Sovetsky Sport. March 24, 1973. They were applauded at the Olympics. They are now admired by the whole world. And affirming the attractive power of our remarkable gymnasts - Olympic champions - America rises excitedly in the stands of the arenas, saluting the girls from the Soviet Union who performed exhibitions in the United States. We have already written about the huge success that fell to the lot of the tour participants, cited in the U.S. press. This week the team of Soviet gymnasts was received at the White House by U.S. President R. Nixon. The largest newspapers in Japan and many countries in Europe have high praise for the skills of our gymnasts, their courage, hard work, and perseverance.
It's appropriate to remind you that in many countries young admirers of the talent of one of the most attractive of our gymnasts - Olga Korbut - create groups and whole clubs, that elements of the highest difficulty (from Korbut, Turischeva, Lazakovich, as well as the famous GDR gymnast Karin Janz) are captured on film and carefully studied by coaches around the world.
Behind all of the most difficult gymnastics elements that the audience admires is many years of painstaking work, a search conducted by coaches and their pupils and which absorbs all the richest experience of previous generations of gymnastics masters. Super complex elements are evidence of the relentless forward movement of gymnastics. There is a need to recall all this once again, because recently some foreign experts have begun to dispute the legitimacy of certain difficult elements in the women's program, performed by Olga Korbut, Karin Janz, and other leading masters.
Today we are publishing a letter in connection with this, which we received from Prague.
Routines of super-difficult elements, which were demonstrated during the performance at the Olympic Games in Munich by the best gymnasts in the world, headed by Lyudmila Turischeva and Olga Korbut, caused undisguised delight and surprise. But time passed, general admiration cooled, and some experts and gymnastics lovers raised a discussion on this topic: "Where is the limit of performing skills? Where is the limit beyond which lies danger to the health and the life of gymnasts?"
We asked Alexander Lylo (Czechoslovakia), vice president of the men's technical committee of the FIG, to express his opinion on the trends and nature of the progress of sports technique in gymnastics.
"I must admit," A. Lylo began his reply, "that more than once I have to answer the question of whether the somersault on the balance beam, which the Olympic champion Olga Korbut performs in her routine, should not be considered life-threatening."
I have always responded to such comments as follows:
"We have already had something similar and amazing in women's gymnastics and, perhaps, we simply forgot. Eva Bosakova, for example, was the first in Czechoslovakia to adopt the experience of the Soviet gymnastics school and include acrobatic tricks in her exercises. Judges of the older generation considered her a 'black sheep' and not only did not encourage difficulty in a routine but, on the contrary, lowered her scores, referring to the fact that acrobatic elements in Bosakova's exercises can adversely affect the health of a female gymnast... Today, six-year-old girls in beginners' groups are quietly performing these 'ghastly' tricks. But Bosakova, as we remember, became a world and Olympic champion."
In the late 1950s, another Czechoslovakian gymnast, Hanka Mareikova-Krausova, also demonstrated a very dangerous, according to those concepts, element - she did a half-flip between the lower and upper poles of the uneven bars and finished the combination with a hang on the upper pole - head down, like a bat.
"Gambling, playing with death" - this is how Hanka's performance was described fifteen years ago. And now the element 'Hanka' (named after the pioneer gymnast) has become common in the arsenal of athletes in many countries.
Let's also remember the 1954 world championships in Rome, where the Japanese Keiko Tanaka frightened the audience by performing pirouettes on the beam, and Eva Bosakova also on beam - with a cartwheel.
And now let's take, for example, a small gymnastic group of girls in one of the Prague districts. Now, in 1973, we see that elements that seem to have recently belonged to the 'Ultra-C' class are easily mastered by schoolgirls of the third category. During the year, 10-year-old gymnasts master these elements to perfection, and it never even crossed my mind that they could harm the health of the girls.
I read in the foreign press that in Japan, little gymnasts, on a low beam, confidently and without any risk to their lives do somersaults 'a la Korbut.' In the USA and the GDR, they also do not want to lag behing the USSR gymnasts and are preparing original and risky elements on the uneven bars.
The development of difficulty in gymnastics cannot be stopped, just as the natural process of perfection cannot be stopped. In confirmation, I will tell a story that can be dated back to 1970, when the world championships were held in Ljubljana and when I had to advise the judges on the men's pommel horse event. I called Cerar, the best pommels worker in those days, to the appratus and asked him to demonstrate the most difficult combination on one pommel of the horse. The Yugoslav gymnast made one rotation, using almost all his strength on it. Nowadays, his routine in a much more difficult variant is easily performed, for example, by the Hungarians Molnar and Magyar.
Increasing the difficulty of exercises required improving the equipment, which was done. The uneven bars, for example, have become more flexible and safer. The new model of the beam has a softened surface. Floor exercises are performed on the elastic Reuther mat, and 360- and 720-degree twists on it have long ceased to be a sensation or a unique element. The double somersault can be seen more and more often at competitions.
Turning a blind eye to progress, let alone resisting it, is short-sighted and senseless. But, in order to reach the top, it is necessary to educate not only gymnasts but also such coaching staff who, relying on deep knowledge of biomechanics and human psychology, would gradually prepare high-class athletes. There are practically no limits to the difficulty of exercises, as well as limits to improving skills. And the degree of safety when performing them is in direct correlation to the skill and experience of the trainers.
Interview by Marko Fisher, Ceskoslovensky Sport