Yelena Shushunova:
I am not a businesswoman

She did not change much. Only her job is now different. The two time Olympic champion Yelena Shushunova is a member of the organizing committee of the 1998 European Championships.

"We don't have much time," she warned lighting another of many cigarettes today. "For the past two weeks I run around like a squirrel in a cage here at Peterburgskiy [Sports Complex]. And there is still so much that needs to be done! I am even afraid to think about it."

Yelena is dressed in a fashionable suit. The only detail of her attire that does not fit with the appearance of the member of the organizing committee of the European Championships is shoes. Or rather their absence. Inside the building Shushunova moves swiftly in socks.

"I had to take my shoes off," she interrupts my look. "You should have seen the soles of my feet - it's one solid bruise!"

-- You are a real businesswoman: not a minute free!

Oh stop it! I did not even learn to count the money right and probably never will and you are saying [I am] a businesswoman. I can organize something but am very bad in business.

-- Let's move to gymnastics and go back to the past, to 1989. How did your life go when you left the sport?

I finished competing right after the Olympic Games in Seoul. Not because i emptied my potential - I had plenty of physical strength at that time - but because I was completely exhausted mentally. The situation was that Dima Bilozerchev's instructor [Aleksandr] Aleksandrov had become the head coach of the national team. And he needed someone he could show off as an example of "that's how you have to practice." Of course, there was no better candidature than me. At that time I just wanted to rest a month or two and instead again had to sweat at practice everyday. So, one day had come when I broke down and left - for good. An impulsive decision but I made it and to this day do not regret much.

After that I "went underground" for three years - married, had a baby. Still, later I felt I needed something else. Just at that time St. Petersburg was preparing for the Goodwill Games. I came over and offered my help. Since then I work at the city sports committee.

-- Many of your teammates now work in America and Europe. Did you have a desire to leave?

I had plenty of possibilities to go abroad. There were many offers from the foreign clubs and I also have relatives in the US. It is just that my generation was brought up differently. Figuratively speaking, a step aside meant execution. Anyway, together with Yura Korolyov and Tatiana Druchinina we created our own gymnastic show. The enterprise was unusual for our country. From the beginning we mad many mistakes, signed a not-so-lucky contract and after a while we realized that the guys simply did not have enough money to feed their families. We performed twice after which the show vanished.

-- Did not the coach career appeal to you?

Actually, I would have liked to be a coach, it is just an athlete leaving the competitive sport for the rest of his life looks at the world through the lenses of the competitive sport. It is hard to start over, you would not even know how to make the first step. Was I clear to understand?

-- You were. How is your everyday life these days?

Well, I do not live in poverty. Although, we share an apartment with my mom, step-father, sister, her husband, nephew, and a cat. My husband and child are in the country now, at the dacha [summer cottage].

-- After nearly ten years since you left the sport what is the most bright memory of your gymnastics career?

The entire career of an athlete is made of bright memories. In childhood, my coach was saying that everything I experienced in gymnastics I would remember for the rest of my life. And it is true. My most bitter tears were in 1987 when we lost by a few tenths of a point to the Romanians in the team event at the World Championships in Rotterdam. It was painful, bitter, and pitiful especially comparing to the happy days of my life - 1985 World Championships. Then, I was only 17th after the preliminaries. I improved a bit aftre the team event and became seventh. Still, only three gymnasts from each country could go to the finals and I was fifth. Luckily, after a discussion our coaches put me on the team and the next day I became the champion! Would I lost, my career would be over already then - my failure would have not been forgiven. All these memories are with me every day.

-- In your opinion, how did gymnastics change over these years?

It nearly has not changed. It is true that now there are new rules which, on one side, make the sport more dynamic but on the other keep gymnasts within the certain borders that limit creativity. However, the bright personalities (there are still many of them on the podium today) will always find a way to express themselves.

-- Who, from this point of view, could you select out on the Russian team?

How can I pick someone when I rarely have time to even watch any competitions. I just run around at work all day long. There is not even any time left to gymnastics.

Our conversation came back to the same point where it started. At that moment someone knocked on the door asking for Yelena and a second later she was gone. What a pity, there could be so much more to ask her...