A Cure For Your Gymnastics Anxiety

As we wait with joyful praise for the coming of our gymnastics saviors to San Jose, it is time that we visited some of our old European friends from back in the day.  The Russians and Romanians used to travel to Italy long before Team USA did.  In these old clips, you'll see rare footage of Dina Kotchetkova, Svetlana Khorkina, Yelena Grosheva, Yelena Dogopolova, Claudia Presecan and Alexandra Marinescu testing out skills and routines long before they made it *big.*  



According to the Youtube poster, part 1 features:

Dual meeting Juniores Cesena 1993:

**TEAM**: 1st Russia 192.775, 2nd Romania 189.625, 3rd Italy 183.875

**AA**: 1st Kochetkova RUS; 2nd Khorkina RUS

*Tiziana Di Pilato UB 9.550
*Oksana Nikolaeva VT 9.650
*Chiara Ferrazzi UB 9.550
*Dina Kochetkova UB 9.750
*Alexandra Marinescu BB 9.675
*Svetlana Khorkina UB 9.775
*Claudia Presecan FX 9.700
*Ketty Titon BB 9.100
*Chiara Ferrazzi BB 9.400

Part 2:

*Dina Kochetkova BB 9.700
*Marianna Crisci FX 9.175
*Elena Grosheva BB 9.775
*Svetlana Khorkina BB 9.700
*Tiziana Di Pilato FX 9.200

Part 3:



Elena Grosheva FX 9.575
*Alexandra Sorokina FX 9.700
*Alexandra Marinescu VT 9.625
*Camelia Andronic VT 9.725
*Dina Kochetkova FX 9.625
*Svetlana Khorkina FX 9.600


Part 4:

*Oksana Nikolaeva FX 9.625
*Ilenia Meneghesso VT 9.350
*Claudia Presecan UB 9.725
*Chiara Ferrazzi VT 9.550
*Camelia Andronic UB
*Tiziana Di PIlato VT
*Milosoti Massidda VT 9.350
*Ketty Titon VT 9.350
*Monica Zahiu FX 9.625
*Camelia Andronic FX 9.575

Footage from 1994:

Oksana Fabrichnova RUS VT
Svetlana Khorkina RUS VT
Oksana Fabrichnova RUS FX
Svetlana Khorkina RUS FX
Dina Kochetkova RUS FX
Ketty Titon ITA BB

(Fabrichnova's legs were too gorgeous, s God had to make her an injured head case to even the playing field.)

Footage from 1995 with some of our favorite Russians:

Roza Galieva FX
Tania Rebagliati VT
Eugenia Kuznetsova FX
Chiara Ferrazzi VT (9.625)
Natalia Bobrova FX (9.725)
Clara Pedrini VT (9.475)
Elena Grosheva FX
Elisa Lamperti VT
Elena Produnova FX

The 1996 edition also included Belarus and is one of the best unseen meets on youtube.  Even Ana Maria Bican was there, so you can judge her potential and the legitimacy of Belu's bitching for yourself.  Was she a bigger loss than Presecan?  The only thing that could make this better would be if the Ukrainians competed there with Karpenko and China with Meng Fei. It is a time to see the Russians do something other than falling.  By the routines NBC showed, you'd never know they competed fairly will to win that silver medal in Atlanta. It is the ultimate 'what if?' meet. 


Part 1:



-Eugenia Kuznetsova RUS BB (9.550)
-Olga Savko BLR VT (9.350)
-Chiara Ferrazzi ITA UB (9.375)
-Claudia Presecan ROM FX
-Yulia Sobko BLR VT
-Oksana LIapina RUS BB (9.900)
-Tania Rebagliati ITA UB (9.200)


Part 2:





-Ana Maria Bican ROM FX
-Elena Grosheva RUS BB (9.625)
-Laura Montagnolo ITA UB (9.600)
-Alexandra Marinescu ROM FX
-Svetlana Khorkina RUS BB (9.900)


Part 3:

-Francesca Morotti ITA UB (9.650)
-Elena Piskun BLR VT (9.575)
-Rozalia Galieva RUS BB (9.850)
-Giordana Rocchi ITA UB (9.650)
-Simona Amanar ROM FX (9.850)
-Elena Dolgopolova RUS BB (9.225)

Part 4:



Ilenia Meneghesso ITA UB
-Yulia Savko BLR VT (8.700+9.200)
-Svetlana Boguinskaya BLR VT
-Alexandra Marinescu ROM VT (9.500)
-Laura Montagnolo ITA BB
-Oksana Liapina RUS FX
-Chiara Ferrazzi ITA BB




Part 5:



-Elena Savko BLR UB
-Eugenia Kuznetsova RUS FX (9.525)
-Francesca Morotti ITA BB (9.625)
-Elena Dolgopolova RUS FX (9.275)
-Giordana Rocchi ITA BB (9.575)
-Elena Grosheva RUS FX


You're welcome.