Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

As promised, here is a word for word translation of Olga Karasyova's interview with Vladimir Golubev . March 7 th , 2001 The Olympic Champion Exposes the   Doppelganger Olga Karasyova, one the most beautiful and charming gymnasts of our incomparable Olympic team which triumphantly won the 1968 Mexico Olympics, finally achieved fairness. The Moscow Ismail Court sided with her and ordered a famous newspaper to pay 35,000 Roubles for false information. Olga Dimitrievna [Karasyova] invited me to her cozy two-room apartment above the “Aeroport” metro.   Going through the family gymnastics albums, remembering her younger years,   and quietly spoken,   the still   coquettish   and smiling   “girl of our dream” (1944 German movie name). - What a   voluminous document folder!   Can you imagine how much time and effort had to be spent to get the case to court.    Correspondence, lawyer’s request, decisions, regulations, summons. ...

  Olga Kharlova (left) in 1966, with the USSR World Championships team.  This is before her marriage to gymnast Valeri Karasyov. Lauren Cammenga found the original Kommersant story about the bogus pregnancy doping story.  The date of the article is 10th December 1998, and not as reported in my original article on RRG of 29th November. Do you agree that The Observer should now print a correction to its story of 15th November? SPID-Info is up the Creek 35,000 Rubles Author: Maxim Stepenin Translator: Lauren Cammenga Olga Karasyova, a USSR, European, world, and 1968 Olympic champion in artistic gymnastics, has been awarded 35,000 rubles in damages from the newspaper SPID-Info . The Ismailovsky District Court awarded this, a record-breaking amount for suits of this kind, in emotional damages for a 1997 interview supposedly conducted with Karasyova. In reality, the interview supposedly given by Karasyova was given by an impostor from Germany. It was the German ...

   Olga with her coach Sofia Muratova in 1971.  You can also see a video of Olga training with Sofia at  http://youtu.be/rDLY5Ctbe38  I wanted to record in English the key points of this 2001 interview with Olga.  Thanks to Maryam Vulis who gave me the link. Date of article - 7th March 2001 Author - Vladimir Golubev Link to Russian language source -  http://viperson.ru/articles/olimpiyskaya-chempionka-razoblachaet-dvoynika Olga invited me to visit her cozy one-bedroom apartment. I see family gymnastic albums, remember her youth, and gradually ask a few questions. - What a voluminous file of documents!  It shows how much time and effort had to be expended to get to court. Correspondence, lawyer requests, decisions, resolutions, agenda ... - Actually, this story began a long time ago.  Once, German broadcaster RTL screened an interview ... with my double!   A certain woman who said that she was Olympic champion in gymnastics, Olga Kovalenk...

It was a Sunday morning.  I was drinking my coffee and contemplating the day ahead - a workout at the gym, shopping for groceries, an evening reading a book, or catching up on last night's episodes of crime thriller The Bridge .  How nice it was not to have to think about work for a day. Then I saw it - a story about the history of doping in The Observer .  Interesting reading. Of course, cheating is as old as the hills.  It is, unfortunately, human nature for some people to try to gain easy advantage in any kind of competition.  That is why we have laws, rules, ethical guidelines.  People who cheat should face justice and shouldn't complain when they are found out. But the story about pregnancy doping bothered me.  Hadn't that been found to be fictional?  The author began with Olga Kovalenko's allegations made in 1994 - but the rumours had started way back in 1991 with the documentary series More Than A Game .  The practice...