1968 Olympics. The gymnasts who all married each other

[MaryClare]

Ok, so I want you to think of some of the men’s and women’s Olympic teams of recent years from the top countries.

Then one Sunday morning, over a coffee and croissant, you fire up the gymnternet resource of your choice. Here, obviously, since you’re not a perma-triggered Reddit weirdo.

And there it is, news that you couldn’t possibly believe. You have to read it again. And again. You still can’t quite believe it. It’s happened again.

No, not the 2015 world UB final.

But a 3rd couple from the USSR’s gold medal winning 1968 teams have gotten married. Yes, 3. Half the team are now married to each other.

I don’t know the actual chronological order. But Mikhail Voronin married Zinaida Druzhinina. Viktor Klimenko married Larisa Petrik. Valeri Karasev married Olga Kharlova.

Team babies Lubov Burda and Ludmilla Tourischeva were obviously far too young to get married, stuck around another 4 years and married 1972 Olympic gold medalists Nikolai Andrianov and Valeri Borzov (100 and 200m). Which is roughly equivalent to Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman marrying Usain Bolt and Kohei Uchimura.

I guess they have WiFi in the Olympic villages nowadays

 

[eanda]

I had forgotten about Karasev and Kharlova.

From the same Olympics, Japan had a couple to marry. Just the one marriage from the team, but they did have an Olympian son: Mitsuo Tsukahara and Chieko Oda, with son Naoya.

 

[MaryClare]

I had forgotten about Karasev and Kharlova.

From the same Olympics, Japan had a couple to marry. Just the one marriage from the team, but they did have an Olympian son: Mitsuo Tsukahara and Chieko Oda, with son Naoya.

The other strange one is the 1987 ussr RG world team. Tatiana Druchinina and Anna Kochneva both married Olympic multiple champions, had children who became national champions and coached Olympic medalists alongside their husbands.

The 3rd gymnast in 1987 was Marina Lobach who is the coach of Alina Harnasko, meaning that the 3 have coached Olympic medalists in artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics and figure skating.

 

[Hatsumomo]

[...] since you’re not a perma-triggered Reddit weirdo.

Just catching a stray over here.

Seriously though, the inter-sport marriages in Russia are interesting. USA gymnasts don't marry each other. We have three WAG who married NFL players but I can't think of any who married MAG (or any other athlete for that matter). But every Russian WAG marriage announcement is to another Russian athlete. Is it due to the closed environment the athletes are in?

 

[dweiss324]

I mean does Weiber / Brooks not count? And Paul Juda proposed to Guggino. And Bart Conner is married to that backwater nobody what's her face... Bladia Comaneci??

 

[Passion]

Jonathan Horton married Haley DeProspero. Stephen Nedoroscik's forever girlfriend Tess McCracken competed gymnastics at Penn State. Hollie Vise married Alex Naddour.

A lot more of the men seem to find a gymnast to pair off with. Would probably find more if we dug through old MAG or past NCAA gymnasts who competed at a college that had both a men's and women's program.

In elite US MAG and WAG never see each other out side of what, maybe once a year at Nationals? Or being the handful that go on a tour together. They all train at different gyms.

 

[Hatsumomo]

Jonathan Horton married Haley DeProspero. Stephen Nedoroscik's forever girlfriend Tess McCracken competed gymnastics at Penn State. Hollie Vise married Alex Naddour.

A lot more of the men seem to find a gymnast to pair off with. Would probably find more if we dug through old MAG or past NCAA gymnasts who competed at a college that had both a men's and women's program.

In elite US MAG and WAG never see each other out side of what, maybe once a year at Nationals? Or being the handful that go on a tour together. They all train at different gyms.

I was thinking Vise but couldn't remember who she married and didn't feel like looking it up. I don't pay much attention to NCAA gymnastics, so yeah, there's probably a larger sample size there since I assume they use the same facilities (at the same time?).

Your last statement is what I was kind of looking at. USA (elite) WAG and MAG tend not to comingle until major international competitions. USA WAG doesn't even use the USOC training center in Colorado. Though I wonder why the gyms that produce elite WAG aren't also producing elite MAG. They're not single-sex gyms AFAIK.

And Bart Conner is married to that backwater nobody what's her face... Bladia Comaneci??

She's not American though. I was more or less talking about USA gymnasts/athletes marrying each other to the extent the Russians do because they're not as centralized and spend enough time around each other. Though one couple I was thinking of was in track and field, Tara Davis and Hunter Woodhall.