Skip to main content

Elena Vaitsekhovskaya - website, and an interview with Elena Mukhina



Elena Vaitsekhovskaya is one of Russia's leading sports journalists, herself a former Olympian.  You will have read Lupita's translation of at least one piece of her writing here - the article entitled 'Undesirable Alexandrov' which was so insightful on the staffing changes that so upset the Russian camp last autumn.

Just this afternoon I found her website, which though in the Russian language is a treasure trove of authoritative interviews with and articles about leading coaching figures such as Alexander Alexandrov, Andrei Rodionenko, Leonid Arkayev and many of the top gymnasts of the past twenty years, including Dmitri Bilozerchev, Aliya Mustafina, Nikolai Kryukov, Alexei Voropaev and Maxim Devyatovski.  It's well worth a few Sunday afternoons navigating the complexities of Google translate.  The Russian language gymnastics listing is here, and there is a resource of article translations, though not much gymnastics, here.

One article I found particularly interesting - haunting actually - was this interview with Elena Mukhina.  Elena was the 1978 overall world champion, a beautiful gymnast who added a classical dimension to the ultra-difficult gymnastics needed to overcome the threat of Nadia Comaneci and the entire Romanian team, following the shock of Nadia Comaneci's gold medals at the 1976 Olympics.  Sadly, Elena suffered a very serious injury during training for the 1980 Olympics.   She was paralysed from the neck down, and eventually died in 2006.

For the first ten years after Elena's injury, it was difficult to find any real information on how she was living and what the circumstances of her injury had been.  In about 1988 there was the Russian language Oksana Polonskaya interview  in Ogonyuk - which heavily blames coach Mikhail Klimenko for the accident.  For most of us in the West the first sight we had of Elena for more than ten years was the 1991 documentary 'More Than A Game', which continued in much the same vein.  I read a French language interview (c. 1993?) with Vladislav Rotstorotsky (source unknown) which recalls how the team were training in Minsk, that Elena had decided to stay behind and train while the rest of the team went on a visit to a local art gallery for some rest and relaxation.

Another video resource (late 1990s?) has emerged fairly recently - 'Elena Mukhina - triumph of the spirit' - (see the comments below the video for a good English language translation).  Here, Elena can find some smiles, surrounded by icons of the faith that must have sustained her, but painfully immobile.  She says that she accepted partial responsibility for the decision to continue training on that fateful afternoon.

Vaitsekhovskaya's interview continues that theme, but leaves us in no doubt as to the awful price Elena had to pay for her and her coaches' pursuit of Olympic gold.  There are parts of this interview that are deeply moving in the insight they give into how Elena survived her condition not just physically, but mentally and emotionally.  Direct translations are shown in inverted commas.

The operations Elena had right after the accident left her in a state of coma, her body unable to recover.  She found herself in a position where she could make the decision - to survive - and says she told herself right at the start that she would have to
'radically change my attitude to life.  Do not envy others, and learn to enjoy what was available.  Otherwise, you will go crazy.  I realised that the commandment : 'Think no evil, do no evil, do not envy' - were more than just words.  That between them and the way a person feels, there is a direct connection.  I began to feel this connection.  And I realized that, in comparison with the ability to think, the lack of ability to move - this is such nonsense ...'
Elena suffered a number of injuries during her career - a neck injury and concussion in 1975 after a head first landing into a foam pit; a rib injury on beam in 1977; a leg injury at the end of 1979 from which she was still recovering at the time of her accident.  She says that she gave her coaches every reason to believe that she could continue to train despite the heaviness of her injuries.

'Several times, I saw myself fall in a dream, saw myself carried out of the hall. I knew that, sooner or later, it would actually happen. I felt like an animal that was being driven by a whip along an endless corridor'

Elena was an incredibly strong minded young woman.  All fans of gymnastics should read this interview.


Elena Mukhina - AA, FX gold medallist, 1978 World Championships

Comments

  1. Thanks for the link to the website. I know of Elena Vaitsekhovskaya, as she does interviews for figure skaters as well which others so kindly translate at times. I will check out more on the gymnastics part.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Elena mukhina tu étais meilleur que nadia comaneci. Parce que tu était humble et toi même . Malgré les épreuves que tu as traversé par le système soviétique à demander toujours plus.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

‘We all love her very much’ - Roschina speaks of Mustafina and the need to perfect an Amanar vault

From sport.ru via vk.com.  Google translate  A big interview with Anastasia Loginova from Sport24 with Lyudmila Roshchina following the Strongest Cup, where the gymnast won four out of five gold medals. We quote several fragments, the full version is available on the publication's website, link at the end. ❓ The Strongest Athletes Cup has recently ended. Did you have time to analyze your performances? 💬 I just rewatched the broadcast, looked at my shortcomings. ❓ Did you set a medal plan for this start? 💬 I didn't think about it. Only that I needed to do my program - and then what will happen. ❓ Did you have time to discuss the competition with your coach? 💬 She praised me, said that I was great. She didn't scold me for mistakes on the beam - on the contrary, she supported me. ❓ Can we say that the beam is your weak spot? This is the only final you didn't get to. 💬 Probably yes. I have this apparatus that is a bit unpolished, so to speak. Treacherous. I need to work...

Simone and the others - results and reflections

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...

AA Champion Liudmilla Roschina targets Olympic gold

  Liudmilla is the first gymnast of the new generation to win AA in the most important international competition in Russia.  The Krasnodar born gymnast was at one time said to be the favourite of head coach of the junior team, Aliya Mustafina.   Source: gymnastics group on VK.com.  Google translate Lyudmila Roshchina shone at the "Strongest Athletes Cup" in artistic gymnastics in Moscow.  🔝 The 17-year-old gymnast became the absolute champion in the all-around and in individual disciplines, winning the vault, parallel bars and floor exercises!  "I am very pleased. There were small mistakes, but they did not prevent me from showing a decent result. I liked the atmosphere of the competition, the full stands helped when I went out on the apparatus. I love all the apparatus, but especially the parallel bars. And, of course, it was interesting to test myself against foreign rivals. In September, the Russian Championship will be held, I want to perform there at ...

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more