Sovetsky Sport. July 16, 1971. We have a lot of good gymnasts, and they stand on different rungs. The top one is the main team. A little lower are those from whom reserves are recruited. Last year, before the Ljubljana world championships, there were three candidates for the role of the reserve: Elvira Saadi from Tashkent, Rusudan Sikharulidze from Batumi, and Tatiana Schegolkova from Riga. The competition between these three took place literally in the last days of the training camp, and they were brilliantly prepared for it: "What a pity," the coaches said, "that we cannot enter two teams in Ljubljana."
Sikharulidze won. She went to Yugoslavia, and Saadi and Schegolkova went home to watch on TV.
Were you very upset then, Tanya?
A little bit, yet. Of course, Elya and I were happy for Rusiko. But I would like to beat her at the Spartakiad.
She talks like she is chirping. On the national team, she's called "Schegol" (goldfinch). This nickname is unpretentious - a derivative of her surname, like the others. It comes to Tanya - when, in conversation or in thought, she tilts her head to the side and looks with dark bird eyes, and there's a long tail of hair at the back of her head, just like a goldfinch. She is a kind and sincere person, sport is dear to her, even with failures and injuries, and the fact that she will perform from the heart just to please herself and the audience. Why does the goldfinch sing? Because it can't help but sing.
At the IV Spartakiad, she took part in the competition for schoolchildren and juniors. She walked in the column of her republic during the opening parade.
How did you feel? - She looks for the right word for a long time... - Power,...when I was together with everyone...
Then she says that the Spartakiad for her is "very empowering, because people from different sports are all here together, worried about each other. It's probably like that at the Olympics."
She hasn't been to the Olympics. She will try to get there, but whether she will get there is unknown, "young girls are growing up," there is no sadness in these words, because she loves gymnastics, and not herself in gymnastics. Still, it's a little sad that we won't be able to send two women's teams to the Olympics.
S. TOKAREV