Elena Mukhina Елена Мухина English Dub Interview 1991

An excerpt from A&E documentary “More than a game” (1991) 00:18 “It happened very simply. Everything had led up to it. I wasn’t physically or emotionally ready. My injury could have been expected. It was an accident that could have been anticipated. It was inevitable. I had said more than once that I would break my neck doing that element (Thomas salto). I had hurt myself badly several times but he (her coach) just replied that people like me don’t break their necks. And again it’s not that you can’t but that you don’t want to. You’re not conscientious. You were lazy.” 01:16 “Mikhail Klimenko (her coach) treated me like a living robot. Apart from the gym and gymnastics, nothing existed. I didn’t have the right to be ill. Problems outside sport simply did not exist. He didn’t understand that I might be tired. He would say you’re not tired. You just don’t want to do it. That was his method of training.” #gymnastics