Skip to main content

Stella Zakharova calls for unity in Ukraine

Image
By
Stella Zakharova today, courtesy of her Facebook page

1980 gold medal Olympian and 1979 and 1980 World Cup all around champion Stella Zakharova has contributed to a round table of Ukrainian artists and athletes on the Ukraine crisis. Other participants are Nina Matvienko (artist) and Evgen Nischchuk (Ukrainian minister of culture). 'Let us work together to raise Ukraine', says Stella.
 
Stella says a video of athletes and artists speaking about Ukraine is in preparation.

Since retiring from big time gymnastics in 1980, Stella has married and is the mother of two children.  She is an outspoken supporter of Ukrainian gymnastics, and has her own annual international competition, the Stella Zakharova Cup, currently in its thirteenth year.  The competition regularly attracts top gymnasts and is sanctioned by the FIG, but has had to be postponed this year because of the current troubles.

Stella Zakharova on beam at the Moscow News competition in 1980 (gold all around)


Stella comes from Odessa, Ukraine, the same home town as 1992 all around Olympic champion Tatiana Gutsu.  Today, she lives in Kiev.  As a gymnast Stella was athletic and strong, producing impressive work on all apparatus and especially on floor and vault.  Her powerful tumbling was memorable and ground breaking for the era.  Stella's training is recorded in this 1978 Soviet TV documentary, 'You in Gymnastics', where you can find her practicing her floor choreography at about five minutes in, with choreographer Lidia Sokolova, and coaches Vladimir Zaglada and Gennady Korshunov.  She was a wonderful gymnast. 

Updated 8th March

Just found this 1979 floor routine by Stella which is much more expressive and intense, exactly how I remember her.  http://youtu.be/9_Kuvl4fQM4

I know that all readers of this blog will wish Stella and her Ukrainian and Russian friends all the luck in the world in finding their peace.
 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mustafina on Roschina

By
ROTTERDAM (Netherlands), October 24. /TASS/. Russian gymnast Lyudmila Roshchina, who won silver in the individual all-around at the World Championships, succeeded precisely because she focused on challenging herself rather than competing for medals. This is the assessment of Aliya Mustafina, a coach for the Russian national team and a two-time Olympic champion, who spoke to TASS. "Of course, I wasn't certain that Lyudmila would end up on the podium in the all-around, though I certainly hoped she would," Mustafina said. "The general instruction was not to think about medals or rankings. As they headed from the warm-up area to the competition floor, I told the girls: 'Don't worry about where you place—just focus on challenging yourselves.' And Lyusya managed to do exactly that." "Her mindset played a major role, too; she was in a very positive frame of mind even back in the warm-up area. So, I wouldn't say that winning this silver was an incre...
Post a Comment
Read more

Roschina on Mustafina

By
 Roshchina discusses Mustafina’s role in the Russian national gymnastics team The Olympic champion has been working with the Russian senior national team since the beginning of 2026 and specializes in the balance beam. "Aliya Fargatovna gives us all sorts of advice and handy tips, which is a huge help to us," Roshchina admitted, adding that Mustafina has been her idol since childhood. Mustafina has been working with the Russian senior national team since the beginning of 2026, specializing in the balance beam. Prior to this, she served as the head coach of the women’s junior national team. Roshchina is 18 years old, and the world championships in Rotterdam mark the second high-level competition of her career. At the 2025 World Championships, she finished 11th in the individual all-around. In August, in Zagreb, she became a European champion as part of the Russian team, which competed under the "World Gymnastics" banner.
Post a Comment
Read more

Roschina on her success in Rotterdam

By
  — Let’s sum up the World Championships. How did it go for you? — First of all, it was a great learning experience for me. Overall, the competition went well, though there is still room for improvement. — If someone had told you before the World Championships that you would take second place in the individual all-around, how would you have reacted? — I probably would have been surprised. I’m not even sure what else to say to that. — How difficult was it to be the leader of the women’s team in the absence of Angelina Melnikova? — I tried to encourage the girls, and they encouraged me as well. I think that, overall, we were a good team. But Angelina is still our leader, and I will look up to her. — I spoke with coach Aliya Mustafina, and she mentioned that the competition within the national team will be even tougher next year…  — It’s great to have such strong competition; it gives you something to strive for and an incentive to keep working. — Did you start out in artistic gy...
Post a Comment
Read more

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more