Serebrianska is golden in rhythmic gymnastics; Vitrychenko takes bronze

by Roman Woronowycz

ATHENS, Ga. - Kateryna Serebrianska and Yelena Vitrychenko became the only Ukrainian athletes to medal in the same event when on August 4 they won the gold and bronze in rhythmic gymnastics.

Gold medal winner Serebrianska dominated the event throughout. She was first after the preliminaries, and in the finals overwhelmed her opponents with perfect 5.0s for composition in all four of the rotations. Her over-all score for composition and execution came to 39.683, a comfortable .310 ahead of silver medalist Ianina Batyrchina from Russia.

After three rotations, in the rope, the ball and the clubs, Serebrianska, the tallest competitor at 5 feet 10 inches, had control of first place, having scored 9.95 in each of the events. The 18-year-old 1995 world champion, who resides in Symferopil, then almost blew it in the ribbon exercise, the prettiest of the events.

Moving towards the close of her performance, she tossed the ribbon skyward and did several somersaults, but she overreached on her recatch of the ribbon and fumbled it momentarily, still catching it. (The worst mistake a competitor can make in rhythmic gymnastics is dropping an apparatus during an exercise.) Although the score she received, 9.833, was the lowest of her four, it was still the highest given by the judges for that rotation.

As for her 5.0s, Serebrianska did it with no frills, utilizing basic technique, gracefulness, steadiness and using her long legs to create artistically pleasing movements. She didn't try to amaze the judges with unusual contortions or acrobatics.

Serebrianska might have been the judge's favorite, but the audience responded to Vitrychenko, who took the bronze. The charismatic 19-year-old wowed them with her flamboyance. After two of her performances, a group in the crowd chanted, "Vi-trychenko, Vi-trychenko, Vi-trychenko!" It was not enough, for the best she could muster in her four rotations was a 9.886.

Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport that is far more popular in Eastern Europe and the countries once within the Soviet Union than in the West. Seven of the top 10 finishers here were from that part of the world. France's Eva Serrano finished highest among the Westerners in sixth position.

It is a competition which, unlike artistic gymnastics, uses four apparatus in four separate rotations: a ball, a rope, a ribbon and a club.

Rhythmic gymnastics is similar to other gymnastics only in that it is done like a floor exercise. However, in rhythmic gymnastics, tumbling and leaping take second place to creating an artistry with the apparatus in hand, by tossing or maneuvering it around the body while contorting and tumbling.

Fifty percent of the score is based on composition and 50 percent on execution.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, August 11, 1996, No. 32, Vol. LXIV

| Home Page |