Sovetsky Sport. February 1, 1987. It's cold and snowing outside, but in the gymnasium it's warm, light, and cozy. The bars creak, a cloud of magnesium hangs in the air, and the mats on the air cushion make funny, slurping noises after the athlete's next landing. And music. Music plays all day long...
How are our famous gymnasts doing? What competitions are they preparing for? How are they going to surprise their fans? What new things are world champions Elena Shushunova and Oksana Omelyanchik learning? Are Olga Bicherova and Dmitry Bilozerchev training?
These are the questions newspaper readers ask in their letters. We showed these letters to the 1981 all-around world champion Olga Bicherova. She willingly agreed to answer gymnastics lovers.
Just think - I'm 19 years old, and I'm already the oldest in our team! Natasha Yurchenko, laughing, said: "Now you'll find out if it's nice when they say 'this is our veteran' about you."
"Well, no, Natasha," I answered, "what kind of veteran am I?" I don't feel tired from gymnastics, and you know, I want to perform and compete. I was especially inspired by my fourth place at the Spartakiad. No one believed in me, except for the coach, of course, and my parents. And here - I'm next to the winners! Eh, I didn't have enough difficulty. I can't keep up with these requirements! But I'll try - I will have the required difficulty!
This conversation took place quite recently, at the very end of a small gathering of men's and women's teams. Natasha Yurchenko, together with Anzhela Schennikova, Yuri Korolev, Volodya Artemov, Lyosha Tikhonkikh, with rhythmic gymnasts and acrobats, flew to France for exhibition performances. I sat in my room, coughed a little, wrapped myself in a blanket, swallowed pills, cursed at my unwanted cold, and once again told myself that I would definitely toughen up. And I remembered these few days. Just a few days out of a thousand spent in gymnastics.
It's good that I managed to pass my winter session in the third year of the Journalism Faculty at Moscow State University. Lena Shushunova and Vera Kolesnikova are first-year students, they wrote notes every evening, read textbooks and kept asking me - isn't it scary to take the exam, aren't the teachers very picky? I told them how interesting it was to study at the journalism department, what a wonderful world had opened up for me - Hugo, Hoffmann, Stendhal, Zola. It's clear that I "modestly" noted that I passed the exam in foreign literature with excellent marks, and also tests in English and stylistics, and 19th century Russian literature is also behind me...
The senior coach of the country's women's team, Andrei Fedorovich Radionenko, addressing us at the beginning of the training camp, was concerned: "Girls, this year it will be more difficult than ever for you. The European Championship - both for women and men - will be in Moscow in May. Can you imagine what responsibility falls on you! Can you now name three gymnasts who will take to the stage at the Olympic Sports Complex? No? Neither can I. Everything is decided by the competition. Each candidate must compete in at least two competitions. The Moscow News competition, the USSR-USA match, and the April national championship in Kharkov are coming up..."
Wow, how we all tried! Nobody wants to give up their lead; everyone dreams of getting to the European Championship, the World Universiade, and the October World Championships. It's clear that we primarily followed the all-around world champions Lena Shushunova and Oksana Omelyanchik. Lena is true to herself - she again practiced a new, stunning dismount on the uneven bars, a double layout with a full twist. And [Oksana's] vault is also new - a round-off onto the board, a 180-degree turn and a piked front somersault.
Lena Shevchenko, the all-around champion of the USSR Spartakiad, has an even more difficult vault: the beginning is like Shushunova's, and in the second phase there is another 180-degree twist. In general, I will say that Shevchenko can become the leader of this season. How lyrical, artistic, but also collected and brave she is. She trains with Irina Viktorovna and Viktor Mikhailovich Razumovsky. And she's not the only one: in this group there is also Lena Gurova (she was third at the Spartakaid), and Olya Chudina, and I (and all together we won gold medals as part of the Moscow national team at the Summer Spartakiad).
My coach Boris Georgievich Orlov works in Holland. Recently he sent me a letter, complaining about how he has to travel from one city to another to train gymnasts and how much still needs to be done to improve the quality of the athletes. And, of course, he was interested in how I was doing.
I answered him like this. I enjoy training. Four people in a group means more independence and less petty supervision. The coaches don't give us any slack; they demand precise execution of tasks. I see that my new young friends have gone ahead of me in terms of difficulty, but I don't give up. I'm also preparing elements of the highest categoey of the D Group (from this season, the most difficult group of elements is being introduced in the women's rules). I don't want to name what I'm learning. I don't know, for some reason, I'm afraid I'll jinx it. Apparently, this is because I really want to compete at big competitions again.
Oksana Omelyanchik has matured and become prettier. Her coach Tatiana Perskaya looks at her student with surprise - she is changing before her eyes. Ksyusha still loves to joke and laugh and still writes poetry in her school notebook. She showed us new floor exercises staged by choreographer Galina Melyakina - also to Russian melodies. It's good that Oksana didn't change her manner: passionate, daring, dashing. It turned out to be a very nice composition.
The all-around winner of the Goodwill Games, Vera Kolesnikova, and Olga Strazheva, second overall at the USSR Spartakiad, are also preparing new routines for the season. I think that among the leaders will be the young all-around national champion Svetlana Baitova from Mogilev. What a purity of lines she has, what airiness in her execution! Light as a feather, Sveta floats weightlessly above the apparatus. Here she performs the Yurchenko vault - I even want to applaud. Rimma Alexandrova, Kolesnikova's coach, said in admiration:
"What a wonderful twist!"
"No," I say, "there seem to be two twists."
We watched again - there were exactly two twists. Sveta makes this 720-degree twist so cleanly, quickly, and "imperceptibly" that it's impossible to follow.
All of our team leaders also were training in the men's gym: Yuri Korolev, Vladimir Artemov, Valentin Mogilny, Aleksei Tikhonkikh, Vladimir Gogoladze, and others. Everyone, of course, congratulated Yuri Korolev - his son is three years old, and now there is an addition to the family. His daughter was born, and they named her Lena.
Many people ask where is Dmitry Bilozerchev, the 1983 all-around world champion and the two-time European champion? After breaking his leg twice, he wore a cast for almost six months. In the summer he started training again and quickly regained his shape. He got married in October. But in December he was unlucky again: he severely injured his other leg and even underwent surgery. But we believe that Dima will definately take the stage again.
We gymnasts say to our fans: "See you at the Moscow News competition in March!"
O. BICHEROVA