There are more than a few similarities between Aleftina Priakhina and Shawn Johnson. Both are of the short, powerful body type, both had bouncy ponytails and both worked harder to hit 180 degrees on a leap than hit a standing full on the balance beam. (To Johnson's credit, she eventually managed to do both; the Soviet Priakhina competed in the mid-80s, where the former apparently wasn't necessary.)
Both also did full twisting double tuck dismounts and made them look shockingly easy. Unusual full-twisting elements were the innovative Priakhina's forte -- they factored into her mounts on bars and beam, which were essentially the same element, a roundoff onto a springboard followed by a full twisting back handspring/hip circle. She also did a gainer Rulfova full on beam, a skill I can't recall seeing a gymnast do since. (Commenters, help me out?) Take a look at her beam at the 1987 Europeans.
If not the first gymnast, Priakhina was one of the first gymnasts to do the standing full on beam as well as the full twisting double tuck dismount. Her level of difficulty and originality on this event was off the charts, so much so that when her beam doppelganger Johnson showed up 20 years later with many of the same skills, people like me marveled that Johnson was doing maybe the hardest beam routine that had ever been done, ever.
But one of her rivals for that position, surely, is her Soviet beam twin, who gets bonus points for doing such crazy things in an era when nobody else was even thinking about them.
By the way: Note that I call Priakhina Johnson's beam twin. They are not that alike on floor, though they do share the same opening and closing passes. That's a discussion for another day.
(Read more Routines of the Day here, by the way.)
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