Kathy Johnson Clarke has always been a major fan of Ludmilla Tourischeva and her soviet teammates. Covering the long-legged Svetlanas at the 1996 European Championships, KJC sounds as though she is en route to climax. Bart Conner is there to say something positive about the Romanians.
The 1996 European Champions was a tightly fought battle, but as with all Russian bloodbaths, there were kisses all around.
One's heart is with Boginskaya, but the head knows Lilia is the rightful queen. Though, watching her performance fourteen years later, it is obvious that her famous floor routine was a big ol' can of cheese wiz. Practice your landing positions with one foot front of the other and your haughty head tilt, because the bitch is back! Given how all athletes generally grow weaker once they leave Bela's conditioning program, this may have been Bogi at her best in '96.
Event Finals:
Part 3 (Incl. Jr Euros Recap)
Oh, hell, it's not even in retrospect. Lilia's floor routine was immediately obvious as a big ol' can of cheese whiz THEN. I remember seeing it for the first time when ABC televised those championships and going WTF???? I remember that it took a while before I decided I liked it. What it does have is a great deal of charm.
ReplyDeleteAh, those halcyon days when a network not owned by NBC Universal actually televised gymnastics and women's gymnastics did not look like toasted shit. I've completely forgotten what it's like to actually anticipate seeing new floor routines. I hate floor so much now, and it used to be my favourite event.
Remember how much Elfi LOVED Lilia's floor routine? Good God.
ReplyDeleteI wish there were girls now who could HIT like Bogi. Bogi made all of the events her bitch and it was great. I also miss Piskun. I love how she was artistically void for that era, but now would be so much better than most. My how things have gone downhill....
ReplyDeleteI think Elfi was just excited that fixating on the word "ballerina" meant she had something to talk about, just like John Tesh mentioned Gina Gogean's appendectomy 574389573489 times on the NBC Olympic broadcast. Elfi even busted out that archive footage of the ballet in Kiev, so you knew she meant business.
ReplyDeleteThis broadcast also makes me realise that I really miss Kochetkova's dead-eyed czardas routine.