Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

  This story of a 'new girl' on the talented Soviet women's gymnastics team, just prior to the 1968 Olympics, hardly needs to be presented as a fictional drama.  The coach, as in all these films, is tall, dark and handsome, with a brooding sense of being in control of all he surveys, but that's where the fiction ends.  Whoever did the casting for this film had an incredible talent for finding Soviet gymnast lookalikes, and I won't need to tell you who was who in the plot, as it's perfectly obvious.  The only one I'm unsure of is Novenkaya, the new girl, herself.  I think it's Natalia Kuchinskaya, but I'm not completely sure, because the Director of this film has cut the timeframe about a little bit. The members of the squad depicted here are a young Tamara Lazakovitch (no sign of the whisky yet, but very spirited), Ludmilla Tourischeva, who is sweetly played as a smiling but very serious young woman, Larissa Petrik, Olga Karasova, Polina Astakhova (...

I love to see a leap performed boldly and with finesse.  The flying type of leap that defies gravity.  Toe point and line come into it, but amplitude is what a leap is really all about; every muscle stretched to its optimum, grace balanced with energy and power, an invisible process of weightlessness propelled not only by the legs but also by the abdomen and, it sometimes seems, the sheer spirit of the gymnast. Ballet understands the forces of gravity and how strength is converted to elegance; a leap is not a bounce, something we all too often see in today's power gymnastics.  A leap hovers mid air.  Landing seems implausible. The gymnast is flighty, airborne. A leap seems simple but is actually incredibly complex, drawing on countless hours of practice and body preparation.  Its execution is a matter of huge skill and courage.   Only the best can make such leaps of faith with artistry.  Coming down to land on the narrow beam, the gymnast often launche...

The 1974 World Championships , held in Varna, Bulgaria, were all about Ludmilla Tourischeva. As reigning 1970 World Champion and 1972 Olympic Champion, she took four golds, a silver and a bronze here, affirming her status as Queen of Gymnastics. She medalled on every event. Just look at her bars routine if you want confirmation of her genius - around 6.30 - the twists sparkle with perfection, the routine composed for beauty as well as complexity. The brooding presence of coach Vladislav Rotstorotsky intensely observes Tourischeva's finest competition. The Soviet WAG team took 13 individual medals here, grabbing all the honours available on beam and floor. Of the six competing team members, only Nina Dronova failed to secure an individual title, but she still had her gold from the team competition. Watch out for extracts from the floor routines of Elvira Saadi, Olga Korbut, Rusudan Sikharulidze, Nina Dronova and Ludmilla Tourischeva. The only gymnast not shown is Nelli Kim, w...

Once upon a time sportsmen were heros and role models, a shining moral example for all of society as to the values of a strong work ethic and a healthy body. USSR is a might sports power!  B. Reshetnikov, 1962  Picture courtesy of A Soviet Poster a Day I love these Soviet era posters and the way they capture the spirit of the time, something special about the purity of the collective sporting effort.  Of course today, sport is about different things.  The political and behavioural symbolic value of sport has been replaced by sport as a commodity.  Sports stars exist as brand heroes in our shopping centres and glossy magazines, the sometimes lurid details of their everyday lives trumpeted on the pages of such magazines as Hello! and the gossip pages of the internet. Compare photographs of Olympians Svetlana Khorkina (1996, 2000 and 2004) and Ludmilla Tourischeva (1972, 1976): Khorkina is in all her glamour shot, sexually charged splendour; Svetlana...

I should be writing some important work this afternoon but instead find myself drifting off to the Olympics ... past, as well as present.  I am a little disappointed not to be able to see the Russians fight for gold at my home Olympics at last ... but never mind.  Let's remember some of the greatest Olympians ever, and hope for the golden tradition to be continued in 2012. 1952 - Marina Gorokhovskaya on uneven bars (she took silver on this apparatus, but was the all around champion) You may well love the interesting techniques she uses here. Look for the enthusiastic audience participation too! Watch it on Youtube . 1956, 1960 and 1964 - Larissa Latynina on floor She's so languid. In 1956, it was the Latynina and Keleti show, with Latynina winning the all around and sharing the gold on floor with her Hungarian rival. In 1960 Latynina held onto both the all around and floor golds, keeping the gold in 1964 but being beaten to the all around title by the glamorous Ve...

Alexei Nemov talks to Anna Kozina of Rossiyskaya Gazeta about the relative progress of the Russian men's team. An English language translation is available here . It is clear that despite the team's recent success at individual apparatus level, disappointing results at team and all around finals are causing significant worry. Nemov suggests the Russians need to seek the help of additional coaches, specifically mentioning Vyacheslav Boiko, who helped to prepare the national team for the 1996 Olympics along with the late Nikolai Andrianov. Hmmm ... my impression of the Russian men (and this often included Nemov apart from the odd gold medal winning performance) is that they are somewhat casual and excessively philosophical in their approach. I still haven't forgotten Devyatovski giving up the ghost after a relatively minor error on p-bars some years ago. My 51 year old memory has churned up a remark made by Ludmilla Tourischeva some time around 1972 when the Soviet...