The following year she competed at the World Sports Fair, taking the AA gold with, by her standards, watered down routines. Sadly she was not named to the Soviet Olympics team and her competitive record then runs dry - does anyone know any more?
In the picture, taken in 1985, Elena would have been only twelve years old. This was the first time that I saw her compete at international senior level, at Wembley in the Champions All competition.
Elena trained in Moscow at the same CSKA club as Elena Shevchenko, Olga Chudina and, later, Anastasia Grishina. She shared the same meticulous approach to her technical elements, was especially powerful on bars and beam and is one of the gymnasts credited as having competed the double twisting Yurchenko first. Her coaches, Viktor and Irina Razumovsky, still work at the same club today and look after one of Moscow's leading gymnasts, Daria Mikhailova.
You can watch Elena's 1987 floor routine here.