As the Soviet Union released information about Elena Mukhina’s accident in measured drips—carefully chosen, deliberately vague—the rest of the world filled the silence with speculation. Rumors crossed borders faster than facts. Many reports were hedged with caution: “we’ve been told,” “a Soviet gymnastics official has said.” At times, the tone was skeptical, as if even the journalists weren’t sure which pieces of the story to trust.
What follows is not a comprehensive catalogue of coverage. Instead, it’s a glimpse into the confusion—how a vacuum of truth became a breeding ground for contradictions, conjecture, and chaos around the globe.
Reminder: This is the second installment in a two-part series. To read about how the Soviet Union covered the accident and to understand what happened, please jump to part one.
July 1980: As far as I can tell, the Associated Press was the first to report on Mukhina’s injury—well before Sovetsky Sport offered only a vague mention of another injury. In hindsight, the wire service captured some details correctly (she was injured) and others incorrectly (it hadn’t happened on bars). What was missing altogether was the true seriousness of her condition.
Mukhina out of Games
MOSCOW (AP) — Elena Mukhina, the 1978 world champion gymnast, was injured in a fall during training and won’t be able to compete at the Moscow Olympics, a Soviet source said today.
Mukhina, 20, was hurt in a fall from the uneven parallel bars. The Soviet source declined to specify the extent of Mukhina’s injury, but said it would prevent her from competing at the Olympics.
Mukhina was unable to defend her title at the 1979 world championships in Fort Worth, Tex., because of a leg injury.
The petite blonde recently finished far down the standings at the Soviet Cup tournament in the Lenin Sports Palace.
Nelli Kim of the Soviet Union and Romania’s Nadia Comaneci are the favorites for the prestigious all-around gold medal in what is forecast as one of the closest gymnastics competitions in the history of Summer Games.
The Indianapolis News, July 8, 1980
Note: When newspapers picked up wire service articles, they didn’t always print the entire article, depending on space constraints. For example, when The Daily Yomiuri ran the story, the Japanese newspaper included another paragraph:
The petite blonde recently finished far down the standings at the Soviet Cup tournament in the Lenin Sports Palace where the Olympics competition will be held July 20-25.
The Daily Yomiuri, July 10, 1980
Team officials said then that Mukhina was being named to the Olympic training squad on the basis of her past performances, but that she would have to prove herself against a half-dozen challengers to secure a berth on the final team.
July 1980: Just days later, the international press revealed the grim truth: she had “crushed” several vertebrae — a fact the Soviet press would not explicitly confirm for more than a year.
The next article from The Washington Post drapes the tragedy in poetry and romance, as though it were a sonnet—and not a salto—that broke her neck. It also shifts the blame squarely onto Mukhina, noting that she was practicing “by herself,” a phrase that could mean either alone in the gym or simply without a spot.
Mukhina Badly Hurt In Gym Fall
MOSCOW, July 13, 1980 — Elena Mukhina, the sensitive Soviet gymnast who won the women’s all-around world championship in 1978 and dreamed of regaining her lost form at the Moscow Olympics, crushed several vertebrae in her neck in a training accident and is hospitalized in Minsk following surgery, Soviet officials reported today.
The tiny, 20-year-old gymnast, whose erratic performances were blamed by coaches on her poetic and romantic nature, reportedly landed on her neck while practicing difficult acrobatic routines by herself. She was taken unconscious to a hospital.
The Washington Post, July 14, 1980
July 1980: Shortly after news outlets like The Washington Post ran their stories, a so-called “Soviet gymnastics official” stepped forward to insist Mukhina wasn’t paralyzed and to push the Soviet talking point: the gymnast was recovering nicely.
Notice how the accident shifts location—from the uneven bars in the AP report to the balance beam in The Times of London—a sign of just how elusive the facts were.
Miss Mukhina Recovering
Michael Binyon,
Moscow, July 14A Soviet gymnastics official confirmed reports here that a former Soviet world gymnastics champion, 20-year-old Yelena Mukhina, injured herself in a fall during training. It is said her sporting career is now probably over.
Miss Mukhina, who was world all-round champion in 1978, was said to have fallen from a beam during a backward somersault and broken her neck last week. There were rumours that’ after an emergency operation in Minsk she was critically ill and might be paralysed for life.
No details of her injuries have been given in the Soviet press, but a sports official today denied that she would be paralysed and said she was now recovering.
The Times of London, July 15, 1980
July 1980: On television, Yuri Titov noted that Mukhina was hurt while trying to add more original and difficult elements to her routines so that she could make the Olympic team. When the interviewer asked whether she might compete again, it was likely a polite way of asking if she was paralyzed. Titov sidestepped the issue, dismissing the 1978 all-around champion instead as simply getting too old. That’s quite the statement from the President of the FIG.
Note: I am unsure of the provenance of this interview or the air date. So, I was reluctant to include it.
July 1980: Despite the assurances of anonymous sources, the rumors of paralysis refused to die. And neither did the tired lines about poetry and romance. Here’s a portion of an article that was published on the final day of the gymnastics competition in Moscow.
Soviets Regain Dominance, But Gymnast Pays for Glory
[…]
There would be worse times for the Soviet girls. They were training last month in Misnk to recapture their team championship at these Summer Olympics when former world champion Elena Mukhina was seriously injured while attempting a difficult floor exercise. There are varying reports concerning her condition, but she is believed to have fractured three neck vertebrae and may never walk again.
Mukhina was an unlikely world-class athlete. A timid orphan from Moscow, her grandmother had taken her when she was 10 to a sport club and pleaded with the coaches, “My poor lamb is so fragile. Sporting might do her good.”
The coaches, who had agreed to work with her mainly for reasons of charity, soon discovered she had talent, but they chided her for the lack of what they called “accidental factor” in her routines.
“I tried to do everything I was shown or told, but I rarely succeeded,” she said last year. “I was simply afraid of certain elements.”
She spent five years in her local club before former Soviet European champion Viktor Klimenko discovered her and, together with his wife, not only agreed to help develop her talent but provided her with a family atmosphere.
“I felt how much I was cared for,” she said, “and the desire to prove myself worthy almost literally paralyzed me.” It seemed at the time an odd choice of words. She worked harder and longer, increased the difficulty of her routines and overcame her fear.
“It was like tight chains had dropped from me,” she said.
Two years later, she finished second in the all-around competition at the 1977 European Championships and won two gold medals in the World Cup. She became the world all-around champion in 1978, beating Comaneci, beating Nelli Kim.
But then something else happened to Mukhina. As is not unusual with teenage girls, she became interested in boys, in classical music, in poetry. “She is touchable,” said one Soviet woman who is close to the team last year during Spartakiade. “You know, romantic.”
Mukhina didn’t finish in the top 10 at Spartakiade, failed to even make the team when it went to Fort Worth and improved only to ninth in the national championships earlier this summer. But because they remembered her best was as good as anyone else’s in the world when she wanted to give it, the Soviets selected her as one of the 12 girls who would travel to Minsk to try out for the Olympic team.
She was glad for the opportunity because it would be her chance to end her career on a successful note, to recapture her lost stature. She again increased her “accidental factor,” and it is because of it that Mukhina, only a few days past her 20th birthday, lies in a Minsk hospital bed.
The extent of her injury remains a mystery. As is their style, the Soviet press has told who the attending physicians are and that ripe cherries are on the menu at the hospital, but it has not disclosed the nature of her injury.
There has been one report in the United States that she is paralyzed and another that she is in traction but still has her reflexes. Then there is the “grave” report in the British press that she is, fighting for her life.
So the Soviet women won one for Mukhina Wednesday night, redeeming themselves for the debacle in Texas and gaining revenge at the same time. As an enthusiastic, standing-room-only crowd of 12,000 watched at the Sports Palace, the Soviets won by a convincing margin over the second-place Romanians and third-place East Germans.
[…]
FNS, Printed in The Daily Illini, July 25, 1980
July 1980: The rumors grew darker in the press. Some even claimed Mukhina had died. Once the gymnastics competition was over, Vladimir Popov, vice president of the Olympiad-80 organizing committee, shut that down.
Miss Mukhina Reported Alive
Vladimir Popov, the vice president of the Olympiad-80 organizing committee, denied reports today that Yelena Mukhina had died of injuries she suffered while training for the Olympics.
“She is not dead,” Popov said at his daily news briefing. He said he would consult with doctors who are treating Miss Mukhina and provide more details about her condition.
Miss Mukhina, a 20-year-old Muscovite, was Soviet all-around champion in 1978 and a silver medalist in the beam and uneven bars at the world championships that year.
Soviet officials have confirmed that Miss Mukhina was injured while attempting a double somersault in a floor exercise and reportedly injured her spine. No details of the accident were officially released, but a Soviet journalist who said he interviewed the 20-year-old gymnast at a hospital in Minsk said today, “Her hands and arms are paralyzed, but she’s feeling better.”
NYTimes, July 30, 1980
August 1980: After the closing ceremonies, a Hungarian-language newspaper in Yugoslavia added a new detail that would later be confirmed: Mukhina’s coach, Mikhail Klimenko—not his younger brother, Viktor, as was often reported—had not been present when she was injured. Still, the paper claimed the accident happened on the bars rather than the floor and insisted she wasn’t paralyzed. Like so many accounts, it was a patchwork of fact and fiction.
Has a Career Ended?
The Tragedy of Soviet Gymnast Elena MukhinaThe Moscow Olympic Games have ended. But the women’s gymnastics competitions took place without one outstanding figure. Elena Mukhina, the 19-year-old star of the Soviet national team, could not compete for medals. True, she had prepared intensely, but just a little more than ten days before the start, she was seriously injured during training in Minsk.
While attempting difficult elements, she fell from the uneven bars and injured her cervical vertebrae. She was taken to the hospital unconscious. At first it seemed that, even if her life was saved, she would remain paralyzed forever. A few days later, however, Mukhina began to move her arms and legs, and she was able to speak. Her neck is still in a cast, and will remain so for several weeks.
It is possible that the serious injury could have been avoided had Mukhina listened to her coach, Viktor Klimenko. He had left town and forbade her from practicing in his absence. Yet Mukhina trained anyway—and paid dearly for it.
Her parents first took her into the gym at the age of nine. Today, one might think that was late, yet she proved to be an extraordinary talent: at 15 she won the Soviet Union’s junior championship, and two years later she became a world champion at the senior level. She was considered the only worthy rival to Nadia Comăneci. But after her recent serious injury, it is hardly believable that she could ever start training again and return to competition.
August 4, 1980, Magyar Szó
Véget ért egy pályafutás?
Elena Muhina szovjet tornászai tragédiája
A moszkvai olimpiai játékok befejeződtek. A női szertorna versenyek azonban egy kiválósággal szegényebben zajlottak. Elena Muhina, a szovjet válogatott 19 esztendős erőssége nem indulhatott az érmekért folyó vetélkedésekben. Igaz, nagyon készült, de tízegynéhány nappal a rajt előtt súlyosan megsérült az edzésen, Minszkben.
Nehéz gyakorlatokat próbálgatva leesett a felemás korlátról, és megsérültek a nyakcsigolyái. Eszméletlen állapotban szállították a kórházba. Úgy tűnt az első pillanatban, ha az életét meg is mentik, örök időkre béna lesz. Néhány nappal később azonban Muhinamár elkezdte mozgatni kezét, lábát, és beszélt is. A nyaka még mindig gipszben van, és úgy is marad néhány hétig.
Lehetséges, hogy a súlyos sérülésre nem kerül sor, ha Muhina hallgat edzőjére, Viktor Klimenko szavára. Klimenko ugyanis elutazott, és megtiltotta neki, hogy távollétében egyáltalán gyakoroljon. Muhinaazonban mégis csak edzett, s nagyon pórul járt.
Kilencéves korában vezették be szülei először a tornacsarnokba. Ma már úgy gondolnánk, hogy ez később azonban rendkívüli tehetség volt, s 15 éves korában megnyerte a Szovjetunió ifjúsági bajnokságát, két évre rá pedig felnőtt világbajnok lett. Nadia Comaneci egyetlen méltó vetélytársának tartották. Nemrégi súlyos sérülése után azonban aligha hihető, hogy ismét elkezdheti elölről az edzéseket, hogy visszatér.
October 1980: In its October issue, International Gymnast stitched together a mélange of rumors, hedging their reporting with phrases like “we were told.” Yes, they reported, Mukhina had suffered a spinal injury—but no, it supposedly wouldn’t cause lasting damage, a mistaken reassurance that only lulled the gymnastics community into a false sense of comfort.
Elena Moukhina/USSR had such a dangerous fall in early July during her training (we were told, from the Uneven Bars) that she lost consciousness and had to be transported to Minsk Hospital in an alarming condition. There were even rumors about her death. But then came news to the effect that the 1978 world champion was again able to move her arms and legs, so that obviously there is no longer the danger of paraplegia. Contrary to the will of her coach, Viktor Klimenko, Elena had continued her training and when she tried to do a “difficult acrobatic element” — as we are told — she fell and hit the nape of her neck. We fear that this might mean the end of the career of this champion who is now 20, and we can only hope that the contusion of the cervical vertebra won’t produce a permanent damage, or constant pain. In 1978 Elena had been All Around world champion and world champion on the Floor. In 1979 she did not take part because of a foot injury.
“International Report,” Josef Goehler, International Gymnast, October 1980
Note: Again, Mikhail Klimenko was Mukhina’s coach—not his younger brother, Viktor.
November 1980: Believe it or not, months after the Olympics, there were still rumors that Mukhina had died. Yuri Titov, the FIG’s president, tried to put those rumors to rest.
According to Yuri Titov, president of the International Gymnastics Federation, former world champion Elena Mukhina of the Soviet Union is still in a hospital. With this, Titov once again denied the rumors that the 20-year-old gymnast had died on July 5 in Kyiv as the result of an accident during training.
Algemeen Dagblad, November 24, 1980
Russische niet omgekomen
(ANP) Volgens Joeri Titof, voorzitter van de internationale turnfederatie, ligt oud-wereldkampioene Jelena Moesjina uit de Sovjet Unie nog altijd in een ziekenhuis. Titof sprak daarmee opnieuw de geruchten tegen dat de twintigjarige turnster op 5 juli in Kief om het leven zou zijn gekomen door een ongeluk tijdens de training.
December 1980: Nearly five months after her accident, Mukhina was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor. TASS seized on the occasion to give the rumor mill a whirl, reporting that the 1978 all-around champion was learning to walk again. Newspapers picked up the news and printed it as if it were fact.
Elena Mukhina Is Learning to Walk Again
The Soviet gymnast Elena Mukhina, world champion in 1978, who suffered a serious fall during training just before the start of the Moscow Olympic Games, has begun rehabilitation “in order to learn to walk again,” the TASS agency reports.
Citing Professor Arkadi Livchits, a specialist in spinal cord injuries who operated on the gymnast after her fall, the agency adds that Elena Mukhina “can already sit up and is gradually regaining the use of her hands and arms.”
Being treated in a Moscow clinic, Elena Mukhina has just been awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor for her sporting achievements, in the presence of her friends from the Soviet team.
L’impartial (Switzerland), December 1, 1980
Elena Moukhina réapprend à marcher
Elena Moukhina réapprend à marcher La Soviétique Elena Moukhina, championne du monde en 1978, qui avait été victime d’une grave chute au cours d’un entraînement juste avant le début des Jeux olympiques de Moscou, commence à suivre des cours de rééducation «afin de réapprendre à marcher» annonce l’agence Tass.
Se référant au professeur Arkadi Livchits, spécialité des traumatismes de la moelle épinière, qui avait opéré la gymnaste après sa chute, l’agence ajoute que Elena Moukhina «peut déjà s’asseoir et recouvre peu à peu l’usage de ses mains et de ses bras».
Soignée dans une clinique de Moscou, Elena Moukhina vient de recevoir le «Signe d’honneur», qui lui a été remis pour ses mérites sportifs, en présence de ses amis de l’équipe soviétique.
Note: To its credit—if you can give the big Soviet sports machine credit—when Sovetsky Sport reported on this award, it did not mention that Mukhina was learning to walk again. In fact, the newspaper printed a photo of Mukhina, presumably, in a wheelchair.
September 1981: About a month before the official story was finally released in October of 1981, TASS once again dangled false hope, suggesting that Mukhina wasn’t, in fact, a tetraplegic.
Poor Elena
The state of health of the Soviet gymnast Elena Mukhina, who suffered a spinal fracture last year, shortly before the Moscow Games, has slightly improved during the three months she spent in a health resort in Crimea, the TASS agency revealed.
According to doctors, Elena Mukhina, who has since been brought back to Moscow, can once again move her arms and legs, although she is still unable to use them normally.
It is recalled that since her accident, Elena Mukhina has been confined to a wheelchair and is unable to remain standing for very long. Doctors plan to subject her to a new treatment, though they have not specified which one.
L’express (Switzerland), September 18, 1981
Pauvre Elena
L’Etat de santé de la gymnaste soviétique Elena Moukhina, qui avait été victime d’une fracture de la colonne vertébrale, l’année dernière, peu avant les Jeux de Moscou, s’est légèrement amélioré au cours des trois mois qu’elle a passés dans un centre de cure de Crimée, a révélé l’agence Tass.
Selon les médecins, Elena Moukhina, qui a été ramenée à Moscou, peut à nouveau bouger les bras et les jambes, encore qu’elle soit toujours dans l’impossibilité de s’en servir normalement.
Elena Moukhina, rappelle-t-on, circule depuis son accident dans un fauteuil roulant, et il lui est impossible de rester debout très longtemps. Les médecins comptent la soumettre à un nouveau traitement, sans toutefois préciser lequel.
October 1981: Finally, more than 15 months after the accident, the Soviet Union published the official story in Pravda. (You can read it here.) Newspapers around the globe picked up the news.
Soviet Gymnast on Mend
Soviet gymnast Yelena Mukhina, the 1978 world champion who was crippled by a training accident just before last year’s Olympics, is still paralysed in hospital but doctors hope she may some day partially recover, Pravda reported yesterday.
The Communist Party daily said Mukhina, who was 20 at the time of her accident, was able to read books and was in good spirits.
The article, giving the first detailed account of Mukhina’s accident to appear in the Soviet press, said she had been practising a new complicated element in her free programme when she landed on her neck and smashed three vertebrae.
Recovery
Pravda revealed that after her accident not only her limbs but her lungs were paralysed, and a team of surgeons fought for four and a half hours to save her life.
During the Olympics Soviet sports officials played down the seriousness of her accident, and implied that she was making a fast recovery.
Pravda said her fellow-students from the Minsk Physical Education Institute took it in turns to be with her during the day, and relays of medical students stayed with her all through the night.
She received several hours of physiotherapy each day and was often visited by other Soviet gymnasts such as Maria Filatova and Nelli Kim.
The account in Pravda did not say what progress her recovery was making, but clearly implied that she would be in hospital for a long time.
The Kremlin daily expressed the hope that one day she might return to the world of gymnastics as a coach or judge.
Daily Post (Wales), October 20, 1981
And here’s what the AP reported:
Soviet Gymnast Injured
MOSCOW (AP) — A doctor treating Elena Mukhina, seriously injured Soviet gymnast, was quoted Monday as saying she will have to endure a lengthy period of rehabilitation, but that he was optimistic about her future.
Mukhina, the 1978 women’s all-round world champion, suffered a paralyzing neck injury in 1980, reportedly when she missed a somersault in floor exercises while competing for a berth on the Soviet Olympic team.
Pravda, the Soviet Communist Party newspaper, quoted Dr. Arkady Livshits as saying he was certain that Mukhina would be able to return to “publicly useful activity.”
The San Bernardino County Sun, October 20, 1981
Even after the official story finally broke, the questions didn’t stop. Who was really to blame? Why did reports insist Mukhina could walk? And most pressing of all: What did Mukhina herself think? What was her side of the story?
We will look at those questions in the next two posts.