1979 USSR Gymnastics Documentary - Part 3 (Natalia Shaposhnikova, Eduard Azarian, Elvira Saadi)

Bohdan Makuts is a Ukrainian former gymnast who competed in the 1980 Summer Olympics. He was born in Lviv. He was also the all-around silver medalist, vault and rings bronze medallist in the 1981 world championships. He was part of the 1979,1981 and 1983 soviet world championship teams, winning one gold and two silver team medals. He also became the 1980 world cup all-around champion. (Богдан Макуц 1979)
Irina Gabashvili was a Georgian-born Soviet gymnast. She began gymnastics at age 10 and was coached by Neli Saladze. She was the 1979 World individual all-around bronze medalist. (Ирина Габашвили 1979)
Natalia Shaposhnikova (Russian: Наталья Шапошникова 1979), married name Natalia Sout, is a former Soviet artistic gymnast, two-time Olympic champion, and Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR. She was known for her risky, original skills and expressive choreography, especially on balance beam and floor exercise.
Shaposhnikova trained at Dynamo in Rostov-on-Don under Honoured Trainer of the USSR Vladislav Rastorotsky, who also trained her compatriots Ludmilla Tourischeva and Natalia Yurchenko. She was one of the world's strongest gymnasts in the late 1970s and early 1980s, especially on vault. She was known for her difficulty and originality, especially her one-armed handstands on beam. At the 1979 European Championships, she performed one of the first triple twists on floor, and her opening tumbling pass on floor at the 1980 Olympic Games was a roundoff 1.5-twisting layout immediately into a roundoff back handspring double pike.
At the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, she contributed to the Soviet team's gold medal and won an individual gold medal on vault. She also took home bronze medals on floor and beam, and missed a medal in the all-around by just 0.05.
Shaposhnikova came close to winning gold on beam at the 1978 World Championships, entering the final with a slight lead over Nadia Comăneci of Romania. However, Peter Shilston wrote in an April 1980 profile in British Gymnast magazine: "There was a fiercely partisan section of the audience determined that Comăneci should win to make up for her previous disappointing performances. When Natasha came up, needing a score of 9.8 to take the gold, she faced a very hostile reception which clearly got on her nerves. She made a series of mistakes, all jeeringly received, and slumped from first place to eighth." Shilston called the loss "probably the saddest experience of Natasha's life".
Eponymous skill
Shaposhnikova invented a complex transition skill on the uneven bars-a clear hip circle on the low bar with flight backward to the high bar-and it is named after her in the Code of Points. The skill, sometimes referred to colloquially as the "Shaposh", is still widely performed today; it is credited as a D element in the 2013-16 Code of Points.
Elvira Saadi is shown coaching a group of beginner gymnasts.