Lidia Ivanova on judging at the Moscow Olympics

Russian media are publishing articles and interviews about the 1980 Olympics for the 40th anniversary of the event. Lidia Ivanova, a Soviet Olympic champion, was one of the judges during the Moscow Olympics. She talked to RT.com about the event and the pressure she faced as a judge.

Q: In 1980, were you a part of the team or staying a neutral party as a representative of the International Gymnastics Federation?

A: I was working on every front, as they say. I was working in the management of the State Sport Office of Gymnastics (that was then the name of the organization analogous to a sports federation) and was preparing to work as a judge. This put colossal responsibility on me since our country was given only one [judging] spot at the Games. I was also actively participating in the team preparation and spending a lot of time at camps. Olympics at home became a unique phenomenon for our country. We were trendsetters, after all, we were making quite a splash on the world level, including in organizing competitions. I know that for sure because for many years, I worked at all the big competitions. Everything was sharp, precise, attentive to all the details and our competitions were like concerts. Although everyone was very nervous leading up to the Olympics.

Q: When did the 1980 Games started for you?

A: In 1979, at the People of USSR’s Spartakiade. It was a dress rehearsal, a grand competition. First of all, in terms of the organization, testing the work of all the services. And in terms of the results, of course. “O Sport, You Are Peace!” is definitely not about sports. The task set for the team at the 1980 Games was only first place, only winning. Second places were not even entered into the equation then. Only gold.

Q: Were the coaches told about some plan regarding the number of medals [to win]?

A: The maximum. There are 14 sets of medals at the Olympics given out in our sport and we were told: the main goal was to win whatever was possible. We got nine golds.

Q: And that’s with Nadia Comaneci still competing!

A: Nadia was definitely a favorite to win at those Games. On the day when the fate of the all-around champion was decided, due to a draw, I ended up judging beam, With my considerable judging experience and some agility, you could say, I was always able to concentrate on what was going on “my” event while taking in the rest of the competition floor with my peripheral vision, following how my team was doing on other events. And I see that Lena Davydova finishes her bars routine successfully, gets a considerable sore on the last event and the sum of scores puts her ahead. At the same time, also in the last event, Nadia Comaneci is supposed to go on beam; she won gold in the all-around, on bars, and beam at the 1976 Montreal Olympics and definitely did not become weaker in four years. Moreover, Nadia worked the beam like no one else in the world. It was top of the line – everything polished, cleaned up, as if someone took an iron and ironed everything out before letting her go on the competition floor.

Q: As I remember, Comaneci never had serious mistakes on beam.

A: On one hand, yes. But what is beam? You go out onto those ten centimeters and high pressure starts shaking you. There’s nowhere to run away, you don’t feel your legs, they are just not working. You need to not just do your routine but also get a good score for it. Especially since Nadia likely managed to notice Davydova’s score. I saw that she was shaking, that she was trying to use her experience to diminish that shaking, but still made a little mistake which I immediately noted in the protocol. Then a second mistake happens which I also write down, trying to make sure that those who sit near me see it too. On the landing, Nadia made a tiny step, she wasn’t able to stuck the landing cold, and this was the third mistake.

Q: How were the people on your judging panel reacting to it?

A: They kept glancing at me which I was long used to, since I’d been working as an international judge for many years. In my life, many judges ended up disqualified for various reasons, but I finished my eight Olympics with a golden award from the FIG as the best judge in the world. But that’s not important. A Polish judge sat next to me and after each mistake I noticed I exchanged glances with her and saw that she noticed those little mistakes too. When the scores were shown and they turned out to be not enough for Comaneci to surpass Davydova, I knew right away that our panel would be pressured. And I noticed almost right away that the FIG president Ellen Berger from East Germany and the vice-president Romanian Maria Simionescu were walking towards us deliberately. I practically shielded this Polish girl with my body. “Hold on”, I said, “Don’t change anything”. And in German, addressing Berger more than Simionescu, I started talking fast, listing arguments like, everything’s fine with this judging panel, alles in Ordnung.

Q: Did you persuade them?

A: Berger agreed with me almost right away, but Maria kept standing and staring at the panel. I understood her perfectly well, after all, it was the same system in Romania. A Socialist country, don’t even try coming back without a gold medal! Especially since Simionescu, as an FIG vice-president, was in charge of appointing judges and all of them, especially those who represented not very strong gymnastics countries like Venezuela or Equador, were grateful and terrified of her. But I somehow took charge of that situation and did it playfully, with a smile. The competition was stopped and for a while – I even have a video recording of that moment somewhere. But when we were ordered to reveal the scores again, the same scores were revealed. And Lena Davydova became the all-around Olympic champion!

Q: Were you afraid there would be outrage aimed at you?

A: At that moment, I was in some sort of a crazy state after everything that happened, I didn’t understand much, but I was told that if I had left the arena right away, Romanian fans would have just torn me apart. At the end, I was led out of Luzhniki at around 2 or 3 am – through the director’s entrance, [accompanied] by guards with machine guns. They accompanied me to the car and brought me home. In the morning, the main Romanian newspapaper which always had only Nicolae Ceausescu on the front page came out with these photos: Ceausescu, Nadia Comaneci, and below them – the face of Lidia Gavrilovna Ivanova. An enemy of the Romanian people, no less.

Q: Not many bet on Davydova at those Games. I think that Nellie Kim who was second in the all-around at the 1976 Games had no less reason than Comaneci to consider herself offended.

A: Every strong leader is always offended when they don’t win. That’s normal. I remember how many years ago Larisa Latynina and I were invited to a TV show hosted by Irina Rodnina. Ira asked: “Larisa Semyonovna, were you ever upset at the judges?” I grabbed the microphone and said: “Ira, what are you talking about? What complaints could a person have for judges, if they won everything for so many years?” The audience laughed for a long time. But for a leader, losing is always a tragedy for which everyone around them is to blame.

Q: Alexander Dityatin won the highest number of medals in gymnastics at the 1980 Olympics and Nikolai Andrianov who won four golds in 1976 lost the all-around. Did you feel like Andrianov was a bit underscored since he was going to retire anyway and the gold went to Dityatin who was on the rise.

A: Everyone, including the judges, loved Kolya very much. And it’s not just about his authority, he was amazing, incredibly charming, and consistent. But in the sport, Andrianov was slightly declining at the time. He made some execution errors, perhaps, the lightness was not there as it used to be. In addition, Anatoly Yarmovskiy that coached Dityatin knew very well that it would be impossible to win over Andrianov just by copying him. They needed to overcome him not just in execution but in difficulty as well. So, Yarmovskiy came up with the elements for his pupil that adorned the routines and gave Dityatin a technical advantage. So, the sum of those tenths and hundredths ended up not in favor of Andrianov, although he still won two golds at those Games.

Q: The race for the maximum difficulty in combination with the crazy internal competition led to the tragedy that happened to Elena Mukhina shortly before the Games.

A: You could blame Lena’s personal coach Mikhail Yakovlevich Klimenko rather than the system. He was always insatiable in his work. He really expected Mukhina to get to the Olympics and win floor because at that moment, Lena had an outstanding routine. Not one person on our national team could do what she could on bars and floor. But she had a leg injury and when your leg hurts, especially if an athlete is very tired, it’s really hard to focus on the execution of a difficult element. So, that’s how that horrifying injury happened. I became a huge tragedy for all of us, especially since Mukhina was not just one of the gymnasts, but she won the all-around and impressed everyone with her routines at the European Championships [1]. I was judging at that competition and saw how even Comaneci got shaken and left the competition after seeing Lena’s performances. But, I repeat, it’s not the fault of the system. The system is when something happens over and over. Fortunately, we never had such injuries after that, despite the fact that our sport is considered quite injury-prone.

Q: What was the most memorable about the Moscow Olympics? Well, besides the empty and clean Moscow.

A: And besides Mishka flying away, right? I guess, being triumphant. I guess it’s laughable now, but all of us – coaches and athletes – were raised in such a way that we didn’t even understand how much we robbed the international sports then, winning such a crazy number of medals. We liked being the strongest, liked those “CCCP” letters on our tracksuits even though foreigners called them cee-cee-cee-pee and laughed at us. And the exclamation point at the closing ceremony when Mishka was flying away made both fans and enemies tear up even if they [the enemies] won’t admit it now. And it was our exclamation mark!

[1]

Mukhina never won the all-around at the European Championships. She finished second behind Comaneci in 1977 and fourth in 1979 (when she was already dealing with an injury). Ivanova likely refers to the incident in the beam final in 1977. The Romanian team decided to withdraw from the competition during the beam final (after Comaneci already won and was awarded AA and UB golds and a VT silver). Comaneci got a perfect 10 in that beam final and would’ve won gold over Mukhina if not for the withdrawal of Romania. I am not sure how Comaneci’s 10.0 score implies she was shaken by Mukhina’s performances.