International Gymnast magazine April 2002
As Lyudmilla Yezhova prepared to perform Russia's last routine in the team finals at the 2001 World Championships in Ghent, she had more at stake than just a clutch performance that could secure the silver medal for her country.
Long known for her daringly complex balance beam sets, the 19-year-old Muscovite at last earned the chance to prove that her unique talents merited a place on the world championships podium. Yezhova, a bronze medalist on beam at the '96 Junior Europeans and '98 Senior Europeans, has thus far in her career achieved only precarious status on the Russian team that has always been so deep in all-around talent. Failure in Ghent would likely mean for Yezhova a return to limited prospects as a beam specialist, and potential obsurity amidst the new generation of youngsters aiming to fill the Russian roster.
Success in Ghent would, and indeed did, yield two-fold triumph for Yezhova. She hit her beam routine in the team final and shared a silver medal there; on the last day of competition, she earned a silver medal of her own in the individual-event final on beam.
"Before I went up, everyone on the team supported me, and they had faith in me," recalls Yezhova of her team final effort. "I thought I must help the team, especially because we had a few mistakes. When I was on the beam, I thought, 'God help us.'"
Yezhova proceed to drill every tricky, original combination in her routine before drilling her 2 1/2 twist dismount to a proudly-held salute. "When I landed, I thought, 'Excellent! We did everything we could,'" says Yezhova. "Svetlana (Khorkina) came to me and said, 'You did everything you needed to do.'"
A few nights later, the resolute Yezhova did it again, placing second to Romania's Andreea Roducan in the beam final. "I feel that I did all I could for the team, and for Russia, and therefore, I am proud of myself," she said after the awards ceremony in Ghent.
With her career rejuvenated, Yezhova is both reflective and projective of her recent global achievements. "It was my dream to compete in the world championships," says Yezhova, who will turn 20 on March 4. "For my first world championships (in 1999), I went to China but I did not compete; I was the alternate. Of course, now, I would like to earn a complete set of medals- including the Olympics. I think I can continue until the next Olympiad."
Yezhova's career extension following the 2000 Olympics for which she did not qualify may be surprising to some, but not to the earnest Yezhova. "I wanted to continue because I still can," she says. "I did not want to be sorry in the future that I did not take this chance to prove that I could still do it."
Although she has always achieved her best results on beam, Yezhova has earned respectable rankings elsewhere. In the Ghent all-around final, a 1.0 penalty for throwing (and crashing) the same two vaults dropped her to 26th. Earlier in the year, however, she won the World University Games in Beijing and placed sixth at the Russian championships- her best ever such finish.
Last December, at the Chunichi Cup, she placed second all-around and won both the uneven bars and balance beam. A former Russian champion on those two events, Yezhova invented the barani from high to low bar (a skill she has performed internationally for several years), only to have teammate Anna Chepeleva receive official credit for performing it at the Sydney Olympics.
Yezhova still garners the most attention on beam and relishes both her repute and the event itself. "I do not know why I do best on the beam," she says. "When I was little, I always enjoyed working on it. Nadezhda Galtsova, my first coach, made a program tailored just to me, and this was terrific. She tried to fit the program to me, not me to the program."
Now trained by Russian national team principal coaches Leonid Arkayev and Marina Bulashenko, Yezhova spends most of her time at Krugloye, the national training center in suburban Moscow. When she's home, Yezhova looks after her collection of plush and toy hedgehogs. Coincidentally, the name Yezhoa is a derivative of "yozh," the Russian word for hedgehog. "I love collecting hedgehogs," she says with a giggle. "I have a whole wall of them at home. Big ones, small ones. Maybe because it's my family name, but maybe not."
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