Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

2012 Olympic Champion Aliya Mustafina took part in an event yesterday to celebrate the successes of various athletes from her home club in Moscow, the Central Army Club.  You can see her here with 1988 Olympic Champion Elena Shevchenko, and amongst the others are Svetlana Ishmouratova, who won two gold medals at the 2006 Winter Olympics, and Dmitri Sautin, gold medallist in diving at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics.  (Does anyone know who the man on the left is?) Not all of CSKA's gymnastics heroes were present; most notably Dmitri Bilozerchev who now lives and works in the USA.  Other gymnasts who trained at CSKA but never made it to the Olympics (for reasons of depth, timing and world politics) include Elena Mukhina, Olga Bicherova, Olga Chudina, and Valentin Mogilny.  Their coaches and choreographers include Alexander Alexandrov, Viktor and Irina Razumovsky, Boris Orlov, Raisa Ganina and Mikhail Klimenko.   It is nice to see the athletes enjoy a lovely day, even i...

Elena Shevchenko with 1985 World Champion all around, Oksana Omelianchik.  Picture courtesy Tom Theobald I read somewhere recently that Moscow's Viktor Razumovsky is now coaching 2012 Olympian Anastasia Grishina ... interesting.  Razumovsky was a leading Soviet personal coach during the 1980s, bringing through such talent as 1988 Olympian Elena Shevchenko, 1987 World Championships team member Elena Gurova, and Soviet international Olga Chudina.  He also had a hand in coaching 1981 World Champion Olga Bicherova.  All renowned for the elegance and spontaneity of their floor work in particular. It reminded me of the 1988 Olympics, when the Soviet team performed in red, won by a significant margin, and were led off by the placid yet dynamic Shevchenko. I like what Larissa Petrik has to say about her in this interview from GymnForum: "Elena Shevchenko is my favorite gymnast ... We are similar in spirit, in style and ... in the colour of our hair.  When she g...

A few of you have commented how much you love the compulsory floor from the 1985 cycle.  I've done my best to find videos of as many performances as possible.  Please do feel free to comment on their merits below.  This post is for the sheer hell of enjoying beautiful gymnastics. Some of the gymnasts may be repeated from one competition to the next, but take time to watch closely and see how their work varied and improved. This is the very essence of gymnastics. Please also post links to videos missing from these sequences if you can - this posting is far from complete. It is sad to see how the quality of the video has deteriorated, some without sound even. In ten years' time, will there still be a record of this remarkable cultural heritage? 1985 World Championships Natalia Yurchenko View it on Youtube . As Ludmilla has mentioned, it's impossible at the moment to find the routines of Baraksanova, Mostepanova, Shushunova, Omelianchik and Kolesnikova. ...