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TAMARA MANINA
Tamara Ivanovna Manina (born September 16, 1934, Petrozavodsk) is a retired Soviet Olympic gymnast
and a sports scientist. She competed for the Burevestnik Sports Society, in Leningrad.
Her family lived in Petersburg (and later in Leningrad), but Manina was born in Petrozavodsk, where her father was on
a long mission. During the Great Patriotic War she was evacuated from besieged Leningrad into Tashkent. She returned into
Leningrad in 1944 and began gymnastics at the Leningrad Young Pioneer Palace in the same year. She was called "Monia the bird"
by groupmates for her graceful and light vaults.
Competing as a junior, she won the all-around title at the USSR Nationals in 1953, and became a candidate for the USSR team.
In the same year Manina debuted at the senior USSR Championships, placing 12th in the all-around. Between 1953 and 1964 Manina
successfully competed in many national and international events.
One of Manina's most successful performances took place at the 1954 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, where she
earned several gold medals on vault, on the floor and in the team competition. At the 1956 Olympics she rivalled
Ágnes Keleti, Larissa Latynina,
as well as other strong competitors, and placed 6th in the all-around, but managed to win silver medals on vault and balance
beam. She also contributed to the team's gold and bronze medals. The USSR team won more gold medals, than any other country
at that years Olympics. In one of her interviews Manina said, that the team had a very warm welcome everywhere in the USSR:
on their way by train from Vladivostok to Moscow they were met with flowers on each small station, people organized solemn
meetings and made a big fuss over them.
Although in the event finals of the 1958 Worlds Manina, apart from the gold in the team competition, won just one silver,
on vault, she placed 3rd in the all-around to Latynina and Eva Bosáková. She missed the 1960 Olympics due to
an injury, but competed in the 1962 Worlds, contributing to the team's gold and winning the bronze on vault. At age 30 she
went to the 1964 Summer Olympics and won the team's gold and silver on the balance beam. Finishing her competitive career,
Manina seriously injured her ankle during the display competition in Vienna and was not able to continue trainings any more.
She coached the French national team in 1975 and has been an international judge since 1971.
Manina is also known for her scientific activities. Since 1958 she studied at the Leningrad State Institute of Fine
Mechanics and Optics, graduating in 1965, defended a dissertation for the Candidate of Science degree at the Lesgaft State
Institute of Physical Culture in 1969, and taught at the gymnastics department of the institute until 1973. Since 1975
she has been a professor at the Saint Petersburg State Art-Industrial Academy. She published more than 40 scientific,
methodical and popular science books.
Tamara Manina lives and works in Saint Petersburg. She is married and has a son.
For more information, visit her
profile page on the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique website.
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