Notice: This can be a two-part sequence. The hyperlink to Half II will be discovered right here.
On the 1983 World Championships in girls’s creative gymnastics (WAG), the Soviet Union received the gold medal within the group competitors. What makes this explicit end result distinctive within the context of bigger WAG historical past, is that not one member of the 1983 Soviet group is an Olympian.
Once I first got here to this realization, my instant assumption was considering that the 1983 Soviets should be the one group in all of WAG historical past that is true for. No less than amongst groups which have received a medal. In WAG historical past there have been 156 + 2 groups which have received a medal within the group competitors. The “156” representing the 52 competitions on the World Championships and Olympics wherein a gold, silver and bronze medal have been awarded within the group competitors. The “+2” representing the 2 vacated bronze medals belonging the China in 1999 and 2000 that I (and most WAG followers as properly) desire counting alongside the official bronze medal winners as official wins.
This provides us a complete of 158 medal successful groups and I reviewed each one in every of them to find out if that they had a previous, present, or future Olympian of their lineup. And for 157 of them, they did. This makes the 1983 Soviets the one medal successful group in WAG historical past the place none of its members went to the Olympics, one thing that’s true for 99.4% of all groups in WAG historical past, however not the 1983 Soviets. Mockingly, this didn’t occur to a silver or bronze medal successful group, however a group that received gold.
However there may be actually nothing unusual or uncommon about this story. For many readers, the 1983 Soviets being the one group this pattern holds true for makes excellent sense. It’s the byproduct of the 1984 Olympic boycott the place the Soviet Union and their Jap Bloc allies didn’t attend the Los Angeles Olympics. This distinctive stat line represents two issues.
It represents the misplaced alternative that a whole era of Soviet WAG icons have been by no means afforded a good shot at turning into an Olympian. The Soviets weren’t the one WAG program to be caught up in a Nineteen Eighties boycott. Of the 20 strongest WAG packages on the 1979 World Championships, solely the packages ranked #1, #16, #18, and #20 within the standings despatched WAGs to each the 1980 and 1984 Olympics.
However it is just with the Soviets that the majority of their star gymnasts by no means went to the Olympics. It’s only with the Soviets that we see this statistical outlier the place one thing which holds true for 99.4% of groups, will not be true for his or her 1983 lineup.
This brings us to the second piece of symbolism the 1983 Soviets symbolize. The omission of the 1983 USSR lineup from Olympic historical past represents the insane competitiveness and depth of the Soviet program. The Soviet capability to switch a gold medal successful group with a youthful batch of gymnasts in any given second was distinctive to the USSR program and unparalleled in gymnastics historical past. Solely the Soviets may discover themselves within the predicament that was their 1983 group as a result of solely the USSR had such an unlimited expertise pool the place every gymnast was probably to get replaced by the point the subsequent Olympics come round.
It was usually casually stated that for many gymnasts, you solely get one probability to change into an Olympian. And should you miss your one and solely probability, that’s it to your Olympic aspiration. For the 1983 Soviets, that unofficial proverb grew to become their actuality.
As unusual because it sounds, this distinctive stat line relating to the 1983 Soviets is sort of a badge of honor. Proving simply how excessive the requirements of Soviet WAG have been and simply how superior its depth chart was in comparison with everybody else. For as unlucky as this distinction is for the 1983 Soviets, it’s also one of many nice accomplishments of Soviet WAG that they received a gold medal with none Olympians of their lineup.
Whereas earlier than I profiled the 158 groups which have received a medal within the group competitors and identified that each one however the 1983 Soviets had at the very least one previous, present or future Olympian of their lineup, I’m going to take issues one step additional.
I checked out each American, Russian, Chinese language, Romanian, Ukrainian and East German lineup from 1928-present together with those that didn’t win medals. On practically each event, that they had at the very least one previous, present, or future Olympian in every of their lineups. There have been solely six comparable examples to the 1983 Soviets.
| 12 months | Nation | Workforce Dimension |
| 1958 | China | 6 |
| 1962 | China | 6 |
| 1993 | Russia | 2 |
| 2001 | China | 1 |
| 2021 | Romania | 4 |
| 2021 | United States | 4 |
However 4 of these examples occurred with lineups that have been small and didn’t contest for a group medal. It’s a must to go all the way in which again to the early Sixties when mainland China didn’t have membership to the IOC to discover a comparable instance to the 1983 Soviets of a full-sized WAG group lacking out on the Olympics.
The rationale I centered on these six international locations is as a result of these are the one international locations I’ve a whole set of knowledge on. I additionally regarded up international locations that I had partial information on, Germany, Canada, the Netherlands, Nice Britain, and France. After reviewing 100+ lineups between these international locations, I couldn’t discover a single instance the place they despatched a WAG delegation to the World Championships and not using a previous of future Olympian of their lineup.
For even mid-level powers who qualify to Workforce Finals however don’t win medals, it’s a rarity even for them to not have an Olympian of their lineup. Ukraine is an instance of a program that hasn’t certified an Olympic group since 2008 and even they’ve an Olympian in every of their lineups from 2009-present. However the 1983 Soviets have been a gold medal successful group, maybe one of many most interesting lineups in all of WAG historical past, doesn’t.
The 1983 Soviets produced 4 totally different gymnasts who’ve a gold medal in a person occasion. The group was additionally exceptionally dominant within the All-Round (AA) with 33% having an AA title, 50% having an AA medal, 83% having a top-6 end or higher in AA qualifying, and 100% of its membership recording a top-10 end in AA {qualifications} sooner or later in her profession.
Their legacy continues to today as 4 of six members have named abilities within the 2022-2024 Code of Factors.
However who’re the 1983 Soviets? In Half II of this sequence I’ll give an outline of all six members of the 1983 Soviets (Natalia Yurchenko, Olga Mostepanova, Tatiana Frolova, Natalia Ilienko, Olga Bicherova, and Albina Shishova).
Hyperlink to Half II
