Sovetsky Sport. October 30, 1973. "It was a Russian evening at Wembley!" - this is how the London Telegraph assessed the situation at the women's European gymnastics championship. With good reason, it could repeat the words the next day, when the individual event medals were contested. Although it started for us with trouble.
Olya Korbut and her coach Renald Knysh had been thinking all morning whether Olga should participate in the finals. Her leg hurt, her ankle hurt, and a bruise was clearly visible. Moreover, Londoners enthusiastically received our Olympic champion, and they would be torn by her absence, but she wanted to compete.
U. Schorn of the FRG opened the vault competition. She flew high, clearly performed a 'bend-unbend' [Yamashita] and landed as if she were jumping not over the horse but in length. For the first attempt, she received 9.35, and the judges added another 0.05 for the second attempt. Then, the grey-eyed and graceful Romanian A. Goreac twirled dashingly into a Tsukahara, but landed slightly inaccurately and earned 9.35. Frankly, one cannot help but be surprised at how the judges evaluated landing errors - like what a gymnast does in flight. A small step on the mat and after a simple Yamashita and after difficult rotations was punished with exactly the same deductions. And you have to be a real athlete, sincerely devoted to gymnastics, in order to decide on a vault of high difficulty with such a direction in judging.
Meanwhile, it was Korbut's turn to vault. She ran briskly, but suddenly ran past the horse, limping, and immediately left the podium, leaning on the side that separated the spectators' seats from the arena, and bowed her head in her hands.
Floor coach Polina Astakhova ran up and helped her to get to a chair: soon, the announcer called for the Czechoslovak gymnast S. Bradzova, who was the reserve gymnast in the final. It became clear: Olga could not continue.
That night, when all the unrest was left behind, Lyuda Turischeva admitted frankly:
"It was an unpleasant moment. And for Olga it was very insulting, and I really didn't flinch, but for a moment I was confused. We compete together. And anything can happen on the platform, and if you suddenly stumble, fall, a friend will help you out. All the same, we won't be left without a medal. And here it is impossible to make mistakes. The responsibility is huge. Perhaps she was the one who helped me pull myself together."
Lyudmila exchanged glances with her coach V. Rastorotsky, nodded her head, and pointed to the sign with the number '24.' This is what the Tsukahara vault is called. It was a bold decision - to perform this difficult vault on both of her attempts. In the first one, Lyuda straightened up a bit late and got 9.5. In the second attempt, she flew high and added another 0.05 points to her score. The judges gave Hellmann (GDR) the same score for a 360-degree turn, and since they had equal scores on the first day, gold medals were awarded to both of them.
Turischeva performed first on uneven bars. The Londoners are just beginning to learn gymnastics, but they were able to appreciate the incredible complexity of the routines of our champion and her brilliant skill. A storm broke out, but the judges were more restrained. A score of 9.65 is quite high, but you never cease to be surprised at how indifferent they are to the daring of the gymnasts to master high difficulty. They were stingy with Goreac's score. Her routine demonstrated a modern spirit which was equipped with difficult elements.
The performances of the participants in the balance beam finals were bright. A thin, tall Romanian A. Grigoras peformed her routine with amplitude. The performance of 16-year-old U. Schorn was awaited with interest. It was rumored that she even mastered the difficult Korbut somersault. But during her routine, Uta, performing a handstand after a swing, could not hold on to the beam and fell. It was a pity that almost immediately she fell again. Her routine is really very interesting.
Goreac again showed her high difficulty. Her routine included a flick flack and a twisting dismount. True, there were stops that were not planned.
Turischeva's approach to the apparatus was met with applause. when, after she did two impeccable splits, the stands rustled in admiration. She had the best score on this event - 9.55.
Good routines were shown by the Hungarian M. Csaszar and the all-around bronze medalist from the GDR, K. Gerschau. The style of her routine in many ways resembles the manner of the famous GDR gymnast E. Zuchold. However, this is not surprising since they have the same coach - the father of K. Gerschau.
We did not expect any trouble in the floor exercise. But suddenly it almost happened. Performing a double twist in the first diagonal, Turischeva stumbled in the same place as the previous day, and touched the carpet with her hands. Afterwards, she said:
"I was terribly scared. But it was only for a moment. I managed to pull myself together, and the routine seemed to end successfully."
For a long time, Turischeva's score did not come up - 9.3. The routine itself was accompanied by Russian motifs, with original choreography, is very bright and interesting, and delighted the audience. We awaited Gerschau's performance, because she was practically the only gymnast who could catch up with our leader. To do this, she needed at least 9.55. Gershau's routine, with choreography of a rather modernist order, was not equipped with a modern one, and the circmstance did not allow her to get more than 9.45. It should be noted that Schorn also performed difficult skills here - a double twist.
Thus, the European championship ended with the magnificent victory of the all-around world champion and absolute champion of the Olympic Games L. Turischeva. All the gold of Europe, five medals of the highest order, went to her.
M. SUPONEV