She begins by saying that together with her coach Vladislav Rastorotsky (she refers to him as Vladislav Stepanovich, which is a mark of respect) we won everything. The use of we is quite deliberate, however I don’t know if this is an expression of her feelings or if just in keeping with typical Soviet rhetoric of the era.
During the footage of her vaulting accident at 83 worlds, she is explaining that these victories made her feel somewhat invincible and she never imagined she would sustain an injury so serious that it would result in a 6 month break from training and having to regain her fitness.
In their home gym, Rastorotsky is shown greeting his younger gymnasts during training. Although he has quite a blunt manner, the relationship between him and his athletes seems relaxed. He exclaims that one gymnast “Sveta” is still asleep. Sveta could be Svetlana Rylkova, who competed nationally in the late 80s. However he is very dismissive of the girl who struggles on the press handstand.
In her bedroom at the gym, Natalia reflects upon the mental difficulties of not training. That she felt bored and restless because gymnastics is her life. For context, Natalia is from Norilsk which is a metal town way, way up in the polar regions. A closed city, then and now. She moved to Rostov at a young age for better training and likely remained there during her injury.
At meal time, the younger gymnasts chant “Yurcha, yurcha”. Which is also funnily enough how we call the vault in training too. You might be aware that recently Oksana Chusovitina recently corrected people that her nickname is Chusa and not Chuso. It’s the same sort of thing.
The gymnasts then gather around the television to watch the Moscow News tournament.
Natalia weighs herself on the scales in the gym. She is disappointed because she is still half a kilo above ideal. The physio remarks that her calves feel loaded and she will go off like a cannon ball. He says we will do all we can to make Rastorotsky happy. No mention of Natalia! The physio goes on to say that if she does all her routines well, he will be happy for a couple of days.
Very interesting that she wears grips in 1984. In their one to one chat, Rastorotsky shares his concern that they are running out of time and there are still too many mistakes. Again it’s all “we”. He does concede that he made a mistake regarding her vault at worlds, but doesn’t say what it was, whether it wasn’t ready etc.
As she practices her vaults, he becomes increasingly impatient with her. It made me smile that he’s effectively made his own table vault for use in practice. He finds her polite and quiet manner frustrating. She doesn’t talk back or make excuses but she also gives no explanation when something goes wrong.
He goes on to give more insight into her personality. She is a gentle person who dislikes rudeness. He frequently apologises for his outbursts and she always works much better once the air has been cleared.
As she looks at all her medals, she repeats her previous quote that she had won everything and never imagined getting injured (I’m not aware of what the actual diagnosis was, but I get the impression it was something that in 1984 was considered career ending).
She reflects that her injury may has been a blessing in disguise, that the break has been beneficial to her mentally.
To be continued