Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Imagine a time when there were no videos, no internet, no blogs.  A time when World Championships results often didn't reach the press (incomplete) until days after the end of the competitions.  When results of the national competitions in other countries took months to reach you, if at all.  No Valentina Rodionenko press reports to ruffle your feathers, no Instagram posts from your favourite gymnasts, no Nikushkin Day videos to familiarise you with what the gymnasts want you to know of their everyday lives.  No live streaming, no video posts of the youngest gymnasts.  Secrets were secrets and details of upgrades and innovations rarely reached the lay person's ear before they were revealed at major competition.  There was no Google translate to help you untangle news of your favourite Soviet gymnast. Information felt like gold.  We pored over words and pictures for every ounce of meaning, sometimes more than was there.  We devoured televised cov...

Once upon a time, there were six little girls ... The little girls became gymnasts, and the gymnasts became Champions - but never Olympic Champions. Politics got in the way. 'Their' Olympics, the 1984 Los Angeles Games, disappeared as their country boycotted the Games for political reasons. History vanished. They became a lost Olympic generation. Irina Baraksanova Tatiana Frolova Natalia Ilienko Olga Mostepanova Natalia Yurchenko There was one exception. Elena Shushunova went on to compete at a second Olympics, becoming All Around champion at the Seoul Games in 1988 The 'little gymnasts' (in fact they were extraordinary athletes) competed at the Oloumoc Friendship Games instead of the Olympics. At these Friendship Games, Olga Mostepanova became Champion in the AA, Floor, Vault and Beam, scoring an unequalled total of 40 in the All Around; a level of perfection never seen before or since. There is very little video of this competition...