no pain, no gain, no forgiveness
Behind the glory of sports, there are the players’ blood, sweat, and tears. This applies to the Eastern block’s artistic gymnastics leader during the 20th century, the Soviet Union.
One of the many gymnasts who underwent strenuous training is Elena Mukhina, whose career ended abruptly after becoming paralyzed by a fall when training to master a complicated, dangerous floor trick called the Thomas Salto. She was forced by her coach and Soviet team officials to train for the 1980 Olympics with a broken leg despite expressing her worries. Doctors had removed her cast before the leg even healed and she had to train shortly after going through surgery. Because of the weight she had gained while recovering, she had to work on extra exercises to return to her previous shape.
Click here to watch a video showing the highlights of Elena’s triumph at the 1978 World Championships in the all-around category
Click here to watch the Thomas salto (1:48–1:53) Elena Mukhina was attempting, done by another Soviet gymnast, Elena Shushunova
Her doctors and coaches wronged her for discouraging her wellbeing in exchange for prestige, so she should not forgive a system that prides on vanity over the humanity of its players.
Why?
1. blame
Soviet press and officials tried to cover up the incident by spreading false information that downplayed the severity of the injury. The press reported and changed the story as many as 5 times as the 1980 Olympic games approached. Elena’s condition was described as a temporary matter.
The blame of the injury was put completely on Elena when newspapers stated that she had performed the difficult movement by her own will to improve her floor exercise and in disregard of orders from her coach.
Elena was aware of the risk and warned her coach several times, but no one listened nor took responsibility for the incident.
Click here to watch Elena reflecting on the causes that led to her injury in the documentary “More than a game” (3:00–5:30)
2. scorn
She was regarded as too sensitive and lazy by coaches, despite the fact that she trained up to 8 hours a day most days of the week before being injured.
The worst occurrence was the president of the International Federation of Gymnastics (FIG) at the time reiterating the Soviet press’s slander and explaining that Elena would not go back to competing because she was in the age of retirement. This resulted in many fans mailing Elena to cheer her to return to training, which left her with a heavy mental toll.
As a result of the coverup campaign, her past gymnastics accomplishments were discouraged. A team official even stated that she was just a simple candidate for the Olympics and could be easily replaced, but she, in reality, had been forced to train with injuries because she was a key competitor
Click here to watch FIG president, Yuri Titov, addressing Elena’s condition just before the 1980 Olympics.
It is difficult to understand some parts. Here is a brief summary:
He stated that since Elena lost a chance to be included in the national team, she tried to invent a new exercise because she thought it would help her be chosen, but it was a difficult move, so she fell down and got injured. When asked if Elena was ever competing again, he answered that she was at the age limit of competing and at that age [20], it was time to leave.
3. depressive change
The injury itself led to a drastic lifestyle change. Elena went from being a dedicated and active gymnast to being paralyzed from the chest down. Gymnastics had been her whole life ever since she started training as a kid, but she would be restricted to a wheelchair until her death.
This radical life change left Elena feeling deeply depressed and lonely as she struggled to relearn daily tasks with her limited physical ability. She had even been studying as an undergraduate at Central Physical Culture Institute in Moscow to become a full-time trainer one day. The horrendous narrative created by the press put a heavier burden than the injury itself, and Elena was the helpless victim stranded at home. The one person to care for her was her grandmother, and she was barely visited by anyone.
Elena’s injury not only affected her, but also impacted the lives of her teammates. Below is a recount by Nellie Kim, a former Soviet gymnast who competed with Elena:
We were horrified after it happened. We hoped that [the management] would help Lena with the surgery. But the management said that the Army Hospital also had good doctors and Lena was operated on at home. Later, I analyzed the issues started not a few weeks before the Olympics, but a year before or even earlier: Lena was forced to perform the most difficult elements. All the main competitors performed them and something new was needed in order to win. But Lena was not ready, she just didn’t have the physical strength. I saw that and wondered why she was forced [to do the elements]. I remember Lena fell on almost every event at the last competition she had. If she didn’t fall, she landed badly. Elena’s tragedy affected me very much, it defeated me mentally — I came to the Olympics with that fear. By that moment, I was already afraid of some elements. When you are 18–19 or older, your mind and approach to training are not the same as they were at 15–16, you clearly understand how it can end. When Lena fell, I said right away: I won’t continue after the Olympics.
On a more positive side
Elena found peace with her new life since she liberated herself from the tense spotlight and arduous training lifestyle. The first thought she had when she fell was:
Thank God, I won’t be going to the Olympics
Despite that the Soviet Gymnastics Federation remained secretive about the events surrounding the accident, she was awarded the Soviet Union’s Order of the Badge of Honour in 1980 in response to her injury. In 1983, Juan Samaranch, IOC President, awarded her the Silver Medal of the Olympic Order.
She accepted the fact that the coaches and officials were also victims of the ruthless system, so she says they were acting behind words and actions they couldn’t perceive since they were raised in the same brutal environment.
However,
Elena only achieved basic control over her life until she could not fight anymore. She yearned for peace during her training days and she only got that as a result of her unfortunate accident.
Officials and journalists who failed her cowardly led a vile cover-up campaign that only benefited their image and made no improvement to gymnasts’ welfare nor showed support for Elena.
An honest acceptance of error would have shown that the team was a responsible entity and worthy of Olympic prestige, but their oppression continued.
Conclusion
This story shows that a single mistake in sports results in a tragedy. As melancholic as the story sounds, the tragedy was not completely accidental. Vanity, greed for prestige, and nationalism were the key perpetrators of this incident.
Not only was the gymnast injured for life, but the insolent treatment to her when she needed sympathy the most was rampant. Therefore, the actions of coaches and the press are unforgivable since these people were meant to honor the Soviet Union, but failed to credit the athletes who actually brought glory to the nation’s name.
Elena herself didn’t want her experience to become a pitiful story, so whenever she was interviewed, she reflected on how the toxic Soviet training system was detrimental to her, teammates, and aspiring athletes.
References & Further Reading
Batashov, Andrei. “Girl Brought up on Gymnastics”. Gymn Forum, October 1979, https://www.gymn-forum.net/Articles/SL-Mukhi.html.
Davis, Mike. “After Her Injury a Soviet Coverup Hurt Elena Mukhina Even More.” The Medal Count, 25 February 2020, https://themedalcount.com/2020/02/25/after-her-injury-a-soviet-coverup-hurt-elena-mukhina-even-more/.
Davis, Mike. “How Fan Mail Bothered Elena Mukhina.” The Medal Count, 25 February 2020, https://themedalcount.com/2020/02/25/how-fan-mail-bothered-elena-mukhina/
Davis, Mike. “Shortly After Her Paralysis Elena Mukhina wrote a letter.” The Medal Count, 21 October 2019, https://themedalcount.com/2019/10/21/shortly-after-her-paralysis-elena-mukhina-wrote-a-letter/
Polonskaya, Oksana, and Beth Squires. “ Yelena Mukhina: Grown-up Games.” Ogonyok Magazine, www.oocities.org/grafdela_fer/mukhina-int.html.
Sambur, Vyacheslav. “The collapse of the USSR is euphoria: people have waited for independence.” Interview with the star of the 1980 Olympics, gymnast Nelly Kim (Nelly Furtado was named after her)” sport.ru, 14 July 2020, https://www.sports.ru/tribuna/blogs/russiateam/2803041.html [in Russian]
Varney, Wendy. “A Labour of Patriotism: Female Soviet Gymnasts’ Physical and Ideological Work, 1952–1991.”University of Colorado Boulder: Genders 1998–2013, College of Arts and Sciences”, 1 June 2004, https://www.colorado.edu/gendersarchive1998-2013/2004/06/01/labour-patriotism-female-soviet-gymnasts-physical-and-ideological-work-1952-1991