Okay, y'all....I know I said that we would talk about another Plantagenet princess the next time but with all the brouhaha about Ryan Lochte and the Rio Olympics in the news (as well as the heartwarming and cool stories) I thought it might be appropriate to talk about some lesser known Olympic athletes with very inspirational stories.
My favorite Olympic sport is artistic gymnastics. I am aging myself by saying this but I remember Mary Lou Retton in the 1984 Olympic Games and wanting to be just like her. There may or may not have been an incident outside a local department store where I saw the jungle gyms displayed outside and before my Daddy could stop me I took off running as fast as my little legs would take me, jumped full force on the rings......and the WHOLE THING fell over. I am sure my Daddy was absolutely mortified and my siblings got in trouble for laughing. Anyway, back to my Mary Lou aspirations-I took ballet for a bit through a school program and can still do positions 1-5. I also did cheerleading but alas, puberty reared its ugly head and I went from tiny to tank fairly quickly. Even still, I always made a point to watch gymnastics for every Olympics and every time I saw it on TV (before the YouTube/DVR/OnDemand era, kids....it was hell). My personal "glory days" of gymnastics were the late 90's and early 2000's- Khorkina and Amanar, Produnova and Raducan, Olaru and Zamo- elegance and athleticism. I still like to watch (and man, is that Simone Biles amazing) but I miss the theatrical element that seems to have passed on in favor of power and might. Tempus fugit.
Anyway, for two weeks I was enthralled and I had at least one conversation per day about gymnastics, which led to watching and then to YouTubing elements that I didn't understand. Y'all know YouTube is a wormhole, click on one video and twelve hours later you're starving and exhausted but you can spot the difference between a Tsukahara and a Cuervo with one minute glance. That's also where I found out about the two ladies I am going to talk about today- Larisa Latynina and Vera Caslavska. Not that others weren't important- these are the two who were most intriguing to me.
Let me caveat this to say that gymnastics during the careers of these two ladies (the 50's and 60's) was a lot different than it is now- vaults, balance beam and floor exercise elements were simpler, and the uneven bars were much closer together. Also, women gymnasts were far more developed than they are now- with the breasts and hips that make modern gymnastics more physically difficult. And the hair.....oh just wait.
Larisa Latynina was a gymnast for the Soviet Union in the midst of the Cold War. She was born in Soviet Ukraine and her father was killed at the Battle of Stalingrad. She first practiced ballet, but her choreographer left the area so she switched to gymnastics. She graduated high school and moved to Kiev, and made her international debut at the World Championships in Rome in 1954. From that point on she proceeded to take the gymnastics world by storm, winning gold in both World and Olympic events. She won five out of six titles at the 1958 World Championships.....whilst FIVE MONTHS PREGNANT. With child. Enceinte. There's a video on YouTube of her performing at the 1958 event.....she does the splits, y'all. I don't know about y'all but when I was pregnant I thought I deserved a gold medal for waddling up two flights of stairs twice a day and keeping myself from throwing up when someone at work microwaved Chef Boyardee. Her career lasted until 1966 and after retirement she became a gymnastics coach for the Soviet team- who won gold the 1968,1972 and 1976 Olympic Games. During her career she participated in three Olympic Games and won 14 individual Olympic medals and 4 team medals for a total of 18- a record only broken by Michael Phelps in 2012.
Vera Caslavska was a gymnast from Czechoslovakia (now known as the Czech Republic). Her talent and medal count is just as impressive as Latynina's, with 11 Olympic medals. In fact, the two women competed at the same time and in many of the same competitions. Caslavska won the silver in the 1962 Worlds and then the gold (over Latynina) in the 1964 Olympics. She is still the record holder for most individual titles than any other gymnast and has won gold on every individual event. Vera was born in Prague, and was originally a figure skater. She debuted internationally at the 1958 Worlds and won silver in the team event, and medals in the 1960, 1964 and 1968 Olympic Games. Her career was impressive, but it was a simple act of respectful defiance that made her legendary (and the beehive hairdo that stayed perfect throughout).
In August, the political situation in Czechoslovakia became precarious due to the Soviet Union's (along with Bulgaria, Hungary and Poland) invasion of Czechoslovakia. Vera was pretty vocal about her support of the anti Communist Prague Spring, and this outspoken decision would come to a head later. In addition, Vera lost her training facility as a result of the invasion, and had to use improvised equipment made from potato sacks and wooden beams. But this setback didn't stop Vera. She dominated the 1968 Olympics, winning medals in all six events. However, after her performance on beam, the judges made a controversial decision to give the gold to Soviet Natalia Kuchinskaya, and upgraded the preliminary scores of Larisa Petrik on floor to share the gold medal with Vera. Vera was rightfully pissed, but instead of making a big scene, she chose to protest in the quietest manner possible. When the anthem for the USSR was played, Vera simply bowed her head down and away. This simple act of defiance in defense of her country did not go unnoticed. Her fellow countrymen revered her, but her federation ostracized her, depriving her of the right to travel abroad and participate in public sports events- both in Czechoslovakia and abroad. She was effectively forced to retire and was considered a pariah in her country for many years. She was eventually allowed to leave Czechoslovakia and go to Mexico as a coach, but it wasn't until the late 1980's (and with considerable pressure from the IOC) that she was allowed to become a coach and judge in Czechoslovakia. She married shortly after the 1968 Olympics but divorced in 1987 and suffered from depression. However, her life improved greatly after the fall of communism in late 1989 and was eventually named as President of the Czech Olympic Committee. She lives quietly now and largely out of the public eye in Prague.
That's it for this week, folks- I promise next week I'll go back to our regularly scheduled program with Margaret Plantagenet Pole, Countess of Salisbury. Y'all have a great week...and never stop learning!
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