Takako Matsuura“Lights and shadows of the Rhythmic Gymnastics”2008 (japanese)
Takako Matsuura takmats@orchid.plala.or.jp
VITRICHENKO Chapter 5 from “Lights and shadows of the Rhythmic Gymnastics”, a book published in Tokyo in 2008.
Elena (Olena in Uklainian language) Vitrichenko was one of the most successful and popular Rhythmic gymnast. She was all-around World Champion of Rhythmic Gymnastics in 1997. She got the bronze medal at the Atlanta Olympic Games. She also gained a lot of titles in the World and European Championships in the late 1990s.
During her career, she wore many leotards offered from my company.
At first, she used a leotard made by us with another companies mark put on our mark at the World Championships in Paris in 1994. So, I strongly complained about this act. No answer from her side. But at the following competition held in Tokyo, she wore the same leotard but with our mark, removing another company’s mark.
One year after, Vitrichenko and Serebrianskaya asked me to make original leotards for them. It was the preceding year of the Olympic Games in Atlanta. But for the Atlanta in 1996, they could not use our leotards due to the sponsorship contract with certain company.
Soon after the Olympics, Serebrianskaya(Gold medalist at Atlanta) retired, but Vitrichenko continued this sport until the next Olympics in Sydney in 2000. We continued our support of leotards for her.
Thus, till the retirement, she put on many leotards of our company.
松浦たか子著「新体操の光と影」（日本エディタースクール出版部 2008年発行）より