Sovetsky Sport. March 27, 1977. Sport, as is well known, cannot exist without renewal - without an influx of fresh talent. There comes a moment when event the most celebrated champions step aside. And they look with hope toward their successors - those who will carry on their legacy.
It is the dream of every athlete to compete in the Olympic Games. Some pursue this dream for many years, while others ascend the Olympic podium while still in their junior years. And the experience of Olympic competition is a treasure - the one that we are duty-bound to preserve and pass down from generation to generation.
Today, our correspondent speaks with three gymnasts - Olympians from different eras.
Merited Master of Sports Mikhail Voronin served as a reserve at the Tokyo Olympics. Four years later, in Mexico City, he won two gold medals, and in Munich, he captured two silver medals. Merited Master of Sports Viktor Klimenko traveled to the Mexico City Olympics at the age of 19, where he took third place on the parallel bars. In Munich, he became the Olympic champion on the pommel horse. Merited Master of Sports Nikolai Andrianov won gold in the floor exercise in Munich, while in Montreal he claimed victory in both the all-around competition and on three individual apparatuses.
And so, three champions reflect on supreme mastery, on the will to win, and on how they envision gymnastics in 1980.
Correspondent: What is the most important thing you took away from the Olympic battles?
Voronin: After I managed to win the title of absolute world champion in 1966, I pinned all my dreams on the Olympics. For two years, I suffered not a single defeat. Everything was meticulously calculated, and experts predicted a victory for me. I staked everything on it. And then, suddenly - a mishap, the kind commonly referred to as 'fateful.' During the final event, the pommel horse, my finger snagged on my tights. That split-second pause cost me three-tenths of a point. And the Japanese gymnast, Sawao Kato, edged me out in the all-around competition by a mere 0.05 points. Can you imagine what I went through that night at the hotel, once I was finally alone and no longer had to listen to words of sympathy...
It is, perhaps, easy to write: "Voronin ultimately pulled himself together and, in the individual event finals, won a rich haul of medals - including two golds." Yet no one can truly know how to force oneself to "get back up before the count of nine!" To overcome psychological shock, one must constantly train one's willpower.
I was preparing myself so that, someday - in a crisis situation - I would not lose my presence of mind.
Klimenko: Never lose hope! That is the motto I chose for myself after the Mexico City Olympics, and I strove to live by it. In Mexico City - as a young gymnast widely tipped to become a leader - I managed to win only one individual medal: a bronze. Back then, I felt just as devastated as Misha did, and I resolved that, come what may, I would win a more valuable medal four years later...
My athletic career unfolded as a blend of both happiness and drama. At the 1970 world championships, I had the potential to medal in the all-around and win the floor exercise, yet I committed errors. I triumphed at the European Championships. Then, just one season later, I lost to Andrianov at the national championships.
In Munich, I was fully confident I would finish among the medalists in the all-around competition - but once again, I somehow botched it. Yes, there were moments when I thought it was all over - that my dreams had gone unfulfilled. Yet all day long, I kept repeating to myself: "You still have a chance tomorrow - a chance, a chance... Be a man! Don't fall apart!" I felt as though my entire life flashed before my eyes as I prepared to step onto the podium. But then I completed my routine on the pommel horse and realized: it had happened! I had won Olympic gold!
Correspondent: For my part, I must add that what I admire in Viktor is his fighting spirit. We remember the fierce determination with which he competed at the 1974 national championships, where he shared the all-around title with Andrianov. We remember how, in Varna - when an injury sidelined him - some were quick to write him off. Yet he refused to give up; he pressed forward relentlessly, giving it his absolute all. Klimenko simply did not know how to compete at anything less than full intensity; he always gave 110 percent. Viktor was deeply determined to make it to his third Olympic Games, and he fought courageously through the qualifying rounds... He did not make the team, but he never lost hope - not until the very last moment! Today, 28-year-old Major Viktor Klimenko works at his home club, CSKA, and it pursuing postgraduate studies.
Andrianov: In Munich, I was hot on the heels of Sawao Kato. But where did I falter? On the pommel horse, my favorite apparatus. Consequently, I finished fourth in the all-around competition. Even winning gold in the floor exercise didn't bring me much joy - I had expected more from myself. Together with my coach, Nikolai Grigorievich Tolkachev, we devised a rigorous training plan for Montreal and resolved to follow it to the letter. We planned to deliver our main 'strike' against the Japanese at the world championships in Varna. We mastered the triple somersault from the high bar and revamped all our routines. The rivalry with Shigeru Kasamatsu was neck-and-neck, but how could I not feel aggrieved when he was awarded a high score despite having botched his routine on the parallel bars?
Nikolai Grigorievich was right when he said: "They (the Japanese) can only be defeated by a decisive margin." And sure enough, my lead over Sawao Kato in Montreal amounted to exactly one point. Therefore, I now know one thing: at the Olympics, you have to be head and shoulders above your rivals. Only then will no tricks by the judges stand in the way of victory.
Correspondent: It seems to me that the three of you represent the major trends in gymnastics. Voronin achieved an astonishing purity of execution and elegance. Klimenko was one of the first in the world to push the difficulty of routines to the absolute limit on every apparatus without exception. Andrianov, meanwhile, synthesized this extreme difficulty with a superb mastery of movement technique. How do you envision men's gymnastics in 1980?
Voronin: I believe that the gymnastics displayed by Andrianov will long be regarded as the gold standard. He has surged far ahead - he is truly ahead of his time. And if Andrianov performs at that same level in Moscow - technically, artistically, and psychologically - it will be difficult to beat him. However, whether Kolya will be able to be ready for that is another matter entirely.
Klimenko: I would probably have to agree with Mikhail - Nikolai has indeed attained the highest level of mastery. However, I don't believe that no one will ever catch up to him. Experience shows that our sport is evolving at a rapid pace. After all, it was only in Munich that Tsukahara executed the 'moon salto,' yet nowadays that move has become commonplace. Triple saltos from the high bar are being boldly mastered, as are triple twists in the floor exercise, and so on. The level of difficulty will increase even further over the next four years. And difficulty, as we know, it rewarded by the rules. The very reason Kolya became the finest gymnast of the Olympics is that he was constantly climbing the ladder of difficulty, never standing still for a single season...
Andrianov: No, I have no intention of resting on my laurels - though I do like my Olympic routines. I must maintain the pace I've set and keep learning new things - more and more new things. It goes without saying that treading uncharted paths is difficult, but it is essential. On every apparatus, it is possible to modify the rules - to make them more expressive and dynamic.
Correspondent: Nikolai's success inspired us all. Our team finished just 0.4 points behind the Japanese six. Do you believe the Japanese are experiencing a crisis stemming from a generational shift, or is it simply that we have raised our game?
Voronin: Sixteen years have passed since our first team defeat at the Rome Olympics. Nikolai reclaimed the crown of the all-around champion for our country, yet once again the team gold eluded us. Nevertheless, throughout all these years, our men's gymnastics program has undergone a process of both qualitative and quantitative development. There were mistakes and miscalculations, but on the whole, we now possess a larger pool of high-caliber gymnasts than before. The average standard of our athletes has clearly risen as well - with these shifts being most pronounced within the junior ranks. We are hopeful that we will be able to challenge the Japanese at the world championships just one year from now.
Klimenko: The Montreal team - Dityatin, Markelov, Krysin, Marchenko, Tikhonov and of course Andrianov - is a team that has reached a new frontier. What I mean is that these young men have conquered their own self-doubt and scaled peaks of difficulty that once seemed unattainable. Following in their footsteps are a new generation of gymnasts who have now clearly realized: defeating the Japanese virtuosos is not only possible, but a necessity!
Correspondent: I agree. And yet, for the time being, there are still a great many gaps in men's gymnastics. For instance, at the national youth championships in Odessa, more than half of the young athletes were simply not ready to 'put their names forward' as candidates for the Olympic team...
Voronin: Exactly - that is precisely what I was about to say: right now, our primary focus needs to be on the work of specialized youth sports schools. Many of them are operating inefficiently. For instance, my colleagues and I recently inspected our Dinamo sports school in Kharkov. The facilities there are excellent, but the actual output is quite poor.
Klimenko: Sports schools lay the foundation of athletic mastery. As a young coach, I am keenly interested in the operational experience of - to name a few - the Vladimir school of Tolkachev, as well as the schools of Knysh, Dmitriev, Khomutov, and Yarmovsky. How is the work of the coaches organized? What are their individual methods? How are talents scouted? It is also crucial to uncover the reasons behind the poor performance of many sports schools.
Andrianov: I, too - as an aspiring coach - am interested in learning more about the work of the country's leading mentors.
Master of Sports V. GOLUBEV introduced the champions and moderated the discussion