In July 1980, on the eve of the Moscow Olympics, 20-year-old Soviet gymnast Elena Mukhina attempted a new tumbling pass that went fatally wrong, leaving her paralyzed from the neck down. Once one of the brightest stars in world gymnastics — a world all-around champion and a rival even Nadia Comăneci feared — she would spend the next twenty-six years confined to her bed, sustained by the devotion of a few extraordinary friends.
This article, drawn from the recollections of those who cared for her, traces the quiet heroism of a woman whose body was broken but whose spirit never was — a story not only of tragedy, but of endurance, grace, and the humanity that surrounded her until the very end.
