby face ... Born 30 December 1972, Elena Gurova was one of the Soviet Union's gymnastics prodigies who blossomed early, but never quite showed her full flowering.  At the age of 14, Elena took multiple medals at the Soviet Cup and Soviet Championships to qualify as a member of her country's team at the World Championships in Rotterdam.  Despite a stunning floor routine, including a double layout opener and a final tumble of full twisting double back, Elena received just one medal there, a silver for her team contribution.  She failed to qualify to any individual final, thanks to the incredible depth of a Soviet team that included eventual World - and Olympic - Champions Shushunova, Omelianchik, Boguinskaia and Baitova.


The following year she competed at the World Sports Fair, taking the AA gold with, by her standards, watered down routines.  Sadly she was not named to the Soviet Olympics team and her competitive record then runs dry - does anyone know any more?


In the picture, taken in 1985, Elena would have been only twelve years old.  This was the first time that I saw her compete at international senior level, at Wembley in the Champions All competition.  


Elena trained in Moscow at the same CSKA club as Elena Shevchenko, Olga Chudina and, later, Anastasia Grishina.  She shared the same meticulous approach to her technical elements, was especially powerful on bars and beam and is one of the gymnasts credited as having competed the double twisting Yurchenko first.  Her coaches, Viktor and Irina Razumovsky, still work at the same club today and look after one of Moscow's leading gymnasts, Daria Mikhailova.


You can watch Elena's 1987 floor routine here.

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  1. Unknown19 January 2017 at 21:00

    This young woman was SPECTACULAR in the 80s ... on youtube, check out her performances at the 1987 Chinichi Cup and Tokyo International. I thought for sure that she would be the next World Champion on floor -- so few gymnasts were doing such difficult tumbles. Alas, it just wasn't in the cards. Please let her know that gymnastic fans in the US really respect her efforts and remember her still.

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  2. Anonymous21 January 2017 at 17:28

    Stratovich will take a surgery in Germany as soon as posibel according to Alfosov and Rodionenko , Ivan will miss Russian Nationals and Euros http://rsport.ru/artist_gym/20170121/1115218505.html and Nagornyi will start full trainings only in the end of january http://rsport.ru/artist_gym/20170121/1115219527.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous30 January 2017 at 19:52

    I had once read that she had a brief stint with judging. But apparently she was said to now be an office employee of some sort in Moscow. But that was a while ago. Who knows what she is doing now.

    She was so good from 1984 to 1987 but after that, she really seemed to struggle with growth and body changes. Still, she left a great body of work.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous7 February 2017 at 15:35

    I thought her first international appearance was in 1984 at the DTB Cup. She also competed in Druzhba that year finishing second to Silivas (due to Gurova having a poor beam routine).

    ReplyDelete
  5. Linda8 December 2017 at 18:25

    Love this photo. The Black and White of Shushunova was wonderful. I too would cut out any scrap of information about the Soviets from the time of Olga Korbut. I did not know what gymnastics was before 1970 Olympics.

    Would subscribe to Euro gymn mags, it looks like the newspapers in Britain did much more on the Soviet Tours even before the two boycotted Olympics.

    Have been painting and doing computer graphics of Natalia Frolova, Baraksanova and Ilyenko and Shaposh for a number of years. So glad for the gymnternet to see these performances again and again and again.

    I love Queen Elizabeth's comments on grace and artistry. It seems like they have tried to destroy all the emotion in all the arts. The Guardian has an article online about a book called The CIA and modern art. Art Renewal, the most visited museum online for realistic art has some great articles on this subject to do with the visual arts.



    https://www.facebook.com/Movement-Works-Studio-470457819669706/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Queen Elizabeth9 December 2017 at 09:18

      Linda, your art is beautiful and I have shared your page on RRG’s Facebook site. Do you ever sell your art?

      Delete

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