Olga Bicherova - 1981 Worlds AA - Floor Exercise

[justinmjb]

Go Bich!!!

[ralucagymnast]

I keep returning to this its so beautiful and incredible when you think she was only 12 years old!! She was such a natural dancer and utterly captivting. The music is wonderful too; I take it its a Russian piece, does anybody know what its called or who the musicians are? It suits her so well, as though it was produced just for her!!

[yellowbanana104]

no matter what her real age is, she was magnificant!!!

[ralucagymnast]

I absolutely LOVE this music too. This whole routine is just so, well, what can I say?

[faeryquene]

Thank you for this all the wonderful videos you've posted!

This was enchanting. Delightful. Bicherova was only 12-and it is performances like this that make me think they should eliminate the age-rule. The best should compete against the best. 12 is very young but at the very least there should be some kind of exception for obviously gifted children so that they can compete at Worlds and the Olympics. Other sports have no such rules.

[LMA629]

she's so good & she was only 12 in this!! (which means she was actually too young to be eligible for this competition). she was introduced as a 12 yr old. in an earlier competition that year but later was claimed to have been born in 1966 later that yr during this competition

[gymnasticsloverxoxo]

Actually she was 13.

[ralucagymnast]

The age thing is funny: there is a video here on youtube of Olga at a display in London in 1981, and the commentator introduces her as "little 15 year old Olga Bicherova" XD. So what was her real age in 1981?? Was it 12, 13, or 15. Poor girl probably didnt know what to say if anyone asked her what her age was.

[gymnasticsloverxoxo]

@ralucagymnast She was thirteen I believe.

[elamantebilingue]

What a sensational and captivating routine! It was all so well-fused...dynamic and difficult tumbling, expressive dance and rousing music!!!

[ralucagymnast]

I know: it makes me sad when I see these works of art compared to the rubbish which passes as womens "artistic" gymnastics now:( What is floor routine now? 5 tumbling passes, and a couple of full-turning split leaps, and a roll on the floor???Its pathetic. This video shows the artistry and beauty which once was:(

[ralucagymnast]

I do agree with you about Cata: she retired because of a nagging back problem, also she wanted to study. The radical overhaul of the Code Of Points, plus the ending of the "Perfect 10" and introduction of open-ended scoring has been the death knell for artistry. Its laughable that people think that Nastia Liukin is "artistic": the young fans of gymnastics obviously have never seen Olga Bicherova, or Ludmila or Aurelia or Elena Davidova.

[elamantebilingue]

Aurelia Dobre! Her gymnastics was sublime!!! Complex and captivating but performed with such ease and exceptional form.

I agree with you about Nastia Liukin. I don't get it when people insist that she is artistic. I think she is technically solid and her father/coach has figured out how to maximize the code. I saw more artistry in Beijing from the Russians, Ukrainians and the Chinese.

Who was coaching in Romania in the 1980s and have they any influence on Romanian gymnasts now?

[gutsfinky]

The head coaches in Romania at that time were Adrian Goreac and Maria Cosma... or maybe he was coaching and she was choreographing. Either way, they were apparently very popular with the gymnasts--strict but not tyrannical like some other coaches were--and obviously very good at what they did. I wonder if they were pushed out after the Romanians lost to the Soviets in the 1988 Olympics.

I don't think they have any impact on Romania gym now--Goreac wound up in France and Cosma in Germany.

[ralucagymnast]

Yes thats right; what a fantastic team of coaches they had then: they had Adrian Goreac, Maria Cosma(she was also beam coach, hence the wonderful dancing on beam we saw in this period), Adrian Stoica coached bars and Octavian Belu was the acrobatic coach for floor exercises. This "dream team" coached the ultimate "dream team": Silivas, Szabo, Dobre, Voinea, Popa, Potorac and Golea. Amazing gymnasts and amazing coaches. So sad to see Romanian gymnastics suffer these days:(

[elamantebilingue]

I really like your perspective on gymnastics. It must be very agonizing for former greats like Bicherova, Davydova and Tourischeva to watch the current condition of the sport.

Tourischeva, for instance, is very deliberate about staying at the margins of the sport even though the Ukrainian Gymnastics Federation is confronting a lot of problems.

[faeryquene]

Compare this to the medal winning routines at Worlds finals this year-Beth Tweddle, a woman in her 20's, the gold medallist could not dance compared to this child.

[ralucagymnast]

I couldnt agree more; modern gymnastics now is a pale shadow of what it was:( Beth won purely because she didnt mess her landings up as much as anyone else. This new code requires stuck landings; no artistry, just stuck landings. Very sad:(

[faeryquene]

Indeed-mind you I like Beth very much and if you look at her earlier fx routines she has tried very hard to improve-but her routines, like many others won't be remembered like these '80's routines-they were masterpieces within the limits of a mat and a timed routine.

[ralucagymnast]

I also like Beth: my daughter used to train at the same gym in Liverpool as her, I have actually watched Beth practice a standing arabian on beam!! She was a very capable gymnast. But you are either a natural dancer or you're not. No amount of training can give you a "feel" for music like these Soviets had; its in the genes.

[faeryquene]

I would consider myself very lucky to watch such a star at practice! :) I've read they basically screened children (perhaps they still do?) in countries like the former Soviet Union, and Romania-with such selection they likely screened out children who did not seem to have a natural feel for dance, and expression-with very few exceptions. How else can one explain the sublime floor routines of the ENTIRE 1989 Soviet Worlds team, not to mention all of their other master works on that event? :)

[gemarno]

@ralucagymnast c'est la mondialisation

[sochisochi]

she is so cute

[po2493]

that song is?