Turning the pages back... August 6, 1996 (08/06/06)

Turning the pages back...

August 6, 1996

It was 10 years ago that The Weekly reported on Ukraine's representation under its own banner at the 26th Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Ga. The gold-medal performance by 17-year-old gymnast Liliya Podkopayeva, the Donetsk native who won the all-around title, was the top headline.

Despite various setbacks, including the death of her grandmother, an earlier injury in March where she broke one rib and cracked another, her gymnastic team's fifth place finish in the finals, and dealing with the noise and pressure of pro-U.S. crowds, Ms. Podkopayeva was able to overcome all of these obstacles and remain focused on the task at hand.

Throughout the event, competitors made mistakes in various disciplines with the leading American hopefuls, Dominique Dawes and Shannon Miller, stepping out of bounds in their floor exercise performances. Russian team members Svetlana Khorkina and Dina Kochetkova, who also were in close competition, had their own difficulties in their quest for the gold, when Ms. Khorkina fell from the parallel bars and Ms. Kochetkova failed to stick her landings off the vault. This left a window of opportunity open for Podkopayeva to claim the gold medal for the Ukrainian team.

Wasting no time, Ms. Podkopayeva opened her floor exercise routine with an explosive double front somersault with a half twist and kept the high energy level going to earn the highest score for the day, a 9.887.

Three Romanians, Gina Gogen, Simona Amanar and Lavinia Milosovici, were left to compete, but Podkopayeva's dynamic finish secured her gold-medal win with Ms. Gogen winning the silver and Ms. Amanar and Ms. Milosovici tying for the bronze.

What made Ms. Podkopayeva's achievement even more noteworthy was that she was the first person in 24 years to win Olympic gold while holding the world championship title. Ironically, the last person to do this was Liudmila Turishcheva, who at that time was the director of Ukraine's Gymnastics Federation and the wife of Minister of Youth and Sports Valeriy Borzov, the Ukrainian track legend who earned medals in the 1972 and 1976 Summer Olympic Games.

Source: "Podkopayeva wins all-around title in gymnastics" by Roman Woronowycz, The Ukrainian Weekly, August 4, 1996.

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