Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Elena Shushunova was born on 23 April 1969 in St Petersburg, home of 1980 Olympic Champions Elena Davydova and Alexander Detiatin.  The 1985 World and European Champion, and 1988 Olympic  Champion was coached by Viktor Gavrichenkov, who went on to lead Natalia Ziganshina to a World overall silver medal in 2001, and who served briefly as National coach of the Russian women's team. Her career spanned two different eras of gymnastics, each symbolic of their times.  Her earliest international competitions as a junior (1981/2) showed Shushunova to be a daring trickster, typical of the generation of female gymnasts who emerged in the late 70s and early 80s - tiny acrobats, technicians with dynamite.  Later in her career, especially by the time of the Olympics in 1988, her technical prowess was enhanced by an expressive presence that positioned her firmly in the next generation of artist-acrobats who dominated the sport to 1992.  Drawing on what Gavrichenkov described ...