Naci con talento. There's a string of high-level gymnasts who have been met with disfiguring, life-altering or life-threatening injuries after being pressured to perform in an element when they knew the risk was too high. What a f moron. Elena Mukhina. 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. Some reports said doctors feared she was paralyzed, while others said she has use of her arms and legs and is able to speak. At 1:13 Klimenko talks about how being a gymnastics coach is hard work. In general it's just historical video of one of the greatest gymnasts to ever be born. Elena Mukhina Popularity . On July 3, 1980, Elena attempted the salto just two weeks before the Olympics. I thought you would like it given your interests in WAG 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. She was popular for being a Gymnast. Sorry for rambling, next video should be happier!! 1 week ago Elena Mukhina was born in Russia. Elena Mukhina : biography June 1, 1960 - December 22, 2006 With 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. Post continues below. Mukhina Badly Hurt In Gym Fall Washington Post, I have always wanted to take my favorite subjects; true crime, sports, and anything macabre and take time to write about them. 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. Klimenko knew to do this because his educational background was in psychology. She was able to mix her innovative moves with the classic Soviet-style of gymnastics, inspired by ballet movements and expressive lines. 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. The injury left Elena Mukhina paraplegic and promptly ended her career. By Laura Perrins. Gymnast #43. You can share this story on social media: Subscribe to RT newsletter to get news highlights of the day right in your mailbox, Elena Mukhina soared to incredible heights before her tragic accident. RIP AshleyakaFlipper 3.98K subscribers 114K views 11 years ago Montage of Elena Mukhina. Klimenko, however, had other ideas, reportedly removing her from hospital and directly back to training, taking off the orthopedic brace from around her neck. I always try to add a hint of humor in each blog and promise to always unapologetically be myself. They ended up getting more than they bargained for, and the price for that was paid by Elena Mukhina. We are only left to assume that there were controversial exchanges that never made it into the published version. What a f moron. She was also inducted into the CSKA Hall of Fame. I wanted to point out these censorship possibilities so viewers know which part of the footage they should trust, and which parts should be questioned. Group #2: Elena Mukhina, Elena Naimushina, and Svetlana Agapova. Her stupid coach should have listened to her. Mukhina herself eventually succumbed to complications from her condition on December 22, 2006. 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. "ELENA MUKHINA OLYMPIC CHAMPION" is the story of Elena Mukhina, Soviet gymnast, World Champion 1978, who had an injury just few days before the 1980 Moscow Olympics. The fans had been trained to believe in athletes heroism athletes with fractures return to the soccer field and those with concussions return to the ice rink, she said. The rushed recovery from that injury, combined with pressure to master a dangerous and difficult tumbling . After voicing her concern that she would break her neck attempting the move, the coach dismissed her. Now she will watch the games from her hospital bed, her future uncertain but her gymnastics career surely ended. At the time Nadia Comaneci was Romanias top gymnast. But do not break down and go on living in spite of everything, understanding all her tragedy . As the top Soviet gymnast following the 1976 Olympics, this burden weighed the heavier on Mukhina than any other gymnast. 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. These are real clips of a real person who in the end, really did get hurt, and the damage couldnt be undone. She earned the money being a professional Gymnast. RIA Novosti, Mukhina was taken under the tutelege of Klimenko. The Moscow Games have not even begun, but this must be one of their saddest stories. The tapes provide one of the most harrowing examples of foreshadowing in a a real-world scenario and the capturing of the Soviet program telling its gymnasts to catch Nadia. Touch device users, explore by touch or with swipe gestures. A memorial service was held in her honor five days later, and she was buried at the Troekourov Cemetery on the southwestern outskirts of Moscow. 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. All of that rested on the performance of a single individual, Elena Mukhina. The Code of Points was later modified to ban standing on the high bar during routines. In a painful twist of irony, when tragedy did strike it was not under the gaze of Klimenko. Mukhina is confined to a wheelchair that she knows she may never be without. I was so tired then, both physically and psychologically.". She took home bronze for the floor exercise, and silver as part of the team all-around. Gymnasts. What the media had envisioned was a clone of Nadia Comaneci, a hypothetical gymnast who would be 14 years old in 1980, but was only 10 years old in 1976. Reinforcing the idea on Mukhina that she is a burden to him. ROTTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) _ Dmitri Bilozerchev and Elena Mukhina both suffered disasterous falls after becoming world gymnastics champions. 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. Take another look at the video from the Amanar vault gone wrong.While flipping and spinning . 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. Todava no entiendo por que no han hecho una pelcula de esta extraordinaria atleta. The Soviets and other communist nations were very public with these tactics, which validated there usage elsewhere. "Physically, I feel good, I'm in shape," she told the US Today Show. Biles would later say she had suffered from the twisties, a form of gymnastics yips that leaves its sufferers feeling lost in the air. "She is too easily touched," a team coach said at the time. Her stupid coach should have listened to her. The expectation was huge. The Afghan athletes here talked to Western reporters, but sidestepped all political questions. The Biggest Tragedy in Gymnastics History (Story of Elena Mukhina) Best Gymnastics 32.4K subscribers Subscribe 17K 1.6M views 2 years ago Leave a LIKE if you enjoyed the Story of "Elena. She tied for the gold medal in the floor exercises and won silver in the balance beam and uneven bars. Fever. She died at 46 in 2006 en.wikipedia.org 33K 1.3K 1.3K comments Montage of Elena Mukhina. We know that gymnasts can suffer injuries if they take a fall during a routine or land funny during a flip. The people responsible for following those guidelines were the ones in the room at the time of the accident, not the coach 440 miles away. Elena Mukhinas floor routine tumbling passes were considered revolutionary at the time because they included the never-before-seen combination salto (the Muchina). Elena Mukhina, Russia Gymnast. Worst of all, it showed their institution was flawed. Your email address will not be published. Nevertheless, Kilmenko had desperately wanted Mukhina to make the Olympic team roster so he could become the Olympic champions trainer. Soon after Mukhinas paralytic injury, Kilmenko emigrated to Italy, where he lived with his children until he died from cancer on November 14, 2007. Mikhail Klimenko was a first-time WAG coach trying to prove himself in a Soviet WAG program that had been defined by celebrity-WAG coaches throughout the 1960s and 1970s. ", I blame Twitters virtue-signallers for fuelling this culture of celebrating weakness. If their top Olympic prospect was injured, they had other Olympic prospects to work on. Today. It wasnt until Simone Biles that WAG had another gymnast who rapidly appeared from out of nowhere in the same fashion as Mukhina. 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. Usually when a gymnastics documentary is being selectively edited to present a more favorable narrative, the controversial moments are excluded entirely. A memorial service was held in her honor on December 27th, and she was buried at the Trekourov Cemetery in Moscow, Russia. Two years ago, at 17, she captured the world spotlight by defeating Romanian Nadia Comaneci, the heroine of the 1976 Olympics, for the world title in Strasburg. I realized that I needed to radically change my attitude to life, Mukhina said. GYMANGELS 1M views 16 years ago World War II Every Day with Army Sizes Christopher 25M views 11 months ago Comaneci VS Mukhina: A MAIOR. What makes these clips so powerful is that they were an actual prelude and a real-life example of a foreshadowing omen. What followed was months, turned years, of cover-ups. He refused to listen to her. Sending love to you @Simone_Biles -Team UNITED States of America . 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. She also took some of the responsibility for not being more forceful about not wanting to perform the move and shared that her first thought when she was laying on the floor with a broken neck was, Thank God, I wont be going to the Olympics.. One example comes at 1:40 where there is a cut between the comment made by Klimenko and Mukhinas response. Mukhina took an interest in figure skating and gymnastics at a very early age. 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. However, unlike the popular narrative - Strug performed that vault under pressure from her coach, injuring her ankle further. The duo fit each other like a hand entering a glove and had success that would have been impossible under any other circumstance. But it also made their relationships mutually self-destructive. It didnt seem like Mukhina was very cooperative with the film crew which is why they went with such unusual pans, cuts, and pivots. Mukhina took a keen interest in children and young gymnasts both before and after her injury. Find your friends on Facebook. They suggested this was something that Biles should have done for her team - pushed through the pain. Estimated Net Worth in 2020. Perhaps this is fate. "I was stupid. As a rising star, everyone had their eyes on her for the coming Olympic games, something Mukhina said pressured her into pushing through her injury. 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. And it's tragic. The first was beating Nadia Comaneci to win the 1978 All-Around title which marked her rise to the very top of the gymnastics world, but also her unfortunate demise. These tactics not only existed during the Cold War, but took on new importance in the aftermath of the Cold War when it became less socially acceptable to resort to physical abuse as a way to motivate a gymnast. USA Gymnastics released a statement confirming she had withdrawn with a "medical issue". Tatyana Biryulina, 24, a Tashkent student who had not expected to qualify for the Soviet team, set a world record in the javelin in the final trials at Podoysk, about 50 miles from Moscow. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. While it does feel as if there were misrepresentations being made, many of these exchanges do seem mostly genuine. You took care of yourself. She took home the gold, beating Olympic Champions Nadia Comaneci, and top-ranked Soviet gymnast Nellie Kim. Elena Vyacheslavovna Mukhina (Russian: ; name sometimes rendered "Yelena Muchina"; June 1, 1960 - December 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. Now I finally have! "I saw how they carried me out of the hall. Watch. She was 46 years old. RIP - YouTube 0:00 / 2:37 Gymnastics Angel. "I felt like an animal being whipped along an endless corridor. We love, we remember. 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 For Mukhina, just making it to the elite level was a staggering athletic accomplishment in itself. 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. 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.. "We dont need people like you making snide comments like this and adding to the stigma. A new version of the Korbut loop named after Soviet four-time Olympic gold medalist Olga Korbut was devised for Mukhina to perform. Bilozerchev is champion again, smelling the roses and dancing until dawn. The success of Nadia shellshocked the Soviet Union and orders came down from the top to find a gymnast who could break Nadias stranglehold on the sport. She remained with her grandmother in a Moscow apartment, reclusive and rarely giving interviews. Vous lui rendez hommage. Miguel Saiz Garcia. As a memorial to one of the greatest Soviet-era gymnasts ever, the biggest sports newspaper in Russia, Sovietskij SPORT, dedicated the cover of their Christmas 2006 issue to her. ", Asked her hobbies at a press conference, Mukhina said, "I read books . 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. "Formally Elena is not an Olympic Champion. You Are in Gymnastics is different because the four Mukhina clips provide very questionable moments where it is possible the producers made edits to misrepresent the actual conversation at hand. Klimenko was back in Moscow for a short trip, desperate to persuade sporting officials that his charge was fit enough to be included in the team, despite lingering doubts. Yelena Mukhina (U.S.S.R.) - Class of 2021 - International Gymnastics Hall of Fame. The first group had all been formally named to the Olympic team. They were being pressured to make sure the Moscow Olympics featured the strongest lineup of Soviet gymnasts to ever be assembled. It is the type of foreshadowing moment that feels more appropriate for a fictional story. 261 viewsNov 13, 2020. In an article forDaily Mail, he urged Biles to "get back out there Simone, and dont get sucked into all the weak woke failure-loving Twitter nonsense youre too great a champion to be labelled a quitter.". At the age of five years Elena lost both of her parents. It is hard to say if the memory of Elena Mukhina stifled Mikhail Klimenkos career, but it did appear to be more of a limitation for him than other coaches who had associations with infamous injuries such as Al Fong. Not to envy others, but to learn to enjoy what is available to me. A true champion! The Thomas salto, the move that had proved so costly, would later be banned in womens and then mens gymnastics. Sign Up. 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! Elena Mukhina: You Are In Gymnastics (1978) Share Watch on The documentary features a "pep talk" between Mukhina and her coach Mikhail Klimenko. The Soviet Union awarded her the Order of Lenin in response to her injury, and the IOC President awarded her the Silver Medal of the Olympic Order in 1983. At age 20, former Soviet Union gymnastics champion Elena Mukhina crash-lands while practicing a signature tumbling pass and is paralyzed. 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 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. Mukhina took up gymnastics late, at age 9, but won the Soviet junior championship within six years. They were selected for high-level sports because talent scouts noticed they reveled in pushing their body to the limits, strived for the highest goals imaginable, and wanted the thrill of performing the most dangerous acrobatic skills in the world. Some said she would be lucky to live days, let alone weeks. (VIDEO), Khabib says Hasbulla can become billionaire. The clips themselves are harrowing as they show a mostly downtrodden Mukhina and provide insights about the coaching environment she was subjected to. This website uses cookies. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. 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. karma. Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below. At 3:00 Mukhina and Klimenko have a conversation regarding personal goals. 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. Perhaps the most significant part of the footage comes when Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci is invoked in the discussion. Comaneci would help the Romanians to team gold at the World Championships, despite her own struggles with blood poisoning resulting from a cut. 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. When she did speak, she was often philosophical about her fate. Both Mukhina and Klimenko used the term psychological when they were interviewed in news articles. The win effectively made her the top ranked gymnast of the world. YouTube, Mukhina regularly battled with injuries. Gradually, though, Klimenko would become convinced that this was a gem who could be polished gently or otherwise into a champion. Unlike Simone Biles, Mukhina is the tragic example of what happens when you're not allowed to say no. In 1983, Bilozerchev became the . The day Mukhina was injured, Soviet national team coaches working with her had violated half a dozen safety guidelines. Life isn't always butterflies and rainbows, so, its time to explore the dark side of things. For all we know the Mukhinas response to a different comment could have been used instead. She had set numerous records, including getting the first perfect score in gymnastics Olympic history. . [] Entertainment. 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. These gymnasts were identified at a young age not just for their athletic attributes, but their mental attributes as well. Where I disagree with Soviet officials is their claim that it was all Klimenkos fault. Even though Mukhina herself would later state her injury was not the byproduct of a lone individual, but the flawed Soviet system as a whole. Another questionable cut comes at 1:04 where Mukhina suddenly has a more positive demeanor, but Mukhinas arm placement is inconsistent suggesting filmmakers used different footage to fake her response to what Klimenko was saying. Mukhina spent 18 months to go from having never done high level routines to being capable of holding her own against your average Olympian. In many ways, the tragedy foreshadowed the sadness which would pursue Mukhina for the rest of her days. Log In. But none of this is a work of fiction. Biryulina became the first woman to throw the javelin more than 70 meters. Sputnik, Mukhina was paralyzed by the accident. This is another reoccurring theme throughout the Mukhina tapes. In between the 1977 European Championships and the 1978 World Championships, the Soviets released a documentary by the name of You Are in Gymnastics. As an athlete, his Olympic dream was stolen from him and he was living that dream though his own pupil. In 1982, Juan Samaranch, president of the IOC, awarded her the Silver Medal of Olympic Order. The move was named after US mens star Kurt Thomas and involved a 1.5 backflip-1.5 twist combination before a roll-out. During an interview with Ogonyok magazine, Mukhina blamed the doctors at TsITO (Central Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics), who were tending to the Soviet Nation Team for attempting to push her back into training too soon. Despite beating Mukhina to gold on the beam, Comaneci settled for a solitary title and two silvers at the event. Which memorial do you think is a duplicate of Yelena Mukhina (17161471)? 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. She stunned the crowd at the 1978 World Championships in Strasbourg, France when she gave one of the most amazing all-around performances in history. She was 20 years old. But Shaposhnikova, Davydova, Nellie Kim, and Filatova are all members of the Hall of Fame. The four words engraved just to the right of the image are stark: Great gymnast, world champion. Just as gymnastics was becoming more demanding following the graceful elements of the likes of the legendary Larisa Latynina and Ludmilla Tourischeva, Klimenko saw the chance to bring in more powerful and increasingly complex elements from mens gymnastics and impose them on his new protegee. By the time of the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, she was already making a name for herself but was not yet consistent enough to earn a place among the Soviet ranks. Daniel Hale blows the whistle on the US drone wars, Is Julianna Penas destruction of Amanda Nunes really the biggest upset in MMA history? I was on the operating table right after lunch. It didnt make sense that Mukhina would be the one who would prevail, and it certainly didnt make sense that this is how it would be in 1977 and 1978. 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? He never reconciled with Mukhina and his death from cancer came on November 14, 2007 his 65th birthday. Chinese peace plan: Can Beijing find a way to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict, despite open hostility from the US and NATO. In the quiet corner of a Moscow cemetery, a black slab of marble stands surrounded by the December snow. It most likely was an attempt to hide/minimize Mukhinas negative demeanor. Remember Kerri Strug? A memorial service was held in her honor on December 27 . Elena Mukhina. Klimenko's hopes, bound up in the stifling demands of the Soviet sports system, would continue to bear down on her slender shoulders. The Elena Mukhina tapes are only 3.5 minutes in length, and in that short time we get a wide range of historic symbolism. Autonomous Nonprofit Organization TV-Novosti, 20052023. 5 19761976 . Explore. One of the common themes in Soviet sports media is coaches frequently boasted about their ability to invoke psychology as a training tool. Elena Mukhina is largely remembered for two things. The clips can be found in the above YouTube video. You will see YouTube gymnasts such as Whitney Bjerken, and other famous gymnasts such as Simone Biles, Katelyn Ohashi, Gabby Douglas, Nastia Liukin, Shawn Johnson and many more! Mukhina achieved breakout success at the 1977 European Championships. For a series of clips that featured so much eeriness in regards to the rhetoric and the words being spoken, so is the cinematography. As a result, abusive coaches pivoted even more towards mental/emotional abuse. Mukhina crash-landed, snapping her spine. There will be plenty of women's gymnastics videos including vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise compliations! 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.