Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

No sooner had I posted yesterday's chronicle of the best women gymnasts of the Olympics than I received a request for a similar collection of the men. So here is a look at the wonderful Soviet men, focussed through the lens of the Olympics. Remember that what you are seeing here, particularly from the early 1980s through to the early 1990s, is but a fraction of the entire body of Soviet gymnastics. The women were always outstanding, but at their best the men were absolutely phenomenal. 1952, 1956 - Viktor Chukarin Chukarin was all around Olympic Champion at two consecutive Olympics, winning four medals at each and leading his team to gold in both. In 1952 his team mate Grant Shaginian took another two golds for the Soviet team; while in 1956 Albert Azarian went home with a gold on rings. Videos of individual routines are thin on the ground, but here is a brief documentary of Chukarin at work, demonstrating some of the heroic personal and gymnastic qualities for which t...

I'm just collating the voluminous amounts of results and video links relating to the Russian Federal Championships, though I'm afraid my progress is rather slow thanks to the recent adoption of two adorable black and white cats, Harry and Ron, who are of course my priority at the moment, alongside large volumes of assessment I must complete as part of my 'proper' job!  However, to keep you interested, here are some links I located via the Russian Gymnastics Federation website .  First of all, an interview (from 2007) with 13 time Olympic medalist and long-serving member of the Men's Technical Committee, Boris Shakhlin (RIP).  Boris reflects on the relative increasing difficulty levels in gymnastics (he competed at Olympics in 1956, 1960 and 1964), on the rewards accorded to sportsmen in his time, and on his premature retirement from sport, brought on by a heart attack at the age of 35 as he prepared for the 1968 Olympics.  When asked to rank the best gymnasts of ...