5 years of uncultured coiffure

An expose by Valentin Mogilny

True, Soviet gymnastics is 'at the peak of progress' as I believe our coach Leonid Arkaev commented last year. The sport has never been better represented in our country with such great talents as Bilozerchev, Korolev, Artemov and Liukin emerging in the space of just a few years, a vintage age of wonderful gymnastics, a trulymarvelous advertisement for the superiority of Soviet physical culture.

But what of the state of hairdressing in our vast country? It's a really barbarous situation. For years I have had to sport a variety of haircuts which have varied from the ridiculous to the intolerable. I have had to endure derisory comments from my teammates, the sniggers of silly girls in gymnastic audiences and admonition from my coaches.

How is it possible for a top flight sportsman to produce his best under these disadvantageous circumstances? At the Stuttgart World Championships I was in with a chance of the overall gold. But on p-bars my hair flopped and the chance was gone.I lost concentration and had to endure a .2 deduction of what could otherwise have been a perfect routine.

Soviet hair care has never been at a lower ebb. Look at famous Russians throughout history - Tolstoy, Stravinsky, Nijinsky, Chekhov, Ivan the Terrible, Nureyev, Stalin,Lenin - did they have to battle against such adverse conditions? What we need is a genius, a real talent of the stature of Daniel Field, Trevor Sorbie or Vidal Sassoon to lift the morale of Soviet hairdressing and push back the barriers of the possible.

As for me, will I ever fulfill my potential? I am a sportsman, and despite these complaints I must do my best to show what I'm capable of and make Olga proud of me.I shall continue to compete and train, despite the taunts, and I shall ignore the irritation of fly-away hair - which is after all only an expression of part of my inner self - in an attempt to stun the world.

thank you - EB

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