Skip to main content

Elena Gurova - Tiny Dancer

By
 

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.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

  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.

    ReplyDelete
  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 RRGā€™s Facebook site. Do you ever sell your art?

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ā€˜My daughter likes gymnastics. For us, this is the big successā€™. 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  ā“ Aliya, you are now the head coach of the junior artistic gymnastics team. What does your typical day look like? šŸ’œ 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. ā“ Do you manage the gymnasts' personal trainers or do you evenly distribute the responsibilities? šŸ’œ 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. ā“ Describe the current generation of children. Do they nee...
Post a Comment
Read more

Simone and the others - results and reflections

By
In the end, it was as predicted : Simone and the others, with Simone's teammate, Alexandra Raisman, providing the back up.  I do not need to point out that, by definition, the Americans are scoring significantly higher marks than the rest of the field.  Congratulations to them! Aliya Mustafina finished in third place.  The 2012 bronze medalist led the competition after vault and uneven bars, but had a very nervous outing on beam that might have taken a less experienced gymnast out of the medals.  A bravura performance on floor brought Aliya back though to confirm her third place all around.  From her senior debut in 2010 to today, Mustafina has continuously set high standards of grace.    It is the first time since 2000 that a gymnast (Amanar) has medalled in the all around at two consecutive Olympics, and  if Aliya can medal on Saturday's uneven bars final, she will once again be Russia's biggest medal winner of the women's gymnastics.  Russ...
56 comments
Read more

Svetlana Boginskaya: I was always a bitch* in gymnastics

By
Svetlana Boginskaya, 15 years old, with her medals from the Seoul Olympics Nico translates the latest interview with gymnastics legend Svetlana Boginskaya, during a recent visit to her home country of Belarus. Svetlana Boginskaya: I was always a bitch* in gymnastics, so now I ask for forgiveness from everyone who came in contact with me. The National Olympic Committee of Belarus held a press conference with three-time Olympic Champion in artistic gymnastics, Svetlana Boginskaya. The meeting was devoted to the 25th anniversary of the Olympic Games in Seoul. In South Korea the Belarussian won two gold medals in the team competition and vault. As a gift to the Olympic Hall of fame, the famous gymnast, now living in the United States, donated one of her trophies that she won at the 1990 European Championships and a pennant for Best Female Athlete of the USSR in 1989. How happy we were when we could share with such stars as Boginskaya, Scherbo, and Ivankov,...
14 comments
Read more

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more