Sovetsky Sport. October 25, 1974. I remember eight years ago at the world championships in Dortmund, after the American D. Fuchs received an insufficiently high score on the uneven bars, from the audience's point of view. They protested for 42 minutes, preventing the competition from continuing. This time the record was not surpassed: for 22 minutes there was whistling and stomping in the stands, demanding an increase in the score for the magnificent piked Tsukahara performed by the American J. Rice, and the blue-eyed graceful brunette with a purple elephant talisman in her hands became one of the heroines of the evening.
By the way, she does a Korbut somersault on the beam, and she has an excellent floor exercise, like the entire US team: each routine carries a complete idea, a musical combination. This is not a set of movements, but a small performance that accurately conveys the individuality of the gymnast.
When you peer into this team, you recognize familar traits in it - our elements, our trends. A creative approach to the floor exercises, from the point of view of its unity, its artistic logic, which is one of the main features of the Soviet school. Here you understand with particular clarity: the overseas tours of Soviet gymnasts are not only the excitement of the crowds and receptions at the White House. This is a purely sporting influence that leads to the development and enrichment of both American and worldwide gymnastics.
Creative enrichment is not an empty word. It's amazing how women's gymnastics has grown today! Do not count the new elements that are shown literally in every shift. The repertoire of jumps, flips, and turns has expanded, the space near the apparatus is actively used - many uneven bars and balance beam routines begin before the gymnast touches the bars or beam with her hands. And while watching all this, you repeatedly catch glimpses of things you saw at competitions in Ufa, Riga, Vilnius, Alma-Ata, Moscow.
How nice that the export of gymnastic ideas is also becoming oneof the articles of export today.
S. TOKAREV