Sovetsky Sport. May 5, 1975. Our special correspondent Mikhail Suponev writes from he European Gymnastics Championships.
For Norwegians, the small city of Skien is forever associated with the name of Henrich Ibsen, the great playwright, humanist, and thinker who spent his youth here. Now the city has a new glory. Schienshallen, a sports hall for 4,000 spectators, located on the outskirts of the city in a pine forest, hosted the tenth European women's gymnastics championship.
The local press showed considerable interest in the championship. The messages were mostly objective and serious, although, as is often the case, there were some rather ridiculous taunts against the Soviet and some other teams. Those who tried to think seriously about the future championship singled out, first of all, one very important feature of it: the rise of gymnasts of a new generation that appeared in sports after the Munich Olympics.
The brightest face in this new generation was 13-year-old Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci. A number of newspapers put the question exactly this way, in the headlines: "Nadia or Ludmila?" For our specialists, such a statement of the question was not at all unexpected. Comaneci performed at the youth tournaments of gymnasts of the socialist countries, in particular the Druzhba tournament, and the coaches of the Soviet youth team are well acquainted with her. I remember that the Merited Master of Sports, L. Ivanova, head coach of our junior team, not more than a month ago, at the USSR Cup in Leningrad, said: "I've known Comaneci for more than a year. And I'm sure that this very young gymnast will accomplish a lot in our sport. She has practically no weaknesses. Her program is quite modern in terms of difficulty. Her routine on the uneven bars is virtuoso. It seems to me that she still lacks emotionality and lyricism which, of course, is especially evident in floor exercises. But in general, she will be a rival to our leaders at the next European championship."
This characterization was 100% correct. After testing the equipment [podium training], when the participants of the competition got to know each other better, and their coaches (to be sure) watched their future rivals very carefully, Merited Coach of the USSR V. Rastorotsky, who raised Olympic champion and two-time world and European champion Lyudmila Turischeva, frowning his black eyebrows: "In my opinion, they spoke about Comaneci incorrectly. She also has a wonderful floor exercise. In general, it will be very difficult for us at the championship."
Both Ivanova and Rastorotsky were right. The fact is that the Romanian coaches and in particular Comaneci's mentor, the tall and athletically complex Bela Karolyi, were well aware that in order to win in the all-around, Comaneci needed to eliminate the weak link in her preparation. Apparently, the time before the championship they devoted mainly to choreography training and improving the content of her floor exercise. Here, in Skien, Ivanova said: "This is already a different Comaneci."
In a word, we knew very well with whom our gymnasts were competing.
After the first apparatus, our Nellie Kim quite unexpectedly became the leader. With an excellent routine on the uneven bars, she received a score of 9.7. We know that the bars for Turischeva are one of her 'striking' events. But this time she had to confine herself to a very half-hearted score - 9.35. Frankly, this score was quite objective: Lyudmila made a rather noticeable mistake - while standing point-blank, piking on the upper pole, her foot suddenly slipped, and only self-control saved the world champion from falling. Lyudmila finished the routine, but of course she could not hide a serious flaw from the eyes of the judges.
At that time Comaneci was performing on floor - the very event that was considered her weak point. For a very temperamental and bright routine, in which there were two double twists (one at the beginning and one at the end) and several original combinations, she received 9.65.
We went to the beam and the Romanians went to vault. N. Kim, on this insidious apparatus, bravely performed the Korbut somersault and stood up on the narrow path without moving, and confidently brought her exercise to an end. She received 9.55. Penalties are inevitable here, the judges are especially attentive here and quite rightly punish for many errors, which sometimes are hidden from the eye of the spectator. Turischeva also received a very modest score on the beam - 9.25. Performing her well-known routine, she lost her balance after two forward rolls in a row and only by the effort of not so much her hands as her will did she stay on the beam. I've seen the Olympic champion perform this routine many times (honestly, I don't even remember how many exactly) and I remember exactly that in this place she never had any, even small, blemishes. And here was almost a fall. After the gymnasts had performed on all apparatuses, I talked with Rastorotsky.
I asked him: "How is it, why at that moment, when it seemed that the most difficult element had already been done, Lyuda almost fell?"
Rastotorsky looked at me with bewilderment: "What don't you understand? After all, at that moment she wasn't thinking about the balance beam but about those ill-fated bars and, of course, couldn't properly gather herself. I can't even explain how worried I was for her. After all, for five years Lyudmila didn't know defeat on the international platform, and then suddenly such a failure. Why did this happen? In the winter, due to an injury, we completely lost 3 months of training. Preparing for the European championship actually started only in March. It seemed that everything was going well and Lyuda would come to these championships in shape. But now I feel that some two or three weeks were still not enough. Before that, it was necessary to compete at least somehow. Because even with great experience, it's necessary to restore competitive skills. And where to compete, since it was necessary to train? That's where it all came from..."
Meanwhile, Comaneci went to vault and brilliantly performed a piked Tsukahara. In her first attempt, she soared high, flew from the vault about five meters ti seemed, but upon landing bent her legs slightly. Her second attempt was better, and she received 9.7 as a reward. Kim, after two events, was already behind Comaneci by 0.1 points.
We went to the floor. Kim looked great here. She fulfilled her 'samba' temperamentally, without making any serious mistakes, and got 9.7. Turischeva performed her popular composition 'Freedom for Africa'. She performed it brilliantly, and received the highest mark of the competition - 9.8. But when the gymnasts left for the last apparatus, accompanist E. Vevrik said: "Lyuda came up to me and said, 'My vision is dark. I'm very tired and I don't know how I finished the routine.'"
Only she herself could know about this, because no one, not even the most sophisticated spectator, could see it. What composure, what confidence in one's abilities, what skill one must have in order to hide one's fatigue from prying eyes and be able to look, as usual, staunch, skillful, and courageous.
Meanwhile, Comaneci was approaching the uneven bars. We knew that her exercise is a new word in gymnastics on this apparatus. I don't undertake to list the elements she performed - they will probably receive a special 'brand name.' We can only say one thing - fantastic! The only noticeable blot she made was an inaccurate landing after a double somersault dismount. She received 9.75. But the applause was such that it can only be compared with that 'explosion' in the Olympic Hall in Munich when O. Korbut showed her famous 'loop.'
The little Romanian was just eager to fight. Before the Italian S. Bucci finished her routine, Nadia was already on the platform to perform her final exercise - on the balance beam. She went to rub the soles of her slippers with rosin, but she remembered in time the rather strange ban that was introduced on the use of this substance at the 10th European Championships, and stepped aside. She had to pace a little on the platform, because the green light of the judge's 'traffic light' did not allow her to step onto the mat. At the very beginning of her routine, Comaneci made a tiny stop while going into a handstand. But Nadia finished her difficult routine with a quite confident and spectacular dismount which contained a double twist. The scoreboard flashed 9.75, which meant that 13-year-old Nadia Comaneci had become the European champion. Kim would have to receive 9.9 on the vault, which was practically impossible, of course. Nellie performed a piked Tsukahara quite cleanly, and confidently stood up on the springboard. But, of course, before the eyes of the judges it was the same vault that Comaneci had performed, and she was better both in height and flight length. Kim received 9.5 points for her Tsukahara.
So, for the first time the title of champion of the continent went to a Romanian gymnast. Note that there have been no 13-year-old champions in the history of the Euroepan championships.
As to the reasons for Turischeva's not quite successful performance, quite objectively, in our opinion, Rastorotsky said that Kim can list her performance at the European championship as the best asset in her sports biography. You just have to agree that it was on this day that Nadia Comaneci - an undeniably talented gymnsat - was stronger than her rivals. But hardly anyone would argue that a new undisputed leader has appeared in the world of women's gymnastics. There is no reason to talk about the 'decline' of Turischeva, which some of the not-so-informed journalists are trying to do. Another thing can be said for the time being: the appearance of the young Comaneci on the world platform will certainly make our coaches think, since for several years, frankly, Soviet gymnasts have not experienced serious competition on the international platform.