Sovetsky Sport. July 5, 1972. In my long coaching life, there have been many different kinds of excitement associated with preparing for the biggest gymnastic competitions. And these excitements occurred not only because I felt a huge responsibility for my students included in the USSR national team.
I always felt involved in the victories or defeats of the whole team and was very worried when the Soviet national team lost the championship in Dortmund in 1966. None of my students were in the team at that time, but I still felt that I was responsible for the loss. Apparently, every coach thought so, and it spurred us on, made us work and work tirelessly.
Huge, unceasing work has paid off. We retained the Olympic team gold and returned the title of world champions to the country both in the individual and team championships.
And now we are waiting for new tests...
In Moscow, at the USSR Cup, I was in high spirits - these competitions made a great impression on me. I don't remember that sometime before we had so many contenders for the Olympic team in women's gymnastics. Somehow we ourselves did not notice how Saadi, Schegolkova, Voroshilina, Korbut, Koshel, and Bogdanova pulled up to our leaders. These girls took part in a brave fight with famous athletes for the right to become participants in the Games in Munich. And it should frankly be noted that their claims are not without merit.
In Moscow, the breath of the Olympics, its closeness, was clearly felt. An exceptionally businesslike atmosphere, the principled nature of the judges, created a special atmosphere of excitement.
The recently-ended USSR Cup and USSR championships in individual events is the second round of selection. What did they show? Exacerbation of rivalry, great potential opportunities for each of the gymnasts, finding candidates for the national team. In technical terms, the achievements of the gymnasts are significant. Artistry, the difficulty of the routines, and not one or two gymnasts, but many - all this is pleasing. Some we know very well, we hope for them, we are sure of their strength and the firmness of character. Others in the national team are new, they are still young, inexperienced, but if they beat eminent ones then this must be reckoned with, taken as a fait accompli.
Our young girls have surpassed the achievements of gymnasts of previous years in their technical training. Their routines are modern and beautiful, and the level of performance is quite high.
Olya Korbut, Elvira Saadi, Antonina Koshel - they are doing everything to get into the Olympic team, they work selflessly, and I sincerely praise them for such diligence.
Korbut made an impact with her tricks on the balance beam, uneven bars, and floor exercises. She is a very gifted and brave gymnast. Olya withstood - I say this with confidence - the tension of the qualifying rounds, but how difficult it is. Such intense competition can knock anyone to their knees.
I can't help but talk about Renald Knysh. His service to gymnastics is not limited to the fact that he brought up Korbut, who undoubtedly has a great future. He is full of new ideas, he breaks the conventional wisdom, and he expands our perception of the potential of female athletes.
A surprisingly modest person, Knysh is always firm in his convictions and follows through with his plans. When he was learning these unusual elements with Korbut, no one believed in the reality of his plans. Life has disproved this skeptisicm. And we look forward to Renald's new achievements.
How is the compulsory program mastered? In principle, it is not difficult, but there were serious problems with the execution of the vault. For a long time the gymnasts could not clearly fix the turn at the moment of pushing with their hands on the apparatus. The coaches consulted a lot, exchanged experiences, and finally found the best way to perform this vault.
The girls still need to work on one interesting element on the uneven bars. I mean the 'false flight.' The flight is the quintessence of the whole routine. The way Antonina Koshel showed it is a sample, one might say, a standard.
I really liked the girl from Tashkent, Elvira Saadi. She did the compulsory floor exercises and balance beam routines just brilliantly. And she got the highest scores in these events. Elvira found something special, unique touches to the pattern of the routines.
The USSR junior champion Lyubov Bogdanova is an extremely interesting gymnast. I have been following her for a long time, I saw her first steps, I often talked with her coach Nikolai Maiburov, a man of direct views and peculiar judgements. Nikolai Evdokimovich does not like dullness and stereotypes. He was often wrong, but these mistakes are among those that are more valuable than any awards. He came up with elements for which there were no names. Some of them did not take root, some of them remained. Maiburov has many good students, and Bogdanova is his best achievement. Lyuba took seventh place. This is great. It's also great that the Muscovite also has the most difficult routines on the beam and uneven bars.
Now our women's gymnastics is going through a new stage of development. Fresh forces are pouring into the team. This forces experienced athletes to improve their exercises, add, modify, and update routines. At this competition we saw that many participants modernized their routines even after the national championship in Kiev. This is highly commendable. However, how could it be otherwise? If you stand still, others will pass you by.
There were several breakdowns at the competition. Although the failures of Voroshilina, Karaseva, and Turischeva should probably be classified as random, nevertheless, in further training these gymnasts need to pay attention to psychological preparation.
Comparing the skills of the leading Soviet gymnasts and the GDR women, I can still say with confidence that now we are going ahead. But the best German female gymnasts follow on their heels, and Karin Janz, Erika Zuchold, and perhaps Angelika Hellmann have every reason to fight for medals both in the all-around and in individual events.
Why do I think Janz is dangerous? Because she is stable. The fact that she transfers the advanced achievements in the exercises of the strongest gymnasts of the world into her own routines. But this is not blind copying, rather creative reworking of the best samples. Finally, she is truly talented. All this makes Janz the main rival of our leaders.
Having watched the USSR Cup and the national championship in individual events, I was convinced that at least four gymnasts can successfully compete with Janz at the Olympics. I deliberately do not name the names of the athletes. Everything will depend on the gymnasts themselves. From their endurance. From their fighting qualities.
YU. SHTUKMAN, Merited Coach of the USSR