From Sovetsky Sport's files: Olga Vasilyevna Mostepanova, born January 3, 1969 in Moscow. Merited Master of Sport in Artistic Gymnastics. AA Champion at the Friendship '84 tournament, and gold medalist on vault, beam and floor exercise. Twice world champion in the team event (1983, 1985), world champion on beam (1983), silver medalist in AA and floor (1983 World Championships). Winner of the 1984 USSR Cup in the AA. Champion of the USSR on vault and beam (1984).

She flashed on the gymnastics horizon like a shooting star, painting a vivid trail, and then she disappeared, melting into the immense heavens. Not figuratively but literally. The future of Soviet gymnastics had been linked with her performance at the 1984 Olympics, yet just a year later her name had disappeared from the startlists of competitions, and few people even remembered her. It was as if there never had been such a gymnast. The modest, self-contained and somewhat shy girl had never tried to draw attention to herself. Even today it was difficult to find her and set up an interview. Nevertheless, we managed to meet and have a chat.

Question. - Olga, I remember that at the 1985 World Championships in Montreal you were third after the team competition and should have competed in the AA finals for the title of absolute world champion, but you didn't appear on the podium. Why not?

Answer. - The leadership of the team made that decision.

Q. - Were you offended, and is that why you retired from gymnastics?

A. - No. Both then and now I realize that Andrei Fyodorovich Radionenko - he was the senior coach - did the right thing. My success in the team event was due to a combination of favorable circumstances. Furthermore, Lena Shushunova, who replaced me and, together with Oksana Omelianchik, became world champion, performed better than I did in the optionals, and it was optionals that had to be performed in the finals. Of course, it was sad that I couldn't compete in the event finals either, where I could have had some success. I retired because, due to injuries that had never completely healed and bad back pain, I couldn't train at full strength - physical burdens placed on me too early evidently took their toll... I also had to eliminate the problems in my education. All of us DID study, but it was essentially on our own, from textbooks. We spent 3/4 of the year at training camps at Round Lake, and the lofty title of Master of Sport didn't mean I could disgrace myself in exams at the Institute of Physical Education.

Q. - When did you begin gymnastics?

A. - My mother took my to "try-outs" at the Dinamo gym when I was five years old. I guess the strict Gennady Danshin was able to detect my daringness, ability to catch on to things and my obedience, and he took me into his group. I really liked gymnastics. I learned something new at each lesson, and therefore every morning I waited impatiently for the minute my mother would take to me the gym on a streetcar. Soon Anna Anikina began to conduct our lessons. She was the one who taught me the most important gymnastics wisdoms.

Q. - When did you first sense that you could make your own mark in gymnastics?

A. - Probably in 1979 when, at age 10, I took 7th place among Candidates for Master of Sport at the USSR Junior Championships in Taganrog, I was included on the junior national team, and I went to an international competition in Minsk among junior gymnasts from the socialist countries. And then in the Olympic year of 1980, when there was a competition in Togliatti between graduates of special sports schools and I won the AA and beam among the Masters of Sport - at age 11! - I finally believed that I could challenge the best.

My new coach, Vladimir Filippovich Aksyonov (Anikina had turned me over to him) made me a new birth certificate, adding on a couple of years, so I could compete at senior competitions. So in 1982 and 1983 I competed at the USSR Championships in Chelyabinsk and the USSR Cup in Leningrad and finished 3rd AA at both. I also came away with some medals in the individual events - I won silvers on floor and bars and bronzes on beam and vault - and, of course, I made the national team. Second place in the AA at the USSR Cup in Rostov-on-Don opened the door to me to the 1983 World Championships in Budapest! I didn't think about age then. I trusted my coach.

Q. - Did you go to Hungary thinking of becoming world champion?

A. - No, of course not! I was thinking about not letting my teammates down. When the team competition was over and it was clear we had won and that I would compete in the AA finals and on floor and beam, a spark of hope began to burn inside me that I wouldn't leave without a medal in the AA. I went out on the podium feeling calm - the burden of responsibility for the team was no longer weighing on me. I told myself not to think about medals but to think about how best to perform my routines. The silver medal in the AA was like a Christmas present to me. For a 14-year-old girl who wasn't even eligible to compete at the World Championships, this was a great success! I had placed behind only Natasha Yurchenko, beating such famous gymnasts as Ecaterina Szabo and Lavinia Agache, Boriana Stoyanova of Bulgaria and Maxi Gnauck of the GDR. I was so happy about the gold medal on beam and silver on floor that I was in tears. Hope began to gleam that I would be selected for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Q. - How did you take the news that Soviet athletes would not be going to the Olympic Games in the US?

A. - You're not going to believe this, but I was even somewhat happy. I wouldn't have to listen to lectures, all manner of admonitions and instructions, and I wouldn't have to make any promises. Our coaches didn't realize that all these "pep talks" before competitions made us nervous and created too much pressure, which was more of a hindrance than a help.

Only after competing at the Friendship '84 competition in Yugoslavia, which was held so our efforts wouldn't go to waste, did I realize what I had missed out on by not being able to participate in the Olympic Games! I was really prepared well for them... I could have shown good results in Los Angeles. After all, in Olomouc I was first in the AA, beam, vault and floor! And the competition was just as strong as in Los Angeles. Olomouc was my shining hour, my swan song.

Q. - Olga Vasilyevna, you're now the mother of four children! When did you get married?

A. - I started dating a nice guy at the institute. But the trouble was that my Timur was Ingush by nationality, a Muslim. Neither my parents nor his were particularly happy about our relationship, to put it mildly. But now everything has settled down. My parents have calmed down, and his parents come to visit us. The grandchildren reconciled everyone. My firstborn, Ruslan, will be seven soon and will start going to school. Our daughter Liza was born in 1993, our second son - Mikael - in 1995, and our second daughter, Mariam, was born last year. She's six months old now.

My husband and I didn't officially get married until last year. A mullah came to our home and performed the rites of marriage.

Q. - Did you convert to the Muslim faith?

A. - Muslims don't have a rite of conversion to their faith, the way the Orthodox have baptism. I simply share my husband's feelings and beliefs.

Q. - How do you cope with such a large brood? How can you afford to buy enough food?

A. - After several years of working as a coach, Timur, who used to be a boxer, went into business, and we also receive children's benefits. Of course, we don't live in luxury or in a splendid countryside cottage but, praise be to Allah, we aren't sitting around hungry or without clothing and shoes. My mother helps me manage the children.

Q. - Olga Vasilyevna, how did you decide to have so many children?

A. - Finally! I was waiting for that question (laughs). Granted, I often hear things phrased differently: "Why do you need a life like that?" And one "matron" from social services, when I was applying for benefits, couldn't think of any better theory than "You probably keep having kids in order to be given a bigger apartment."

Some people just can't understand that I simply love children, that a large family is a real family and that, finally, large families are traditional for both the Ingush and the Russian peoples. There was a reason why the president of Russia decreed that there should be a holiday called "Mothers Day," which is celebrated on the last Sunday in November. And how many children did Natalya Nikolayevna give Pushkin during their seven years together? Five! So I still have something to look forward to (smiles).

Thanks to Beth Squires for the contribution