Every time the Summer Olympics roll around, there's one event I make sure to keep track of above all others: gymnastics. The impressive athletes in that field have trained their bodies for years to contort themselves into mind-bending routines. As a kid, I dreamed of being just like them, but eventually gave into my less-than-nimble abilities. But that doesn't mean I can't still enjoy watching as they tumble their way around pole vaults, balance beams, floor routines, and, my favorite, the uneven bars.
I remember climbing around on my gym's set of bars in my youth, simply trying to understand how they manage to swing around and fly from one to the other without bonking themselves in the head every time. Today, I'm still mystified, but I've learned to sit back and enjoy rather than analyze. When I stumbled across this video the other day, I realized a bump on the head might be the least of these amazing contenders's concerns.
While performing her routine for the 1975 World Cup, Russian gymnast Ludmilla Tourischeva wowed the crowed with her incredible skill. She would go on to sweep the entire competition that year, but that's not surprising when you see how effortlessly she handled this mishap. Luckily, Tourischeva was already at the end of her choreography when the malfunction occurred, but the thought of it happening just one second earlier is terrifying.
After her last loop around the shorter bar, the entire object collapsed to the ground. My jaw was on the floor when I watched, but Tourischeva remained completely unfazed as she walks off the mat to wait for her scores.
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