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. Now I finally have! This channel does not nor ever will make money off of any content. Mukhina took an interest in figure skating and gymnastics at a very early age. 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. 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. Nadia is a crucial part of Elena Mukhinas story. She was also inducted into the CSKA Hall of Fame. All rights reserved. Eleven years ago, former gymnastics star Elena Mukhina, whose life and sports career were ruined by a tragic training accident, passed away in Moscow at the age of 46. Rivals in the arena, Comaneci and Mukhina were united in the debilitating pressures they had faced to reach the top. First, she was discovered by an athletic scout in her school, and then she later joined the CSKA Moscow . It took near-perfect timing to avoid either under-rotation and landing on the chin or over-rotation and landing on the back of the head. The rushed recovery from that injury, combined with pressure to master a dangerous and difficult tumbling . USA Gymnastics released a statement confirming she had withdrawn with a "medical issue". In the quiet corner of a Moscow cemetery, a black slab of marble stands surrounded by the December snow. The Soviet Union saw Mukhina's injury as creating a poor image of the Soviet program, reflecting just how little consideration they gave to the wellbeing of their athletes. It most likely was an attempt to hide/minimize Mukhinas negative demeanor. Such a sad story :(\r\rIn 1979, while training for the 1979 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, Mukhina suffered a broken leg, which kept her out of the World Championships in Fort Worth, Texas, a competition in which the Soviet team suffered its first defeat at the hands of their archrivals from Romania, with only Nellie Kim and Stella Zakharova able to medal in apparatus and All Around disciplines. After an unsuccessful fatal injury, the gymnast was forever confined to bed. 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. All while she is chided for her constant crying throughout the footage. Such a. It must be remembered that this documentary was being filmed in 1978 when the Soviet Union had extreme censorship standards in place. The move shocked the world. Poignant footage from the documentary Unfree fall shows an all-together lighter, more playful Mukhina when she was removed from the gaze of her master. A true champion! In 1979, Mukhina claimed the uneven bars gold medal at the Soviet championships. Thousands of people are in the stands. Id estimate that most gymnasts would have needed about 5-8 years to go from where Mukhina was in 1974 to her emergence as a possible contender for the 1976 Soviet Olympic team. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. This is probably the LONGEST video I will ever make. She was interested in psychology and philosophy, and graduated from the Moscow Institute of Physical Education. I am frequently asked as to whether Klimenko is to blame for Mukhinas injury. I was on the operating table right after lunch. View all posts by Nikki Young, Your email address will not be published. Together, they accomplished more than they could ever dream and reached levels they once considered to be impossible. When she did speak, she was often philosophical about her fate. She earned the money being a professional Gymnast. At 2:38 she appears to be especially distressed. But it was the coaches of the Soviet national team who had been the ones who ultimately destroyed Mukhina in a way in which she could never recover. Would Elena Mukhina Have Made the Olympic Team if Not For Her Paralyzing Injury. 1988. 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. "I felt like an animal being whipped along an endless corridor. At the time, Soviet officials were being pressured to build a team which was superior to that of the Romanians. Take our survey for a chance to win a $100 voucher. She was able to mix her innovative moves with the classic Soviet-style of gymnastics, inspired by ballet movements and expressive lines. Required fields are marked *. "This page is a tribute to the Wonderful Russian gymnast Yelena Mukhina (1960-2006), who was one of the greatest. These gymnasts were identified at a young age not just for their athletic attributes, but their mental attributes as well. The fact is that gymnastics is an extremely dangerous sport, and one that involves a great risk of injury - even when a gymnast is in peak health. Later that year while training for the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, Elena Mukhina suffered a broken leg, which meant she had to miss the World Championships in Fort Worth, Texas, a competition in which the Soviet team had its first defeat at the hands of their archrivals from Romania. In between the 1977 European Championships and the 1978 World Championships, the Soviets released a documentary by the name of You Are in Gymnastics. Elena MUKHINA (*born: 1960, June 06 - +died: 2006, . It was, however, from these inauspicious beginnings that a prodigious talent was born. Under Klimenko, Mukhinas injury history had been so atrocious that her paralysis was the inevitable result of what happens when a gymnast is taught over and over again that reckless behavior is the only way forward. One of the most talented athletes,which was brought up by the school of artistic gymnastics of the Soviet Union, was Mukhina Elena. Elena was a former Soviet gymnast who won the All-around title at the 1978 World Championships at Strasbourg, France and was a four times European champion 1977 (Prague) and 1979 (Copenhagen). Comaneci herself would tip Mukhina for Olympic glory. For Biles, her refusal to be another number could very well be the most important move of her life. As for the gold medal? 30th July 2021. in. , Elena Mukhina1960 61 - 2006 1222. "I was stupid. Autonomous Nonprofit Organization TV-Novosti, 20052023. At age 20, former Soviet Union gymnastics champion Elena Mukhina crash-lands while practicing a signature tumbling pass and is paralyzed. Pinterest. The Soviets weren't only denying that Mukhina had suffered a catastrophic injury, but were downplaying it to such an extent they were heavily implying it wasn't even bad enough to qualify as a career ending injury. Biryulina became the first woman to throw the javelin more than 70 meters. 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 very same Soviet officials who blamed Mikhail Klimenko for his horrible treatment of Elena Mukhina as being a factor which lead to her injury, were the same Soviet officials who knew about his behavior for years prior. Soviet team coach Yuri Titov deflected questions about whether or not Mukhina would be trying for a comeback in the 1984 Summer Olympics, even blaming her injury on attempting a skill that she was not able to do but thought she needed to make the team. Up until 1975, Mukhina was an unremarkable gymnast, and Soviet coaches largely ignored her. You Are in Gymnastics is an example of how these coaching behaviors were widely celebrated and actively promoted within the Soviet gymnastics program. One of the common themes in Soviet sports media is coaches frequently boasted about their ability to invoke psychology as a training tool. and her World Championship performance is captured in the ABC Sports video Gymnastics' Greatest Stars. Not to envy others, but to learn to enjoy what is available to me. Already fixated with gymnastics when other girls were keen on figure skating, Mukhina would encounter the hand of fate when coach Atonina Olezhko visited her school and posed the question to the class: who among them would be keen on training? I almost screamed with joy, she said. Sorry, you got paralyzed but heres a shiny medal. All of that rested on the performance of a single individual, Elena Mukhina. Her injury was a featured topic in the 1991 A&E do*entary More Than a Game; and her World Championship performance is captured in the ABC Sports video Gymnastics' Greatest Stars. Change). Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Post continues below. Elena Mukhina had been an orphan since she was six years old. 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. Internacional. Where I disagree with Soviet officials is their claim that it was all Klimenkos fault. I didn't want to use a stupid song in the background, it HAD to be meaningful. RIP AshleyakaFlipper 3.98K subscribers 114K views 11 years ago Montage of Elena Mukhina. She won three gold medals and two silver medals at the 1978 World . Less than a month before the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, Mukhina under-rotated the Thomas salto and landed on her chin. She would eventually get inducted into the CSKA Hall of Fame. On July 3, 1980, Elena attempted the salto just two weeks before the Olympics. 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. Director of the Soviet womens gymnastics, Larisa Latynina, was blamed for the embarrassing defeat. Now she will watch the games from her hospital bed, her future uncertain but her gymnastics career surely ended. Elena Vyacheslavovna Mukhina was born on June 1, 1960, in Moscow, Russia. It is such a sad story so not recommended for the weak of hearts. Mukhina was training at the Minski Palace of Sport when the injury occurred, her coach was not present. On Twitter, Morgan further trashed the mental health reasoning behind her departure. Mukhina spent 18 months to go from having never done high level routines to being capable of holding her own against your average Olympian. For a wide variety of reasons, he had become overly invested in a single gymnast. 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. After analyzing all the information available, I believe Mukhina is completely correct to pin a majority of the blame on the Soviet WAG program as a whole. Moscow remained quiet today, devoid of the festive atmosphere that usually envelops the host city a week before the Olympics. Finally, word got out that she had fallen horribly during a floor exercise. The clips can be found in the above YouTube video. Elena Mukhina is largely remembered for two things. The duo fit each other like a hand entering a glove and had success that would have been impossible under any other circumstance. When autocomplete results are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. Hers was a life blessed with triumph but befallen by tragedy; a cautionary tale of a career cut brutally short by a life-changing injury. Gymnasts With the Most 4th Place Finishes at the Olympics, Gymnasts With the Most 4th Place Finishes, After Her Injury a Soviet Coverup Hurt Elena Mukhina Even More, Shortly After Her Paralysis Elena Mukhina Wrote a Letter. 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. Under the ever-demanding eye of Klimenko, Mukhina became all-round silver medalist at the Soviet championships in 1977, the same year she won three titles at the European championships in Prague along with one silver and one bronze, as well two World Cup titles. The four words engraved just to the right of the image are stark: Great gymnast, world champion. Mukhina, a 20-year-old Soviet gymnast, was encouraged to train on a broken leg in the lead up to the 1980 Olympics. RT / Liam Tyler, Mukhina threw herself into gymnastics. It should be questioned how much Klimenko was being motived by his own personal goal of overcoming career failure. Her childhood was not a happy one. Mukhina defined that classic proverb because she was just that good. 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.. I thought you would like it given your interests in WAG history. That there is a direct connection between them and how a person feels. What Klimenko was dangling over Mukhinas head was the prospect of her going it alone and to leave the closest thing she had to a father-figure. But my coach once told me, 'Until you break, no one will let you go.'". Why?, "Even though athletes get to travel and see so much, they are terribly deprived spiritually. In the documentary, "Triumph of the Spirit . Mukhina took a keen interest in children and young gymnasts both before and after her injury. In the end, after a long search, I returned to my initial options and narrowed the choices down to \" g, g \u0026 \" being the two being the main songs I'd choose from while the other two due to soothing melody in the cover versions of other languages. Elena Mukhina, Russia Gymnast. At 2:11 Klimenko outright dares Mukhina to leave him and train without a coach. 3.50. !Check out my other channel! Logr en tampoco tiempo lo que otras lo hicieron en ms aos. Your email address will not be published. The first group had all been formally named to the Olympic team. She was orphaned at the age of 5 and was raised by her grandmother - Anna Ivanovna. He refused to listen to her. For those who dont know who Elena Mukhina is, she is the most heartbreaking story to have come out of the Soviet gymnastics program. Elena Mukhina: You Are In Gymnastics (1978) Share Watch on The documentary features a "pep talk" between Mukhina and her coach Mikhail Klimenko. She was taken unconscious to a hospital. Miles, 23, recognized that look because she had felt it, too . Elena Mukhina -1977 Paris Grand Prix Floor She took home bronze for the floor exercise, and silver as part of the team all-around. And it's tragic. "Formally Elena is not an Olympic Champion. Besides the previously mentioned obstacles such as conditioning and learning new skills, gymnastics is a reputation based sport, first you work for your name and then your name works for you.. Ella debe estar en el saln de la fama Aug 4, 2021 - A catastrophic injury cost Mukhina the use of her limbs. RIA Novosti, Mukhina's condition deteriorated and she struggled even to sit upright. Usually when a gymnastics documentary is being selectively edited to present a more favorable narrative, the controversial moments are excluded entirely. 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. The TsITO doctors X-rayed her leg and realized that the fracture had not healed properly. The camera constantly makes cuts and pans, often under questionable circumstances. Comaneci would help the Romanians to team gold at the World Championships, despite her own struggles with blood poisoning resulting from a cut. Elena Mukhina died on December 22, 2006 at the age of 46 from complications of quadriplegia. Once again the Soviets were lambasting Mukhina by putting the burden back on her. But inside the training hall of a high-level sport where elite-level athletes are children, it can become a weaponized tool. Mukhina took up gymnastics late, at age 9, but won the Soviet junior championship within six years. She became famous for her unique working capacity and rejection, as well as her tragic fate. The Soviets and other communist nations were very public with these tactics, which validated there usage elsewhere. The Code of Points was later modified to ban standing on the high bar during routines. You took care of yourself. 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). 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. Her stupid coach should have listened to her. For a series of clips that featured so much eeriness in regards to the rhetoric and the words being spoken, so is the cinematography. This is another reoccurring theme throughout the Mukhina tapes. Elena Mukhina, the sensitive Soviet gymnast who won the women's all-around world championship in 1978 and dreamed of regaining her lost form at the Moscow Olympics, crushed several vertebrae in. In one of her few interviews about the tragedy, she criticized the Soviet gymnastics program for deceiving the public about the severity of her injury, and for the systems insatiable appetite for gold medals and championships. 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. It is the type of foreshadowing moment that feels more appropriate for a fictional story. I always try to add a hint of humor in each blog and promise to always unapologetically be myself. This is the final resting place of Elena Mukhina, one of the most remarkable athletes ever to grace her sport; an artist who pushed the limits of the human body in a way few have ever done. Once again against Mukhinas wishes, the doctors removed her cast prematurely. A memorial service was held in her honor on December 27th, and she was buried at the Trekourov Cemetery in Moscow, Russia. While it does feel as if there were misrepresentations being made, many of these exchanges do seem mostly genuine. In a 2004 interview, Larisa Latynina claimed that Mukhinas coach, Mikhail Klimenko, was affected by her injury. Mukhina was injured on July 3rd, it would take nearly a week for news of the accident to spread to the Western press. 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. Afghan officials would not confirm reports that seven wrestlers had defected last week to Pakistan rather than come to Moscow. The story of Elena Mukhina, the gymnast who became a quadriplegic at age 20, pushed to the limit to beat Nadia Comaneci 7/28/2021, 11:02:10 AM The Soviet was destined to regain the throne of that sport for her country, but a few weeks before the 1980 Moscow Olympics she suffered a terrible fall. 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. Her career was on the rise and she . They hadnt just tolerated Klimenkos practices, but had become so satisfied with his results that other high profile Soviet gymnasts had been encouraged to switch gyms and join his training group. The Elena Mukhina tapes end with Mukhina being asked to react and her response is I dont know how to react. In this final exchange we see Mukhinas reserved/quiet nature. However, Mukhina had not fully healed from her leg injury while she worked on perfecting this stunt. Gymnastics Angel. Stick-thin, Mukhina was initially viewed as being behind her contemporaries at her new CSKA training home. Read RT Privacy policy to find out more. karma. Ex-Stratfor Chief George Friedman: Neither Russia nor Ukraine can win, war can only end via negotiation! Elena Mukhina passed away on December 22, 2006, at the age of forty-six from complications caused by quadriplegia. Mukhina is confined to a wheelchair that she knows she may never be without. The injury would eventually lead to her premature death at the age of 46. It was Comaneci who took the all-around title as part of three golds. Her battle was now an entirely different one: to find some quality of life to accompany her immobility. Less than a month before the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, Mukhina was asked by a coach of the national team to do the Thomas Salto - a move that is so dangerous it is now banned. The day Mukhina was injured, Soviet national team coaches working with her had violated half a dozen safety guidelines. Elena Mukhina was born on the 1st of June, 1960. It would take two separate incidents to bring her to the forefront of the Soviet team. After the incident, Mukhina told Ogoniok about how fans wrote to her asking when she would compete again. After her injury, Mukhina was grateful to her former teammates who kept in touch with her, especially Yelena Davydova, whom she called A real friend. Perhaps the most significant part of the footage comes when Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci is invoked in the discussion. 5 19761976 . But we also see the type of response that exists in a culture where athletes dont feel comfortable speaking what is on their mind. Up until 1975, Mukhina flew under the radar and Soviet coaches largely ignored her and her abilities. Elena Mukhina: The Thomas Salto Tragedy The Dark Side Of Life The Small Sports Blog. The clips themselves are harrowing as they show a mostly downtrodden Mukhina and provide insights about the coaching environment she was subjected to. 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. So, they decided to focus on a strategy to help suppress the fallout, one that would help them find a way toseparate themselves from the blame of Mukhina's crippling injuries.
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