Many people remember the famous Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci, but not everyone remembers that at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, the favorite to win wasn’t Nadia—it was Elena Mukhina, a Soviet gymnast. She had beaten Nadia two years earlier at the 1978 World Championships in Strasbourg, winning both the all-around and floor titles.
Elena was so talented, she even created a new acrobatic move, now known as the “Mukhina.” It’s still considered one of the hardest moves in gymnastics and is ranked as an E-level skill in the scoring system.
Sadly, in 1979, Elena broke her ankle during training. She had to have two surgeries, and doctors told her to stop training to let her body heal. But her coach, Mikhail Klimenko, refused to listen. He pushed her to keep going.
Just two weeks before the 1980 Olympics, he made her try a very risky move called the Thomas salto. It’s a 540-degree spin in the air with a flip when landing. Elena wasn’t ready. She landed badly, fell on her chin, and broke her neck. The injury left her paralyzed from the neck down.
For almost two years, no one knew the truth. The story was hidden from the public. It only came out when a journalist went to Elena’s home to give her a special Olympic medal—and saw a young woman in a wheelchair answer the door.
Almost twenty years later, Elena spoke out. She said her coach had made her remove her cast early to train, even though she wasn’t fully healed. She told him many times she didn’t feel safe doing the Thomas salto. But he just said, “Athletes like you don’t break their necks.”
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