Gymnastics Films
Documentaries
Soviet Union, Russia, and Ukraine:
Looks at the 2004 Olympics. In depth interview and footage of Anna. Three parts, Russian language.
1987 documentary following the gymnasts coached by Elvira Saadi (former Soviet olympic medallist). Features a young Tatiana Groshkova. Russian language with English subtitles. Somewhat poor sound quality, but worth watching.
“Close Up”: 1989 European Championships
Looks at the experiences of the gymnasts (not all Soviet) at the Brussels European Championships. Features footage both in and out of the arena. I believe it is Dutch language.
Focuses on Lilia Podkopayeva, looking both at her gymnastics career and post-gymnastics career (from 2006). Ukrainian/Russian language.
Ludmilla Tourischeva Documentary
Follows Tourischeva’s career. Russian language.
Footage of Natalia training and talking about training. Also revered for soundtrack. Russian language.
Critical look at the Soviet system shortly after the fall of the USSR. Features interviews with former gymnasts, and looks at Tatiana Groshkova’s training. Looks into Elena Mukhina’s injury. Hosted by Frank Gifford in English language.
Follows Olga’s life in gymnastics and post-gymnastics career. British English (English subtitles with Russian interviews.
Documentary on Olga’s training gymnastics career. Russian language (no subtitles).
Looks at Olga’s life and gymnastics career. Russian language.
History of the battle between Russian and Romanian gymnasts. Covers from Soviet/Nadia era to present day (2004-2005). Features training and competition footage. French language.
Slomannie Kukolka (“Broken Dolls”)
About the Russian training System. Looks at flaws in the system and focuses on the injury of Maria Zasypkina. Includes interviews with Russian gymnasts such as Svetlana Khorkina and Anna Pavlova. Russian language (Starts at part II, there appears to be no part I).
Svetlana Khorkina Documentary (2003)
A look at Khorkina’s career over the years up until 2003. Interviews, training footage, and competition footage. In Russian, one 30 min segment.
1978 Soviet Documentary: “You in Gymnastics”
Focuses on training of the Soviet team. Great footage of Elena Mukhina and worth watching. Russian language.
1983 Soviet Gymnastics Documentary: “Inside the Gym”
Looks into the training and competition of Soviet gymnasts of the time. Focuses on MAG and WAG. Great look at Natalia Yurchenko. Originally Russian language, features English commentary. Watch in full here, or in parts on YouTube.
1986 Soviet Gymnastics Training at CSKA
Home video from a rare day when cameras were allowed into the Soviet’s gym. Intense floor training where the coach is right in the gymnast’s face. 9 parts.
A rare day when cameras were allowed in Round Lake. Watch in multiple parts on YouTube here or in full here.
1992 Soviet Training Documentary
Looks at Round Lake presumably before the 1992 Olympics. Shows portions from the Olympics compared with training. Features WAG and MAG. French language (gymnast interviews in Russian with French subtitles).
A home video of the teams (US and mainly USSR) practicing and warming up before the meet. Includes Laschenova, Lyssenko, Gutsu, Chusovitina, Miller, Zmeskal and many others.
Romania:
From the mid-eighties. Features Nadia coaching, and shows Silivas. Five parts, British English narration.
Follows the team preparation for Beijing. Looks at Deva, both training in the gym and life outside it. Explores the new culture and freedom in Romania, also focusing on the new coaches (Forminte, who was recently replaced by Belu & Bitang). Eight parts, in Romanian with English subtitles
Two parts, training from the 2003 Romania vs. France competition.
Romanians in the 1984 Olympics
Features the Romanians from the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. English commentary, four parts.
From 2004, includes training from past and present. Three parts, in Romanian with English subtitles.
Follows the current Romanian gymnast Raluca Haidu at age 8-9 and her teammate Malina Savoaia at 9-10 years old. Looks into the training of young gymnasts at Deva. Romanian language with English subtitles.
Follows Milo’s preparation for Atlanta. Focuses on Milo’s maturing and changing body, and the fight against time (and puberty) in gymnastics. Looks at the physics of gymnastics. Done by the Discovery Channel in English.
China:
A story of 8 Chinese girls and Russia’s Svetlana Khorkina. Focuses on the battle between Khorkina and chinese bar workers. Chinese language with an English translation in the description box.
Follows Cheng Fei up to the 2008 Olympics. In four parts in Chinese language. The poster has included a thorough English translation for each part in the description box.
In depth look at Liu Xuan. Three parts in Chinese.
Rare look at this gymnast in four parts. French language with Dutch subtitles.
Includes training and competition footage. In four parts in Chinese language with English subtitles.
Looks inside the Chinese training system. Follows Jin Yang’s bid for the Beijing Olympics. From the Discovery Channel in three parts.
USA:
Interviews and footage of the Magnificent 7. Made in the 2000s. In English, five parts.
From 1986, about Bela Karolyi and his athletes he had coached. Two parts, English.
Discovery Channel documentary focused on biomechanics of gymnastics. Features Parkettes gymnasts and Mary Lou Retton.
“Going Deep” With Vanessa Atler
A 1999 look at Vanessa Atler’s Olympic prospects before Sydney. Also looks at Dominique Moceanu’s emancipation. It’s a criticism of gymnastics focusing on the long hours of training, restriction of food, and delay of puberty.
Two parts, about Tim Daggett and Kristie Phillips.
Nastia Liukin – America’s Olympic Glory Documentary
A look at Nastia’s win in the All-Around.
A six-part CNN documentary on Parkettes in Pennsylvania.
Footage of Olympic gymnasts from the the beginning up until Barcelona. Five parts, British English.
Shannon Miller – “Life in the Gym”
1995, looks at Shannon Miller training in the gym with Steve Nunno. ”Rare” footage.
Looks at the training system of Texans. Training footage. One part.
Miscellaneous:
“Gymnastics in the Summer Olympics”
About the olympic history of artistic gymnastics (men and women’s) from 1956 to 1996. 16 parts, in French.
2001, featuring Sara Moro, Elena Gomez, Laura Martinez, Esther Moya, and others. In spanish.
From the poster: “A State of Mind is a 2004 documentary film [that] follows two North Korean child gymnasts and their families for over eight months during training for the 2003 Pyongyang mass games.” Eight parts with English.
Feature Films
A 1986 gymnastics film with Keanu Reeves (before he was famous). Also called “Flying”.
Rated 17th worst movie of ALL TIME. An 80s action-gymnastics-karate film featuring Kurt Thomas. He has to get in to “Parmistan” and put in some satellite, but there’s ninjas stopping him, so he uses his gymnastics superpowers. 9 parts on YouTube.
A Soviet film about a gymnast who is injured and has troubles adjusting to normal life. Played by gymnast Svetlana Zaspykina, who in real life was forced to quit because of injuries. A very rare film, the only part available online is the final part. So don’t watch if you want to try and track down the entire film, but it’s hard to do so. In Russian, final part only.
About the pressures of gymnastics. The main gymnast develops anorexia.
A TV movie about Nadia, made in 1984 in America. Somewhat accurate, somewhat ridiculous. Appears to be missing the first part on YouTube.
About a gymnast who goes to train with the best coach, but develops anorexia.
A spy movie also about gymnastics, featuring Kristie Phillips.
2006 “blockbuster” (aka high budget for gymnastics) teen film about a former champion Haley Graham’s return to elite gymnastics. Featuring Jeff Bridges and Missy Peregrym. The main stunt double is Isabelle Severino of France. 11 parts on YouTube.
After School Special: The Gymnast
About a good gymnast who goes to train with the best coaches. Probably modeled after the Karolyis. Decent stunt work for a low budget TV special.
A highly ridiculous TV special about a gymnast (Julianne McNamara) who falls and thinks she is paralyzed.
Informative Montages
Great moments in Romanian gymnastics from Nadia up to recent times.
History of Romanian Gymnastics
Parts 1-4 goes into the history of Romanian gymnastics. Parts 5-7 is about Romanian gymnasts’ life after gymnastics.
Montage of Soviet gymnasts. Part 1 is the faces of Soviet gymnastics. Parts 2-5 explores the different quads. Part 6 is about the successes and part 7 is falls and disappointments. Parts 8-9 are the history of the Soviet program. Part 10-11 is the about the gymnasts’ life after gymnastics.
Helpful guides such as this one show examples of elements from all disciplines, both dance and acrobatics, with name and value in the code. Other such guides go through a certain routine and identify elements, their value and any connection value.
The Rest of the World in the World of Gymnastics
Looks at gymnasts from around the world in different times. This one is about Oksana Chusovitina during her Soviet days. There are also ones about her Uzbekistan and Germany periods.
A lot of these videos are on the Russian gymnast websites without being broken in parts. http://www.anna-pavlova.net/russian/soviets.html
There’s one additional training footage located at: http://www.anna-pavlova.net/english/soviets.html
It’s the 1991 training footage taken at Round Lake.
Also, there’s a documentary of Svetlana Khorkina from 2003 here: http://www.anna-pavlova.net/russian/gymnastics/khorkina2/khorkina2.html
John,
Thanks so much! I could not for the life of me remember where that Svetlana Khorkina documentary was. I’ll add it to the list.
- Lena
Hi Lena!
This is Alan, webmaster of the Russian sites. Excellent work on the film list! I found some that I didn’t even know about. Regarding the Kukolka movie (http://www.dianasapronova.ru/russian/gymnastics/kukolka.html) , I have the full film uploaded on the sites, and I have many of the Romanian Videos on the Romanian gymnast sites as well. All are not broken into parts.
I can send a list to you. If you want, I’ll let you use the embed code to add the video directly on your blog so no one has to leave your site. (just please give credit to the Russian/Romanian sites somewhere..)
If I find more movies, I’ll let you know!
Thank you so much! I’ve been wanting to see the whole movie forever!
-Lena