Elena Mukhina: Profiles in Olympic Courage

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• published: 21 Aug 2012
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This is the second in a two-video series made in honor of the Olympics. In each video, I profile an athlete who defines what the Olympics has come to mean for me. The first episode highlighted the inspirational story of American middle distance runner, Glenn Cunningham. In this episode, I highlight the remarkable, tragic story of Russian gymnast, Yelena Muhkina. Notes: There are several tributes and highlight videos of Muhkina on YouTube. The best of these are Soviet-produced (one, a documentary of her training along with the National Team; another, detailing her career and death.) and these are narrated in Russian. Special thanks to the late Dr. John Cable, President Emeritus, Mount Senario College, whose expertise in Russian studies was motivation for my learning and investigating Yelena's story. One reason I wanted to tell this story was because I could not find an accurate, detailed account of her remarkable story in English. Her 1978 World Championship is highlighted in the ABC Sports feature, Gymnastics Greatest Stars. She is also featured in the 1991 A&E; documentary, More Than A Game. Yelena's coach, Mikhail Klimenko, was not present in the Minsk Sports Palace at the time of Yelena's injury. He was reportedly traumatized from the tragedy and soon emigrated to Italy where he raised his children and worked with young gymnasts in Milan until his death on his 65th birthday, Nov. 17, 2007. Yelena's best friend on the Soviet team, Elena Davydova, won the All-Around title at the Moscow Olympics in 1980. Nadia tied East Germany's Maxi Gnauck for silver. The Soviet team took the team title, with Romania second. Nadia won Gold medals in both the balance beam and Floor Exercise, finishing her Olympic career with five gold, three silver and a bronze medal. Not long after the Moscow Olympics, during a World Tour of the Romanian team, Bela and Marta Karolyi defected from Romania settling for a short while in Canada before opening a gymnastics training center in Austin, Texas. They have gone on to train and coach several of America's top female gymnasts and Olympic Gold medalists. Several of the former Romanian and American gymnasts have alleged abusive treatment while trained by the Karolyis. The allegations include beatings, starving them to lose weight and entering gymnasts in major competitions despite serious injuries. After her coaches defected, Nadia was kept under virtual house arrest for years, denied opportunities to leave the country except for major competitions where she was always kept under watchful eyes. When Romania was on the brink of revolution in the fallout of the Soviet Union's break-up, Nadia made her escape and with the help of the Karolyi's, settled in the U.S. She married American gymnast Bart Conner in a televised wedding ceremony in Romania. Today, she holds dual citizenship in the two countries. The 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow were marked by U.S. President Jimmy Carter's decision to boycott U.S. participation, blaming the USSR's invasion of Afghanistan as the reason. Sixty nations, all American allies, did likewise. When Los Angeles hosted the next Olympics in 1984, The Soviets and 30 of their allies similarly did not participate. One exception among Soviet satellite nations was the country of Romania which attended the Los Angeles Olympics and beat the American squad featuring Mary Lou Retton and Julianne McNamara for the team gold. Retton won gold in the women's All-Around, upsetting the favored Romanian, Ecaterina Szabo. Szabo won gold on three of four individual events, the beam, floor, and vault. COPYRIGHT LIMITATIONS Video clips used in this documentary, which in their entirety can be found unattributed on YouTube and throughout the world online community, are used under provisions of U.S. "fair use" copyright limitations/exemptions and under international "fair dealing" law. I make no claim of ownership of the video clips used in this video production. Their use is intended solely in order to educate and give commentary to the events depicted. Music used in this production, including the freely licensed USSR National Anthem, and the Kevin McLeod songs, "Long Road Ahead" and "Sovereign" are used under Creative Commons License 3.0 and available copyright-free at http:www.incompetech.com. Revenue sharing is disabled for this video.