Nellie Kim

Nellie Vladimirovna Kim (Russian: Нелли Владимировна Ким; born 29 July 1957) is a retired Soviet and Belarusian gymnast of Sakhalin Korean and Tatar descent who won three gold medals and a silver medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, and two gold medals at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

One of Kim's earliest successes was her victory in the republican Spartak's competition, held in Chimkent in 1969.

Nevertheless, a year later she was said to "have no future" by celebrated gymnast Larisa Latynina.

After that verdict, Kim was close to leaving gymnastics but persevered with support from Baidin.

She was the second woman in Olympic history to earn a perfect 10 score and the first woman to score it on the vault and on the floor exercise, rivaling Nadia Comăneci, Ludmilla Tourischeva, and other strong competitors of the 1970s.

Kim worked for a long time as a coach, training several national teams, and judged many major international competitions.

At the 1971 Junior USSR Championships, her first national competition, she placed fifth in the all-around.

Success in the national junior circuit, as well as senior national and international debuts, followed two years later.

Kim won the all-around title and two more gold medals at the All-Union Youth Sports Games, placed eighth in the all-around and first on the uneven bars at the USSR Cup; she also won the prestigious Chunichi Cup in Japan.

After a second-place finish at the USSR Cup in August 1974, Kim was added to the team roster for the World Championships, held in October, where she earned the gold medal in the team competition.

Nellie Kim became one of the main medal prospects for the upcoming Olympics and actual leader of the Soviet team after the 1975 Canadian Pre-Olympics Test competition.

At the Test she placed second in the all-around to Nadia Comăneci, but won three golds in the event finals (vault, balance beam, floor exercise), while Comăneci won the remaining one on bars.

Larisa Latynina, who had already changed her opinion about Kim earlier, described her gymnastics style as sparkling and cheerful.

She also cited a comment by Canadian newspapers about Kim's performance: "There are moments, when a natural smile is more worth, than triumph".

However, although Kim also won the 1976 USSR Cup, beating famous compatriots such as Olga Korbut and Ludmilla Tourischeva, they were still considered leaders by the media.

Even the Coach Council of the Soviet team failed to define her as the leader.

That was to prove a mistake, as later recognized by Soviet experts.

At the 1976 Summer Olympics, the rivalry between Nellie Kim and Nadia Comăneci became the focal point of the women's gymnastics competition.

Kim's teammates Ludmilla Tourischeva and Olga Korbut, the Olympic champions of Munich, were overcome by the two rising stars in the battle for the gold.

Kim won three gold medals, one in the team competition and two in the event finals: on the vault and floor exercise.

Music for her floor routine, choreographed by Valentina Kosolapova, was a fiery Samba, and one of the elements was the double back salto, performed for the first time in Olympic women's events.

Kim also won a silver medal in the all-around, receiving the perfect 10 for the Tsukahara vault with the full twist, which was also performed for the first time in Olympic history.

She was praised for her feminine beauty and the flamboyant, graceful and intense style.

Comaneci won the gold in the all-around, on bars and balance beam.

Nellie's weak performance on the beam together with a lower preliminary score, led her to place second in the all-around, after Nadia.

After the 1976 Summer Olympics, Kim moved to the Byelorussian SSR (joining the Armed Forces sports society in Minsk) and represented her new club on the USSR team.

Afterwards, and until 1980, she successfully competed in numerous top-level international events.

Kim's nickname among USSR teammates and team coaches was "Kimanellie," which she earned when a trainer Vladislav Rastorotsky called her very quickly: "Kim, Nellie, to the phone!"

As president of the Women's Artistic Gymnastics Technical Committee, she coordinated the introduction of new rules in women's gymnastics, as provided by the new Code of Points, developed by the FIG in 2004–2005 and in effect since 2006.

Her gymnastic appearances are remembered for "her strong feminine, temperamental and charismatic appeal".

Nellie Kim was born in Shurab, Tajik SSR, Soviet Union.

She is the daughter of a Sakhalin Korean father, Vladimir Kim, and a Tatar mother, Alfiya Safina.

Later the family moved to Kazakh SSR, where her father worked in the Chimkent slate factory.

At age 9, she entered Chimkent City Children and Youth Sports School 3 of the Spartak Sports Society.

Two other children in the family, her younger brother Alexander and her sister Irina, also entered a gymnastics school and trained for some time.

Alexander was harassed by his classmates in the secondary school for his small stature and retired from gymnastics in favor of boxing.

Irina, whom Nellie considered more talented than she, retired because of the demands of the frequent training sessions.

Kim's trainers were Vladimir Baidin and his wife, Galina Barkova.

Initially, she did not have the required flexibility of many of her fellow gymnasts, but was soon able to compensate with superior technique and the difficulty of her exercises.

Kim excelled and quickly became one of the best in Soviet gymnastics.