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.

 

[Angelika]

Gymnasts aren't really main stream enough in the UK for the general public to be aware of who they marry. Max's wife (Leah) I think did gymnastics, but then became a coach? Beth married a businessman, Louis had a dalliance with a TOWIE (The Only Way Is Essex) 'star' but is now with a dancer.

I think the biggest 'sport marriage' in the UK is Jason and Laura Kenny (nee Trott) - two of the greatest cyclists ever with a million Olympic gold medals between them.

 

[Bob]

was just coming here to mention the Kennys. Our MAG and WAG often train together at Lilleshall.

 

[RedBirdie]

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.

Some elite WAG gyms don't have MAG equipment. The economics aren't there. They can make more money focused exclusively on girls and maximize floor space usage.

 

[Hatsumomo]

Some elite WAG gyms don't have MAG equipment. The economics aren't there. They can make more money focused exclusively on girls and maximize floor space usage.

This is what I was wondering; thank you.

 

[MaryClare]

To me there is a rather obvious cultural (?) difference here. MAG in Russia and other Soviet successor states has always been seen as a very masculine, blue collar sport here. The sort of thing that dads sign their sons up for to toughen them up. It’s the reason that MAG survives across most of the former USSR and WAG does not.

I think it would be fair to say that in western countries, especially the anglosphere, the chances of the MAG being potentially interested in dating the WAG is somewhat lower.

 

[irichluck21]

The WAG/MAG US couples were mainly from meeting at college being on their respective gymnastics teams. They spend a lot of time together.

Brooks and Wieber started dating during the Rio Post Olympics tour, but had known each for years because of USAG. They both competed at the 2011 Worlds, Brooks as alternate.

 

[rlayt]

Vise and Naddour met at college (Oklahoma).

 

[Hatsumomo]

To me there is a rather obvious cultural (?) difference here. MAG in Russia and other Soviet successor states has always been seen as a very masculine, blue collar sport here. The sort of thing that dads sign their sons up for to toughen them up. It’s the reason that MAG survives across most of the former USSR and WAG does not.

Here in the States, football, soccer, basketball, hockey, and baseball are the "manly" sports. Even though NFL players take ballet lessons to improve their agility, balance, and functional leg strength, ballet and most forms of dance are still seen as purely "feminine," and some men get real fucking mad at the idea of their sons wanting to dance instead of getting early brain damage from football. MAG is seen as an extension of that, with its uniforms and the makeup of its fanbase.

 

[IratePanda]

Here in the States, football, soccer, basketball, hockey, and baseball are the "manly" sports. Even though NFL players take ballet lessons to improve their agility, balance, and functional leg strength, ballet and most forms of dance are still seen as purely "feminine," and some men get real fucking mad at the idea of their sons wanting to dance instead of getting early brain damage from football. MAG is seen as an extension of that, with its uniforms and the makeup of its fanbase.

So true. As a young kid in the 1970s, my husband wanted to try gymnastics or tumbling, but his father deemed them insufficiently masculine. Football, baseball, and basketball were the only sports he recognized. My husband loved watching baseball but hated playing it, and he wasn't big enough to survive football or basketball after the age of 13. Soccer was also a non-starter. Eventually, he discovered swimming, which my FIL grudgingly acknowledged as a competitive sport once he watched a meet and realized it involved more than paddling around a backyard pool.

To this day, my husband still has some weird hang-ups about MAG, as well as men's diving. I blame his father's toxic masculinty. Well, I blame his father's toxic masculinity for many things, but this is neither the time nor the place.

 

[CameliasFingerpaint]

So true. As a young kid in the 1970s, my husband wanted to try gymnastics or tumbling, but his father deemed them insufficiently masculine. Football, baseball, and basketball were the only sports he recognized. My husband loved watching baseball but hated playing it, and he wasn't big enough to survive football or basketball after the age of 13. Soccer was also a non-starter. Eventually, he discovered swimming, which my FIL grudgingly acknowledged as a competitive sport once he watched a meet and realized it involved more than paddling around a backyard pool.

To this day, my husband still has some weird hang-ups about MAG, as well as men's diving. I blame his father's toxic masculinty. Well, I blame his father's toxic masculinity for many things, but this is neither the time nor the place.

Yeah, toxic masculinity in men’s youth sports is unbelievably prevalent here. Even running and track and field is seen as not masculine enough (even though the 40-yd dash is a huge part of football tryouts).