We sat down with Vladimir Artemov in Oklahoma City, during the annual World Gymnastics Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Vladmir, along with another legend of Soviet gymnastics Natalia Kuchinskaya, was among those honored at the event.

The pinnacle of Vladimir Artemov’s success came during the XXIV Olympiad in Seoul. In 1988, the 23-year-old gymnast became all-around Olympic champion. His two fellow teammates Dmitry Bilozerchev and Valery Liukin stood beside Artemov and also received medals as the national anthem of the Soviet Union played. 

- Vladimir, how did you come to enter gymnastics? Why did you choose that sport in particular?

- I entered gymnastics in 1972 when my school was pursuing recruitment activities to attract young people to the sport. I was eight years old at the time. Sine then, I worked at it for eighteen years.

- Does it mean that it was impossible not to become a gymnast for someone born in the city of Vladimir?

- It’s hard to say so. In Vladimir we had many other kinds of sports, not only gymnastics. There was boxing; there were light and heavy athletics. We had Olympic champions for those sports, as well as for some winter events.

- Who did you consider to be your role model?

- For me, the model was Nikolai Andrianov. He trained at our academy. Nikolai participated in three Olympic Games. In 1976, I, along with some of the younger kids, got the chance to hold his medals. We dreamt that maybe someday we will be able to reach the same heights.

- When did your coach realize that you had great potential?

- I think that happened from the very first day when our group was formed. There were at first 21 of us, but gradually people started to leave in a process of natural selection. My coach spent his entire life with me.

- Do you remember your first major victory?   

- I did not have any great victories before 1980, when I won the national junior competition of the Soviet Union in Almaty. Since then, everything started to gain momentum for me. In 1982, I took seventh place at the U.S.S.R. championship, which brought me to the national team. I spent eight years with the team.

- The Soviet team of those years looked like a tightly-packed constellation of gymnastics stars. It included such legends as Korolev, Bilozerchev, and Liukin. Everyone could have won easily. Was it difficult to become the best among the best?

- The most difficult part is the required daily practices. I needed to fight to keep myself in the team. It is a very hard process. I had to be in shape at all times because I could receive unexpected invitations for various competitions and championships on any given day. Doing that for eight years was a very tough job.

- Your moment of glory came during the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, where you won the all-around champion title, beating your teammate Valery Liukin, as well as the team competition, and garnered two golds together with a silver medal for individual performances. How did you prepare for Seoul? Were you certain of the victory?

- For one, 1988 was the year of the Dragon according to the Chinese calendar. Since the first competitions that took place in France in February of that year, I have not lost a single contest; I was the first all the time. By Seoul, we were so prepared that we would have been ready to compete even during the night, if asked. We had a very intense competition. The separation between the gold and the silver was only a tenth of a point.

- Why did you decide to move to the United States?

- I first came to America upon an invitation from the National Gymnastics Federation for a sports camp. I spent there 20 days and was later asked to attend the organization’s convention in New Orleans. There, people solicited my opinion as to the development of gymnastics in the U.S., and I answered that substantial efforts were required to raise the level of gymnastics in America. I was asked if I could help in doing that, and I agreed. I needed to start working by that point. It was no problem for me whether to do it in Russia or in America. I viewed the development of gymnastics as an international phenomenon.

- Was it difficult for you in America at first? How did you learn English?

- I studied English in school. Certainly, I forgot it somewhat, as I did not go out of the country for a while. In America, my language slowly started to come back to me. Of course, some minor difficulties still remain, but there are much less of these today.

- You recently opened your own school of gymnastics…

- I live in San Antonio. We have 600 people that go to the school. There is a boy’s and a girl’s team. All the kids are very young now. The oldest is my son. He recently won a region competition of six states. It was a good result for our school that was slightly more than one year old then.

- Are you preparing your son for big competitions?

- The age group does not yet allow for him to take part in large-scale events. Maybe in two-three years he will be at international championships.

- Vladimir, what is the difference between the gymnastics of your youth and the gymnastics that your son currently does.

- He is doing more than I was at his 12 years of age.

- Is it more difficult to win now than it was then?

- I believe that it is harder to win now because the rules changed so much. For instance, it is allowed to compete in only certain individual events. It also became more difficult for teams to compete.

- With what gymnasts from the glorious Soviet national team do you still keep in contact?

- We come to Valery Liukin’s World Olympic Gymnastics Academy in Dallas. We also go to Houston to competitions organized by Aleksander Aleksandrov. Of course, we stay in touch.

- Are there any Russian coaches working for you?

- In San Antonio there are currently no Russian coaches. There are plenty of them in Houston and in Dallas. Hopefully, we will also get some Russian professionals in the future.

- Vladimir, are you happy with your life in the United States? Are you thinking about how you would be living had you stayed in Russia?

- I think that sometimes you just do not get to decide the place where to live. You simply need to work. For me, work is work everywhere. It does not even matter whether it is gymnastics that I am doing, I always give my best effort. There is no difference between doing it in Russia or in the U.S.