Elena Mukhina was training to compete in the women’s artistic gymnastics tournament at the 1980 Moscow Olympics when tragedy struck. She got paralyzed from the neck down in her attempt to prepare a new floor trick for the quadrennial games. It changed her life forever. 

“If it hadn’t been for this injury, maybe worse things would have happened," Mukhina once said to Nina Lebedeva, the specialist in therapeutic gymnastics and massage from her hospital. "Many years ago, I was walking along Leningradka on my way to training, and a girl with cerebral palsy came up to me asking for an autograph. I was in a bad mood and brushed her off — I said, ‘Go away, f- - - -!’ That’s why God punished me.”

Born on June 1, 1960, in Moscow, Soviet Union (now Russia), Mukhina was a four-time European champion. She won the world all-around championship in 1978 at Strasbourg, France.

On the fateful day of July 3, 1980, just two weeks before the Olympics, Mukhina was a part of the pre-Olympic training camp in Minsk, Belarus. Over there, she received word that her selection in the Olympic lineup was not going to happen.

It made Mukhina train by herself. She attempted a new floor trick called the Thomas salto, one of the most difficult moves. Despite not fully recovering from leg surgery a few months earlier, Mukhina still attempted the move.

She under-rotated in her attempt to complete it, only to land on her chin and break a cervical vertebra in her neck, going quadriplegic in the process.

After undergoing immediate surgery in Minsk, Mukhina was brought back to Moscow two weeks later. She was admitted to the spinal department at the 19th City Clinical Hospital for around a year. Mukhina then moved into a one-room apartment.

Shortly afterwards, she got a two-room apartment home near the Petrovsko-Razumovskaya station customized for her requirements due to the involvement of the Moscow City Council.

Elena Mukhina’s Life Defined by Resilience

When the Valentin Dikul rehabilitation method came about in the middle of the 1980s, the 19th City Clinical Hospital’s spinal department used it on her.

Mukhina saw it as a lender of last resort and began exercising. But when it caused problems related to the kidneys, the hospital had to abandon it.

As the years went by, the Soviet gymnast started learning about philosophy and parapsychology in particular, along with astrology, according to the Gymnastics History website.

Despite being bedridden, Mukhina graduated in 1984 from the Central Institute of Physical Culture and defended her PhD.

She kept up with gymnastics news thanks to the satellite television dish installed at her home. After staying in bed for 26 years, she passed away on December 22, 2006, in her two-room apartment, at the age of 46.

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Written by

Arjun Sharma

Edited by

Soheli Tarafdar