Sovetsky Sport. May 28, 1983. BUSINESS CARD. Albina Shishova. Master of sports, international class. Born October 17, 1966. Dinamo, Rostov-on-Don. Ninth-grade student. USSR champion in gymnastics on the balance beam, silver medalist in the all-around. Bronze medalist in the all-around at the 1983 European Championship. Coach - V. Rastrotsky.
Merited coach of the USSR Vladislav Stepanovich Rastorotsky will celebrate his 50th birthday in June. This will happen right during the final competitions of the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the RSFSR. And, of course his students will congratulate their coach - Natalia Yurchenko, Albina Shishova, Elena Veselova, and Elena Ponomarenko.
Many people know that Rastorotsky trained Olympic champions Lyudmila Turischeva and Natalia Shaposhnikova. Now one of the leaders on the USSR team is Yurchenko. Albina Shishova is also promising.
What secrets does this great coach know, who knows how to pick the most gifted girl among thousands of gifted girls?
It turns out he's not looking. They are looking for a meeting with him. That's how Yurchenko came to Rostov-on-Don from Norilsk. That's how Albina Shishova appeared.
In 1977, when Albina had finished third grade, Nina Aleksandrovna, a foreman at a plant, and Evgeny Vasilyevich Shishov, an operator at the Apozhsky Titanium and Magnesium Plant, took their daughter to Rostov-on-Don, rightly believing that if this gymnastics center had trained such wonder gymnasts as Turischeva, Grozdova, and Shaposhnikova, then they knew how to work with children.
Albina started doing gymnastics in her native Zaporozhye while still in kindergarten. Her sister, first-grader Lena, went to one of the children's sports schools of N. Dombrovskaya. Then Albina entered this sports school. The two little girls traveled almost across the entire city to classes by themselves. Their parents allowed them such bold voyages.
Both the parents and 11-year-old Albina went to Rostov-on-Don, but not without trepidation - what if they don't accept her? But the 'inspection' was successful. And so Shishova found herself in the famous gymnastics school. She got into the group of coach Yu. Krotov.
Training was interesting. At almost every lesson she learned something new. Yuri Semyonovich noticed the girl's courage and determination, her ability to independently understand difficult movements.
"Was is hard then?" I asked Albina.
"No. I have never tried to do anything without first asking myself: is it possible to do it?"
But the real gymnastics began when V. Rastorotsky took her into his group. Now it was necessary to tie everything that Krotov had taught into harmoniuos routines. And it turned out to not be so simple.
"When I was studying with Krotov," says Albina, "I thought: I can do everything. I'm a master. I could do double somersaults on the floor, and I could do handstand pirouettes on the bars, and I could do a round-off twist on the balance beam just like on the [tumbling] track. But I tried to combine everything into a routine - nothing worked. I was worried: what a fool I am. Vladislav Stepanovich reassured me - "Don't be upset, everything will come in its own time."
The preparation of the program took a long time. Therefore, Shishova's name was almost never found in the results of youth competitions. The year 1981 began with a pleasant victory in the all-around at the Riga-81 international competition. She was fifth in September at the national championship in Minsk, where she received her first 'adult' medals for success on the balance beam and floor exercise. Most importantly she was among the candidates for the world championship in Moscow.
But she didn't get to perform at the Olympiisky. It was a shame, but not too much. Everything that happened during that year was like a dream.
"The real disapointment," says Albina, "came at the Riga-82 tournament, when I fell off the balance beam and did my uneven bars routine really badly. Sixth place in the all-around sort of brought me down to earth."
"After the defeat in Riga," adds V. Rastorotsky, "Albina seemed to have matured. She became very serious and thoughtful. She wouldn't leave you alone until you explained what the mistake was."
And there was another take-off. And what a take-off! At the 1982 USSR Cup, she lost only to her older friend Natasha Yurchenko in the all-around. In September, at the national championship in Chelyabinsk, she showed that her success was not accidental. Again, a silver medal in the all-around (Yurchenko was first again) and her first gold medal for winning the most difficult event - the balance beam.
"What is your relationship with your coach? He always seems to be angry. Are you afraid of him, perhaps?"
"Oh, what are you saying? Vladislav Stepanovich is a very kind person! Only very demanding of himself and of us. Well, if it happens that he is strict about any mistake, then I understand that it is necessary."
At the spring tournament of the 1983 Moscow News newspaper, Albina was again second - behind Yurchenko. But she won two top awards - on the floor (her routine was composed by the interesting young choreographer Galina Melyakina) and the vault.
And recently at the European Championships in Gothenburg, Albina took third place in the all-around.
E. AVSENEV, Master of Sports