'It is a monstrous lie!' Pregnancy doping - Olga Karasyova speaks! (2001)

   Olga with her coach Sofia Muratova in 1971.  You can also see a video of Olga training with Sofia at http://youtu.be/rDLY5Ctbe38

 I wanted to record in English the key points of this 2001 interview with Olga.  Thanks to Maryam Vulis who gave me the link.

Date of article - 7th March 2001

Author - Vladimir Golubev

Link to Russian language source - http://viperson.ru/articles/olimpiyskaya-chempionka-razoblachaet-dvoynika

Olga invited me to visit her cozy one-bedroom apartment. I see family gymnastic albums, remember her youth, and gradually ask a few questions.

- What a voluminous file of documents!  It shows how much time and effort had to be expended to get to court. Correspondence, lawyer requests, decisions, resolutions, agenda ...

- Actually, this story began a long time ago.  Once, German broadcaster RTL screened an interview ... with my double!   A certain woman who said that she was Olympic champion in gymnastics, Olga Kovalenko.  (I actually took the surname of my second husband, but then divorced and again became Karaseva.). She gave a sensational interview, saying that the USSR coach forced the girls to get pregnant and then at the ninth or tenth week to have an abortion!  Doctors know that at these times there is a sharp increase in the levels of male hormones in the woman's body, which in girls increases physical strength and brings new resources of life, a feeling of elation. It is meant to be a kind of doping. "That's how we won," - these are the words of the imaginary "Kovalenko".

Of course, this interview was published by many news agencies, newspapers and magazines. The Moscow correspondent of the Spanish newspaper "ABC" Juan Jimenez de Partha somehow tracked down my phone and asked about the meeting. Imagine his disappointment when I told him it's easy to prove that it is a pure fake. At the time, when my "understudy" was broadcasting live on abortion, I was on a sea cruise.  There is evidence in my passport!

Then "Paris Match" reporter Michel Peyrard, who had seen the "tremendous" interview on RTL, flew in to see me.  He was pretty surprised that I could speak perfect French, but also frustrated because he found no resemblance to the "Olga from Germany".

At this time, my life was difficult.  Stays in hospital, surgery, long-term treatment. My lawyer had not been idle, was preparing materials against RTL. But because the "project" was too expensive, we couldn't proceed.

And suddenly, a Russian newspaper article appeared, smelling of mothballs.  "In bed with the coach." It began like this: "No sports scandal caused such terror in the world community as a story told by former gymnast Olga Kovalenko on the television channel RTL - wrote a well-known western weekly magazine "Sports Illustrated" ...  The correspondent of the Russian newspaper had telephoned Olga Kovalenko, who, they said, was now living and working abroad.  She repeated: "My case is not out of the ordinary. I was just one of many athletes who were prescribed mandatory sex. Girls who refused to do as the authorities instructed were subject to dismissal from the team. Those who did not have permanent boyfriends were forced to have sex with their coaches."

You can imagine my state! I was shocked!  How cheap!   The 'fake Olga' probably took a big fee for the very first interview on RTL, then vanished, and then it was a matter of - "I contacted by phone."  I filed a lawsuit against the newspaper.

I do not like to complain about life, how things worked out, and developed. I suffered a lot. I was born Olga Kharlova, and made friends with Valery Karasev at the World Championships of 1966.  This was the last appearance of our idols Larisa Latynina, Polina Astakhova, Boris Shakhlin, Yuri Titov. Valery  courted me, was so attentive, so insistent that really it seemed - maybe it's fate? We got married, and then we competed together at the Olympics in Mexico City, and at the World Champs in 1970.

We lived together for ten years. I so wanted a baby!  But my husband insisted that it was necessary to save more money to settle. I was eager to work abroad, but it didn't work out. I also liked my work in international management of the State Committee of the USSR. I did this and graduated from the Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages. I had a reference from FIG President Yuri Titov, went abroad, and was preparing to run for the members of the Technical Committee of the International Gymnastics Federation.

Perhaps my happy eyes made my husband jealous.  There were unpleasant scenes. I knew that he was trying to hide his sins. I would have to have been blind not to guess that he was partying on the side.  In the last year of my marriage we had begun to dislike each other, and I realized that I had fallen in love with Yuri Kovalenko. He also worked as a translator, and traveled with delegations to the competitions. On the one hand, I had a husband who was constantly shouting insults, on the other, a man who used to give me flowers, make compliments and sing me songs in English.  Who was I going to choose?

The marriage to Yuri lasted ten years after which he moved to America.  Olga is now married to Mikhail Lifirenko.  Olga says she receives a presidential pension (ten times the minimum salary).  She has some back problems but it seems that the State helps her with physical therapy.  She had a Russian blue cat, Rita, and she and her husband have a large circle of friends.

Going back to the scandal, the interviewer asks about the 1968 team - Luda Tourischeva, Liubov Burda, Larissa Petrik, Natasha Kuchinskaya, Zinaida Voronina, and Olga Karasyova.  Were they forced to have sex!  

- It is, I repeat, a monstrous lie!  I sought only one thing - a correction in the newspaper. And I am very pleased that the court stood up for my honor and dignity. It would be nice to find my German impostor and say so to her face.  However, although I am angry, I can really laugh about it!

On the 24th July 2000 Olga turned 51. But you can't believe it. After all, she is still a real beauty. 

You can read the full background and context of this story at http://rewritingrussiangymnastics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/fact-or-fiction-press-gymnastics-and.html

and a full translation by Lauren Cammenga of a Kommersant news story from 1988 here - http://rewritingrussiangymnastics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-zh-cn.html

A WORD FOR WORD TRANSLATION OF GOLUBEV'S INTERVIEW WILL FOLLOW.

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Fact or fiction? The press, gymnastics and pregnancy doping

It was a Sunday morning.  I was drinking my coffee and contemplating the day ahead - a workout at the gym, shopping for groceries, an evening reading a book, or catching up on last night's episodes of crime thriller The Bridge.  How nice it was not to have to think about work for a day.

Then I saw it - a story about the history of doping in The Observer.  Interesting reading.

Of course, cheating is as old as the hills.  It is, unfortunately, human nature for some people to try to gain easy advantage in any kind of competition.  That is why we have laws, rules, ethical guidelines.  People who cheat should face justice and shouldn't complain when they are found out.

But the story about pregnancy doping bothered me.  Hadn't that been found to be fictional?  The author began with Olga Kovalenko's allegations made in 1994 - but the rumours had started way back in 1991 with the documentary series More Than A Game.  The practice of pregnancy doping was discussed, and in response to a question about whether the Soviet Union gymnasts might have been involved, coach (and BBC TV commentator) Mitch Fenner responded, 'I would believe anything'.

Yes, it made me catch my breath, too.  At the time the papers - quality and tabloid press alike - had little good to say about the sport.  A high profile rumour was also circulating that the female gymnasts were fed drugs to delay puberty, including one case where an 'expert' (we never found out exactly who) had observed photographs of a gymnast where her physical development had actually receded, rather than progressed.  The words 'I would believe anything' summed up the attitude of many in the press at that time.  

Ironically the sensationalistic allegations made the headlines more than the facts did.  Drugs? Unproven.  More likely, the commonly accepted fact that early specialisation, workload, dietary discipline and hereditary factors were all implicated in the generally small size and boyish physique of the top gymnasts.  There were age falsifications to enable very young gymnasts to compete before they were eligible, but the only historic doping allegations to have been found to be of substance relate to the use of steroids during injury recovery in the late 1980s, as part of a German court case against a sports doctor.  The allegations of pregnancy doping seemed completely incongruous in this context.

Yet, as The Observer states, pregnancy doping amongst the all six of the 1968 Soviet Olympic gymnasts was confirmed in 1994 in a German language RTL documentary by someone who claimed to be Olga Kovalenko, a member of the team.  In the absence of an archive of medical records, as existed in Germany, first hand verbal testimony is the only evidence available.  Sports Illustrated and many other respected publications covered the story, which now seemed well founded. The rumour became accepted fact in the West. 

By 2004, however, the story was found to be bogus.  The facts were covered by Russian newspaper Kommersant, and made available in the West via a press release (see full wording at the bottom of this blog post).  The Olga Kovalenko in RTL's documentary was not the Olga Kovalenko who competed (under the name of Olga Karasyova) at the 1968 Olympics.  Kovalenko went to court in Moscow in 2004 to prove the fact - in a case against Russian sports monthly Speed Info - and was awarded a small sum in damages.  She said that she knew nothing about pregnancy doping.  What had been accepted as fact became fiction once again - but the respected publications who had originally covered the story didn't know or care about Kovalenko's legal action.  In the English language the real story - or the lack of a story - remained hidden from view.  The myth remained freely in circulation, and available for repetition by any hapless journalist who didn't bother to look any deeper.  This is how myths and conspiracy theories spread.

There are loose ends.  Why, for example, didn't Kovalenko take RTL to court about their original documentary?  Why did the coach comment?  A difficult question to answer without sight of the original documentary and the context in which words were said by one person or another.  It is impossible to know anything without access to the original players, who have all now moved on and are living their private lives.  Why on earth should anyone want to waste their energy on this non-story?

So I hope that by now it is perfectly clear - no public grounds exist for saying that pregnancy doping took place in the case of the 1968 Soviet Olympic gymnastics team.  The Observer journalist who included the story in his article last week has said to me that he finds the story 'confusing' and, indeed, it is.  Far too confusing to include as fact in an important article in one of the country's leading broadsheet papers.  Apparently the writer has asked a 'prominent Moscow journalist' to help with his investigations.  Isn't it rather late to investigate a story - AFTER it has been published?

There is no story.  I'm not the only one saying this - Le Monde sports journalist and athletics coach Pierre-Jean Vazel, who investigated this in 2013, has tweeted since publication of the Observer article that 'the pregnant Russian gymnast story was a blatant lie and manipulation'. 

I have written to the Observer's Readers' Editor asking for a correction, but so far the article hasn't changed, so it remains on the record and will no doubt contribute to the perpetuation of this false and unfounded story.  I am posting below some screenshots of the key parts of the feature and of the journalist's responses to my tweets about it, so that they remain on the record, too.  I am hoping that eventually some changes will be made, but to be honest I'm not that optimistic.  It seems to me that in this case, the Soviets are considered guilty until proven innocent.

If you know anything more, please post a comment.

Key extract from the Observer article of the 15th November - you can see more in the caption to the picture, above

Comments on the Observer article, available online

Text of a 2004 press release summarising the contents of the Kommersant newspaper report

GYMNASTICS: Karasyova wins libel case
MOSCOW -- Former Soviet Olympic star Olga Karasyova has won damages over
bizarre allegations that Soviet athletes had been forced to get pregnant and
then have abortions to boost their performance.

A Moscow court ruled that the Russian monthly SPEED Info had libelled Karasyova
by quoting her as saying that the ruling body of Soviet sport forced women
stars to have sex with their trainers to become pregnant, the Kommersant daily
reported Thursday.

According to the allegations, after 9-10 weeks of pregnancy the women athletes
were forced to have abortions, but the high level of natural hormones present
in the women's bodies helped improve their performance.

An outraged Karasyova denied she ever made any such allegation against
Goskomsport, which ran sport during the communist era.

The court awarded Karasyova, who won gold at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics,
35,000 rubles (1,750 dollars) in damages. She is now considering legal action
against the German television station RTL, which broadcast similar charges.

In November 1994, the German station aired a sensational live interview with a
woman posing as the Olympic champion, who blew the whistle on illegal methods
used by Goskomsport.

The real Karasyova decided against taking legal action against the German
channel, despite seeing the broadcast during a Mediterranian cruise holiday.
But when SPEED Info published the allegations in April she decided to take
action.

Kommersant said Karasyova had asked her lawyers to launch legal proceedings
against RTL as soon as possible. The former gymnast told the paper that she
never heard of any involvement in the sex lives of athletes by Goskomsport.

Since publishing this article, two further archival sources have come to my attention, which have been translated and published on this blog.  The chronology has become clearer; the dates in my article above are incorrect in places.  

1998 Kommersant article about the court case in Moscow - http://rewritingrussiangymnastics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-zh-cn.html

2001 interview with Karasyova - http://rewritingrussiangymnastics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/is-monstrous-lie-pregnancy-doping-olga.html

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Melnikova wins Massilia Cup

Angelina taking her gold medal AA at the Junior European Championships in 2014. Picture courtesy of UEG.

Yesterday, at the Massilia Cup, Russian junior Angelina Melnikova scored 57.5 to win the all around competition ahead of France's Marine Brevet and Romania's Diana Bulimar, both established senior competitors.  This score would have seen her finish in fifth place a few weeks ago, at the World Championships in Glasgow.  The Russian team, including fellow juniors Daria Skrypnik and Natalia Kapitonova, and senior Evgenia Shelgunova, finished second behind France, after a tight battle.  See scores below.

Angelina on bars - http://youtu.be/oeVEt8UzkHo

On beam -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIMiesOKsdw&sns=tw

On floor - http://youtu.be/JKfUEYt5RSE

Natalia Kapitonova, beam - http://youtu.be/JF1xNqiv2TU

On bars - http://youtu.be/B6jnRxWOyKs

Shelgunova, beam - http://youtu.be/D4sTTo1Fs88

On bars - http://youtu.be/VYtmhnvOcvg

Skrypnik, beam - http://youtu.be/hJ8gmM0BpLo

On bars - http://youtu.be/17HCwkDBy54

Angelina is from Voronezh, where she trains at the same club as Viktoria Komova.  Komova's coach, Gennady Elfimov, now assists in training Angelina, alongside her coaches since childhood.  Angelina won the Junior European AA title in 2014 and scored the highest AA this autumn at Russia Cup.  Unfortunately, as a junior she was not eligible to take the title of Russia Cup champion and had to be satisfied with a special award!  She will be patient though, and wait for her opportunity to prove herself and take her laurels at next spring's Russian Championships.  'Gelya', as she is known by her friends, will turn 16 next July - so it will be great to see if she can qualify to compete in Rio.  

Here is a video of Angelina training, four years ago, at the age of ten.  

http://youtu.be/6REkTP00bWI

Let's wish Angelina and her team mates the very best of luck as they prepare to compete for places on the Russian team at the big competitions of 2016!

Our next opportunity to see the Russian gymnasts will be the Voronin Cup in Moscow, in December.  Anastasia Dmitrieva has confirmed that she is one of the gymnasts training for this competition.

Results of the Massilia Cup - also available at http://www.elite-gym-massilia.com/marseille-gymnastique-championnat-resultats.php?nommenu=massilia-gym-resultats&menurubrique=MASTER%20MASSILIA&menulangue=fr&menutype=f&affiche=oui

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Unsung heroine - Daria Spiridonova

There is an unsung heroine on the Russian team, one who is often taken for granted - Daria Spiridonova.  In amongst all the missed connections, the razzmatazz of announcements and big tumbles that characterised the World Championships at Glasgow, Spiridonova calmly maintained her position as a world leader on bars.   The judges' baffling and bungled decision to 'coincidentally' award the medal to four different gymnasts of varying ability and performance can't conceal the fact that this young gymnast has now medalled on bars in every major competition, senior and junior, that she has entered since 2011.

More than that, Spiridonova's elegance and mature attitude in competition show evidence of a strong head and an adherence to the fundamental principles of gymnastics - economy of line, an effortless, gravity-defying appearance to all her work, and complexity that does not rely on tumbling as its main source of difficulty.  In any other era Spiridonova would have the potential to be a leader all around.  Yes, her falls in qualification were a let-down, and ultimately denied her a place in the final, where no doubt she would have finished in a relatively lowly position. But under a Code that values only Execution and Difficulty, the aesthetic value of work will always be denied in favour of efficiency and reliability.  Would you prefer a Porsche to a Volvo?  The FIG has decided on the latter, gymnastically speaking, even if the engine has been souped up.

No doubt for some of you this will be a controversial thing to say.  How shocking to support Spiridonova, who can't get through a beam routine without hopping to the ground, and whose tumbles are so basic!  She will never win anything!  She certainly doesn't have the greatest record or reliability and her difficulty on vault and floor leaves a lot to be desired.  But what I am speaking of is a different way of judging gymnastics (as opposed to evaluating it), a different paradigm entirely.  A perspective, an added dimension that tragically has been lost to the sport.  

So, it may be perfectly obvious, I found much of the Glasgow women's competition unwatchable, including much of the Russians' work, especially when they were falling all over the place.  A distorted and mangled crazy spectacle of muscled contortions and ungainly flights.   If I wanted to watch acro I would choose an Acrobatic Gymnastics competition, where the form and execution is miles better and where they don't attempt to pretend that they are performing.  Don't tell me about gymnasts who are attempting to recapture elegance in their work through incorporating leaps and turns in place of tumbles.  Gymnastics is supposed to combine elegance and innovation, not be a watered down shadow of itself and such attempts are merely a superficial nod in the direction of artistry.  They do not capture the magnificence of artistic gymnastics at its best, and invariably focus mainly on floor, without considering the other apparatus.  The phenomenon of virtuosity, a character of work that made a gymnast unique and recognisable across all four apparatus, has largely been lost.  This is about more than toe point and leg line or indeed anything that can be put into words or listed systematically in a Code of Points.  You can't make a scribble into a straight line without losing some meaning along the way.

Yes, there were also too many falls.  There are too many injuries everywhere.  All of these things are the consequence of a Code that values D score too highly, that attempts to measure rather than judge execution, that puts administration above artistry and values political correctness above creativity.  That misunderstands what bias and objectivity are and plants its own value judgements as absolute without considering a wider frame of reference.

So that's why I say - look again at Spiridonova and value her for the aesthetic of her work as well as for her difficulty and execution.  She is no Ilienko, but there are nascent qualities that come from the training.  In perhaps more concrete terms, closer to the way that some of you think today, value her as a gymnast of strong mentality, the only gymnast of her generation to survive and thrive in Russia's current team environment.  Who else but Spiridonova has consistently contributed to the team's medal count since 2012?  Only the veterans of London, and they will probably retire post Rio.  Tutkhalyan and Kharenkova have potential, but the team's spirit needs lifting if they are to produce extraordinary results.  Gold would make all the difference, and at present Spiridonova is the only 'new' Russian who looks to have the strength of will and confidence to lead the way.  They may well need her in Rio - for more than just the countable things.

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Aliya Mustafina - on the mend

Aliya has responded to a few questions about her health.  At present, she is at home with her family, undergoing rehabilitation at the clinic where she had a procedure on her right knee on the 3rd November.

'I am not allowed to jump or squat until December 7th' she said.  'I can walk, but with one crutch, which I will need until next week.  I will be at home throughout rehabilitation - so as not to overload the leg.  In another two weeks I will have to have treatments and do exercises.  We'll have to see after that, the doctors will advise ... Once the stitches are removed, there won't be any pain at all'.

Good luck!

http://www.allsportinfo.ru/index.php?id=99245

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Love and peace to France

Our thoughts are with our friends in France.  Please stay safe.  

There are messages of solidarity from many of the Russian gymnasts.  We are all together at this time.  ?? ??? ??????.  Nous sommes tous ensemble.  

Love and peace.

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Daria Spiridonova - I will need to increase my D value and go clean to win in Rio

- To be honest, I have almost forgotten the special feeling that I won the World Championship gold - said Daria Spiridonova. - I am happy, but in general everything is back as it was - and still is.  Only at home, of course, I was greeted and welcomed as a hero (smiles).

- When you flew out to Glasgow, did you expect to return with a gold medal?

- No. And in particular I did not expect that there would be four winners on one apparatus (smiles). This is something incredible, it has happened for the first time in the history of gymnastics.

- What did you talk about with Viktoria Komova when you stood together on the highest step of the podium?

- "How does that even happen?" Surprise and delight at the same time.

- In fact, all four athletes were at the same level?

- In our sport, a lot depends on the judges.  The D scores were all different.  The highest was a Chinese woman, then there was an American, and Vika Komova was a little lower, one-tenth. Probably they were all equal in the purity of execution. I had the feeling that I could have done better than all the others. Well, I have known things to go better; I had a mistake. In general, this year for me has turned out to be very successful on the bars - I was able to finish first at the European Championships and the World Championships.

- How do you feel about fourth place in the team?

- We could do better, but the girls were slightly nervous on the beam - and fell.  We are a little less worried about individual finals - the team is most important.

- What is the mood in the team after the World Championships?

- The journey home was quite fun, our mood was good. However, we were all very tired, and there was a three-hour flight delay and [then we had to wait for a later connection].  As a result, we ended up spending eleven extra hours at airports.

- What are your future plans?

- We still have a few days to stay at home. On November 9th we will go to Israel to work out and relax a bit. The entire World Championships team will go.  It is necessary to keep in shape.   I do not know whether we will have soon a complete vacation.  Apparently, there will be time for a rest after the Olympics (smiles).

- What are your plans for the Rio 2016?

- I do not know whether I will compete anywhere except bars - this is still not known. But to win at the Olympics, it will be necessary to increase my D score and compete cleaner. Therefore, after relaxing somewhat in Israel I will put together a new routine. Maybe add a [?Sin-Bers?] and a new dismount. The warm up for Rio 2016 will be, probably, the European Championships.

http://www.team-russia2016.ru/article/10689.html

Does anyone know what the Sin Bers(!) could be?

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Aliya Mustafina - 'everything is OK'

'Everything is OK, the operation went as planned, under general anesthesia. Now I feel good. While I am in hospital, I will walk with crutches.  Doctors have said that the timing of my return to competition will become apparent as I recover.   But in general, no one can make any predictions - it is too early. 

The plan is that I will recover more or less in three months.  But it is not yet clear when I will be able to begin to train fully again.'

http://www.allsportinfo.ru/index.php?id=99023&b=10&l=40

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'It's very hard without Mustafina' - Valentina Rodionenko

Valentina Rodionenko has confirmed that Olympic champion Aliya Mustafina has successfully undergone surgery on the meniscus in her right knee.  "The operation went fine. We'll see when Aliya will be back.  We hope that it will be all right. All the gymnasts really miss Mustafina and it is hard without her."

Picture courtesy of Aliya Mustafina's personal Instagram.

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A gold medal of gold medals - Viktoria Komova

I would make this my gold medal of all gold medals ... What an amazing comeback from Viktoria Komova ... as the BBC commentators said yesterday, her beauty takes gymnastics 'beyond the textbook'.  And so it should be.

http://youtu.be/_grQzeF55xs

Congratulations to the gymnasts!  

A question mark to the judges ... Those four routines were close, but not equal - it was your job to decide!

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