Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Travelling back in time to 1985, all 15 of the top spots in the women's all around competition at the European Championships were taken up by Eastern European countries who were part of what was then called the Soviet bloc.  The Soviet Union, the German Democratic Republic, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria were all in the mix.  Spain's Isabel Soria, 16th that year, was the first gymnast from the West to appear on the results sheet.  Event finals were an exclusively Soviet Bloc affair. 38 years later, we see this turned on its head almost completely.  True, we have Hungary's Sofia Kovacs in second place, and the Romanian team is making a return with its gymnasts, Anna Barbosu and Amalia Ghigoarta, in 9th and 10th place; but otherwise gymnastics is entirely Western.   Britain did look dominant from the very start, and Italy are their closest competition.  The gap between first and second placed Italy was almost three points; it was a similar si...