ELENA SHUSHUNOVA … Legendary Soviet Gymnast from the time known in History of Gymnastics as a “Golden Era”. Every member of the USSR National Gymnastics Team, coaches, gymnasts and other people who knew her called her “Shusha”.
I am sharing this post from the pages of a Golden Era in order to show that this time for the USSR Artistic Gymnastics was not just a time for the collection of the huge numbers of the medals. It was a very successful years during which most advanced technical and methodical system were created!
Actually, even today an incredible achievements of Elena Shushunova, particularly her Floor Tumbling passes keeps all professionals of Artistic Gymnastics speechless! It is happened not just because she performed a very unusual tumbling trick for WAG known as a “Thomas Roll” shown below as her second tumbling pass !
What is really impressive on this video that double layout performed by Elena Shushunova 30 years ago looks almost the same as double layout performed by current Super Stars of the Floor Exercise! Did anybody saw a big difference in amplitude, height and perfectness of the shape during the flight ?! I don’t think so!
Thanks to the “Golden Era” for one more post about an incredible input of USSR Artistic Gymnastics into the Great Development of the World Gymnastics !
Former FX & UB Consultant of the USSR National Team, Merited Coach of Russia, coauthor of the book “Floor Exercise for Women”(1979),
Coach Vlad ( BIO Gymnastics Unlimited, USA)