Sovetsky Sport. April 10, 1986. Judging by the responses, readers like our Interview at Your Request section. The name of our interlocutor today (ex-world champion in gymnastics Eberhard Gienger) was mentioned in a number of letters. Who will we interview next? We are waiting for your suggestions.
Just recently - a few years ago - the name of the West German gymnast Eberhard Gienger could be read in the very top lines of the largest gymnastics competitions. Repeated champion of Germany, world champion on the horizontal bar, Gienger now works for the famous sports equipment company Arena.
He recently came to Moscow on company business. Our correspondent met him during the Moscow News international gymnastics competition.
Tell me, Eberhard, are you here on duty at the competition?
No way! The truth is that I just can't part with gymnastics. I continue to train and stay in shape. I make sure to do exercises every morning. In addition, every year I take part in the national championships and team competitions. I'm already quite a few years old, and I admit that at first my appearance on the floor or parallel bars plunged many into amazement.
Eberhard, how did you start doing gymnastics?
As a child, my heart was given to football. More than anything, I liked to kick the ball. But one day in a sports club in our city of Stuttgart I met a guy from a butcher shop. I was shocked by his arms - strong and muscular. I was a puny, lanky 12-year-old boy, and my older friend's biceps haunted me. So, I started doing gymnastics. Then coach Udo Zipplis took me under his wing. I worked with him almost every day. Sometimes in the sports club gym, and more often in Zipplis' garden, in the fresh air, where he placed the equipment. My coach taught me a lot: hard work and perseverance. He was 73 years old but he continued to train, keeping himself in good physical shape.
At first glance, your sporting destiny developed quite smoothly. And yet, what championship, what competitions do you remember as the most dramatic?
The 1981 world championships in Moscow. By that time I was already 30 years old and I had firmly decided to part with big sports. I really wanted to perform well and leave, so to speak, with my head held high. I counted on my favorite piece of equipment, the high bar. But, as luck would have it, on this event, scores of 10 poured out as if from a swarm of abundance - Akopyan, Tkachev, and Goto from Japan received 10s. To be honest, I was very worried. Then one of the gymnasts came up to me and said, "What? You're still going to perform?" You know, my eyes darkened at that moment. And I told myself: if I get less than 10 points, immediately after the competition I'll smoke the first cigarette in my life. As a punishment.
...He stepped onto the platform, lowered his head and suddenly saw his heart beating. It pulsed in his chest, lifting the elastic fabric of his gymnastics suit. He had already seen his heart beat like that once - at the Games in Montreal. Now, why is my heart beating like this now? - he asked himself this question, but didn't have time to answer it. He raised his hand as a sign that he was ready to perform, and took a wide, sweeping step towards the apparatus... A few minutes later the number 10 flashed on the scoreboard.
An entire period in the history of gymnastics is associated with the Eberhard Gienger generation. He competed with Nikolai Andrianov, Mitsuo Tsukahara, Shigeru Kasamatsu, Alexander Dityatin. It was difficult not to get lost among such big names. And he was looking for his own style. He went to Japan to train under Eizo Kenmotsu, to the USA, and finally to the Soviet Union. In Japan - Gienger smiles as he talks - he learned Japanese. In the USA - he got tan under the generous sun. But only after training in Moscow in the CSKA gymnasium did he feel like a strong, stable gymnast of the highest class.
So, you left the sport. After that, there was an item in the newspaper that you were performing in the professional gymnastics troupe of the former world champion from the USA, Kurt Thomas. Then there was a rumor that you decided to take up the coaching path...
In addition to everything you mentioned, I studied at the Faculty of Slavic Landuages at the University of Mainz, where I polished the Russian language. Yes, the path to choosing a profession was not easy for me. I've tried a lot. I left the Thomas troupe quickly - it wasn't for me. I wanted to test my strength as a coach, but quietly rejected such a temptation. I have absolutely no teaching abilities, I don't see other people's mistakes (although this does not apply to my children, of whom I have three and all are boys). It seems to me that now I really enjoy my work. I travel a lot, talk to people a lot.
Which 'school' of modern gymnastics do you consider the most promising?
Many countries have strong, talented gymnasts. But not every country has a long "bench." You have such a bench. Yesterday I was at a training session in CSKA, and I saw many young and very small gymnasts. Some of them probably will be able to claim a high place in the most serious, largest competitions. In addition, Soviet gymnasts are distinguished by exceptional stability - a quality inherent in few. Therefore, I think that the fashion in gymnastics of the future, as least in the near future, will be determined by the Soviet school.
When will you come to Moscow again?
I want to come here in July for the gymnastics competition of the Goodwill Games. I think that this will be a most interesting sports forum, because the strongest athletes in the world will take part in it.
O. POLONSKAYA