Yelena Shushunova
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox gymnast
Yelena Lvovna Shushunova (Template:Langx; sometimes spelled Elena Shushunova; 23 May 1969 – 16 August 2018) was a Soviet Russian gymnast.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref> Shushunova was one of five women (alongside Larisa Latynina, Věra Čáslavská, Ludmilla Tourischeva and Lilia Podkopayeva) who have won all-around titles at all major competitions: Olympics, World Championships and European/Continental Championships<ref name=r1 /> and one of eleven women who medaled on every event at World Championships. Shushunova was renowned for pioneering complex skills as well as her explosive and dynamic tumbling and high consistency.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref>
Junior career
[edit]Shushunova was born and grew up in Leningrad and began gymnastics when she was approximately six or seven years old.<ref name="r1" /><ref name=":3">Template:Cite web</ref> She began competing as a junior gymnast in 1981.<ref name=":0" /> In 1982, she won 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.<ref name=":0" />
Senior career
[edit]Shushunova was named as a member of the Soviet national gymnastics team in 1984, but was unable to compete at the 1984 Summer Olympics as the Soviet Union boycotted the Olympics.<ref name="r2" /> 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.<ref name="r1" />
The following year Shushunova made her breakthrough by winning the all-around title at the European Championships.<ref name="r2" /> She also won 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. In her floor exercise 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, a rare and innovative move for the 1980s.<ref name=r2 />
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.<ref name=r1 /> At the 1986 Goodwill Games she led the Soviet team to a gold medal, but then fell twice in the all-around finals to finish second to teammate Vera Kolesnikova. She rallied in the event finals to take, once again, the vault, bars, and floor golds and the beam silver.<ref name="r2" />
In 1987, Shushunova lost the European title to Romanian Daniela Silivaș due to a fall on a double layout dismount from the uneven bars.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> At the European Championships she earned a bronze in the all-around and a gold on vault.<ref name="r1" /> She continued to show increased difficulty on all apparatus by competing a double layout dismount on the uneven bars, 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 Romanian team. Shushunova also lost the world title to Romanian Aurelia Dobre, finishing in second place.<ref name="r2" /> In the event finals she retained her vault title with her textbook Yurchenko full and Yurchenko 1.5, beating Romanian Eugenia Golea. She also earned a bronze medal on the uneven bars.<ref name="r2" /> Shushunova also earned silver on balance beam and tied with Daniela Silivas for gold on floor exercise.
1988 Olympics
[edit]In 1988, Shushunova competed at the Summer Olympics in Seoul. She scored three perfect scores of 10 in optional events and won the individual all-around and team event titles. She also won silver on balance beam and bronze on uneven bars. Shushunova fell on a double twisting Yurchenko on vault and failed to medal. She also failed to medal on floor exercise due to stumbling out of the landing of her opening full-in double back and falling out of her arabian 1 3/4 salto.<ref name=":1" /><ref name="r2" />
Later life
[edit]Shushunova retired from competition two months after the 1988 Olympics and later returned to her home city of Saint Petersburg, where she worked for the city's sports committee.<ref name=":3" /> She helped to organise the gymnastics events of the 1994 Goodwill Games and 1998 European Championships, both of which were held in Saint Petersburg.<ref name="r1" />
In 2004, she was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame.<ref name="hof">Template:Cite web</ref> In the following year, she was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.<ref name="r2" />
Eponymous skills
[edit]Shushunova has two eponymous skills named after her in the Code of Points.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
| Apparatus | Name | Description | DifficultyTemplate:Efn | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Uneven bars | Shushunova | Swing forward with half turn – further half turn to counter straddle in flight over high bar | E (0.5) | <ref name=":2">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> |
| Balance beam/floor | Shushunova | Jump with stretched hips to planche (minimum 40 degree angle) | C (0.3)/A (0.1) | <ref name=":2" /> |
Death
[edit]Shushunova died from complications of pneumonia on 16 August 2018. She was 49.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Competitive history
[edit]<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
See also
[edit]- List of select Jewish gymnasts
- List of top female medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
References
[edit]External links
[edit]- Template:FIG
- Elena Shushunova at Gymn Forum
- Template:Olympics.com
- Template:Olympedia
- Template:IGHOF
- Template:Webarchive Template:In lang
- Schuschunova element on the floor (3rd one in the sequence) – animated .gif
Template:Navboxes Template:International Gymnastics Hall of Fame members Template:Authority control
- 1969 births
- 2018 deaths
- Deaths from pneumonia in Russia
- Soviet female artistic gymnasts
- Olympic gold medalists for the Soviet Union
- Olympic silver medalists for the Soviet Union
- Olympic bronze medalists for the Soviet Union
- Olympic gymnasts for the Soviet Union
- Gymnasts at the 1988 Summer Olympics
- Soviet Jews
- Jewish Russian sportspeople
- Gymnasts from Saint Petersburg
- World champion gymnasts
- Medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
- Olympic medalists in gymnastics
- European champions in gymnastics
- Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics
- Lesgaft National State University of Physical Education, Sport and Health alumni
- International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame inductees
- Honoured Masters of Sport of the USSR
- Burials at Bogoslovskoe Cemetery
- Competitors at the 1986 Goodwill Games
- Goodwill Games medalists in gymnastics
- Originators of elements in artistic gymnastics
- Friendship Games medalists in gymnastics