Sovetsky Sport. October 4, 1994. If, as the saying goes, statistics know everything, then they certainly know how many athletic couples there are in our country. Of course, not all of them consist of famous athletes. However, the couple we are speaking with today, Sofia and Valentin Muratov, boast an impressive array of titles. Sofia Ivanovna is a five-time USSR all-around champion, a three-time world champion, and a two-time Olympic champion in the team event. Valentin Ivanovich is a two-time USSR all-around champion, a world all-around champion, a two-time world champion in the team event, a world champion in floor exercise and on the horizontal bar, and a two-time Olympic champion in the team event, as well as an Olympic champion in floor exercise and vault.
Q: The first question is a cliche, but necessary. How and when did you get into gymnastics?
S.I.: I was born in Leningrad. When the Germans blockaded the city, I was evacuated along with my sister's family to the Volga region - first to Rybinsk, then to Kazan, and finally to Kuybyshev. My sister was a talented gymnast. In Kuybyshev, she began taking me along to her training sessions - not because she saw a gymnast in me, but to help me build up my strength, as I was not particularly healthy. After we moved to Moscow in 1944, I began serious training at the Dinamo club under Igor Stepanovich Zhuravlev.
V.I.: I was born a year before Sofia, in 1928, in the village of Kostyukovka near Moscow, where my grandparents lived. My mother had traveled there from Moscow to give birth to her first child. When the Nazis were closing in on Moscow, my father - who refused to be evacuated - went to the front and soon went missing in action, while my mother and I headed to the village. We returned to the capital after the Germans were defeated in near Moscow. Since the schools were closed, my mother got me a job at a factory so I could receive a worker's bread ration card. I started as a fitter's apprentice and later became a milling machine operator. My mentor, an elderly and sick man, left his job after training me, leaving me as the only milling machine operator in the workshop; the adults even treated me with respect. When school opened in 1943, my life as a working boy came to an end, and I enrolled in School No. 356. Our PE teacher was Viktor Alexandrovich Korolkov - a man demobilized after being wounded; though a boxer by specialization, he was passionate about gymnastics. I, too, tried my hand at boxing - after all, I was a spirited, restless lad - but when Viktor Alexandrovich saw that I could to 18 pull-ups (the result of my 'experience' sawing and chopping firewood, since the house lacked central heating), he steered me towards gymnastics instead. Training in the school squad alongside me were his foster son Zhenya Korolkov, Volodya Yurkov, and Gena Burov - boys who were already quite skilled.
Q: When did you feel that you could make your mark in gymnastics?
S.I.: Probably in 1948, when I placed first among the first-class gymnasts at the USSR championships. Galina Urbanovich reigned supreme on the mat back then. Igor Stepanovich saw in me a gymnast capable of defeating Urbanovich herself. In 1949, I became the USSR champion in the vault for the first time and won the silver medal in the floor exercise. However, I only came into my own in the all-around by 1951; I finished fourth that year, and subsequently placed first five times and second four times.
V.I.: Like Sonya, I outperformed all the first-class gymnasts at the 1948 national championship, yet I didn't quite feel like a true gymnast yet. In 1952, I finished sixth at the national championship and, having made the national team, went to the Helsinki Olympics.
Q: And why didn't you, the winner of the 1954 "trial" European Cup, go to the first official tournament in 1955?
V.I.: It was a simple matter - I tore my Achilles tendon. Admittedly, I recovered quite quickly and, in 1956 became the all-around USSR champion for the second time.
Q: And why did you leave gymnastics so early?
V.I.: I haven't left gymnastics even now, though I did step away from elite competition back in 1959 after tearing my pectoral muscles. I spent a short time as head coach of the Moscow team, and then in 1960, following the Rome Olympics, I was invited to become head coach of the USSR national team. In 1962, I was elected to the FIG technical committee.
Q: Your name is linked to Mikhail Voronin's loss of the all-around title at the Mexico City Olympics...
V.I.: And that was a mistake. Yes, I was serving as a judge for the floor exercise at the time. It was the final event. Voronin was competing on the pommel horse, while the Japanese gymnast Sawao Kato was on the floor. I saw Misha make a mistake - he nearly sat down on the horse, grabbing his trousers along with the pommel - yet he received a high score - 9.5. After him, and with his score already known, Kato took to the mat. He performed his routine with minor errors. Three judges awarded him a 9.9, while one - like me, a judge whose score is excluded from the final calculation - gave him a 9.7. I gathered the panel and pointed out the errors, but the FIG official in charge of judging, the Yugoslav I. Ivancevic, intervened and refused to allow a review of the scores. Our team officials found no grounds for a protest, evidently reasoning - quite rightly - that it would not be upheld. Shortly after the Mexico City Games, and thanks in no small part to the efforts of General G. V. Baklanov, then Chairman of the Federation's Presidium, I was offered the chance to hand over my position to Vladimir Smolevsky, which I did. I spent a brief period working as the head coach of the Moscow Region team before linking my career to Army gymnastics. For the last ten years, I served as the head of the academic department at the CSKA specialized youth sports school, though I had to step down this year due to illness. Now, I focus solely on public service roles. I signed the "Agreement on Accord" at the Kremlin on behalf of the athletes, and I currently serve as a member of the Presidential Public Commission on Education, Science, and the Arts.
Q: Sofia Ivanovna, why didn't you make it to the Helsinki Games or compete in the national championship in 1961, after winning the bronze medal at the 1961 USSR all-around championship?
S.I.: It's simple. While the battles in Helsinki were taking place, I gave birth to my firstborn, Seryozha, and in 1961 - to Andrei.
Q: In 1963, you became the all-around USSR champion for the fifth time, and in 1964, you won the USSR Cup for the second time and retired from the platform. Did you want to leave undefeated?
S.I.: Not really. After winning the Cup, on the eve of the Tokyo Olympic Games, I was not included in the team: I was 35. My coach Zhuravlev gave me one of his promising students, Olya Kharlova, who became my famous Karasyova - champion of the USSR, Europe, the world, and the Olympic Games. For several years I worked with the USSR national team, leading them to the stages of two world championships and the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, for which I was awarded the title of Merited Coach of the USSR. I still work as a coach at CSKA.
Q: Sofia Ivanovna, why did you lose to Larisa Latynina in international competitions when you used to beat her at home?
S.I.: It seems luck just wasn't on my side. It all began with a setback at the 1954 World Championships in Rome, the first one Soviet gymnasts ever attended. I went there as the team leader. I was in first place after three apparatuses, but then I broke my arm during the vault. At the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, while the Hungarian gymnast Agnes Keleti and I were battling it out for the top spot, Latynina suddenly surged past us to claim the gold. And from then on, she never looked back.
Q: What is your view of the current situation in the country?
S.I.: I really don't get into politics. Of course, the reforms wiped out our savings, but our pensions and wages are enough to live on. My youngest son followed in his grandfather's footsteps and became a highly skilled toolmaker - he even has his own personal stamp! He's unmarried and still lives with us; he earns a good living. My eldest is doing well, too. He works as a school PE teacher and is highly regarded at both the school and the district level. We have two grandchildren. So, there's no reason to complain - we live in harmony and comfort. Valya and I even attended the Goodwill Games. They haven't forgotten us; they still invite us!
Q: Valentin Ivanovich, as the Goodwill Games and all previous competitions have demonstrated, Russian gymnasts currently remain at the forefront of world gymnastics. But what does the future hold? There are numerous known instances of youth sports schools closing down and experienced coaches leaving for jobs abroad.
V.I.: I believe we will never run out of enthusiasts who love gymnastics, care deeply about the sport, and seek new ways of working - much like Mikhail Voronin, who established a gymnastics club at Dinamo. Thanks to their efforts, gymnastics will be preserved and continue to improve.
We believe in you, Russia!
E. AVSENEV