I feel sorry for Klimenko hes a victim of the system, a member of the clan of grownups who are doing their job.. Other critics mocked Biles and compared her to Kerri Strug, who famously vaulted on an injured ankle for the United States at the 1996 Olympics, winning a gold medal. They ended up getting more than they bargained for, and the price for that was paid by Elena Mukhina. I know many won't watch it mainly due to the length of it, but I HAD to just explain basically everything because the. Gymnasts like Simone Biles know what the slightest - The New York Times She was discovered by Bela Karolyi in 1973, was featured in an American television program in 1976, and had been sent to the Olympics as an observer in 1980, all before making her 1984 Olympic debut at the age of 16. 1988. Back in 1975, she had suffered a spinal injury which required hospital treatment and rest. But that didn't stop her from handwriting a letter 18 months later. The real world doesnt think like that.. Her injury was a featured topic in an A&E documentary More Than a Game; and her World Championship performance is captured in the ABC Sports video Gymnastic's Greatest Stars. In the event, the Games would be remembered for the iconic performance from Nadia Comaneci, the Romanian who picked up a haul of three golds including the all-around title and five medals in total. In a post-finals press conference alongside her teammates, she said: "Whenever you get in a high-stress situation, you kind of freak out. Now I finally have! Among the negativity, Strug tweeted a message of support for Biles' decision - her own story proving just how important it was for Biles to step back. In 1977, Soviet gymnast Elena Mukhina modified the flip by adding a full twist. It was Comaneci who took the all-around title as part of three golds. Yelena Viktorovna Davydova (Russian: ; born 7 August 1961) is a Russian-Canadian gymnastics coach and judge who competed for the former Soviet Union.She was the women's artistic individual all-around champion at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. Elena Mukhina - Interesting stories about famous people, biographies Simone, you are an inspiration to so many people. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. At 3:00 Mukhina and Klimenko have a conversation regarding personal goals. She was 46 years old. She was 20 years old. Mikhail Klimenko was in a different city when Elena Mukhina was injured. Gymnastics is a cruel sport at times albeit a gorgeous one that your whole heart will love.I will start off by saying that I didn't even know which song to use because there are hardly ANY that honor her. The cast was removed from her leg even though Mukhina had concerns that she was not yet ready to resume training. It didnt seem like Mukhina was very cooperative with the film crew which is why they went with such unusual pans, cuts, and pivots. Tragic Elena and the truth about Communism Before I go I want to leave you with some wise words from former Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver, Antonio Brown;Every day is a half day if you just f****** leave.Happy 2022 everyone! Most notably Aleftina Pryakhina who won two medals at the 1987 European Championships, exactly ten years after Mukhina achieved breakout success at this very same competition in 1977. Initial rumors were that she had fallen while making her approach to the vault, then Soviet newspaper reported she had fallen during a dismount from the balance beam and had a blackout, but got back up to finish her routine without knowing how badly she had been hurt. But inside the training hall of a high-level sport where elite-level athletes are children, it can become a weaponized tool. The move was named after US mens star Kurt Thomas and involved a 1.5 backflip-1.5 twist combination before a roll-out. She was permanently paralyzed and died in 2006, at the age of 46, from. Sputnik, Mukhina was paralyzed by the accident. This article reminded me a lot of the recent NY times piece by Maggie Astor on this topic, thanks for highlighting the importance of mental health to maintain safety in high level sport. Mukhinas apotheosis arrived in 1978 with a breathtaking performance at the World Championships in Strasbourg, France. Orphaned at the age of five and brought up by her grandmother, Mukhina joined a sports club and took up gymnastics. She won three gold medals and two silver medals at the 1978 World . Juegos Olmpicos: la gimnasta rusa qued paraltica haciendo el salto or. At 2:38 she appears to be especially distressed. I always try to add a hint of humor in each blog and promise to always unapologetically be myself. They suggested this was something that Biles should have done for her team - pushed through the pain. It would take two separate incidents to bring her to the forefront of the Soviet team. The epitome of daring, strength and . there is a wonderful new youtube site with many vids of mukhina i had not seen before including 1976 france https://youtu.be/D_zlw0AZsoc very young- looking mukhinaElena Mukhina Elena Mukhina was born in Russia. Read RT Privacy policy to find out more. This year marks the 15th anniversary since Mukhinas death on December 22, 2006. Mukhina was awarded the Soviet Union Order of the Badge of Honor in the aftermath of her injury, while International Olympic Committee president Juan Samaranch bestowed on her the Silver Medal of the Olympic Order. The weight was becoming intolerable, all the while Mukhina missing out on the carefree life of a regular teenage girl. The injury would eventually lead to her premature death at the age of 46. Mostepanovas Romanian rival Ecaterina Szabo had a similar story. Her coach rushed her recovery from an injury and pressured her to perform a dangerous move (the Thomas salto), which caused her to break her neck, leaving her a lifelong quadriplegic. You always learn how to be safe, but then you start thinking: Will you be able to prevent an accident if you do something badly? :D ..ProbablyCover done by Robbie: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbAQfmhT7LtjQ6janPaxvBgCredit: The information was taken from Wiki, multiple interviews/documentaries and a few sites.~~~FINALLY, AS USUAL ~~~ I do not own any of the audio or video nor do I claim to own it. Klimenko knew to do this because his educational background was in psychology. The similarities end there for the two athletes from the Soviet Union. Gymnastics prodigy who tragically broke her neck while practicing a dangerous move, just two weeks before the Olympics, and shortly after her 20th birthday. But Shaposhnikova, Davydova, Nellie Kim, and Filatova are all members of the Hall of Fame. After Mukhinas paralysis and other close calls with Olympic-eligible female gymnasts, the Thomas salto was removed from the Code of Points as an allowed skill for women. Her stupid coach should have listened to her. After her world title success, Mukhina would say: I cried on the pedestal in France not out of joy, but because I understood: no one would let me go.. Her throw of 70.08 meters eclipsed by 12 centimeters the world record set by East German Ruth Fuchs at Split, Ugoslavia, this spring. And it certainly didnt help that before Nadia, the title for the most famous gymnast in the world was a Soviet athlete and they wanted that title back. When the doctors removed the cast against her wishes and had her attempt to walk on the leg, she said she knew that was walking crookedly, and that something wasnt right. Soviet Gymnast Elena Mukhina Broke Her Neck and Was Paralyzed While However, in Tuesday's Olympic women's gymnastics team final, thousands of people watched on as Biles lost her bearings in the middle of a vault, grimacing as she shakily landed on her feet. Her childhood was not a happy one. My coach came the next day and said that I wasn't conscientious and that I could train in a cast.". I understood that sooner or later this would really happen. I thought after my last very long article and all the information in it that I gave you guys to digest I would post something shorter this time. Elena Vyacheslavovna Mukhina ( first name sometimes rendered "Yelena", last name sometimes rendered "Muchina"; June 1, 1960December 22, 2006), born in Moscow, Russian SFSR, was a former Soviet gymnast who won the All-Around title at the 1978 World Championships at Strasbourg, France. But we also see the type of response that exists in a culture where athletes dont feel comfortable speaking what is on their mind. On July 3, 1980, two weeks before the Moscow Olympics, Elena Mukhina was practicing the pass containing the Thomas salto when she under-rotated, and crash-landed on her chin, snapping her spine and leaving her quadriplegic. "Emotionally, that kind of varies on the time and moment. Mukhina was rushed into surgery that afternoon, but the damage had already been done to her reputation; one of the National Team coaches, she said in the Ogonyok interview, showed up at her bed the day after surgery and outright stated that she \"wasn't conscientious\" and that she could still \"train in a cast.\" Once more against her wishes, the doctors removed her cast prematurely, and Mukhina returned to training for the Olympics while beginning a strenuous workout program at CSKA Moscow to lose the weight she had gained while laid up from surgery.\r\rWith lingering weakness in her leg and mounting exhaustion from the grueling weight loss workouts, Mukhina had great difficulty coming back up to speed on what was to be the new end element of one of her floor exercise tumbling passes, the Thomas salto, Despite Mukhina's warnings that the element was constantly causing minor injuries and was dangerous enough to potentially cause major injuries, she was pushed to keep the element in her floor routine, and she continued to practice it even knowing it was a dangerous element. On my wanderings through YouTube one night I came across the story of Elena Mukhina (1960-2006), a gymnast unlucky enough to be born under the Soviet regime. Her career was on the rise and she . Thousands of people are in the stands. Mukhina spent 18 months to go from having never done high level routines to being capable of holding her own against your average Olympian. There was little doubt that the Soviet Olympic womens gymnastics team would get the gold medal in the team competition, as it had in previous Olympics. At age 15, American. Mukhina was a guest columnist for Moscow News in the late 1980s. 3.50. Mukhina was injured on July 3rd, it would take nearly a week for news of the accident to spread to the Western press. Log In. Moreover, her family lovingly calls her Katia. The first group had all been formally named to the Olympic team. We offer you the possibility to receive RT's news highlights every Monday, Wednesday and Friday by email. The Olympics were barely over before the media had already started to wonder if Nadia would be usurped in 1980 in the same way Korbut had been usurped in 1976. Mukhina took a keen interest in children and young gymnasts both before and after her injury. After the incident, Mukhina told Ogoniok about how fans wrote to her asking when she would compete again. Gymnastics Angel. Elena Mukhina. Gymnastics - GaryneVillegasm 5.5M views 5 years ago This is probably the LONGEST video I will ever make. The team would have won without her. Mukhina is confined to a wheelchair that she knows she may never be without. What they will find at her grave is that image of a girl looking out intently yet elegantly, set amid a darker backdrop. Because of her injury, she had great difficulty re-mastering a signature tumbling run, a Thomas salto (a 1 and 3/4 flip with 1 1/2 twists). The Soviet Union downplayed the severity of Mukhina's injury, withheld information as to how she obtained her injuries and even went as far as to discredit her for inflicting the injury on herself. In the quiet corner of a Moscow cemetery, a black slab of marble stands surrounded by the December snow. Biryulina became the first woman to throw the javelin more than 70 meters. She had gone, but her legacy was far from forgotten. But the more time passed, the more Klimenkos career seemed to regress, at least in international competition. Fever. She took home bronze for the floor exercise, and silver as part of the team all-around. Your email address will not be published. Beating Nadia is a central part to Mukhinas storyline and the events that lead to her tragic demise. Likewise, there was desperation from Klimenko to get Mukhina back on her feet and into training to ensure she made the team. TM. 5 Gymnasts' Catastrophic Crashes - US News & World Report The Thomas salto, the move that had proved so costly, would later be banned in womens and then mens gymnastics. Just look at the cautionary tale of Soviet gymnast Elena Mukhina, . People named Elena Mukhina. Nadia is a crucial part of Elena Mukhinas story. The initial response from Soviet sports officials was of hushed secrecy surrounding Mukhinas health, but it soon became evident she would never walk again, let alone grace gymnastics competition. One of the most talented athletes,which was brought up by the school of artistic gymnastics of the Soviet Union, was Mukhina Elena. Elena Mukhinas floor routine tumbling passes were considered revolutionary at the time because they included the never-before-seen combination salto (the Muchina). For all we know the Mukhinas response to a different comment could have been used instead. I began to feel these connections. RIA Novosti, EU must shift to wartime economy industry commissioner, Biden praises Scholz for diversifying away from Russian energy, EU offers Russian banks alternatives to SWIFT media. The Soviets and other communist nations were very public with these tactics, which validated there usage elsewhere. Mukhina was reported to have fallen on first on bars (July 9th), then on the beam, (July 14th) and it wasn't until July 16th that the AP correctly reported she had been injured on floor. We often dont consider that a gymnast can suffer paralysis if they land on their neck, head, or back funny. Required fields are marked *. Today. Miles, 23, recognized that look because she had felt it, too . Elena Mukhina: The Thomas Salto Tragedy - The Dark Side Of Life The Afghan athletes here talked to Western reporters, but sidestepped all political questions. !Check out my other channel! Mukhinas reactions are not always being shown. Less than a month before the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, Mukhina under-rotated the Thomas salto and landed on her chin. And I realized that, compared to the ability to think, the inability to move is such nonsense. Video of the documentary "More Than a Game", 1991, shows - Facebook Later that year the Soviet Union awarded her the Order of the Badge of Honor in response to her injury. She became famous for her unique working capacity and rejection, as well as her tragic fate. Elena Mukhina Biography | HowOld.co Crucially, Mukhina possessed a remarkable persistence and a talent for carrying out Klimenkos instructions to the letter. Her progress was modest and largely ignored. I dont exactly sympathize with Klimenko, but I do see him as a tragic villain. In last summer's Spartakiad, the Soviet Union's sports festival that was opened to other nations as a dry run for the Olympics, Mukhina was the favorite, but finished 14th among her countrywomen and was criticized in the press for her "frivolous" approach to training. Soviet gymnast Elena Mukhina was a rising star who was tipped for glory at the 1980 Olympic Games but pushed to extremes and facing mounting pressure, the 20-year-old suffered a life-altering fall. Mukhina took a keen interest in children and young gymnasts both before and after her injury. "I felt like an animal being whipped along an endless corridor. On July 3, 1980, two weeks before the Moscow Olympics, Mukhina was practicing the pass containing the Thomas salto when she under-rotated the salto, crash-landed on her chin, and her spine snapped. Note: It is for the reader to decide whether Klimenkos conduct in the Mukhina tapes constitutes emotional/mental abuse, it is not my intention to imply that it is. If not in time for 1980, then certainly those who were on a track for 1984. However, until now, it has almost been unheard of for any high-level gymnast to withdraw from competition for health reasons. Nothing exists except work and pressure, which constantly increase, and sometimes it seems thatthat's it, you haven't got any more strength. Even though she won the all-around and floor exercises in 1978, with her daring bar routine, a revolutionary balance beam dismount, and a floor routine with a signature move, Mukhina was pressured by Kilmenko and other high-ranking Soviet coaches to add the mens element to her floor exercises. The exchange is roughly 3.5 minutes in length and is broken up into four clips throughout the half hour documentary. It didnt help that the next Olympics were slated to be held in Moscow and the Soviets did not want to see Nadia trounce the Soviet team at their Olympics. Usually when a gymnastics documentary is being selectively edited to present a more favorable narrative, the controversial moments are excluded entirely. Elena Mukhina - Bio, Personal Life, Family & Cause Of Death - CelebsAges (LogOut/ That was the story of Elena Mukhina a star that had just begun to rise before her Olympic career was tragically cut short. Mukhina, the embodiment of elegance and strength, sacrificed her life and health in attempt to win an Olympic medal for her country. By her own admission, Mukhina called herself a coward and was determined to break that label. - YouTube Strasbourg Gymnastics Champion History Fitness Historia Physical Exercise Going through her routines in the gym, she was forced into an even greater workload to cut the excess weight she had gained during her incapacitation. Whereas everyone was thinking that the next great breakout star was going to be a junior between the ages of 10-12, it ended up being a 17 year old Elena Mukhina. Elena Mukhina: You Are In Gymnastics (1978) Share Watch on The documentary features a "pep talk" between Mukhina and her coach Mikhail Klimenko. Not to envy others, but to learn to enjoy what is available to me. Mukhinas breakout success while being older than most of her competitors is one of WAGs greatest anomalies. Up until 1975, Mukhina flew under the radar and Soviet coaches largely ignored her and her abilities. For Biles, her refusal to be another number could very well be the most important move of her life. Mikhall KLIMENKO was once National juniors' champion of the USSR, but turned to the profession of coach quite early due to an injury and once took care of the gravely injured wheelchair-bound Elena Mukhina.The brother of the sixfold European Champion Victor Klimenko, who lives in Germany now, was known as one of the most . . A great history and analysis a tragic result with a winning at all costs attitude, only disaster results always look at the US program under Karolyi.. the success masked the tragic and sinful culture there will always be the next champion but certain things can never be erased.. and should not be forgotten ! Daniel Hale blows the whistle on the US drone wars, Is Julianna Penas destruction of Amanda Nunes really the biggest upset in MMA history? Mikhail Klimenko was a relatively young coach who was trying to prove himself, and was far too willing to push the limits and win by any means necessary. One was a 17 year old with limited life experience. For Mukhina, a disturbing pattern had already emerged of an athlete being forced to push through injury in a clamor to the pinnacle of her sport. One of the common themes in Soviet sports media is coaches frequently boasted about their ability to invoke psychology as a training tool. of her own health not just to avoid a blown hamstring or broken bone but to avoid a potentially life-threatening injury and haters have no ground to criticize her for that. But that didn't stop her from handwriting a letter 18 months later. Her disappointing performances continued after the Spartakiad, and her attempts to live up to the promise of 1978 were hampered by a series of injuries last year that had demoralized her.

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