The Russian men's artistic gymnastics team on the podium at the World Championships. And this is the first time in 12 years. At the competition in Qatar, we won silver in the team all-around and secured a ticket to the Summer Olympics in Tokyo. It was just a little short of gold. Today the women's team will compete for medals.
The Russian men's artistic gymnastics team is on the podium at the World Championships for the first time in 12 years, they have silver. But in the first minutes after the competition, our athletes had tears in their eyes. On the last apparatus - the horizontal bar - the Chinese gymnast falls. But the judges still give preference to the Chinese team. Russia concedes an offensive 0.05 points.
“We ourselves are of course upset, we could have done this. If we lost a point, it wouldn't be so offensive. Well, if he hadn’t fallen, he’s Chinese, and that’s it, we would have immediately realized that we were going to second place,” says David Belyavsky.
“Yes, it was very disappointing. We have been waiting for this moment for a very long time, and we really wanted it to become historic today,” Nikolai Kuksenkov shares his emotions.
Our gymnasts had the most difficult program. The coaching staff says: they are happy with the performance, but now the main attention will be paid to stability in order to be two heads above their opponents.
“We achieved our main goal - we received a license for the Olympic Games from the first try and, in addition, won a silver medal at the World Championships, our men’s team has not won for a long time, they showed good modern gymnastics,” notes senior coach of the Russian artistic gymnastics team Valery Alfosov.
This World Artistic Gymnastics Championship is perhaps the most unusual in history. It has never been carried out in the Middle East, much less in a country living under Sharia law. The stands are practically empty; gymnastics is not popular among local residents, who are accustomed to seeing girls in burqas and not in sports swimsuits.
While our men's team is at the awards ceremony, Russian gymnasts are working on the final touches of the program.
The balance beam is the most difficult gymnastic apparatus. Length - five meters, width - only ten centimeters. Not only is it difficult to perform an exercise on it, but it is difficult to maintain balance. Before performing an element on the balance beam, a gymnast must repeat it tens of thousands of times on the floor, bringing it to automaticity. The dismount is a very important part of the beam exercise, it must be performed perfectly, even a small step to the side can cost the gymnast a medal.
The only world champion on the balance beam in the history of Russian gymnastics is Aliya Mustafina; for many years she had no equal. But after the Olympic triumph in Rio, she decided to end her sports career - she got married, gave birth to a daughter, but never became a housewife, and very soon returned to the gym. For an Olympic champion, this is, first of all, a competition with herself.
“It’s my dream, my goal, I don’t know, it’s always been an idea. I was wondering how possible this is, how difficult it is,” says Aliya Mustafina.
It was hard to the point of tears - my knees and ankles were tightly wrapped in bandages and tapes. But Mustafina herself smiles and says: at this World Championship she is not the most “experienced”; 43-year-old Oksana Chusovitina is playing for the Uzbekistan national team in Qatar! The only gymnast to take part in seven Olympics! And Chusovitina won her first world championship gold as part of the USSR national team, when Mustafina was not yet born.
“We talked to her, we communicate with her, we are friends, but no, I don’t compare myself with her, after all, I’m still very, very far from her!” - admits Aliya Mustafina.
In Qatar, Mustafina seemed to bet on the uneven bars - not surprising, because at the two previous Olympics Mustafina took gold in this all-around event to Moscow. Before each approach there is a whole ritual: clean the bars from excess magnesium, sprinkle with water and spread with honey to better hold on - a purely Russian technique.
This time in Doha, gymnasts are fighting not only for medals at the World Championships, but also for tickets to the next Olympics - for the first time they are played according to a new system: teams that take prizes are automatically selected for the Olympic Games. The Russian men's team has already won its ticket to Tokyo 2020.
The last days of the Olympic Games are traditionally rich in gold medals for our team. The fact is that beautiful girls – synchronized swimmers and gymnasts – are joining the fight. Today the girls in the pool completed the competitive program, winning the fifth Olympics in a row, and now it’s time for the artistic gymnasts to start. They, like synchronized swimmers, have not given gold awards to anyone since 2000. Naturally, they were not going to miss out on first place at the Olympics in Brazil.
On the first day, qualifying competitions were held in rhythmic gymnastics before the individual all-around. Russia was represented by and. Yana is a three-time world champion in individual all-around, winner of a huge number of gold medals in individual apparatus performances, and four-time winner of the European Games in Baku.
Olympic Games. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Gymnastics. Individual all-around. Qualification
1. (Russia) – 74,383.
2. (Russia) – 73,998.
3. Anna Rizatdinova (Ukraine) – 73.935.
Margarita is not yet such a brilliant and titled athlete. She was second twice at the world all-around championships and, as a rule, was inferior to her teammate. But together our girls are a formidable force, capable of crushing any rivals.
And the Russians had more than serious competitors. Here is the most experienced Ukrainian Anna Rizatdinova, who dreams of adding an Olympic medal to her solid collection of awards. AND Melitina Stanyuta, who stood on the podium at the World Championships a dozen times. And Korean Son Young Jae, And Neta Rivkin from Israel - they all prepared brilliantly for the Olympics in Brazil and hoped that the Russian girls would give them a chance to compete for awards.
Mamun pleasantly surprises
For Russian girls, the Olympics in Brazil began with hoops. Margarita with her favorite subject was inimitable. Not a single blot, not a single misfire and a high level of difficulty provided the athlete with the highest score among all participants in the competition - 18.833. Kudryavtseva, although a little behind, was also great - 18.166. Only the experienced Stanyuta and Rizatdinova, who scored 18,400 points, managed to wedge themselves between the Russians. But, be that as it may, an important start was made. The excitement, if it arose, should have passed: our girls did everything well.
In the second change of subjects, Margarita continued to surprise those who believed Yana Kudryavtseva to be the undisputed number one of the Russian team. Margarita showed true Olympic calm in exercises with the ball, did not make a single mistake and received the highest score from the referees - 19,000. This time, Kudryavtseva did not allow anyone to move her from second place – 18.616. However, Ukrainian Rizatdinova was very close - 18.566. It is curious that the Korean gymnast Song also occupied a high place after two changes of apparatus. Her exercises with the ball were a great success: she received 18 points and was in the top five along with four contenders for the award from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
The name of the champion is impossible to predict
The athletes returned to the arena after an hour and a half break. They all still had to show their mastery of the ribbon and clubs. All the leaders, including the Russians, first took maces in their hands. And here it was Yana Kudryavtseva’s turn to make up for minor shortcomings at the start of qualifying. The world champion's impeccable performance in the all-around gave her 19,000 points and immediately moved her to first place, since her competitors were imperfect. Margarita received only 17.5 points for clubs and ended up in third place. In the second, Rizatdinova still held on with a minimal advantage over Mamun. Stanyuta and Son were in the top five, but the gap was almost a point.
It seemed that Yana would remain first based on the qualifying results, but the exercise with the ribbon nevertheless changed the final balance of power. Yana with the fourth subject earned a score of 18.216 and secured second place. Everything depended on Margarita’s results, and she showed a truly magical performance. The judges were impressed with what Mamun showed and rated her program at 19.050 points - the highest score at the end of the competition day.
Thus, according to the results of qualification, she took first place, breaking away from Yana Kudryavtseva, who finished in second position, by 0.3 points. However, it is not the gap that is important, but the fact of the confrontation itself. There is no prima in the team at this Olympics, and based on the results of today, hardly anyone would dare to name the champion: Mamun and Kudryavtseva were equally magnificent! However, few people doubt the fact that gold in the individual all-around will again go to Russia.
Gymnastics competitions occupy one of the leading places in the program of the modern Olympic Games. At the first Games in 1896, the program of gymnastics competitions was significantly different from the modern one. In addition to purely gymnastic types, it also included applied types.
Until 1928, only men participated in gymnastics competitions. Gymnasts first appeared on the Olympic platform in 1928 at the IX Olympiad (Amsterdam). However, at the next Games (Los Angeles, 1932), only men competed again, and only starting from the XI Olympic Games (Berlin - 1936) men's and women's gymnastics competitions were held (for women only the team championship). Women competed for the individual championship for the first time at the XV Games (Helsinki, 1952). At the XV and XVI Games (1952 and 1956), team floor exercises with apparatus were included in the program of women's competitions.
Until 1952, the team consisted of 8 men and 8 women. Since 1956, the number of teams has been reduced to 6 people. The 5 best results in each all-around event count.
Since 1972 (XX Olympic Games), the title of absolute champion can only be contested by the 36 best gymnasts and 36 female gymnasts, who are determined based on the results of team competitions.
Since 1976 (XXI Games, Montreal), the number of teams in the competition has been reduced to 12 (both men's and women's). Moreover, each team consists of 6 gymnasts and 1 reserve. In addition to these teams, 4 additional groups of 6 Participants each, consisting of gymnasts from different countries (larvae), are formed (for men and women). In the absolute championship (in the all-around), there cannot be more than three gymnasts from one country among the 36 best, and only two representatives from a country are allowed to compete in certain events.
Soviet gymnasts, who made their debut in Olympic competitions in 1952, immediately became among the leaders, winning the individual absolute (V. Chukarin and M. Gorokhovskaya) and team championships among both men and women.
Soviet gymnasts participated in the Olympic Games eight times. The first two Olympics - in 1952 in Helsinki and 1956 in Melbourne - turned out to be victorious for our men's team. But then the leadership passed to the Japanese national team, which won the last five Olympics in a row (1960, 1964, 1968, 1972 and 1976). The Soviet men's team took 2nd place each time. The victory at the XXI Games in Montreal (1976) was close - 0.4 points were not enough. And only at the XXII Olympiad in 1980 did the Soviet gymnast team finally again win the championship in the team competition.
Our gymnasts also took part in eight Olympiads and invariably won the team championship in all of them.
The first three Olympics ended successfully for our gymnasts in the individual competition. In 1952, in Helsinki at the XV Games and in 1956 in Melbourne at the XVI Games, V. Chukarin was the absolute champion. In 1960 in Rome it became B. Shakhlin. At subsequent Olympics, none of our gymnasts managed to repeat their success. And only 16 years after Rome, at the XXI Games in Montreal, the title of absolute Olympic champion in gymnastics was again won by the Soviet athlete Nikolai Andrianov, and in 1980 Alexander Dityatin became the absolute champion of the Moscow Olympics.
In 1952, the first absolute Olympic champion was the Soviet gymnast Maria Gorokhovskaya. At the next Olympiads (1956 and 1960), L. Latynina won. In Tokyo (1964) and Mexico City (1968), the Czechoslovakian gymnast V. Caslavska won. In Munich (1972), the title of absolute Olympic champion went to L. Turishcheva, and in Montreal (1976) it was won by 14-year-old Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci. At the XXII Olympics in Moscow (1980), our gymnast, 18-year-old Elena Davydova, again became the absolute champion.
35 Soviet gymnasts took part in the Olympic Games - 18 of them bear the title of Olympic champions.
36 of our gymnasts also hold the high title of Olympic champions.
Not a single athlete in the entire history of the Olympic Games has managed to win as many medals as the Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina won. She is the absolute record holder for the number of Olympic medals won. She has 18 of them (9 gold, 5 silver and 4 bronze).
Among men, before the XXII Games, the record holders were Boris Shakhlin (USSR) - 13 (7+4+2) and Takashi Ono (Japan) -13 (5+4+4), and after them Nikolai Andrianov (USSR) became the champion - he won 15 medals (7+5+3).
Once upon a time, Irina Viner came to the “Evening Urgant” program. A little girl gymnast came out to entertain the audience by showing her class. It was supposed to be funny how the presenter, who did not at all look like a gymnast, would perform elements that the most famous and titled athletes had once failed to cope with. “Amina,” Irina Viner asked the girl, “transfer the ribbon from one hand to the other. Just one and two.” Amina, of course, succeeded. “This movement did not allow Yana Batyrshina to become an Olympic champion at the Olympic Games in Atlanta,” the coach said.
Solving complex problems, but making a mistake in a simple calculation, performing risky elements, but making a mistake on nonsense - this looks like some kind of law of meanness. By an unfortunate accident, you can do this and make a stupid but fatal mistake, which will cost you a lot. Let's understand the operation of this vile law in rhythmic gymnastics.
Yana Batyrshina, Atlanta-1996
Russian Yana Batyrshina became the silver medalist of the 1996 Olympics. In first place then was Ekaterina Serebryanskaya, in third – Elena Vitrichenko, both Ukrainians. Batyrshina actually passed all the events smoothly, but in the exercise with the ribbon she made a stupid mistake - she made a loss by simply transferring the object from hand to hand. The score for this performance, accordingly, was lower than the others (the difference is about 0.2-0.3). In the final standings, Batyrshina lost to Serebryanskaya by exactly 0.3 points and, theoretically, yes, she could have become an Olympic champion. But in fairness, I’ll note: in none of the events did she overtake the Ukrainian, even in those performances where there were no losses. That is why it is difficult to judge whether it was actually that mistake that deprived her of gold.
Alina Kabaeva, Sydney 2000
The case of Alina Kabaeva at the 2000 Olympics is perhaps the most famous of all examples of this law of meanness in rhythmic gymnastics. Only a person completely removed from gymnastics does not know the story of how 17-year-old Kabaeva - the undisputed favorite of the Games, whose victory no one doubted - suddenly loses the hoop out of nowhere and drops out of the fight for the title of Olympic champion. And Alina didn’t perform any complex element at all, no, the hoop simply flew off her hand and treacherously rolled right off the carpet. Although this mistake did not deprive the gymnast of a medal - Kabaeva took third place, behind Russian Yulia Barsukova and Belarusian Yulia Raskina - this was clearly not what the gymnast wanted to get. And this bronze of hers was considered almost a failure. However, this incident did not diminish Kabaeva’s popularity. Those Games are still remembered only as those where the public’s favorite Alina was unexpectedly unlucky, and only by chance did Yulia Barsukova become the champion. Nevertheless, this outcome of events gave Kabaeva an incentive to prepare with all her might for the next Olympics, where, in fact, the long-awaited thing happened - in Athens, at the 2004 Games, the gymnast became an Olympic champion.
Anna Rizatdinova, Montpellier 2011
In 2011, Anna Rizatdinova was just a promising gymnast. At the World Championships in Montpellier, her main task was to enter the top 15 in order to obtain a license for the Olympics. According to the results of the all-around qualification, she was in 15th place. All that was required of her in the final was not to worsen her result. But Anna made a mistake in the exercise with the ball and received a low mark. To correct the situation, it was necessary to perform enchantingly with the ribbon. In principle, it was already difficult to obtain a license, but it was possible to fight. And now Rizatdinova comes out for the last look. Starts to lay out the ribbon before the performance and notices a knot! Amid encouraging applause, the tribune unties it and... makes another knot! He unties it and... notices the third knot! Well, then he unties the fourth one. And the fifth. For about a minute (and the exercise lasts one and a half), the gymnast untied five (!) knots, which she had managed to tie before (!) the performance. It is clear that the mood was no longer the same, and the judges most likely deducted points for such a hitch. Rizatdinova eventually took 18th place and went to the pre-Olympic week to compete for additional licenses in London.
Anna still received a ticket to the Olympic Games, but after that incident in Montpellier, she now almost always goes to the exercise not with a folded ribbon, but doing spirals with it - so that she does not have to lay out the ribbon before the performance.
Silvia Miteva, Montpellier 2011
The World Championships in Montpellier were generally dramatic. And for the Bulgarian Silvia Miteva, perhaps to the greatest extent. Miteva confidently walked towards the bronze medal in the all-around final. And bronze at the World Championships in the absolute championship is worth a lot if among your competitors are Kanaeva, Kondakova, Garayeva, Cherkashina, Maksimenko, Stanyuta... Medals in certain events (and Sylvia won two bronzes) are wonderful, but not so prestigious. After three performances, Miteva remained in third place. It seemed that a miracle would finally happen - a Bulgarian gymnast would be on the podium at the World All-Around Championships. Sylvia's last look was a hoop. It’s not that the gymnast lost the apparatus on anything - she failed to catch it, but how treacherously unfair this hoop flew past her hand. There was no point in running after the escaped object in Montpellier. The platform was located on a hill; there were no restrictions around the carpet. If the object escaped from the hands, it rolled immediately beyond the platform and fell down. Jumping after him and jumping back is a troublesome task (gymnast Anna Alyabyeva from Kazakhstan did this and was also left without a license for the Olympics). Silvia Miteva took a spare subject, received a low score (about one and a half points lower than for other types) and dropped from third place to seventh. Neither at the Olympics in London, nor at the next World Championships in 2013, the Bulgarian was ever able to get so close to the top three.
Irina Chashchina, Athens 2004
At the 2004 Olympics, which became a victorious revenge for Alina Kabaeva, Irina Chashchina won the silver medal. To be honest, it is very doubtful that anyone other than Kabaeva could have won gold at that Olympics. But Irina Chashchina gave reason to fantasize on the topic - what if?.. In the exercise with the ribbon, Chashchina “stupidly” got entangled in the ribbon, thereby making Kabaeva’s victory more confident. Like, Chashchina made a mistake, what kind of gold does she want? That Olympics was Irina’s first and last. A year later, she ended her sports career, left without the high-profile titles of absolute world champion or Olympic champion.
Anna Bessonova, Budapest-2003
The first world championship for Anna Bessonova as the leader of the Ukrainian team. The chances of becoming an absolute world champion were then great. But in the all-around, Anna becomes second, losing to Alina Kabaeva by 0.325 points. Bessonova's first look was a ball. Everything was going great until the very last moment. During the final difficult catch, the ball angrily jumped away from under the gymnast’s feet. And thus, from the very first performance in the all-around, the gold medal for Bessonova was in question. A perfectly executed final exercise with a hoop significantly reduced the gap from first place, but Anna remained second.
Bessonova will eventually become the absolute world champion - in 2007 in Patras.
Alina Maksimenko, Kyiv-2013
Alina Maksimenko made many annoying, stupid mistakes during her sports career. In Montpellier 2011, in the final with her space hoop, she, having completed all the most difficult risks, stumbled out of the blue and became fifth. In Kyiv 2013, inexplicably, the ribbon accidentally flew off the carpet, and the gymnast did not reach the final in this event, despite the fact that the program was wonderful and there were chances for a medal. In London 2012, in the final, the ball slipped out from under her feet, almost like Anna Bessonova did in Budapest. Alina was often overwhelmed by emotions. With complete emotional surrender, mistakes occurred that were inexplicable by reason. At the 2013 World Championships, Maksimenko finished seventh in the overall championship. And the reason for this outcome was an error in the first all-around event - in the exercise with clubs. The most offensive thing is that the day before Alina won bronze in this event. The gymnast lost the club in the first seconds of her performance, and, upset, made another loss during the exercise. It was painful to watch her next appearances on the court - Alina lost all her enthusiasm and mood, she no longer had to fight for a medal. And the saddest thing is that that championship was the last in Maksimenko’s career.
I couldn’t find the video from the all-around final where Alina loses her clubs. Therefore, we enjoy her performance in the finals of individual events, which brought the gymnast a bronze medal.
Rhythmic gymnastics is considered a source of national pride for the former Soviet Union, although it became a sport with a capital S in the turning point of 1980. The Olympic Games in Moscow were held without the participation of gymnasts, but at the congress at the end of the Games they decided to include a new sport in the program - rhythmic gymnastics.
Already at the 1984 games, the gold medal went to Laurie Fung, a gymnast from Canada. She forever went down in history as the first Olympic champion in rhythmic gymnastics. Romania's Doiana Stoiculescu took silver, while Germany's Regina Weber took bronze.
Our gymnasts did not take part in the Olympic competitions, due to the retaliatory refusal to the boycott announced by 50 countries in 1980 in Moscow, although the Bulgarian girls were worthy rivals of the Olympic medalists.
The golden age of Bulgarian gymnasts
At the 1984 alternative but unofficial games in Sofia, held for the socialist camp, the gold was shared by two Bulgarian gymnasts, with Dilyana Georgieva losing one gold medal to her teammate Anela Ralenkova in the clubs exercise. The socialist Olympics brought the USSR national team represented by Galina Beloglazova and Dalia Kukaite the second prize.
The 1988 Olympics predicted gold for Bulgarian gymnasts Adriana Dunavskaya and Biyanka Panova, as well as girls from the Soviet Union national team, which included Marina Lobach and Alexandra Timoshenko. The final for all four participants was brilliant, but at the qualifying competitions, Marina Lobach performed flawlessly, unlike her rivals, so she got the gold.
After the collapse of the USSR, a team from the CIS member countries was formed to participate in the 1992 games. Representatives of the team were Ukrainian athletes Alexandra Timoshenko and Oksana Skaldina. Alexandra exceeded all expectations and won the title of absolute champion. Oksana lost silver to Spain's Carolina Pascual
The 1996 Games brought success to Ukrainians Ekaterina Serebryanskaya and Elena Vitrichenko and Irina Viner’s students Amina Zaripova and Yana Batyrshina, who showed new trends in gymnastics.
The Games in Sydney (2000) brought gold to the Russian team, Belarusian gymnasts won second place, and Spanish gymnasts took bronze. Yulia Barsukova received the title of Olympic champion, and all media named Alina Kabaeva as the favorite of the games, although she only took third place.
At the 2004 games, Alina Kabaeva was lucky enough to win the title of Olympic champion, despite the fact that mistakes were made in all exercises. Irina Chashchina performed wonderfully, but one mistake moved her to second place. Ukrainian gymnast Anna Bessonova won bronze.
At the Olympic Games in Beijing, the gold medal rightfully went to Evgenia Kanaeva, and Belarusian Inna Zhukova took the silver. Anna Bessonova won the bronze medal. The next six places went to students of Irina Viner. The main star of rhythmic gymnastics in London was also the incomparable Evgenia Kanaeva.
Let's hope that our girls will continue to win prizes at subsequent Olympiads and demonstrate their unsurpassed abilities to the whole world.
