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I can't say why, but I really feel she was at her peak at these Europeans in 1987. So gracefully, so powerful and all on Russian soil. It was a big success for her to become the European All Around Champion in Moscow - the capital city of the USSR. Of course I felt so bad for Elena Shoushounova, because I adored her so much and still do.

I always thought, Dina Kochetkova had the potential to become the next Russian Star in Artistic Gymnastics... (thought Elena Piskun from Belarus was also in the race for the leading position) but both gymnasts somehow got neglected by the judges. I can't understand why....

She had her own personal style - that's true. I have to admit, I enjoyed her Floor routines very much though.

Everybody thought she was 19 back then... although her real age was 17, which was revealed somewhere in the beginning of the new millennium. So sad, that she did not continue her career for another 2 years.... maybe even through to Barcelona.

She was truly amazing.

I just checked it! 😨 I had no idea!

Why so? Because of the little wobble at her first acrobatic series? That was her only mistake.

I am sure you saw the scores... The final competition was a festival of high scores: It was insane! Thümmler (GDR) 9,950 Mills (USA) 9,950 Dobre (ROM) 9,962 Polokova (TCH) 9,975 Boginskaja (URS) 9,987 Shoushounova (URS) 10,000 Kersten (GDR) 10,000 Silivas (ROM) 10,000

I guess the people of our time, will always remember her. And hopefully also generations to come...

And only half the excitement!

Obrigado. Sempre adorei e admirei Elena. ❤❤❤

I am not watching modern gymnastics anymore, but of course this 'no-end-participation' is only possible, because the Horse Vault, Uneven Bars and the Floor have been developed tremendously. It's almost like being catapulted instead of working on the apparatus with a clear technique.

Oh dear.... that's a difficult question I guess. Especially talking about it in english. I want to put it this way. When the two systems grew together, there was a lot of fear - especially in men's gymnastics, because many of the active gymnasts continued after the reuniting. I remember West German the male gymnasts complained, the spots they had trained for were taken by the East German gymnasts due to better results and more difficulty. They demanded some sort of quota to be able to find themselves on the national team, even though their results didn't justify that. For the girls it was a bit different. We saw the whole East German team retire after the 1988 Olympics. The East German girls had a hard time already at the Worlds 1989 held in Stuttgart and it was believed, they just needed the time to grow back into the international scene. Then everything changed over the night. While West Germany was already weak throughout the years in Artistic Gymnastics, they found an 'equal' partner on the eastern side now. I think the results in the years that happened from there on made it quite clear... Germany lost its power to win medals as soon as the country was reunified. It was actually almost like a tragedy and we were sitting in the front row watching it. Since the training system also changed (eastern block training could never be compared to the way we trained in the west) everything went from bad to worse. And then there was of course the abuse of substances that became evident in later years. It is all out in the open now and there are many articles on the internet or videos on RUclips concerning this subject.

No more steroids.

@@EdGringo78 I don't think that this was limited to the eastern hemisphere.

💙

I lost the touch to 'modern' gymnastics. Did they do well in the new millennium? From time to time I read something and it seems to me, that the US is the leading nation nowadays. I read about the results of the last Olympics and was quite stunned, when I saw what countries won medals or even Gold Medals.... Time has changed a lot....