Yelena Davydova - Young Competition Life

Young Competition Life

In 1973 Yelena Davydova won her first International Tournament. In 1974 she became a member of the USSR junior squad. At the 1975 USSR junior Championships Davydova finished 3rd AA and won golds on vault and bars. Following her success here she became a member of the senior squad. In March 1976 Davydova achieved 2nd place All-Around at the USSR championships,in her first try as a senior. She also won the gold on bars and a silver on floor. in the Sovetskii Sport magazine Ally Svirsky wrote "Davydova's exercise included a complex salto between the bars".She added " Davydova's routines were adorned with many original parts.For example,she took her hands off in a handstand on the high bar and changed the position of her hands.She earned a 10.0".Another Soviet paper wrote "She is so fast it looks like an aeroplane propellor is whirling". At the inaugural American Cup, Davydova astonished the gymnastics world by performing a side somersault on the beam, the first woman to do so. However, she only received 3rd place AA, due to her poor health in the match. The competition was won by Nadia Comăneci, whose gymnastics Yelena Davydova greatly admired. At the USSR Cup Davydova tied for 6th place AA – and won bronze on vault, only 0.025 behind world vault championOlga Korbut — but only the top 5 and one gymnast in 9th place were chosen for the Soviet Olympic team.Sovetski Sport,22 June 1976,”We won’t anticipate the decision of the Training Council who must name the members of the Olympic team.But we shall note that the new wave – M.Filatova,N.Shaposhnikova,E.Davydova and O.Koval – were well prepared and appear to be more useful than the more experienced sportsmen” Larisa Latynina, who had won 18 Olympic medals – a record for either gender in any sport, was the senior coach for the team, and was determined to uphold the classical gymnastics tradition against the new athletic school of gymnastics as represented by Comaneci, Davydova and others.Two days before the Games began The Training Council ( the governing body of Soviet Gymnastics) criticised Latynina for leaving behind Davydova and Shaposhnikova.

In August Davydova won the Antibes tournament in France by 0.6 points. In addition, she won gold on the vault, and silvers on the events beam, bars, and floor. At the Riga International Elena scored the absolute highest score of the competition ( 9.75 on vault) and won silver in the AA competition.She dominated event finals with almost a clean sweep winning 3 gold ( beam,vault,bars)and a bronze on floor.In October, she was made a member of the USSR gymnastics display team, which visited the UK. She subsequently performed her beam routine on the Blue Peter show, an educational/entertainment show for children and teenagers and, was featured in that year's Blue Peter annual.

In December of '76, Davydova finished 3rd AA at the Chunichi Cup in Japan, and won a gold on vault and a bronze on floor at the Tokyo Cup. She was the only woman in the competition to perform a front somersault vault. She also tied 1st AA with Kische and Kraker of East Germany. Kische had finished 8th AA at the Montreal Olympics. Despite the presence of Olympians such as Comaneci, Ungureanu, Kim, and Grozdova in the Chunichi Cup, Davydova was described as the "most exciting performer and certainly the most happy bubbly personality". One Japanese sports commentator wrote the prediction that "It was young Yelena Davydova who deserved special attention for her super difficult exercises. She is a new infant prodigy for the Soviet Union, no less talented than Kim, Turischeva, or Filatova". In 1977 Davydova again won the gold medal on bars at the USSR Cup, scoring a full 10.

In September 1977 Yelena Davydova appeared on the front cover of a new magazine with an emphasis on young gymnasts, entitled Gymnastics World. She was one of the four "Mighty Mites" featured in that issue. She was also a member of the USSR Display Team, along woth Kim, Korbut, Grosdova, Filatova and Gorbik that performed in Great Britain. The Daily Mirror programme wrote about Davydova "She is the only girl in the team who has perfected the somersault onto the beam to commence her exercise.In previous years she has held most of the national titles for girls and one time held all the junior titles of the Soviet Union".

Elena suffered a serious injury when a bone detached itself from her knee. A medical specialist told her that her injury could be repaired through surgery. Her chances of ever again competing at the highest level would be negligible. In fact it could mean she would never be a gymnast again. Coping with not being able to train a sport you love is a massive psychological hurdle for an athlete in any sport. There are no guarantees no matter how assiduous you are in terms of your rehabilitation,that you will be able to compete again,never mind broach the same level pre-injury. Elena took plenty of rest and homeopathic treatments.Her resilience and spirit won through. ”When I was injured my coach believed in me and didn’t give up on me.In my mind I knew I could still be on the team. I kept going”. She did well at school, was an avid reader, particularly world classics, history and science fiction, and enjoyed going to the cinema and theatre. Korshunov remembers “She never misses a chance of buying new books when competing in other places. Elena swallows one book after another. I see one book lying,next to her bag one day,a new one is there the next day “. She played checkers. She enjoyed going on angling trips with Viktor,her father,and Gennady. ”I like to read and listen to music, but mostly I enjoy a few quiet hours by the water. I love to go fishing. I spend a lot of time fishing with my father or my coach, either on a lake in a boat,or on the banks of the Neva”. She enjoyed cooking and baking. As with many gymnasts she has a fondness for ice cream.

In 1978 Gennady Korshunov and his wife were invited to coach gymnastics in Leningrad, the birthcity of Gennady. Yelena Davydova and her family moved along with the Korshunov family. She achieved a silver AA at the Spartakiade of Russian Federation Sports Schools meet, and bronze AA at the USSR Cup, being the top scorer on both beam and bars. Shortly after, Davydova won the AA title at the prestigious Chunichi Cup in Japan defeating Maxi Gnauck. Her win by 0.55 points remains the joint 3rd highest margin of victory in the competition's 34 year history. She also won gold on the bars and vault at the Tokyo Cup. As a result, she was chosen to be a member of the USSR team at the World Championships at Strasbourg in France.Merely to make an USSR Team represented a huge achievement since competition for all 6 places was so fierce. However, on the day of competition she was named as an alternate, and unable to compete.Although as alternate she still received a team gold medal it was a disappointment she was not to forget.

At the 1979 Coca-Cola International in England Davydova won a gold on floor and would have shared gold on bars, but her coach blocked the line of vision of one of the judges, and she suffered the mandatory 0.3 deduction. She finished 2nd AA at the Simo Sappien memorial tournament in Finland. Yelena Davydova was unable to attend the 1979 World Championships in Fort Worth, U.S., however, because of a case of flu. At the World University Games in Mexico she won team gold, 3rd AA, and a silver medal on floor and bronze on vault in event finals.

In 1979 Olga Korbut named Davydova, Stella Zakharova, and Natalia Shaposhnikova as the three most promising young gymnasts.