Yelena Davydova - Full-fledged Olympian

Full-fledged Olympian

At the 1980 Moscow News Tournament Davydova amazed the experts again by performing a full-on, full off vault. This vault had only ever been done before by Olga Korbut..Josef Goehler,vice-president of the West German gymnastics federation wrote in IG,July 1980, p. 30, “Elena Davidova caused a stir at the Moscow News Tournament when she got into Olga Korbut’s footsteps in horse-vaulting: she did a full twist in pre-flight,and in the second flight phase,with a handspring body extended,another twist of 360 degrees around the body length axis. Lets just recall that Olga Korbut did that “Korbut twist” for the first time at the World Championships at Varna 1974 and won the title of world vault champion with it. It took years until we now have another gymnast who tries and risks this element of top virtuosity with perfect body control”. Davydova won a gold and 3 silver at the Moscow News Tournament. At the 1980 USSR Championships in April in Kiev Davydova won gold on vault- unveiling her unique vault full twist on,front somi off and scoring a 10 - and finished 3rd AA.

The Soviet Olympic gymnastics team was to be chosen after the USSR Cup competition in Moscow on 19–22 June. For gymnasts of this generation it was a make-or-break contest. The judges and Soviet officials wanted to determine whose gymnastics would stand up best under the extremely high pressure conditions that would exist at the Olympics. It was run according to procedures for the Olympic Games – a full 4 day competition of compulsories, optionals, AA and event finals. Elena had finished joint 6th at the 1976 USSR Cup but that turned out to be insufficient to be placed on the squad. She knew this time only a top 3 place would give her a spot on the team. Davydova won it comfortably and scored a 10 on floor. She finished 0.5 ahead of her nearest rival, Natalia Shaposhnikova, 0.8 ahead of Zakharova, nearly a full 1.0 ahead of Filatova and a galactic 3.375 ahead of Mukhina.

Just before the Olympics, the Romanian Head Coach Béla Károlyi named Davydova as Nadia Comăneci's main rival for the Olympic title. Frank Taylor, 16 years President of the World Association of Sports Writers and author of "The Comaneci Story", went one step further and predicted Davydova would be the winner. BBC radio reported on podium training at the Olympics, discussing the established stars but added that on the basis of what they had seen they advised viewers to watch out for Yelena Davydova, and that if she performed as well as in training, then she would take gold for her daring routines.

Missing from the 1980 Olympics was the 1978 World Champion, Elena Mukhina, who had been paralysed after an accident while training. She was unable to speak for 6 months and remained in a wheelchair until her death in December 2006. Davydova kept in contact with her and Mukhina described her as "a real friend". Mukhina was not expected to be on the USSR team.In 1979 she had broken her leg and it didn't set right. She was unable to master her old skills. In the spring of 1980 the Soviets split the senior elites into 2 groups - those who were on the Olympic squad and those that weren't. Mukhina had not competed for the first 6 months of 1980 until she finished 14th AA at the USSR Cup. Mukhina was in the 2nd group training in Minsk when the accident happened.

In the team competition – whose scores counted towards both AA medals and event finals – Davydova was hampered by performing 4th for her team before Kim and Shaposhnikova — Comaneci and Gnauck performed 6th for their respective teams. The scores tend to rise with each routine – known as the staircase effect – giving the gymnasts performing last for their team a head start when it came to scoring.

Only 3 members out of 6 from any team could go through to the All-Around final and only 2 to an event final. Davydova qualified for two event finals – beam and vault – but it is believed would have qualified for bars and floor event finals also, had she competed last for her team instead of 4th on the list.

Nadia Comăneci scored a 10 on beam in compulsories, her first perfect score on beam in a major competition since 1977. Yelena Davydova performed very solidly, scoring 39.4, but finished the first day in 7th place behind 3 of her own teammates and equal with another. The leaders were Comaneci and Shaposhnikova, both scoring 39.85. At this stage of the competition in Montreal 76 Comaneci had scored 39.35.

In the optional exercises Davydova came into her own, outscoring all her teammates and meriting a 10 on floor. Barbara Slater, who had been a British gymnast in Montreal and was a TV commentator in 1980, described Davydova's floor exercise as the "performance of the Olympics". Nik Stuart, 9 times British AA champion and the first British national coach, stated that "Her floor exercise is the most complex ever designed for a female gymnast, full of difficulty and fluidity". US gymnast Karen Le Mond stated that Davydova's FX had "harder tumbling passes than the best 10 has ever had". Another commentator wrote "No gymnast of either sex has ever attempted so complicated or complex a routine". The FIG website praises her "delightful dance movements". Glenn Sundby, editor of International Gymnast magazine, commented that "Davydova would have won anywhere on this earth with that floor routine". This routine is also praised in Michael Murphy's 1992 book "The Future of The Body". This was only the 2nd time a perfect score of 10 had been scored on fx at an Olympics; it was the 1st ever 10 scored in team optionals fx and the only 10 scored on fx – in either women’s or men’s gymnastics – at the 1980 Olympics.

During this part of the competition Nadia Comăneci fell from bars attempting a Hecht 1/2,a move she had also fallen from at the 1979 World Cup. The judges gave her a 9.5,which means she would have scored a 10 without the fall. Comaneci scored 39.2.