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ELENA SHUSHUNOVA
Elena Lvovna Shushunova (born April 23, 1969, in Leningrad) is a Russian (former Soviet) gymnast,
World, European, and Olympic Champion. Shushunova is renowned for her dynamic vaulting and tumbling skills as well as
her longevity and exceptional consistency. Shushunova was the first to perform several unique and difficult skills including
a Yurchenko vault with 1.5 twists, a release on the unevens, and her signature Shushunova on floor exercise.
Shushunova's career highlights as a junior gymnast include gold medals at the 1982 Moscow News (now known as Moscow
Stars of the World) and the Junior European Championships. In 1983 she won the USSR Cup, which she won every year until
1988 with the exception of 1984. Shushunova was unable to compete at the 1984 Summer Olympics, which were boycotted
by the Soviet Union. Instead, she competed at the 1984 Friendship Games in Olomouc, Czechoslovakia, where she finished
third all around and helped the USSR to a gold in the team event, which they dominated.
The following year she made her breakthrough by winning the all around title at the European Championships. She also
won the three gold medals in the event finals on vault, floor exercise, and uneven bars which she shared with East
German Olympian Maxi Gnauck. At the World Championships she won five medals
including the all-around title, which she shared with compatriot Oksana Omelianchik.
She took first on vault, third on beam, and second on floor to her teammate Oksana Omelianchik.
In her floor exercise set to the Charleston she tumbled a double layout, and side Arabian 1 and 3/4 salto, both rare
skills for women at that time. In fact women are no longer allowed to compete saltos which end in a roll. Here she displayed
her signature skill, a straddle jump to prone support, rare and innovative for the 80s but fairly common for recent gymnastics
exercises. Neither Shushunova nor Omelianhchik actually qualified to the all around as their teammates Irina Baraksanova and
Alternate Games Champion Olga Mostepanova earned higher preliminary scores.
However considering their recent successes at the European Championships, the Soviet coaches guessed that they were the two
best hopes for a world title.
Shushunova's dominance in women's gymnastics continued at the 1986 World Cup in Beijing. There she won the all around,
vault, uneven bars, and floor exercise titles. In this competition she displayed an increased level of difficulty on two
apparatus, showing a Rulfova flic (full twisting Korbut flic) on balance beam and a tucked full in double salto dismount
on the uneven bars.
1987 showcased the growing rivalry between the Soviet Shushunova and Romanian
Daniela Silivas. In Moscow, Shushunova was not in peak form and she lost the
European title to Silivas, suffering a costly fall on a double layout dismount from the unevens. At the Europeans she
earned a bronze in the all around and a gold on vault, a low medal count for her standards. She continued to show increased
difficulty on all apparatus by competing a double layout dismount on the unevens, a layout Thomas salto on floor, and a
full in dismount on beam. Later that year her team lost the World Championships team title, placing second to the champion
Romanians in an upset defeat. This was only the third time the USSR failed to win the team title. Elena also lost the world
title to the graceful Romanian Aurelia Dobre, finishing in second place. In the event
finals. Elena did provide them with one taste of gold, retaining her vault title with her textbook Yurchenko full and
Yurchenko 1.5, beating Romanian Eugenia Golea who showcased a Yurchenko double full. She also earned a bronze medal on
uneven bars, debuting a unique and difficult skill, a giant with a half turn to a Markelov (commonly called a full
twisting Tkatchev). She also won the world title on floor exericse sharing the title with Daniela Silivas,
with both gymnasts earning a perfect combined score of 20.
The next year, Elena was a leading contender for the all-around title at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. After defeating the
Romanians in the team competition there was a close battle for the title between Shushunova and
Daniela Silivas. Shushunova entered the all around competition with a lead of
0.05 points, competing with Silivas, in the same rotation. What followed was a closely matched and exciting battle with
both gymnasts fully aware that any error could cost them the gold. Each was majestic, and the pair scored multiple tens.
In the last rotation on vault, Silivas performed first and did well enough to ensure that Elena required a ten to take the
title, which she did to become Olympic all-around champion. In the finals she won only two more medals; a bronze on uneven
bars and a silver on balance beam. The tally could have been higher, but Elena faltered on her two strongest apparatus,
falling on a Yurchenko double full and making an uncharacteristic stumble on floor exercise.
Shushunova retired after the Olympics and currently lives in her hometown of Saint Petersburg, site of the
1998 European Championships which she helped to organize. In 2004, she was inducted into the
International Gymnastics Hall of Fame.
For more information, visit her
profile page on the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique website.
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