Goodwill Games 1994

Yelena in St Petersburg

With a competition that didn't involve compolsories, often Yelena's downfall she seemed poised to show the world she really was a top gymnast! Fresh from the world championships Dina Kotchetkova, Oksana Fabrichnova, Svetlana Khorkina and Yelena took to the worlds top teams including Romania, USA, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. Yelena was the youngest and most inexperienced member of the team, therefore she was placed first in the line up for most events so her team mates could build on her scores. With the home advantage the Russian's cruised to victory by over a point higher than second place Romania. The Russian team had only one mistake which was when Svetlana Khorkina fell from beam. Meanwhile Grosheva put in 4 solid routines to make the all around final ahead of team mate Khorkina.

In the all around competiton Grosheva was not really expected to medal especially with 4 world champions in the field!! But Yelena started well on her first event which was vault. 2 solid vaults gave her an average of 9.669 and a placing in the top 10 after the first rotation.

Grosheva's second event was bars, high release skills and a well landed double forward somersault gave her her highest ever bar score internationally!!! 9.825.

Grosheva was steadily moving up the ranks and getting closer to a medal, all she needed was a solid beam routine. A couple of tiny wobbles but otherwise a nice routine gave Grosheva a steady 9.637 and if she performed well on floor her best event she would have a chance to get into the medals.

With Dina Kotchetkova and Shannon Miller performing wonderfully in the last round, Grosheva knew the gold and silver were out of reach, but if she performed well she may get the bronze. Yelena's floor contained probably the best choreography of the competition and the only double twisting front somersault! Her score was good enough to giver her the bronze over 1996 Olympic Champion Lilia Podkopayeva and Oksana Chussovittina.

Grosheva was thrilled with this result and was one of the only athletes to show her happiness by smiling whole heartedly for the cameras!

Yelena didn't compete in any apparatus finals but she did compete in the mixed team competition with Chussovitina, Voropayev and Shabayev which finished third partly thanks to two routines from Yelena

This was probably one of Grosheva's best finishes in an all around competition ever. She wasn't expected to beat even team mates Fabrichnova and Khorkina which she did but she also bet many other top Romanian and USA competitiors.

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