The amalgamation of the best part of every Era of Gymnastics, Russian Legend Svetlana Khorkina was bigger than her sport.
Going into her second quadrennium, Khorkina was desperate to get her all-around prowess to the level of her uneven bars work, where she had already won two Worlds and an Olympics.
At nearly 19 years of age, Svetlana was one of the favorites for the AA at the 1997 World Gymnastics Championships in Lausanne 🇨🇭.
1997 marked a new Code of Points and, in turn, lower scores as coaches & athletes attempted to get a grasp on the new requirements. Compulsories had also been eliminated, which caused certain Romanians to go from decent on bars to unwatchable--seemingly overnight.
The AA in Lausanne ended up being a tight-faught battle among four gymnasts. At meet's end, the span from first to fourth would be less than 0.10.
Reigning Olympic silver medalist Gina Gogean 🇷🇴 would finish odd-woman out in 4th. Bars had looong been her nemesis and weakest event since she competed at the Tacoma Goodwill Games as a 12 year old. Time had only made the struggle even more real. The new Code required even more difficulty, and Gina just couldn't keep up.
Yelena Produnova 🇷🇺, who we saw become the first gymnast to compete a double Arabian + punch front as a member of the Russian Team at Worlds in 1995, had been unable to make the Olympic team due to injury. Here in Lausanne, she would win the bronze medal--the beginning of a very successful quad for her.
And then there were two. Simona Amânar would narrowly lose out on the World Title, although what happened for her to score a sub 9.4 on bars is a mystery. Pretty unfortunate for her as that score was definitely achievable for Simona.
This left Svetlana Khorkina as Queen of Lausanne, despite a significant break on beam and a couple of less than stellar landings to her iconic Poème floor routine. Thankfully Sveta always had bars to get her out of a jam, and that's precisely what happened here.
Khorkina would go on to win 3 more medals in Finals--by far her most successful World Championships.
26 авг 2024
