Natalia Shaposhnikova - 1980 Olympics EF - Floor Exercise

[nazgermex]

MUY BUENA EJECUCION.

[ferency98]

In 1992, gymnasts were only completing a 1 1/2 twist into a double twist, much less into a double pike. Amazing Natalia did this in 1980.

[akimbohr]

9.90 and a bronze medal in the last performance by Natalia. After Moscow Games, she did not compete any more, at the age of 19.

[faeryquene]

I had to run over and watch this Shapo Fx AGAIN because I just saw Beth Tweddle's 2011 Euro FX, My eyes!!! Shapo will restore the BALANCE that is supposed to be ARTISTIC gymnastics!! :)

[SmartShArk1986]

Very stylish performance. Reminds 80s-era greatly!!!

[MTVMANN]

I"m glad they final got rid of the piano and allowed the girls to use a recording!

[Summonearth]

This music remind me of something from Final Fantasy 4.

[Rebeccabwfc]

Absolutely smashing gymnast!

[lemenblues2]

Thats my coach now!

[FLACSC74]

not nice to use this as a platform to talk about her son. This is a video about her , not her son

[gymnasticsloverxoxo]

Is her first tumbling pass: round off 2 1/2 twisting layout round back handspring double piked back?

Is her second tumbling pass: round off back hand spring whip back back handspring double or triple twisting layout?

and is her last passage a double or triple twisting layout??

[tomsk14]

no

her first tumbling pass is round off 1 1/2 twisting layout, bhs,double pike

her second tumbling pass is a double twist and her third tumbling pass is also a double twist.

[gymnasticsloverxoxo]

No no no thank you very much, it wasn't an abrupt tone at all, thank you so much for answering my questions!

[gymnasticsloverxoxo]

WOW the difficulty in this is incredible, just for the difficulty it deserved more then bronze.

[gymnasticsloverxoxo]

It should have been gold.

[tomsk14]

sorry for the abrupt tone of that btw i think i was multi tasking at the time lol

[gymnasticsloverxoxo]

I love the choreography!

[0liveoil214]

nothing against the wonderful preformance in this 2008 olympics but gymnastics just isn't like this anymore...it difficult, yes, but it's nothing like this anymore and it's sad...we need a superb gymnasts like this and like all of the gymnasts in the earlier years.

[tomsk14]

I just thought i'd share my thought here.... as many times as ive seen this video (and ofcourse made my own, as we all know), its bizarre when you consider shapo (circa 80) is probably about the same size as moceanu (circa 96) and yet her grace and lines make her distinctly more feminie and gracious (and 5 years age difference ofcourse) and appear FAR taller than she probably is... she doesnt look short at all....

[ralucagymnast]

Her coach Vladislav Rastorotsky had some wonderful gymnasts: Natalia, Ludmila Tourishcheva, Albina Shishova. All coached by him. He had some very strange coaching methods. But he certainly knew how to make gymnastics artistic;)

[ChildofPluto]

What do you mean by strange? He sure looks scary to me, if he's the one I've seen in videos of Turischeva.

[ralucagymnast]

I forgot to mentiona that Rastorotsky also coached the wonderful Natalia Yurchenko: it was he who dreamed up the vault which is now the most popular style of entry in gymnastics, the roundoff approach to the vaulting platform. Natalia Yurchenko first showcased it in 1985.

[elamantebilingue]

Actually, Yurchencko unveiled it at the Spartakiad 1982 and internationally at the World Cup that same year.

It didn't get popular until 1985 (ironically it was Shushunova who won the world title with it and by then several of the Romanians were performing it as well).

However, I have a feeling that had the Soviets participated in the 1984 Olympics, most of the team would have vaulted a Yurchencko full.

[emmyjo720]

@elamantebilingue That would have left Mary-Lou's vault in the dust without a 10...I remember Yurchenko vaulting her vault in 1983 when she won the WC AA, she also started the Yurchenko mount on to the beam too.

[gymnasticsloverxoxo]

Yes what do you mean by strange coaching methods?

[po2493]

I think the gymnastics competition at odds over all with Comaneci, kim, Davydov, shaposhnikova, Eberle, gnauk steffi Kraken and although I would have liked to be there mukhina the medal would have been different

[TuesdayPillow]

I never liked Shaposh's routines compared to her contemporaries but how I would kill to see that kind of dance and expression nowadays!

[mistybabe5489]

wow 1&1/2 thru to a double pike, some girls are doing that now.

[Dunntosh]

Yeah, it's still classed as a C + D combo. Even in today's CoP, it's still receives a .1 CV.

That just shows you the innovation Natalia had for her time. Her BB routine during these Olympics further proves it.

[mistybabe5489]

i loved her beam routine(the planche!) yea ur right, if u did some adjusting here and there i bet it would still be considered world class now.

[Dunntosh]

Yeah, it would be.

Believe it or not, with the Olympics being boycotted by the Americans, and Nadia Comaneci losing the AA to Davydova, this Olympics is, really, kind of forgotten in many ways. Yet I would like anyone to find so many stars in one Olympic AA & beyond! (Davydova; Comaneci; Gnauck; Shaposhnikova; Eberle; Kim, and the list goes on.)

It was an amazing Olympics full of Gymnastic stars. Too bad my home Olympics was marred by the VT & Raducan's controversy (2000 Olympics) :(

[tomsk14]

I totally agree... Its a very 'quiet' gymnastics, because '72 made Korbut, and '76 made Comeneci, 84' made Mary-Lou and so on... 80 was less consipcuous but I believe Gymnastics was at its peak in many ways here, when Artistry was just peaking with true acrobatics...

Sydney was a shame, because it was a great competition and venue :-) But the Vault and poor Raducan really spoilt things....

[mistybabe5489]

yea i really couldnt believe that happened at the olympics, in a sport where perfection is always being sought. if i were the prez. of the WTC that night i would've apologized and started the whole competition all over again.

[ispaht]

by the way, that floor looked really hard.

[mistybabe5489]

did the commentators say it was? i kno a lot of girls at last years worlds said the floor was real hard there too (that would explain the uncharacteristic mistakes.)

[ispaht]

No. But watching some of the vids from this Olympics, I just got the impression that the floor was kinda hard because almost every landings I saw looked jarred and it seemed like their knees were taking all the pressure.

[mistybabe5489]

well back then the equipment wasnt half as good as it is today. the beam was an ordinary piece of wood and the floor used to be like a dance floor.

[tomsk14]

The floor was definitely less sprung, it has become progressively more sprung, perhaps the floor in 2007 worlds was more old school....Who knows...but your right, hence the massive effort the rotations look...

[ispaht]

One of the most beautiful gymnasts ever.

[SWALE1984]

The greatest, sexiest, and most dynmaic floor exercise in the history of gymanstics. How did she not win the gold medal for this glorious routine???!!! As great as Anna Pavlova is, and she is great; yes, Shapo was clearly more talented. The only gymanst more talented was probably Mukhina.

[tomsk14]

Please type in 'shaposhnikova 1980 my version'.... I have literally made my own tribute lol..Im sure you'll appeciate it swale...

[SWALE1984]

I did check it out. It was simply awesome! Thank you very much for telling me about it.

[SWALE1984]

I was just kidding when I said that it was awesome. You should be ashamed of yourself making fun of Natalia like that. She was such a sweet girl. She was one of the best of all time.

[tomsk14]

I dont get it? How am I making fun of Natalia? I love this routine and made my own version?.....You need a reality check man...Its a tribute not a pisstake....

[ChildofPluto]

@tomsk14: I've seen it, "your version", it's a funny and lovely tribute!

[VictoriaAbrilenAtame]

Vibrance, musicality, well-contained athleticism and the characteristic supple movements of Natalia Shaposhnikova!

[xplosive08]

her landings are hard somehow,and if you watch her performance of so many skills,she is not really tehnicly perfect,but i love her soooo much....

[tomsk14]

Its all quite static really....Lacking in ''Pzazz'' big time...but I always liked her alot too...

[sinjinthule]

I think I see what you're saying. She under-rotates her tumbling runs--tends to pull-around with upper-body strength. I don't think it's for lack of explosive power. I just think she had her approach down badly: poor translation of horizontal to vertical momentum. I enjoyed the routine, thought her dance was really quite good. Shaposh was really best on vault & beam, I think. Still, I enjoy this routine (obviously or I wouldn't front it).

[xplosive08]

i like this routine a lot too,and i like natalia...she is goood gymnast and really cute,but i think she is not teqnicly perfect...

she was the bes on vault,not beam

[tomsk14]

You're right..but she since ive watched it more im starting to see her excellent musicality...the whole routine flows very nicely...the middle tumbling run is beautifully poised...

[ralucagymnast]

Just rewatching this routine, and I think you are right; being a very flexible gymnast, she tends to trade off power for flexibility. She almost hyperextends her leaps, but her tumbling is pretty low and quite "archy"(back flex). I still love this routine though and would love to see gymnasts dance like they used to:(

[sideshowdee]

Yes i think you're right... Plus shes much faster through her tumbling then the other gymnasts of her day, I think the springiness of the floor today allows gymnasts to not have to work so hard on their technique, its much easier to have good form and impulsion on a springier floor....

[HailieNichole1995]

I'd rather them hyper extend their splits on the jumps than not be able to do the splits like some of the gymnasts today.

[ralucagymnast]

So would I!!! Believe me, when I said she hyperextends her leaps, I meant it as a GOOD thing!!! I hate seeing some of the poor excuses which pass as "ring leaps", "switch ring leaps" and "split leaps" these days:(I also hate to see sheep jumps where the feet dont touch the head. That should be a deduction, as the element requires that the feet touch at least the hair, and I am going off topic now........lol.........

[HailieNichole1995]

I hate those too. I also dislike when people say Nastia hyper extends her splits so Shawn's way is right.

[ralucagymnast]

Actually Shawn does get deducted on her "split" leaps; the split must hit at least 180 degrees(full split) for the gymnast to be given the credit for it. You would have thought that Shawn's coaches, being Chinese, who are renowned for their attention to things like flexibility, would have rectified this wouldnt you?

[gymnasticsloverxoxo]

@ralucagymnast Hyper extending leaps can be a good thing (such as in her case), however it can also show a lack of control (such as Nastia who has an inability to control her long legs). It takes true talent to hit a perfect 180 (such as yang bo), nothing less, nothing more.