I was so tired then, both physically and psychologically.". Yelena Mukhina died last year at 46. Every single factor dictated that a gymnast needed time to rise that fast. They hadnt just tolerated Klimenkos practices, but had become so satisfied with his results that other high profile Soviet gymnasts had been encouraged to switch gyms and join his training group. I also hope 2022 is a lot better than the past two years have been. Klimenko had so much success invoking psychological tactics with Mukhina because Mukhina herself bought into this mindset. Less than a month before the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, Mukhina under-rotated the Thomas salto and landed on her chin. The Soviet Union downplayed the severity of Mukhinas injury, withheld information as tohow she obtained her injuries and even went as far as to discredit her for inflicting the injury on herself. In the context of larger geopolitical events, Soviet leadership wanted results and were willing to push the limits. Id estimate that most gymnasts would have needed about 5-8 years to go from where Mukhina was in 1974 to her emergence as a possible contender for the 1976 Soviet Olympic team. She was interested in psychology and philosophy, and graduated from the Moscow Institute of Physical Education. Together, they accomplished more than they could ever dream and reached levels they once considered to be impossible. "We dont need people like you making snide comments like this and adding to the stigma. Once again against Mukhinas wishes, the doctors removed her cast prematurely. On my wanderings through YouTube one night I came across the story of Elena Mukhina (1960-2006), a gymnast unlucky enough to be born under the Soviet regime. What followed was months, turned years, of cover-ups. Going through her routines in the gym, she was forced into an even greater workload to cut the excess weight she had gained during her incapacitation. YouTube, Mukhina regularly battled with injuries. With the Moscow Olympics fast approaching in 1980, the Soviet team was still formidable but success on home soil was non-negotiable. She was taken unconscious to a hospital. This article isnt an attempt at rehabilitating Mikhail Klimenko or trying to paint him in a more sympathetic light. Moscow remained quiet today, devoid of the festive atmosphere that usually envelops the host city a week before the Olympics. The Soviets weren't only denying that Mukhina had suffered a catastrophic injury, but were downplaying it to such an extent they were heavily implying it wasn't even bad enough to qualify as a career ending injury. The documentary features a pep talk between Mukhina and her coach Mikhail Klimenko. Remember Kerri Strug? Mukhinas apotheosis arrived in 1978 with a breathtaking performance at the World Championships in Strasbourg, France. Her injury was a featured topic in the 1991 A&E do*entary More Than a Game; and her World Championship performance is captured in the ABC Sports video Gymnastics' Greatest Stars. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators . Jun 7, 2020 - A catastrophic injury cost Mukhina the use of her limbs. Moreover, her family lovingly calls her Katia. After analyzing all the information available, I believe Mukhina is completely correct to pin a majority of the blame on the Soviet WAG program as a whole. Take another look at the video from the Amanar vault gone wrong.While flipping and spinning . For Mikhail Klimenko, Mukhina was too important to his career for her to fail. I like Ernest Hemingway most of all. As usual, Im not saying karma but. Work, work, work. Aug 4, 2021 - A catastrophic injury cost Mukhina the use of her limbs. It would take two separate incidents to bring her to the forefront of the Soviet team. (VIDEO), Khabib says Hasbulla can become billionaire. All rights reserved. The clips can be found in the above YouTube video. They suggested this was something that Biles should have done for her team - pushed through the pain. Hace apenas unos das, el 22 de diciembre, falleci Yelena Mjina (tambin transcrito como Elena Mukhina), campeona del mundo en 1978. Mikhail Klimenko maintained a viable coaching career in the aftermath of Mukhinas injury. Her progress was modest and largely ignored. "I felt like an animal being whipped along an endless corridor. From the debate over what constitutes emotional/mental abuse, to the sport trying to break its culture of silence. USA Gymnastics released a statement confirming she had withdrawn with a "medical issue". However, in Tuesday's Olympic women's gymnastics team final, thousands of people watched on as Biles lost her bearings in the middle of a vault, grimacing as she shakily landed on her feet. These are real clips of a real person who in the end, really did get hurt, and the damage couldnt be undone. Today. Mukhina herself eventually succumbed to complications from her condition on December 22, 2006. Gymnastics. Gymnastics Angel. This is one of the other important things to understand about Soviet athletics. Up until 1975, Mukhina flew under the radar and Soviet coaches largely ignored her and her abilities. The wonderful athlete, who pushed Nadia and popularized full-in on Floor and double back off beam, was paralysed in a training disaster before the 1980 Olympics. Later, she joined CSKA Moscow (Central Red Army) sports club. She has been placed in a neck cast and will be immobilized for several weeks. The movement was later modified in the 1980s when it was performed towards the low bar; that is, the gymnast's flip takes place above the low bar. As recently as the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Mukhinas was a name which appearedas Americas Simone Biles battled her own mental and physical demons. Simone, you are an inspiration to so many people. I didn't want to use a stupid song in the background, it HAD to be meaningful. Later that year while training for the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, Elena Mukhina suffered a broken leg, which meant she had to miss the World Championships in Fort Worth, Texas, a competition in which the Soviet team had its first defeat at the hands of their archrivals from Romania. The camera constantly makes cuts and pans, often under questionable circumstances. It had been a staple of Soviet womens gymnastics since the 1960s. Listen: One of the most famous athletes in the world has made headlines everywhere, after pulling out of the womens team gymnastics final in Tokyo. Likewise, her full name is Ekaterina Alexandrovna Gordeeva. But that didn't stop her from handwriting a letter 18 months later. She hails from Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union, and her zodiac sign is Gemini. Elena Mukhina. Mikhail Klimenko was in a different city when Elena Mukhina was injured. People named Elena Mukhina. It didnt make sense that Mukhina would be the one who would prevail, and it certainly didnt make sense that this is how it would be in 1977 and 1978. The tweet sparked an insane backlash, with people slamming Morgan for his comments. Video: El ejercicio que quiso imitar Elena Mukhina y la dej tetrapljica 0 seconds of 12 secondsVolume 0% 00:25 00:12 ltimos Videos 13/09/2020 12:05 Clarn.com Deportes Actualizado al. Mukhina wasnt being coerced into solving a difficult math problem on the chalk board, but to keep working past her physical limits as she was encouraged to perform increasingly more dangerous acrobatic stunts. Mukhinas reactions are not always being shown. Instead a different gymnast is shown practicing on beam while Mukhina and Klimenko become narrations. The day Mukhina was injured, Soviet national team coaches working with her had violated half a dozen safety guidelines. The slightest lapse - whether it be physical or mental - can be life changing, sometimes even fatal. The four words engraved just to the right of the image are stark: Great gymnast, world champion. But the nightmare and the pain wasn't over. Gymnast #43. In the lead-up to the Olympics, Elena had broken her leg but despite this, her coach insisted that she continue . I hope you enjoy my page! After an unsuccessful fatal injury, the gymnast was forever confined to bed. We often dont consider that a gymnast can suffer paralysis if they land on their neck, head, or back funny. One of the common themes in Soviet sports media is coaches frequently boasted about their ability to invoke psychology as a training tool. Mukhina performed the move, falling on her chin and crushing her cervical vertebrae. "Emotionally, that kind of varies on the time and moment. Klimenko knew to do this because his educational background was in psychology. As a memorial to one of the greatest Soviet-era gymnasts ever, the biggest sports newspaper in Russia, Sovietskij SPORT, dedicated the cover of their Christmas 2006 issue to her. Otherwise, you can go crazy. "Several times I saw my fall in a dream, Mukhina would later say. Coming to the Olympics and being head star isn't an easy feat, so we're just trying to take it one day at a time and we'll see.". Mukhina spoke up and tried to convince her coach of how dangerous the element was. Mukhina was taken in by her grandmother, Anna, with her father never to play a meaningful role in her life again. Hi, slightly off topic but there is a film called Something different by Vera Chytilov that features Eva Boskov, a Czech gymnast of the 1950s and early 60s. Elena Mukhina had been an orphan since she was six years old. Klimenko was back in Moscow for a short trip, desperate to persuade sporting officials that his charge was fit enough to be included in the team, despite lingering doubts. Miles, 23, recognized that look because she had felt it, too . You took care of yourself. The cast was removed from her leg even though Mukhina had concerns that she was not yet ready to resume training. Despite beating Mukhina to gold on the beam, Comaneci settled for a solitary title and two silvers at the event. The TsITO doctors X-rayed the leg and discovered that the fracture had not healed properly and would not be able to sustain the pounding of gymnastics in its present condition. Dos semanas antes de los Olmpicos en Rusia qued tetrapljica . Reinforcing the idea on Mukhina that she is a burden to him. It didnt help that a tense political rival existed between Romania and the USSR. A girl who had just moments earlier been capable of the most graceful, powerfully seductive movements of the human body imaginable was essentially now immobile. Such a. . The Olympics were barely over before the media had already started to wonder if Nadia would be usurped in 1980 in the same way Korbut had been usurped in 1976. It was all laid out for public viewing 40 years prior. 1988. Elena Mukhina obtuvo el oro en el mundial en Estrasburgo (Francia). Strug never competed again. With the Olympics just weeks away, the Soviet team were in Minsk, putting in intense training. Just as gymnastics was becoming more demanding following the graceful elements of the likes of the legendary Larisa Latynina and Ludmilla Tourischeva, Klimenko saw the chance to bring in more powerful and increasingly complex elements from mens gymnastics and impose them on his new protegee. Elena Mukhina died of apparent complications from quadriplegia on December 22, 2006 (2006-12-22) (aged 46). RT / Liam Tyler, Mukhina threw herself into gymnastics. RIP Women's Gymnastics Good People Amazing People Female Gymnast Picture Video ELENA MUKHINA 1978 WORLD'S ALL-AROUND-ALL 4 ROUTINES! The unlikely gymnast and the unlikely coach is an important component to Mukhinas story because the combination of an unconventional gymnast joining forces with an unconventional coach was a key reason for their shared success. My coach came the next day and said that I wasn't conscientious and that I could train in a cast.". Only about 1,600 of the 5,000 athletes expected -- half the total that was anticpated before the U.S.-led boycott of the Games because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan -- have moved into the Olympic Village. She does not get enough credit for how rapid and unexpected her rise was. The 1979 World Championships, to be held in Fort Worth, were looming but Mukhina broke her leg during an exhibition in England, ruling her out of the competition. "This page is a tribute to the Wonderful Russian gymnast Yelena Mukhina (1960-2006), who was one of the greatest. The first group had all been formally named to the Olympic team. For Mukhina, a disturbing pattern had already emerged of an athlete being forced to push through injury in a clamor to the pinnacle of her sport. Perhaps the most significant part of the footage comes when Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci is invoked in the discussion. The Elena Mukhina tapes end with Mukhina being asked to react and her response is I dont know how to react. In this final exchange we see Mukhinas reserved/quiet nature. Beating Nadia is a central part to Mukhinas storyline and the events that lead to her tragic demise. He refused to listen to her. In the quiet corner of a Moscow cemetery, a black slab of marble stands surrounded by the December snow. 42 talking about this. Klimenko, however, had other ideas, reportedly removing her from hospital and directly back to training, taking off the orthopedic brace from around her neck. Watch: Susie O'Neill on her 'failure' at the Sydney Olympics. Cest un vritable travail de mmoire. When the doctors removed the cast against her wishes and had her attempt to walk on the leg, she said she knew that was walking crookedly, and that something wasnt right. TIL Soviet gymnast Elena Mukhina, widely touted as the next great gymnastics star until 1979. It didnt help that the next Olympics were slated to be held in Moscow and the Soviets did not want to see Nadia trounce the Soviet team at their Olympics. A memorial service was held in her honor on December 27th, and she was buried at the Trekourov Cemetery in Moscow, Russia. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. She won three gold medals and two silver medals at the 1978 World . As for the gold medal? But the more time passed, the more Klimenkos career seemed to regress, at least in international competition. En 1981, el Comit Olmpico Internacional le otorg la Orden Olmpica de Plata , la segunda mayor . Elena Mukhina recibi en la Orden Olmpica de Plata en 1981, un ao despus de su lesin. Crucially, Mukhina possessed a remarkable persistence and a talent for carrying out Klimenkos instructions to the letter. Ekaterina Gordeeva was born on 28 May 1971 and she is currently 51 years old. Alberto Capra. She was able to mix her innovative moves with the classic Soviet-style of gymnastics, inspired by ballet movements and expressive lines. We will review the memorials and decide if they should be . Her career was on the rise, and she was widely touted as the next great gymnastics star until 1979, when she broke a leg and missed several competitions. The win effectively made her the top ranked gymnast of the world. One further detail that is critical to understanding the Mukhina-Klimenko coaching relationship is that they had risen up the Soviet ranks together. Mukhina was rushed into surgery that afternoon, but the damage had already been done to her reputation. But I dont think we really take a moment to think about just how severe and life-altering the injuries can end up being. The Elena Mukhina tapes are only 3.5 minutes in length, and in that short time we get a wide range of historic symbolism. Touch device users, explore by touch or with swipe gestures. TM. Klimenko had broken Mukhina mentally, and he had also broken her physically. The Soviets and other communist nations were very public with these tactics, which validated there usage elsewhere. (Whitney Bjerken Edits)https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5nX9OPpfQhT0TdF7nCkq6gOn this channel I will be showcasing some of the best gymnastics, edits and gymnast compilations! On July 3, 1980, two weeks before the Moscow Olympics, Elena was practicing the Thomas salto tumbling move when she under-rotated and crash-landed on her chin, snapping her spine and leaving her quadriplegic. Yelena Viktorovna Davydova (Russian: ; born 7 August 1961) is a Russian-Canadian gymnastics coach and judge who competed for the former Soviet Union.She was the women's artistic individual all-around champion at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. And it's tragic. She won gold medals for the individual all-around, the balance beam, and uneven bars. Elena Mukhina was born in Russia. 1 week ago She was 20 years old. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Under different circumstances the Soviets might have been less likely to give such guarantees to as many as five gymnasts. This is the final resting place of Elena Mukhina, one of the most remarkable athletes ever to grace her sport; an artist who pushed the limits of the human body in a way few have ever done. But Shaposhnikova, Davydova, Nellie Kim, and Filatova are all members of the Hall of Fame. Mukhina was born in Moscow on June 1, 1960. It took near-perfect timing to avoid either under-rotation and landing on the chin or over-rotation and landing on the back of the head. Bravo pour votre travail remarquable sur Elena Moukhina ! I dont exactly sympathize with Klimenko, but I do see him as a tragic villain. She remained with her grandmother in a Moscow apartment, reclusive and rarely giving interviews. These events overshadow what were two other hallmarks of Mukhina's career. Mukhina did survive after surgery, and despite being wedded to a wheelchair, she is said to have found a new perspective in the wake of tragedy. Two years ago, at 17, she captured the world spotlight by defeating Romanian Nadia Comaneci, the heroine of the 1976 Olympics, for the world title in Strasburg. But it also made their relationships mutually self-destructive. As an athlete, his Olympic dream was stolen from him and he was living that dream though his own pupil. Elena Mukhina. Biryulina became the first woman to throw the javelin more than 70 meters. https://www.youtube.com/c/RAEscape/videos, Your email address will not be published. Besides the previously mentioned obstacles such as conditioning and learning new skills, gymnastics is a reputation based sport, first you work for your name and then your name works for you.. Elena Mukhina Alexey Cheremisin The present study is devoted to the simulation of thermal enhanced oil recovery (EOR) method with a focus on the initial distribution of various organic matter (OM . In the event, the Games would be remembered for the iconic performance from Nadia Comaneci, the Romanian who picked up a haul of three golds including the all-around title and five medals in total. When she did speak, she was often philosophical about her fate. Your email address will not be published. After her injury, Mukhina was grateful to her former teammates who kept in touch with her, especially Yelena Davydova, whom she called A real friend. Chinese peace plan: Can Beijing find a way to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict, despite open hostility from the US and NATO. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Soviet gymnastic Nellie Kin was her main rival and would later receive a perfect ten, on the vault. Now she will watch the games from her hospital bed, her future uncertain but her gymnastics career surely ended. In many ways, the tragedy foreshadowed the sadness which would pursue Mukhina for the rest of her days. It most likely was an attempt to hide/minimize Mukhinas negative demeanor. Because of her injury, she had great difficulty re-mastering a signature tumbling run, a Thomas salto (a 1 and 3/4 flip with 1 1/2 twists). The exchange is roughly 3.5 minutes in length and is broken up into four clips throughout the half hour documentary. Mukhina was injured on July 3rd, it would take nearly a week for news of the accident to spread to the Western press. At 2:11 Klimenko outright dares Mukhina to leave him and train without a coach. But it was the coaches of the Soviet national team who had been the ones who ultimately destroyed Mukhina in a way in which she could never recover. She was raised by her grandmother, Anna Ivanovna. Naci con talento. 4 Elena Mukhina, Uneven Bars . After Mukhinas paralysis and other close calls with Olympic-eligible female gymnasts, the Thomas salto was removed from the Code of Points as an allowed skill for women. The very same Soviet officials who blamed Mikhail Klimenko for his horrible treatment of Elena Mukhina as being a factor which lead to her injury, were the same Soviet officials who knew about his behavior for years prior. The extreme political dynamics of the era that Mukhinas athletic career were defined by, and her rapidly rising up the ranks so fast, that it should have been impossible. Not to envy others, but to learn to enjoy what is available to me. Comaneci would help the Romanians to team gold at the World Championships, despite her own struggles with blood poisoning resulting from a cut. Poignant footage from the documentary Unfree fall shows an all-together lighter, more playful Mukhina when she was removed from the gaze of her master. Just admit you did badly, made mistakes, and will strive to do better next time. She was orphaned at the age of 5 and was raised by her grandmother - Anna Ivanovna. The duo fit each other like a hand entering a glove and had success that would have been impossible under any other circumstance. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. RIP - YouTube 0:00 / 2:37 Gymnastics Angel.

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