This is the best video of this outstanding floor routine that exists to my knowledge. Groshkova has never competed at World Championships; her light shone all too briefly when she won a silver medal at 1990 Europeans. Has anyone else ever performed that unique double full in in the straight/piked position?
Tatiana trained at Moscow Dynamo where her personal coach was Elvira Saadi, who now coaches top internationals in Canada. Her bars and beam exercises were also packed with innovation and difficulty. But reliability curtailed her career prospects in the frighteningly competitive field of early 1990s Soviet gymnastics.
She was the focus of a 1987 Soviet TV documentary 'Will You Come To The Ball'.
The tumbling in this floor routine - by a very light, spritely gymnast - belies the idea that you have to be muscled to be powerful. And my, how does she manage to perform with such expression, such incredibly intricate dance, such excellent line, right the way through such a difficult and demanding exercise? The tumbling isn't just there to satisfy the requirements - it provides an exclamation mark of drama to a coherent, articulate presentation. The big difference to today is that the routine was marked as a whole, not as a collective of individual skills. This made such artistry possible, and worthwhile.
How I would love to see the Russians tumble like this today.
Incidentally, can anyone say what the start value would be? Execution deductions? How would this treasure be marked under today's prescriptive Code?