Sovetsky Sport. January 4, 1987. She, of course, remembers very well the world championships at which Soviet gymnasts made their debut, 32 years ago in Rome, in an open stadium, under the merciless Italian sun, where our masters performed wonderfully. Gold medals rained down on them as if from a cornucopia. Among the laureates of the championship was Helsinki Olympic champion Galina Shamrai - she won the title of all-around champion, the first for our domestic gymnastics school.
For twenty-one years now, Galina Yakovlevna has been the head coach of Spartak. Lyubov Burda and Nelli Kim, Elena Davydova and Vera Kolesnikova, Svetlana Agapova and Oksana Omelyanchik, Yuri Korolev and Olga Bicherova were brought up under her "wing" in this society.
Galina Yakovlevna, you competed until you were 29 years old. Your last competition was the 1960 national championship in Kiev. Which competition do you remember the most in your career?
Perhaps the Olympics in Helsinki. We were really worried. After all, everything was new to us. It seems to me that everyone is interested in knowing what age the gymnasts were on our team. Galina Urbanovich was 35 years old, Polina Danilova was a year younger, Nina Bocharova was 28 years old. I had just turned 21...
How difficult it was to compete! The apparatus were hard and bulky. For floor exercises, they didn't even lay out a carpet in the Messuhalli exhibition hall, but a thin tarpulin. And then - we were simply dumbfounded by the biased judging. But there was no point in being indignant. We had to work on improving our advantage. How happy we were when we won! We hugged, kissed, and cried...we are the first! And Maria Gorokhovskaya and Viktor Chukarin were the all-around champions.
Of course, gymnastics has changed radically over the years. And, by the way, the current generation believes that the routines of gymnasts of the 1950s were too simple...
I don't deny this. But then we amazed - imagine, we amazed! - spectators and specialists with the most difficult routines and elements. For example, at the world championships in Rome, gymnasts from Hungary and Czechoslovakia, who were considered trendsetters, showed a forward flyover dismount on the balance beam, while the Japanese gymnasts showed a 540-degree turn. Gorokhovskaya performed a sequence on the floor: round-off, back handspring, back somersault. I didn't have a somersault, but I did perform two back handsprings.
I can imagine how the young athletes smile when they learn about our "most difficult" elements. Needless to say gymnastics developed at a truly cosmic speed. And it hasn't reached a dead end; with each year more and more new connections appear. Progress in sports and in life is irreversible.
So you are a supporter of increasing difficulty?
I believe that there is no turning back. But in gymnastics, performance alone will not give you a high score. Only on the basis of subtle technique and artistry is it possible to increase the difficulty of routines. I am proud that one of the founders of the new leap in difficulty in gymnastics was a talented teacher, Merited Coach of the USSR Yuri Eduardovich Shtukman from the Spartak school in Voronezh. He never tired of repeating that with old baggage it is impossible to move forward and achieve bright victories.
In your opinion, what needs to be done to make learning difficult elements painless for young gymnasts?
I would suggest holding all competitions in two groups. In the first, special requirements would be imposed on the competitors, and candidates for the main team of the country would be selected from among them. And in the second group the reserve squad would compete - according to the usual Master program. At one time, Spartak hosted similar competitions of the "Olympic Reserve" in the optional program only. We divided the participants into two groups depending on the difficulty level of their exercises, thereby giving those who were less advanced the opportunity to consolidate what they had learned. And it bore fruit. It was at these competitions that the talents of future world champions Svetlana Agapova and Yuri Korolev were revealed.
The responsibilities of the senior coach of the central council also include checking specialized sports schools of the Olympic reserve. At what level is the work of Spartak schools today?
The title of the best sports school in the country is held by the Voronezh school, which at the end of last year took first place in the all-union inspection: the SDYuShOR [Specialized Children's and Youth School of the Olympic Reserves] competition in gymnastics. Good conditions have been created for training reserves in Yoshkar-Ola, Yaroslavl, and Alma-Ata. For example, candidates for the national team Svetlana Spichak and Leila Zhaksalykova, recently appeared in the capital of Kazakhstan. But there are still many difficulties. Still, undeservedly little attention is paid to schools. But this is where the foundations of mastery are laid and future champions grow! But the material base of schools does not yet meet modern requirements - there is not enough equipment, poles, springboards, and mats.
For a fruitful coaching search in sports schools, I think the selection principle should be changed. Coaches are used to finding capable boys and girls "by eye." But we need to take strength and coordination qualities into account.
During training and competition, girls probably pester you with the question "how can I become a champion?" What would you tell them?
Once upon a time a young weightlifter Yuri Vlasov approached me with a similar question. I answered: "We need to be patient and work." I repeat the same thing to my girls. There are no special recipes and there cannot be any.
I would like to say one more thing about gymnastics schools: the education of young people based on the traditions of famous champions is weak. Many kids know only the "stars" of the platform of the latest generations - Turischeva, Korbut, Andrianov, Shaposhnikova. But they have almost no idea about the pioneers. No, I'm not talking about myself. On the contrary, I always tell young Spartak competitors about how we performed in Helsinki, in Rome, and how the audience received us.
Recently, together with Valentin Muratov, I was invited to the Olympic base of Round Lake, where there was a meeting of the first world champions with members of the adult and youth national teams of the country. Such contacts are necessary and must become permanent. It makes no difference to us how our generation grows today, what traditions it is brought up on.
What hinders the search for gymnastic talent today?
First of all, it is departmentalization and the poaching of athletes. We may have taken 10th place somewhere, but we remained true to the direction and did not take anyone from outside into the team. And success still comes. Today our leaders are 15-year-old European junior champion Alexander Kolyvanov, all-around winners of the Goodwill Games Yuri Korolev and Vera Kolesnikova, and world champion Oksana Omelyanchik.
What would you like to wish to young athletes?
The words of the famous pilot Valery Chkalov are still preserved in my old sports diary: "If it is to be, then be the first!"
V. SAMARIN