Sovetsky Sport. December 16, 1967. He is 29 years old. In sports, this is youth. He knows the taste of victory - to a lesser extent. To a greater extent, there are many scars on the armor of his muscles. He seems to be a person of a special, emphatically joyful worldview - a quick-eyed joker and a wit. But they are inside, deep inside.
To me his success seems to be filled with a special, instructive meaning. We sometimes see very young gymnasts who don't want or don't know how to passionately dedicate themselves to the competition and perform with full commitment: with zeal, like real men. They just go through the motions, and then it's off to bed. Kerdemelidi is a fighter who has been through many battles, and he emerged from them with his blood still burning with passion.
The second-to-last event is the pommel horse. The Army team is having terrible luck. Valery Zhesan, who hasn't left the competition despite his injured hand, winces in pain and barely finishes his routine. The second participant falls, then the third... On the fourth, Kerdemelidi turns away and stares at the floor until it's his turn.
The entrance. Kerdemelidi performs the ritual of greeting the judges with exaggerated politeness and correctness: "Here I am - entirely at your service." On pommel horse, his medal-winning profile acquires a different, fierce, tiger-like beauty. His palms fly furiously to the pommels with a swift motion.
Before the rings, where everything was decided, I asked him what he was thinking then, with his head down. "Seriously," he grumbled (and indeed, he became serious), "I turned away because I was rooting for the team and I was nervous. I mentally went through my entire routine three times, every thing."
I have a theory. Although the center of gravity on the pommel horse is higher than the point of support, the handles are spaced widely, aren't they? If you feel confident, you won't fall. Arkaev came up to us, and he advised: "Are you doing your floor exercises now? Then smile. When you finish, smile. Like this."
He asked Arkaev without hesitation: "But I'll have my back to the judges. How will that work?"
"They can tell by the muscles on the back of your head."
He went - and he won!
These five hundredths of a point are such a small amount! But they are priceless. They embody the fighter's will and optimism. And his victory is magnificent.
S. TOKAREV, our special correspondent