SYMPHONY OF GRACE

OLYMPIC GYMNAST POLINA ASTAKHOVA

GYMNASTS of 24 countries competed for world honors at the Olympic Games in Rome. On the third day of the tournament they matched their skill and grace on gymnastic apparatus. When Polina Astakhova, of the Soviet women's team, walked to the uneven parallel bars, the scoreboard showed that the previous contestant, Japanese Keiko Ikeda, had been awarded a high 9.7 points. Paying tribute to a fine performance, fans chanted from all parts of the crowded hall: "I-ke-da . . . I-ke-da . . . I-ke-da."

A few minutes later the tall, blond Polina was whirling through a cascade of dazzling movements on the bars. The crowd watched spellbound. Then some one in the hall shouted out: "It's a symphony of grace." That broke the silence, and there was a burst of tumultuous applause.

Listening to radio commentators later in the day, we heard this repeated: "Gymnastics is more than a sport for the Soviet women; it's an art." And to see Polina in action—her faultiness technique in every exercise, plasticity in every movement, the barely noticeable changes of pace—is to realize that her performance really crosses ever the dividing line from sport to art.

Once a reporter asked her: "Which club do you belong to back home?"

"Vanguard," she answered.

"That's appropriate enough," he commented. "The name alone means you have to be up front."

She smiled and said: "We try to be," speaking for herself and the other five girls of the team. Between them they brought home 15 of the 16 Olympic medals awarded for women's gymnastics. Polina captured three—a gold medal for the uneven parallel bars, a silver medal for the free exercises and a bronze medal for the all-around score.

Polina was born in 1936 in Zaporozhye, one of the large industrial cities in the Ukraine. She was good at games as a child and was especially fond of skiing and figure skating. At nine she took up gymnastics and only three years later qualified for the title of Master of Sports, awarded for athletic excellence.

In 1956 she was included in the Soviet Olympic squad that went to Melbourne. This was her debut at international competitions, and she did fairly well, placing thirteenth in the all-around score in a field of 53 gymnasts. In 1959 she chalked up several major victories. She placed first in the all-around score both at the USSR Gymnastic Championship and at the USSR People's Games, and then won the European crowns for uneven parallel bars and the balance beam.

For the Rome Olympics Polina was trained by Alexander Mishakov. This athlete has a record of his own—he coached Boris Shakhlin and Larissa Latynina, all-around champions of the world and the Olympic Games. He says, talking about Polina: "She's unquestionably the top performer now on the bars. She is very stubborn, too. When she fell off the beam in Rome, she didn't get discouraged and went through the rest of the exercise with even greater determination. She came back home with laurels, but didn't ease up on her training for a minute like some of her friends did."

During a single practice session Polina will do a one-leg squat thirty to forty times in a row and repeat the same turn in a jump fifty to sixty times. She spends a lot of time sprinting, doing strength exercises and perfecting every movement until they all have the grace of a ballet performance.

We met Polina in Moscow soon after the Soviet athletes returned from Rome. She's a gay and very social young lady who likes people and parties, and books and music as well. She reads a lot; her favorite authors are Leo Tolstoy, Gorky, Balzac, Dreiser and Jack London.

She is now a student of physical education at a teachers training college. "When I get through school," Polina says, "I'll be coaching in my native Ukraine. In Stalino Region where I live there are no less than 26,000 young people practicing gymnastics regularly. So there's plenty of work to do."

It's altogether possible that some of Polina's future pupils will make the grade and win world athletic fame just as she has done.