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1952 Hungary MAG Perfect 10 USSR WAG

1952: Perfect 10s Abound during a Soviet Union vs. Hungary Dual Meet

In 1952, the Soviet national gymnastics team traveled to Hungary for a dual meet that coincided with Hungarian-Soviet Friendship Month. This event turned out to be a bellwether for the 1952 competition season. 

At the time, Hungary’s gymnasts had already proven themselves on the world stage, with the women’s team securing second place and the men’s team finishing third at the 1948 Olympics. 

For the Soviet gymnasts, on the other hand, the Helsinki Olympics were particularly pivotal as it represented their first major international meet organized by the International Gymnastics Federation’s (FIG) — though they had previously competed in non-FIG events like the Workers’ Olympiad. The Soviet team’s outstanding performance at this meet made it clear that they would be strong medal contenders at the upcoming 1952 Helsinki Olympics.

From a gymnastics history perspective, this competition is also fascinating because there were three perfect 10s: one from Medea Jugeli for her compulsory vault, one from Dmytro Leonkin for his compulsory rings routine, and one from Viktor Chukarin for his optional pommel horse routine.

Here’s what else happened during the competition.

USSR. October 15, 1956. Soviet gymnast, two-times all-around Olympic gold winner, Viktor Chukarin.
Dmytro Leonkin
Medea Jugeli
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1951 Hungary MAG Perfect 10 WAG

1951: Keleti Scores a Perfect 10 at the Masters Championships

Between World War I and World War II, Hungary was one of the top gymnastics nations. The Hungarian women’s team finished second at the 1934 World Championships and third at the 1936 Olympics. While the Hungarian men didn’t medal as a team, they had several standout gymnasts, including István Pelle, who achieved a perfect score of 32.00 at the 1930 World Championships. (Prior to WWI, the Hungarian men’s team finished second at the 1912 Olympics.)

In 1948, the Hungarian women finished second while the men finished third. But a curious thing happened in 1950. Hungary allegedly skipped the 1950 World Championships for political reasons. Nevertheless, despite missing the World Championships in Basel, Hungary made a strong return to international gymnastics at the 1952 Olympics. Their trials for the Helsinki Games began in late 1951 with the Masters Championships, where Ágnes Keleti and Lajos Sántha emerged as the winners. (Keleti, a Holocaust survivor, passed away on January 2, 2025, just days shy of her 104th birthday.)

Below, you’ll find the results from the women’s and men’s competitions in 1951, along with commentary on the women’s event.

Ágnes Keleti, 1956
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1952 Compulsories MAG Olympics WAG

1952: The Compulsory Routines for the Helsinki Olympics

What were the compulsory routines for the Olympic Games in Helsinki?

At the time, the compulsories changed every two years. So, the compulsory routines in Helsinki were different from those prescribed for the 1950 World Championships in Basel.

Unfortunately, at the time of this writing, there aren’t videos of the routines on YouTube. But in this post, you can find the drawings and French text for both the men’s and women’s compulsories.

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1952 MAG Olympics

1952: The Rules for the Men’s Gymnastics Competition at the Helsinki Olympics

The Helsinki Games were the first Olympics that used an official Code of Points for men’s gymnastics. (The 1950 World Championships had used the 1949 Code of Points, as well.) But not everything could be covered in the extremely short Code of Points. As a result, the program for gymnastics in Helsinki included an additional 24 pages of rules for the men’s competition. Let’s take a look at some of the rules in place.

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1979 Code of Points MAG

1979: The Men’s Code of Points

In 1979, there was finally a vague sense of harmony between the men’s and women’s Codes of Points. Both the Women’s and Men’s Technical Committees emphasized risk, originality, and virtuosity, and both used four difficulty categories: A, B, C, and CR (for extra-risky skills).

While this was a major change for the Women’s Code of Points, the 1979 Men’s Code of Points was quite similar to the 1975 Men’s Code of Points. Let’s take a quick look at it.

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1975 Code of Points MAG

1975: The Men’s Code of Points

In 1975, the Men’s Technical Committee published a new version of the Code of Points. Below, you’ll find some of the updates, as well as the complete English text.

Happy gym nerding!

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1974 FIG Bulletin MAG WAG World Championships

1974: The FIG’s Reflections on the World Championships in Varna

What did the leaders of the FIG think about the 1974 World Championships?

For starters, none of them was thrilled about having to move the location of the competition. As you’ll see, both presidents of the technical committees and the president of the FIG mentioned the challenge of choosing a host for the 1974 World Championships. (More on that decision here.)

Valerie Nagy, the president of the Women’s Technical Committee, was generally displeased with the level of the gymnasts, writing: “Even without preliminary qualifications, the national federations should have been more severe when making their selections.”

In addition, she didn’t like the direction of balance beam, where she felt that gymnasts were trying to perform too many difficult acrobatic elements, which impacted the flow of the routine.

In that same vein, Arthur Gander, the president of the FIG, railed against the emphasis on risk and difficulty at the expense of execution.

Below, you can find Gander’s comments, as well as those of the MTC and the WTC.

My thought bubble: Yup, this is pretty nerdy stuff, but most people who read this site are pretty nerdy people. 🙂

A little trivia: Did you know that there were three score protests during the men’s competition? Guess how many of those protests were rejected.

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1974 MAG World Championships

1974: The Men’s Event Finals at the World Championships

The Japanese men were unable to dominate on the final day of competition in Varna — in part because Kasamatsu withdrew from several events.

As clear as the Japanese won team and individual victories, they could not assume this dominant role in the apparatus final, especially as Kasamatsu had to forego competing on rings, parallel bars, and high bar due to a shoulder injury.

Neues Deutsches Turnen, No. 12, 1974

So klar die Japaner Mannschafts-und Einzelsieg erkämpften — im Gerätefinale konnten sie diese dominierende Rolle nicht spielen, zumal Kasamatsu an den Ringen, am Barren und am Reck wegen einer Schulterverletzung auf den Start verzichten mußte.

Six different gymnasts won gold medals, representing five different countries (Japan, the Soviet Union, Hungary, Romania, and West Germany).

Below, you’ll find snippets of newspaper reports, as well as videos from the 1974 men’s event finals, which took place on Sunday, October 27.

Enjoy!

Eberhard Gienger, 1974
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1974 MAG World Championships

1974: The Men’s All-Around Competition at the World Championships

In 1974, Kasamatsu Shigeru became only the second Japanese gymnast to win the all-around title at the World Championships. (Kenmotsu won it in 1970.) However, his win was not without controversy. With only 0.125 separating Kasamatsu and Andrianov, some thought that Kasamatsu should have won while others thought that Andrianov should have won.

As we’ll see, much of the coverage focused on what happened during the last rotation on October 26, 1974.

Datum: 26.10.1974 Copyright: imago/Sven Simon Shigeru Kasamatsu (Japan) – Reck; quer, Flugelement, Froschperspektive, unten Weltmeisterschaft 1974, Geräteturnen, Kunstturnen, Vneg, Vsw Varna Turnen WM Herren Einzel Einzelbild Aktion Personen

Reminder: This was the first World Championships with an all-around final. (The Munich Olympics were the first Olympic Games to include an all-around final.)

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1974 MAG World Championships

1974: The Men’s Team Competition at the World Championships

In 1974, not much changed in terms of the top standings. Japan won its fourth-straight team title, the Soviet Union won its fourth-straight team silver at the World Championships, and East Germany won its third-straight team bronze at the World Championships. 

That said, it wasn’t a boring competition by any stretch of the imagination. Innovation was flourishing in men’s gymnastics. For example:

  • Bernd Jäger adapted Karin Janz’s salto for high bar, performing the now-famous Jäger release. 
  • Nikolai Andrianov attempted a triple back off high bar. (According to the East German press, he never successfully landed it.)
  • Both he and his teammate Vladimir Marchenko did full-twisting double backs on floor. (Marchenko had performed one earlier that year in Riga.) 
  • Janós Sivadó did his eponymous travel on pommel horse.
  • Vladimir Safronov and Kasamatsu Shigeru performed full-twisting Tsukaharas. The skill is now called a Kasamatsu, and Safronov has been forgotten.

Here’s what else happened during competitions 1a (Tuesday, October 22, 1974) and 1b (Thursday, October 24, 1974) in Varna, Bulgaria.

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