Skip to main content

1974 World Gymnastics Championships - USSR WAG video

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, who secured her first major international medal here, a bronze on the beam.



This comes from Dudnik's channel on Youtube - it is a treasure trove, full of gems of Soviet news shorts: a feature on Olga Korbut from 1969 is a highlight, complete with Olga's back somersault; but you should also take time to see Liubov Burda (due to be inducted into the IG Hall of Fame tomorrow) in the training hall and at home, doing her homework with pet cat by her side! Don't miss 1966 World Champion Mikhail Voronin, or the special feature on Natalia Kuchinskaya.

Enjoy!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

'Mustafina is no longer in pain' - Valentina Rodionenko

Picture of Aliya Mustafina, courtesy of RGF Valentina Rodionenko has provided some updates on the Russian teams and how their preparation for Worlds (Nanning, China, 3 to 12 October) is progressing, via Allsports (http://www.allsportinfo.ru/index.php?id=84328) - The teams are now at camp in Italy, in two small towns close to Milan, by the sea, where the girls travelled on 29th June and the men on 1 July.  The athletes aren't only training, they can also relax. - Komova is working out at Round Lake, she didn't go to Italy.  We will see how she does at the Russia Cup, which will be held late August in Penza. Tatiana Nabiyeva is looking good in training and the other girls are also working.  Ksenia Afanasyeva won't have time to prepare for Worlds, and Anastasia Grishina's participation is also in doubt, we just don't know if she will qualify for the team.   We have hopes for Aliya Mustafina.  As always, she is our number one.  It would be great if there were t...

Nelli Kim - 'Russian gymnastics has closed in on itself' - Lupita translates

Lupita has translated this ITAR-TASS interview with Nelli Kim.  It's controversial, to say the least. Ed's note : much of the initial response to this interview - both here and in the wider gymternet -  has focussed on the detail of Kim's words and especially her comments about Viktoria Komova, and smiling.  But I think these have to be taken in context, and not too literally. Don't forget that just a day ago Andrei Rodionenko complained bitterly about the judging in Antwerp, calling Kim's behaviour 'aggressive'. Kim is responding to this here, and to the wider current context of Russian gymnastics.  What she is essentially saying to the Russian coach is 'get your own house in order, produce confident, disciplined, well trained gymnasts - stop complaining, do your job, and I will do mine.'   She goes about saying this in a somewhat long winded way and says some things along the way that seem contradictory, unfair, inappropriate even for th...

Aliya Mustafina - 'each medal is very special'

'I'm very happy that everything turned out well today  ... Each medal is very special.  The UK team made mistakes, so there was a wide margin [of victory]... But naturally, [what I did] is not enough for the Olympics.  I prepared well for beam and bars but I am not ready for floor, I stepped up to help the team. ... To be honest, I did not look at the scores [when asked how the team reacted to the 6.5 gap before the final apparatus].  Gelya (Melnikova) is a good girl, she did everything and did not falter ... Seda fell on quite a complex element.  There is more work to do, but everything else went well.' [About a protest taken by the coaches on her beam score]. 'I am used to my protests being rejected, everything is normal!' Via vk.com I n other news , the UEG has confirmed that Spiridonova will replace Melnikova in tomorrow's bars final. No reason is given, but it is generally considered that Dasha has a better chance of gold.  This decision also means tha...

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more