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Elena Mukhina: the most tragic story of Soviet sports. Elena Mukhina: the tragic fate of the Soviet athlete Which of the gymnasts broke his back

Date of Birth: 01.06.1960
Citizenship: Russia

Here is how Mukhina's partner in the women's team, absolute world champion-79 and five-time Olympic champion Nelly KIM recalled this five years later in her book:

“Traditionally, we prepared for the Moscow Olympics in Minsk. The most hardworking of us was Lena. Due to an injury, she missed the World Cup-79 and now worked tirelessly, catching up and dreaming of becoming a participant in the Olympic Games ...

One day Klimenko went to Moscow on business for one day. And it must be such a misfortune to happen that Mukhina herself ventured in training without insurance to perform the most difficult somersault. Lena jumped, but there was no full rotation - and the gymnast hit her back on the platform. She was taken to the hospital, the training was crumpled for us, we were silent and could not talk about anything. The worst was soon confirmed: Lena had a damaged cervical vertebra ...

Mukhina's operation was performed only on the third day. Even in a military hospital there are vacations ... Therefore, the doctors could not return the ability to move independently. It's good that she was rescued. After all, when the spinal cord is in a compressed state for a long time, we are no longer talking about a complete recovery, but about life and death.

... A year ago, a similar incident happened to our other gymnast - Maria Zasypkina. However, medicine has taken a step forward in a quarter of a century. In the 1980s, the methods of computed tomography or nuclear magnetic resonance were not yet used, giving an image and, therefore, the ability to plan the actions of surgeons in detail. And that Masha will not remain paralyzed, like Mukhina, CITO doctors are 99 percent sure ...

... And after all, there was a sign from above for Lena. In 1979, at one of the training sessions, she broke her leg and wanted to leave the sport altogether. However, at that time she was the only gymnast in CSKA who could get to the Olympics in Moscow. And mentor Mikhail Klimenko, a major in the Soviet Army, persuaded Mukhina to stay and fight for this right. Yes, not just to fight: he set her the task of winning a medal in the individual championship. Few people know that she started training while still in a cast ...

Recalls the absolute world champion-66, two-time winner of the Olympic Games in Mexico City-68 Mikhail VORONIN:

“Mukhina has always been distinguished by fantastic performance. She obeyed the coach implicitly. By the way, many blame the gymnast's mentor Mikhail Klimenko for this tragedy. Say, he was a terrible despot. But, in my opinion, this is just a terrible coincidence. One can envy the professional attitude of Mikhail Yakovlevich to his work. I actually grew up with him and I know what I'm talking about. And how many wonderful athletes he brought up.

Of course, it is difficult to disagree with Mikhail Voronin. But the fact that Klymenko was an obsessive coach, sometimes not knowing the measure, is for sure. Once, before the USSR Cup, Lena seriously injured her Achilles. The team doctor asked to remove Mukhina from minor competitions. Klimenko promised. And the next day, Lena, with terrible anguish on her face, went to the platform ... However, she often had to perform, overcoming pain.

In 1975, at the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR, after an unsuccessful landing, Lena suffered a detachment of the spinous processes of the cervical vertebrae. With such an injury, it is impossible to turn your head. However, every day Klimenko came to the hospital and took her to the gym, where she trained all day without an orthopedic “collar” necessary for the rehabilitation of such injuries. She did not even pay attention to broken ribs, concussions, inflammation of the joints, twisted ankles and knocked out fingers. Fearing the wrath of the coach, she hid her injuries, secretly sniffed ammonia and went to the next projectile ...

... After numerous operations in the summer of 1985, Elena was offered to contact Valentin Dikul. However, as a result of huge loads, after a couple of months, she again ended up in the hospital - her kidneys failed. All this time she never gave up. A few years after a terrible fall, she could sit in an armchair, hold a spoon, write a little. Teachers came to her, lectured, took exams. She managed to graduate from the Moscow Institute of Physical Education. Looking at her, it's hard to believe that she was once called a coward for being afraid to learn new elements. Years of loneliness made Lena take a different look at the world, turn to God.

In fairy tales, a good fairy always rewards a person who has managed to endure the blows of fate. And in life, justice does not always triumph. Although Lena had her own fairy - grandmother Anna Ivanovna, who raised the future champion from the age of three. At school, Lena was no different from her peers, except that she was unsmiling and shy. At that time, most girls dreamed of figure skating, admiring the grace of Irina Rodnina and Lyudmila Pakhomova. And Lena liked gymnastics.

“One day an unknown woman appeared at the lesson. Introduced herself: Olezhko Antonina Pavlovna, master of sports. And he says: who wants to do gymnastics, raise your hand. I almost screamed with joy, ”Elena Vyacheslavovna herself later recalled.

The success shown by Lena did not go unnoticed, and she moved to Dynamo to Alexander Eglit. Eglit himself soon began working at CSKA and did not want to leave his students. So the 14-year-old candidate for the master of sports got into the "army". And then Eglit suggested to his colleague Mikhail Klimenko to take his ward to his group. Klimenko, who had previously trained only men, looked at Mukhina in action and, after some thought, agreed.

The master of sports in gymnastics, journalist Vladimir GOLUBEV, recalls:

“I met brothers Mikhail and Viktor Klimenko in 1967. I often visited the CSKA gym. Misha then coached Viktor and was an incredible maximalist. A few years later, Mikhail showed me Lena Mukhina, very modest, very sweet. He said: "She will be the world champion." I didn’t believe in my soul - such quiet people don’t know how to get angry, and without anger you won’t get into the champions. Did not guess. ... Klimenko immediately and firmly decided that Mukhina's trump card would be incredible complexity. “Designed” a fantastic program for Lena. Mukhina was an exception to the rule. Only at the age of 14 did she begin to study such a “basic” element as a double somersault - at this age all gymnasts can do it. When I looked at Lena, I compared her with Lyudmila Turishcheva. The same figure, the same strict, but internally soft, natural style, the same composure and seriousness.

In two years, Lena made an incredible breakthrough. She came to Klimenko on December 28, 1974, and already in the summer of 1976 she could go to the Olympics in Montreal! Her then program with unique combinations was called "space". But Elena lacked stability, and therefore sports leaders did not dare to take her to Canada.

Mukhina's hour struck the next year. At the USSR Championship, she becomes the second in the all-around and goes to the adult European Championship in Prague, where she is slightly inferior in the individual standings to Nadia Komaneci herself and wins three gold medals on individual apparatus, conquering the judges and fans with the highest technique. It was in the Czech Republic that Mukhina first performed the most difficult element, which was later named after her.

From the memoirs of Nelly KIM:

“Lena had a miracle element on the uneven bars, which was called “Mukhina's loop”. There used to be a “Korbut loop”, and then the “Mukhina loop” appeared, when Klimenko, at the suggestion of his brother Viktor, decided to improve the “Korbut loop” - something amazing turned out. The audience gasps and closes their eyes, and Mukhina, as in a circus, soars over the bars and flutters in the air.

1978 was a triumphant year in Mukhina's career. She wins the title of the strongest gymnast in the country. Ahead was the World Championships in France, where Lena became the fourth Soviet gymnast after Galina Shamray, Larisa Latynina and Lyudmila Turishcheva, who put on the world “crown”.

From the memoirs of Nelly KIM:

“We came to Strasbourg with such a team: Elena Mukhina, Maria Filatova, Natalya Shaposhnikova, Tatiana Arzhannikova, Svetlana Agapova and me. This team became the "golden" one! But the absolute winner was Elena Mukhina - a real champion, without any reservations. The most difficult program, virtuosity, softness, femininity. ... We returned to Moscow - October, autumn, cold, and we all have spring in our hearts and smiles from ear to ear. But, of course, Mukhina and Andrianov were greeted especially solemnly - they are absolute champions.

... Mukhina's coach Mikhail Klimenko settled in Italy long ago. It is not for me to judge a man who has trained many wonderful gymnasts. But one day he said to his ward the following phrase: "They will leave you alone only when you break on the platform." Of course, he meant something completely different...

Formally, Elena is not an Olympian. But 23 years of being bedridden, not losing heart and continuing to live at all costs, aware of the tragedy of their situation, can only be real Olympic champions.

And further. Today, almost all of Mukhina's partners in the then national team live abroad - in the USA, Canada, France. They, healthy, turned out to be of no use to anyone in their homeland. And the paralyzed world champion is not needed by her country all the more, although it was for the sake of the country that she went on a fatal jump 23 years ago ...

P.S. The daily routine of Elena Mukhina has remained unchanged for many years. She wakes up, does certain exercises, reads, watches TV (this is the only thread that connects her with the world of people). Elena Vyacheslavovna prefers not to stir up the events of 23 years ago. And so we did not consider it possible to remind her of the past. We considered it necessary to remind everyone about her - the pride of our country, Elena Mukhina.

Elena Mukhina became famous overnight, precisely in 1978, when she won the absolute world championship. Two years later, she was severely injured and was bedridden for 26 years.

Mukhina was born on June 1, 1960 in Moscow. Elena lost both her parents at the age of five. She was brought up by Anna Ivanovna - her grandmother. Since childhood, unlike her peers who dreamed of becoming figure skaters, Elena wanted to be a gymnast.

“One day an unknown woman appeared at the lesson. Introduced herself: Olezhko Antonina Pavlovna, master of sports. And he says: who wants to do gymnastics - raise your hand. I almost screamed with joy, ”Elena Vyacheslavovna herself later recalled.

Mukhina, thanks to her unprecedented capacity for work, talent and perseverance, immediately showed herself. The successes of the gymnast did not go unnoticed, and she got into Dynamo, to the famous coach Alexander Eglit. Eglit himself soon began working at CSKA and did not want to leave his students. So the 14-year-old candidate for master of sports ended up in the CSKA club. In 1974, Eglit invited his colleague Mikhail Klimenko to take his ward to his group. Klimenko, who had previously trained only men, looked at Mukhina in action and agreed. The whole short career of Elena Mukhina was connected with this coach.

In two years, the gymnast made an incredible breakthrough and already in the summer of 1976 she had a chance to go to the Olympics in Montreal. Her then program with unique combinations was called "space". But due to the instability of performances, sports leaders were afraid to take her to Canada.

Mukhina received her first serious injury at the age of 15. In 1975, during the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR, which was held by gymnasts in Leningrad, Mukhina landed unsuccessfully on her head in a foam pit. When x-rays were taken, it turned out that during the fall, the spinous processes of the cervical vertebrae had been torn off. Lena was admitted to the hospital, but every day, after a medical round, a coach came for her and took her to the gym, where, having removed the orthopedic collar from her neck, Mukhina trained until the evening. A few days later, for the first time, she felt that her legs began to go numb during training and a feeling of some strange weakness appeared, which no longer passed.

Mukhina's first finest hour struck the following year. At the USSR Championship, she becomes the second in the all-around and goes to the adult European Championship in Prague, where she is slightly inferior in the individual standings to the famous Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci and wins three gold medals on separate apparatus, conquering the judges and fans with the highest technique. It was in the Czech Republic that Mukhina first performed the most difficult element on the uneven bars, later named after her - Mukhina's loop.

In 1977, when Mukhina was training at home before the World Championships, she hit her side on the lower pole of the bars so that it split. “It feels like I broke my ribs,” Lena later said. - But then, after sitting for ten minutes on the mats, in a semi-conscious state, she also worked freestyle and balance beam. When it got really bad, she went up to the coach, but he only gritted through his teeth: “You are always looking for an excuse to do nothing.”

In 1978, two weeks before the All-Union Youth Games, Mukhina knocked out her thumb on the uneven bars so that it completely came out of the joint. She corrected it herself - clenching her teeth and closing her eyes. But the injuries did not end there: during the warm-up before the competition, she did not calculate the run-up (they washed the floor in the hall and destroyed the marks made with chalk), fell when landing from a jump and hit her head. The choreographer secretly, so as not to attract the attention of the coaches, wore ammonia to her, and Mukhina, having stepped off the next projectile, clamped the cotton wool in her palms.

The year 1978 became triumphant in Mukhina's career. She wins the title of the strongest gymnast in the country, and then wins the world championship in France. First - in the team, and a day later she became the absolute champion, beating, among others, the absolute champion of the Games-76 Nadya Komenech. She made it to the finals on three apparatus out of four and collected another complete set of awards, winning silver on uneven bars and balance beam and sharing gold on floor exercise with two-time Montreal Olympic champion Nelly Kim. Elena Mukhina became the fourth Soviet gymnast after Galina Shamray, Larisa Latynina and Lyudmila Turishcheva, who became the absolute world champion.

This insane tension could not go unnoticed. When Mukhina and I periodically met in the hall, she looked inhibited, often cried. Once she said that she did not have time to completely cross the avenue in front of the CSKA sports complex while the green light was on - she did not have enough strength. At the same time, her free program on almost all shells continued to be the most difficult in the world.

In the fall of 1979, Mukhina broke her leg at demonstration performances in England. A month and a half passed in a cast, but when it was removed, it turned out that the broken bones had dispersed. They were put in place, the plaster was put on again, and the next day (the coach insisted on this) Mukhina was already in the gym - she worked on shells, landing on dismounts on one leg. Two months after the cast was removed, she was already doing all her combinations.

“Klimenko was always terribly nervous before the competition, pulled me,” Mukhina recalled. - Probably because he perfectly understood that his own well-being and career directly depend on whether I get into the national team or not. I took my training very seriously. There were cases when, in order to drive off excess weight, she ran at night and went to the gym in the morning. At the same time, I constantly had to listen that I was a redneck and should be happy that they paid attention to me and gave me a chance.

At the last training camp in her life in Minsk in early July 1980, Mukhina arrived with ankles and knees sick from overloads, and besides, she began to have inflammation of the articular bag of the hand. The USSR national gymnastics team was preparing for the Olympic Games. Mukhina's coach, Mikhail Klimenko, left for Moscow for a couple of days (on the sidelines there was talk that Mukhina might not be included in the main team, and Klimenko went to "defend" the student at the top). Lena worked independently and at one of the training sessions she decided to try a unique combination. Its essence was that after the flask and the most difficult (one and a half somersaults with a turn of 540 degrees) jump, the landing should not have taken place on the feet, as usual, but head down, in a somersault. The gymnast unsuccessfully pushed, there was not enough height, and in front of the head coach of the women's team Aman Shaniyazov, the gost coach Lidia Ivanova and the coach of the acrobatics team (there was no one else in the hall), she crashed into the floor, breaking her neck. According to one of the coaches, she crashed because she simply didn’t push with that very injured leg in the run.

During the first eight years, she was operated on several times. The first operation - on the spine - was performed only a day after the injury in Minsk. It lasted several hours, but the result (largely due to delay) was not very comforting: due to the fact that the brain remained in a severely compressed state for so long, Mukhina remained almost completely paralyzed.

In the summer of 1985, Elena was offered to contact Valentin Dikul. However, as a result of huge loads, after a couple of months, she again ended up in the hospital - her kidneys failed. After another operation, a fistula formed in the side of the gymnast, which did not heal for a year and a half. Each time, with tremendous difficulty, doctors managed to get Mukhina out of a postoperative coma - the body refused to fight for life.

After all these countless operations, I decided that if I want to live, then I need to run away from hospitals, Lena told me. - Then I realized that I need to radically change my attitude to life. Not to envy others, but to learn to enjoy what is available to me. Otherwise, you can go crazy. I realized that the commandments “do not think badly”, “do not act badly”, “do not envy” are not just words. That there is a direct connection between them and how a person feels. I began to feel these connections. And I realized that, compared with the ability to think, the lack of the ability to move is such nonsense ...

Of course, at first I was terribly sorry for myself. Especially when she returned home for the first time after the injury, from where she left on her own legs and where everything still assumed the presence of a person on her feet. In addition, almost everyone who came to visit me asked: “Are you going to sue?”

All this time she never gave up. A few years after a terrible fall, she could sit in an armchair, hold a spoon, write a little. Teachers came to her, lectured, took exams. She managed to graduate from the Moscow Institute of Physical Education.

When an injury occurs, the question always arises: “Who is to blame?” When I asked Mukhina what she herself thinks about this, Lena answered evasively: “I taught Klimenko that I can train and perform with any injuries ...”

According to an interview with Larisa Latynina, Mikhail Klimenko was struck by her injury. Mukhina did not expect to be added to the roster of the Soviet Olympic team. There was little doubt that the Soviet women's gymnastics team would win the gold medal at the Summer Olympics as it had at previous Games. Despite this, Klymenko wanted Mukhina to train so that he would become an "olympic champion coach". After these events, Klimenko emigrated to Italy.

They did not know then at what cost these trainings were given to Elena. Leaving the hotel for training, each time she kept her eyes on the passing cars, automatically guessing: if she throws herself under the wheels, will she have time to slow down or not. She tried on the ledge outside the hotel room window and calculated how she should jump, so that she would be sure. When, in that nine-year-old conversation, she told me about it, I asked in horror why she had not quit gymnastics earlier?

"I don't know," came the reply. - I saw my fall several times in a dream. I saw how they carried me out of the hall. I knew that sooner or later it would really happen. I felt like an animal being whipped down an endless corridor. But again and again she came to the hall. Perhaps this is fate. And they are not offended by fate.

Did she offend herself? Externally, no. When I learned about Mukhina's death from the same friend who once brought me to her house, our eight-year-old conversation involuntarily surfaced in my memory, stood before my eyes. “You don’t need to help me,” Lena objected quite calmly to some of our attempts to straighten the pillows, to move something closer. "I shouldn't let myself get too used to helping others."

Mukhina never sought to communicate with journalists. Even a short period of public attention, when in 1983 IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch presented her with the highest award of the Olympic movement - the Olympic Order, became quite painful for her. With all the horror of her physical condition, Mukhina managed to retain the ability to surprisingly calmly talk on any topic and call a spade a spade. Therefore, all that naked window dressing, which was the award fuss with visits to a small apartment of journalists and photographers, did not please her. Rather, offended.

It was difficult to describe her state in words. Elena could neither stand, nor sit, nor hold a spoon in her hand, nor even dial a phone number. In order to be able to read something, Lena resorted to a trick proven over the years: she asked to attach a sheet of text to the wall at eye level with a pin. When talking on the phone, she lay her ear on the receiver and could talk like that for quite a long time.

She learned to withdraw into herself - into some unreal world for healthy people, where she traced the chains of origins, heredity. I sincerely believed that a person can have several lives - in different time spaces. She assured me that she sees not only the past, but also the future of the people with whom she communicates. She was happy to talk about it. This hobby (although one can call it a hobby that, in essence, became a life) had different consequences. Including - heavy for others. It was Mukhina who at one time dissuaded one of her close friends from sending a newborn child with a severe heart defect to the hospital. Convinced that the baby simply will not survive. As a result, a few years later, the child was still operated on, but the family broke up: the child's father was never able to forgive either Mukhina or his wife for the fact that the child was in the hospital so late.

As her close friend told me, Mukhina noticeably passed when she found out that her former coach returned from Italy, where he worked for many years, to Moscow. To meet with Klimenko, who in her mind remained the most terrible ghost of a past life, she flatly refused.

The death of her grandmother in the spring of 2005 was a colossal blow for Lena. She did not want to give her to a nursing home, despite the fact that the 90-year-old woman herself required constant care. And, having already lost her mind and feeling that she was dying, she constantly shouted to her granddaughter: “I will not leave you. Come with me!".

Mukhina also survived this nightmare. She asked, when Anna Ivanovna was gone, only one thing: when the time comes, under no circumstances should they bury her next to her grandmother. And don't do an autopsy. Leave alone. She had almost no contact with her father. He himself - still a young man - began to appear in the house only after he found out that Mukhina, through the incredible efforts of many people, managed to “break through” the personal presidential pension. Here I visited. For money...

She's probably just tired of living. I'm tired of constantly looking for an answer why in our country anything can be valuable, but not human life. Even in conversations with the closest people, which included, by and large, only two friends, Mukhina never allowed herself to complain about her fate. Although to think about it - what a horror it is that the only variety in her life was rare excursions in a wheelchair to the corridor or to the kitchen. With one single purpose: to see what is happening there - behind the walls of the room in which she spent 26 years ...

Elena Mukhina died on December 22, 2006. A memorial service in her honor was held on December 27. Elena was buried at the Troekurovsky cemetery in Moscow.

References

Elena Vaitsekhovskaya "Elena Mukhina: A Tragedy 26 Years Long". Sport-Express, 26.12.2006
Andrey Uspensky "Fly's Loop" Novaya Gazeta, No. 38, May 29, 2003

She was amazingly talented and resilient. Elena Mukhina was the absolute champion of the USSR and the world in artistic gymnastics, she showed an incredibly difficult program, some elements of which are now banned in competitions because of their danger. The gymnast dreamed of becoming an Olympic champion, but the injury received in training forever deprived her of such an opportunity. But even being bedridden, Elena Mukhina continued to fight for the right to live.

Striving up

The future gymnast, who was born in 1960 in Moscow, was left without a mother at the age of two, and the baby’s father, after the death of his wife, created a new family in which there was no place for his daughter. Fortunately for Lena, she had a wonderful grandmother Anna Ivanovna, who raised and raised her granddaughter.

Elena dreamed of gymnastics since childhood. While her peers did not miss a single broadcast from the figure skating championships, Lena was fascinated by the screen, where fragile girls performed complex gymnastic elements on uneven bars or beam.

When one day Antonina Olezhko appeared at one of the lessons and invited those who wished to the gymnastics section, Elena Mukhina did not hesitate for a second. It was her dream, which acquired quite real features.

The performance of a little girl could be the envy of many athletes. She could train for hours without noticing fatigue and repeating the element over and over again, bringing it to perfection. Very soon, Elena's efforts were noticed, and she reached a new level: she began to train with the then-famous Alexander Eglit at Dynamo, then moved to CSKA with him.

Mikhail Klimenko, to whom Eglit handed over his pupil, firmly decided to make the world champion out of Mukhina. How he managed to discern stamina and sports passion in a modest girl remains a mystery.

Hard work and perseverance

Mikhail Klimenko was a demanding, strict and even tough coach. In his desire to make the athlete a champion, he was ready for any sacrifice. Elena had to listen to the coach in everything, she had no right to tears, skipping workouts or arguing. The coach decided that Elena Mukhina should show the most difficult program.

He compiled an incredible program for the student, which hardly anyone could repeat, and developed a tough training schedule.

Elena obeyed the coach implicitly, honing her skills over and over again, overcoming pain and fatigue. After only a year and a half, Mukhina became one of the strongest gymnasts and claimed membership in the USSR Olympic team. But the commission at that moment did not approve the gymnast's candidacy, justifying its refusal by the athlete's lack of experience and stability.

However, neither Elena Mukhina herself nor her coach was upset by the refusal. They continued to stubbornly prepare for participation in the competition and were almost sure of imminent success. In 1977, Elena Mukhina became the second in the all-around in the USSR, and at the European Championships, held in Prague, she was able to win three gold medals at once.

That championship became a landmark for the athlete: in Prague, for the first time, she presented to the audience and judges the most difficult element of the program, the “Korbut loop”. True, the coach, on the advice of his brother, especially for Elena, improved and complicated this element, as a result of which he received the name "Mukhina's loop."

It was impossible not to admire the athlete, who easily soared and seemed to soar above the bars, performing the most difficult flips in the air. Subsequently, both loops were banned from gymnasts due to danger.

Ups and downs

Her path in sports was not easy, the athlete on the way to the podium was repeatedly injured and worked, trying not to notice the pain. From 1975 to 1978, the gymnast suffered several serious injuries, but she often trained, even while being treated in a hospital. She taught herself and her coach that she could train to the limit without noticing pain and not allowing herself to be weak.

In 1978, Elena Mukhina became the absolute champion of the USSR and the world. When the USSR anthem sounded at the World Championships in Strasbourg, Elena did not hold back her tears: she was proud that she was able to win and became the strongest gymnast in the world.

However, 1979 brought the first disappointment to the athlete and her coach. Elena's demonstration performances in England in 1979 ended with a broken leg and the inability to take part in the World Cup. Barely recovering from the injury, the gymnast began training. She practiced, not knowing fatigue, overcoming pain. And only occasionally complained to teammates about the incredible weakness. Athletes often noticed that Elena was secretly wiping her tears.

Right to live

At the training camp in Minsk in 1980, Elena again worked in the gym, ignoring the severe pain in her leg and categorically ignoring fatigue. She dreamed of the Olympics and therefore even the departure of the coach to Moscow did not make her give up training. However, Mikhail Klimenko insisted that she go through her entire program, including the most difficult elements. During the next repetition, she literally crashed into the floor and was no longer able to move due to a broken neck.

Many coaches and gymnasts believed that the excessive loads set by the coach were the cause of Elena Mukhina's injury. She used to obey the coach and continued to work even when she had no strength at all.

Only a day later, Elena Mukhina underwent the first operation, but after it the athlete still could not move. During the year, the athlete underwent eight operations. And after each, it was increasingly difficult for the doctors to bring Elena to her senses. There was a feeling that the athlete's body simply refuses to fight for life. But Elena Mukhina herself never refused to fight.

Five years after the injury, Elena turned to Valentin Dikul for help, but two months later the gymnast was again hospitalized, this time due to kidney failure. And she forced herself to do the exercises again and again. And I learned to be happy no matter what. Elena was able to sit at first, then hold a spoon, even write. She graduated from the Institute of Physical Education due to the fact that teachers came to study at her home and take exams.

Elena and fellow gymnasts, who constantly visited Mukhina, did not leave Elena with their participation, tried to help her, support, and please her with something. Elena Mukhina lived another 26 years after the injury, constantly being in a wheelchair and diligently refusing outside help. In 2005, her grandmother died, and a year later Elena was gone.

Larisa Latynina was a winner not only in sports, but also in life. She graduated from school with a gold medal, and the institute with a red diploma. And in the family, she strove for the ideal, but she was able to achieve it only on the third attempt. before Larisa Latynina became truly happy.

When Pierre de Coubertin wrote his "Ode to Sport", he simply did not think that in some hundred years sport would become professional. And his words that “no top achievements and no record should be the result of overwork and affect health” seem today at least naive.
No, at the end of the 70s in the USSR, and, perhaps, in the world, sports had not yet fully taken a professional footing. Although our athletes have already been punished for failures at world forums, and coaches have been removed from their posts. Most likely, the 19-year-old gymnast Elena Mukhina also understood this very well. Otherwise, 23 years ago, at the pre-Olympic training camp in Minsk, she would not have decided to go for the killer, as it turned out later, element ...

Here is how Mukhina's partner in the women's team, absolute world champion-79 and five-time Olympic champion Nelly KIM recalled this five years later in her book:

Recalls the absolute world champion-66, two-time winner of the Olympic Games in Mexico City-68 Mikhail VORONIN:

“Once upon a lesson, an unknown appeared

that woman. Introduced herself: Olezhko Antonina Pavlovna, master of sports. And he says: who wants to do gymnastics, raise your hand. I almost screamed with joy, ”Elena Vyacheslavovna herself later recalled.

The master of sports in gymnastics, journalist Vladimir GOLUBEV, recalls:

From the memoirs of Nelly KIM:

Formally, Elena is not an Olympian. But 23 years of being bedridden, not losing heart and continuing to live at all costs, aware of the tragedy of their situation, can only be real Olympic champions.

A few days before the onset of 2007, Moscow said goodbye to Elena MUKHINA. This amazing gymnast became the world champion at the age of 18. She was predicted the glory of Olga KORBUT and Lyudmila TURISCHEVA. But two years after the golden triumph, Lena was bedridden for 26 years.

Andrey KLINKOV

She took one rash step, for which she later paid for her whole life. Rather, her life was divided into two parts - before the injury and after. At first there were joy, flowers and smiles, then - a feeling of hopelessness and immobility.

On the eve of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, important officials determined the composition of the USSR national gymnastics team. Strangely, some specialists did not want to include Lena Mukhina, a child prodigy from Minsk, who had already won the all-around World Championships, in the team. They said that Mukhina slowed down, she couldn’t get in shape in any way, and she was also naughty. Her personal trainer Mikhail Klimenko could not stand it and rushed to Moscow. To prove to the management that Lena deserves to compete at the Olympics. Klymenko spoke passionately and convincingly, but it would have been better if he had stayed at home, in Minsk. Because in the absence of a coach, the reckless gymnast decided to do the most difficult element on the carpet - a somersault of 1.5 turns with a turn of 540 degrees. Ultra-si element. Leaving, Klimenko forbade her to do this jump on the platform. Said:

Lena, no initiative. You will perform somersaults only in front of my eyes, with insurance. But the student did not listen to him. The result is a fall on the back and a broken cervical vertebra. Disabled carriage.

When all this happened, the trial began. Many began to accuse the national team coach Oman Shaniyazov. It was he who, while in Minsk (our gymnasts were there at the pre-Olympic training camp), allowed Mukhina to complete the entire program in floor exercises. Including that fatal somersault. Without insurance. According to Shaniyazov, Lena convinced him that there was no danger.

Some journalists later wrote that Mukhina herself wanted to get injured in order to take a break from gymnastics. Allegedly, Klimenko loaded her so hard in training that at the age of 20 all these flasks, pirouettes and somersaults stood in her throat. The girl simply dreamed of a vacation, and adult uncles constantly told her: come on, come on, come on! About six months before the Olympics, Lena seriously injured her leg - she unsuccessfully performed a dismount from the uneven bars. Then she confessed to her mother: - Oh, how great, now you don’t have to go to the gym. You know, I deliberately removed my leg ... But when there are only a few days left before the Olympics, not a single athlete will dream of rest. And therefore, the version that Mukhina deliberately killed herself at the training camp in Minsk does not hold water. It is also dismissed by Leonid Arkaev, the long-term head coach of the national team:

All this is nonsense! Lena wanted to go to the Olympics. And, I think, I would not have left without a medal. Elena Davydova became the Olympic champion in all-around at the Games in Moscow. After the award, she said: - Of course, I am glad of my victory, but another gymnast, Elena Mukhina, should stand on the podium. She deserves more than all of us.

Rapture of Samaranch

They tried to put Mukhina on his feet. She was taken to the famous Valentin Dikul more than once - it did not help. Moreover, after Dikul's sessions, the gymnast began to have kidney problems. They say that Kashpirovsky tried to cure her - the same song. And at some point, Lena realized: that's it, she will remain disabled for the rest of her life. Since then, Mukhina stopped communicating with journalists - Lena did not want people to see her weak and helpless.

In such a situation, many would lay hands on themselves. And Mukhina lived with everyday pain for 26 years. She became a candidate of sciences, was engaged in parapsychology and astrology. She herself began to help people who are desperate in life, not to give up and fight. Lena Mukhina was never lucky enough to compete at the Olympic Games. But when our sports officials, deep down feeling guilty for the broken fate of the gymnast, offered to award her with the Olympic Order, there were no objections from the IOC.