Molodezh Gruzii. September 14, 1974. Our next meeting is with sixteen-year-old Nina Dronova, a first-year student at the Georgian Institute of Physical Culture, Master of Sports of the USSR, winner of many all-Union and international competitions in gymnastics, who is currently preparing for the World Championships in Varna in October.
"Remember her name. Nina Dronova will very soon make the sports world talk about her." That's what Larisa Latynina, a Soviet gymnastics ace and multiple world and Olympic champion, said, apparently unable to resist her charm, after seeing Nina on the gymnastics mat for the first time.
Now, I recall the words of the famous sports journalist Stanislav Tokarev, who wrote: "Without exaggeration, I must say that this girl is a unique phenomenon in world gymnastics, the Mozart of gymnastics, if you will..."
This was three years ago, when Nina was thirteen years old. Since then, she has had both resounding victories, when she shone brightly on the sports scene, showcasing all facets of her talent and, as is inevitable in sports, defeats. However, there weren't really any defeats as such. There are individual setbacks, and there was a serious hand injury that healed agonizingly slowly. There were tears, even despair. But in this thin, fragile-looking girl, there turned out to be an irrepressible energy bubbling over. She managed to find the strength within herself, overcome her difficulties, and return to the elite of the strongest with her characteristic vibrant and striking style. Evidence of this is the gold medal Nina won at the All-Union Spartakiad for schoolchildren in Alma-Ata, followed by a fifth-place finish in the all-around which she achieved in competition with such stars of women's gymnastics as Lyudmila Turischeva, Olga Korbut, Elvira Saadi, Nellie Kim, and Rusudan Sikharulidze at the recent USSR Cup in Vilnius.
Currently, Nina, along with her teammates from the Soviet national team, is intensively preparing for the World Gymnastics Championships, which will be held in October of this year in the Bulgarian resort city of Varna. We took advantage of a short break between the national team's training sessions and invited Nina to our "Saturday Meetings" to introduce the readers of Molodezh Gruzii to the young athlete, to follow the development of her talent, and to get a glimpse into the inner world of this sweet and charming girl.
Here's Nina visiting us. Glancing at the questions prepared in advance by our correspondent, she widened her eyes and, pouting her lips in a very childlike way, said:
"Yes, I've never had to answer so many questions at once before..."
Q: How did you react to the first article about yourself in the newspaper?
A: To be honest, it was a pleasant experience. In Tsakhkadzoe, at the Trade Unions championship of the children's sports schools, I competed out of competition according to the masters' program. And although my result was not counted in the overall standings, I was only 0.15 points behind the great Lyubov Burda. Upon returning home, I learned that I had been featured in the newspaper. And guess who told me? My mother. Uncle Sergo and Aunt Valya, my coaches, hid the newspaper from me. They were probably afraid that I would get a big head and become conceited. After all, I was only eleven years old at the time...
Q: Now, however, you often have to talk to reporters, and you're being photographed and filmed. How do you feel about that?
A: I like being filmed during competitions, but I really dislike having to post for photos after the competition is over.
Q: Nina, how did gymnastics begin for you?
A: It started in school. I remember when I was in first grade, Lena Bogolyubova came to us and said that her coach, Sergei Alexandrovich Burdzhanadze, had asked her to find a few girls who wanted to do gymnastics. There were many interested girls. In our class alone, there were about ten girls. I was among them.
Q: Were you immediately enrolled in a sports section?
A: It wasn't that fast. I only managed a "C" on Uncle Sergo's "exam," and even that was a stretch. It's embarrassing to remember. I had to do the splits, a backbend, pull-ups on the bar, and climb a rope. I completely failed at the splits and backbend; I barely managed the pull-ups and the rope climb. It was humiliating, to say the least. Tears welled up on my eyes. I thought, that's it, they won't let me join the section. But Uncle Sergo asked me to do something else that I liked. And out of anger at myself, I did a forward roll, and I did it better than ever before...
Even then, Nina impressed everyone with her forward somersault, performing a jump that took everyone's breath away. What set her apart from the other girls was her strength, flexibility, stretching ability and, most importantly, her courage and competitive spirit. (This is from a conversation with Nina's long-time mentors, Merited Coaches of the Georgian SSR S. Burdzhanadze and V. Klimova.)
That's how I ended up at the 'fire station' - the holy of holies for all the kids in our neighborhood, where a small gymnastics hall on the second floor of the fire department housed the sports school of the Dmitrov Aviation Plant. Now, it's true, we've had our own wonderful Palace of Sports for three years now, but I will probably never forget my old and beloved fire station, where I took my first steps.
Q: How did your family react to your hobby?
A: My parents were supportive. Especially my father, my first and main fan, with whom I always shared my childhood worries and who always understood me without needing many words.
Nina doesn't train any more than her friends, but everything comes much easier to her than to them. She has an excellent feel for the equipment, and natural charm that helps her win the sympathy of the audience from the moment she steps onto the platform. (From a conversation with V. Klimova.)
Surprisingly, Nina looks somewhat worse in training than in competitions. Although, it would seem, it should be the other way around. However, in crucial moments, she knows how to pull herself together and becomes unusually serious and attentive. And, as a rule, the stronger the field of competitors, the better she performs. (From a conversation with S. Burdzhanadze.)
Nina's childhood was firmly connected to the sports hall. She lost her father at an early age, and her mother was at work all day. Therefore, immediately after school, the girl would run there, to Aunt Valya and Uncle Sergo, who also became her tutors in mathematics, physics, literature...
Q: What attracts you to gymnastics? What do you love about it so much?
A: This cannot be explained in words.
Q: And yet?
A: Well, first of all, gymnastics is where you can truly express yourself, show your whole soul through movement. I get true pleasure when I step onto the platform, espsecially if everything goes exactly as I wanted it to. This feeling is incomparable; you have to experience it for yourself.
And one more thing. In gymnastics, I believe, more than in any other sport, there is an element of risk. Sometimes it gets so scary that it takes your breath away. But that's precisely where the enduring charm of gymnastics lies - in the fact that you suddenly manage to perform an incredibly difficult element...
Q: When did you first experience the beauty of gymnastics?
A: When I was still a young girl, I was taken to Moscow with a team of adults for the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR. It was there that I first saw Lyubov Burda's famous spin on the uneven bars. It was also there that I first saw Larisa Petrik and Lyudmila Turischeva on the podium...
Upon returning home, nine-year-old Nina began practicing the spin, a move that, besides Burda, no one else in our country was performing. Exactly six months later, she performed it independently, and another six months later she was brilliantly executing such a complex element as the spin - a back somersault with a 360-degree arch. At the age of eleven, Nina effortlessly and without strain began mastering the masters' program, and at that time there was no other gymnast who could have coped with it at such a young age.
Q: That's where your journey to the top, your path to professional sports, begins. You achieve many bright and brilliant victories, both in national competitions and in international tournaments. You've amassed a solid collection of awards! Which one is especially dear to you, which one is especially memorable?
A: Each of these trips is precious in its own way. But perhaps the most memorable was the trip to Japan in 1971 for a major international competition. There I competed for the first time alongside adult gymnasts, and I managed to win against such world-class gymnasts as Turischeva and Korbut... That's when I saw my photos in the newspapers for the first time.
Q: Then came the Olympic Games. You performed quite successfully in qualifying competitions, but you didn't compete in Munich, even though you went there as part of the Soviet national team. What was the reason?
A: Just before the Olympics, I unexpectedly fell ill and became weak, and the national team coaches, naturally, refrained from letting me compete. Incidentally, that's when my string of bad luck began, caused by a hand injury. It plagued me for a long time. Almost two years were wasted, but now, thankfully, everything is fine.
Q: What are your favorite events?
A: The uneven bars and vaulting. I also really love floor exercises.
Q: Do you have an ideal that you strive for?
A: How to put it... Olga Korbut, for example, is incomparable on the uneven bars, Rusudan Sikharulidze and Elvira Saadi are superb in floor exercises, Svetlana Grozdova is flawless on the balance beam. But in terms of willpower, tremendous work ethic and fighting spirit, I would like to be like Lyudmila Turischeva.
Q: What goal have you set for yourself in sports?
A: To become a good gymnast, the kind of gymnast I would like to be...
Q: And in life?
A: These two concepts are closely intertwined for me: being a coach training gymnasts...
Q: You often travel abroad for international competitions. What interests and pleases you when you arrive in a new country?
A: When my peers are my most loyal fans.
Q: Don't you miss Tbilisi when you have to leave?
A: If the train journeys aren't too long, I don't get bored. But if I manage to win, then for some reason I want to get home as quickly as possible to make my mom and coaches happy.
Q: How do you spend your free time?
A: There's not much free time left. Training, competitions, training again... And then there are the lectures. After all, this year I also became a student, I enrolled in the Institute of Physical Culture, in the sports faculty, and if I do manage to find an hour or two, I help my mother with household chores, I like to go to the movies, listen to good music, and read science fiction.
Q: If it weren't for gymnastics, what would you do?
A: I can't imagine life without gymnastics... I'd probably go into dancing... No, gymnastics and only gymnastics.
Q: But isn't gymnastics difficult? You have to follow a strict daily routine and diet, and you probably had to deny yourself many things, right?
A: There's no other way. For example, pastries are my weakness, but I've even forgotten what they taste like. I can't have candy either. I can only occasionally indulge in lollipops, and even then, not often...
Q: The happiest day of your life?
A: It hasn't happened yet. Once I get to the World Championships, then we'll see...
Finally, one last question. What haven't I asked you about yet?
A: "Would you like to compete in the Olympic Games, Nina?"
Q: And how would you answer it?
A: Yes, I do. Very much so... I haven't even made it to the World Championships yet, and you'll say I'm already aiming for the Olympic Games...
E. KASPAROV