"Your lungs are full of dog hair. You will see. During autopsy. Believe me, bring that 'horse' to the shelter while it's not too late," grumbled my neighbor pathologist in the elevator [while] moving away from my German Shepherd dog. I don't care what they find in my lungs during autopsy. I just love her. Maybe I am crazy. I don't know. But I definitely know that I am not alone. In Roza Galieva's lungs there is no less magnesium than there is dog hair in mine. She could hammer nails with her callouses and her tired joints moan and squeak like loose bars. When her nerves can't take pain, bad luck and rumors, she slams the doors to the gym. For good. That's how it seems to her. To leave forever is more painful than to stay. She came back even after her rival's hands almost cut the thin thread between life and death. Her rival, just like Roza, loved gymnastics and wanted to stand on the top of the pedestal. Roza was in the way.     Every day this national team gymnast asserts her right to life. Issyk Kul with Character There was nothing to watch and the TV was talking to itself out of habit. Looking at the screen once in a while, Ilfat Galiev saw moving faces, hands, funny ponytails. Then all of a sudden, a close up of a small "sparrow." [She] scrunched her face, wiped her nose, leaving a white smudge of magnesium, spit on her hands and flew up over the mat. After landing, she cried for a minute, like a kindergartener, and smiled right away. The sparrow's name was Masha Filatova and that was her winning FX. Ilfat Galiev's heart skipped a beat from her defenselessness and he "fell in love" with her at first glance. He decided that his daughter will be a gymnast.   He brought Roza to a gym. Roza did not share her father's love [for gymnastics], stubbornly refused to enter and when that did not help, cried repeatedly, "I don't want to, I don't want to," and ran away. The next day, Roza's heart melted from ice cream promised to her and she walked into the gym.   All gymnastics roads lead to Lake Krugloye in the Moscow suburbs. A gifted child was noticed, and she started working with a personal coach, ironically also [named] Roza (full name: Roza Borisovna Ishkova). Soon the two Rozas from Almalyk, Uzbekistan started walking the well worn road to life in big time gymnastics. Young Roza trains at Round Lake. Round Lake - The National Training Center During the first days in Round Lake, Roza ran into The Goddess (Svetlana Boginskaya). During the morning jog, Roza started overtaking Boginskaya, who was first, and she shoved Roza with her elbow and she fell. But the next day, Roza achieved what she wanted and came in first. The team's head coach (Alexander) Alexandrov then said "You, Issyk Kul (he could not remember Almalyk), have character as it turns out."   The Little Girl and Death At 14, Roza is going to her first World Championship in Indianapolis. The Soviet team wins gold. Roza is very happy and, naturally, is dreaming of a medal in the AA. But, as a newcomer, she competes only during team competition.   The next year, in France, she had a chance for gold. After the first day of the competition, Roza was leading. She was sitting in her best friend's hotel room and shared her happiness and dreamed about tomorrow's competition. She was very thirsty and a glass of cold mineral water came in handy. ''This French mineral water sure tastes strange..."   For three days Roza was between life and death. Team doctors gave the correct diagnosis right away as drug (medicine) overdose.They were afraid to bring her to the hospital. SCANDAL! Thank God, they were able to take care of it themselves. Roza regained consciousness in her hotel room. "I woke up, but it seemed that my hands are covered with blood and big spiders are crawling all over me and someone is trying to cut my head off. I thought I was dying." Roza on beam at Indianapolis. Preliminaries at Paris Worlds 1992. First question: what did you drink? "They decided that I took diuretics to lose weight or laxatives. I tried to convince them that it's not true. Nobody believed me. But I am not a fool to take a handful of pills especially on the eve of the World Championships, before doping control."   She came back to Krugloye and together with Roza Borisovna (she was not in France with Roza) started going over [recalling] the entire day. "I did not remember it well. But once I dreamed about mineral water with a strange taste. I told Alexandrov about my suspicions. But again nobody believed me." They even found a psychiatrist who tried to convince Roza that she was deeply mistaken. Roza thought that she was losing her mind. And then the coach [Roza Borisovna] found another psychiatrist through her friends. "I did not believe anything anymore. I just went to see him so as not to hurt Roza Borisovna's feelings. As soon as I started telling him what happened, he described the whole thing right away. It turns out I was given medication used to treat alcoholism. I started laughing that I don't drink. 'Don't laugh,' he interrupted me, '[It was a] huge dose... It's a miracle that you survived.'" Roza, happy that she was proven right and not emotionally disturbed, came back to Krugloye to pick up her things. And to ask her friend "Why ?" She did not reply [but] just looked away.   The two Rozas returned to Almalyk.   Stolen Olympiad [For the] whole month, Roza enjoyed her freedom. She did not even think about gymnastics or team or exhausting competitions. She was fed up and did not need this anymore. But on TV for some reason they started mentioning the Barcelona Olympics more and more often. Oh yes, there is less than 2 months until it starts. You don't want it? It does not make sense to lie to yourself. She called Alexandrov. "If you are in the top six at the Nationals you can count on being on the Olympic team." Roza came in second. She was on the team. She forgave everything. "I realized that if I don't forgive, I won't be able to be on the same team with her. Moreoever, she feels worse about it than I do. She will have to live with this her entire life and remember what she did and what could have happened. It's not easy to live with those thoughts."   Barcelona Our team has [won the] gold and Roza is a leader in the AA (she is 8th after team optionals). Tomorrow she can become an Olympic champion. That night, coach Alexandrov came in her room and announced his decision. Instead of Galieva, he is putting Tatiana Gutsu into AA competition. For that, she will share her prize money with Roza. Officially, they will blame it on Roza's 'injury.' Roza declined. They told her to think it over until morning, even though Alexandrov knew that everything will be done according to his wishes. "I called Roza Borisovna (who did not have accreditation and paid her way to Barcelona with her own money), she was quiet and then said that she will call me back. I waited for her call and was sure that she will support me. Instead I heard 'Roza, do as you are told. It will be for the better.' I was afraid of the repeat of France." After a sleepless night that seemed to last forever, Galieva announced her consent. None of the girls knew what happened that night. They sympathized with 'injured' Roza and cheered for Gutsu. Roza could not look at the podium because of tears in her eyes. Her friends' reaction told her that Gutsu was leading. When Gutsu cried from happiness on top of the pedestal, Roza ran out of the arena. "I was mad at myself for agreeing with my coach, for listening to him. It seemed that I could still change everything. But I understood that nothing could be changed anymore." Roza kicks butt in Barcelona. The Unified Team wins gold. After the Olympics, Galieva competed in a few meets and worked in the gymnastics show ran by Dmitry Bilozerchev, who promised to pay her well. By the way, Gutsu gave her half of her Barcelona prize. At first Roza would not take it. "But the coach (Roza Borisovna) said: 'Take it, you don't know what will happen tomorrow.'" 'Tomorrow' [as it turns out] the show bombed, Bilozerchev left for the USA, and Roza Borisovna signed a contract to work in Portugal. Galieva was left alone.   Almalyk [Does Galieva feel her] coach betrayed her? "No, Roza Borisovna to me is a saint. It's just that sometimes close relationships become unbearable. After the Olympics, she felt guilty, was nervous and avoiding me. It was difficult and we decided to part ways. I am not blaming her". Several years after the Olympics, Alexandrov told me "Galieva and Gutsu were equally prepared, they both were capable of winning gold. But Gutsu's coach convinced me that Tatyana is more stable. And I was forced to make this decision. Gutsu's coach lived in the Olympic village together with the gymnasts.     Roza defeated? (Literal translation: They Broke Roza?) In Almalyk, Roza abandoned her training again. There was nobody to train with and no reason to train. She had money, friends...what else do you need at 17 ? Time was flying, life was passing her by. She told herself she had enough. But there was still some character left in 'Issyk Kul.' "I felt that I had not realized my potential yet, that I can still achieve a lot in gymnastics."   There was less than a year left till the Olympics in Atlanta. Leonid Arkayev was now the head coach. Galieva needed gymnastics. Arkayev needed a gymnast with Olympic experience. Their interests coincided. Arkayev brings 'out-of-shape' Galieva, who is 10 kilograms overweight, to Krugloye and becomes her personal coach. "Leonid Yakovlevich understood me and believed in me". Nobody knew how difficult it was for her. Not physically. She was used to hard work. [But] the new team hated Galieva. Of course. They, who worked in Krugloye the whole Olympic cycle, are not guaranteed a place on the team. But she came out of nowhere, and even though she is an Olympic champion, she is already is on the team. She is Arkayev's favorite gymnast. Arkayev patted her on the shoulder. He helped her put her sneakers on. Krugloye was full of rumors. "I felt them looking at me behind my back, heard rumors. But I could not care less."   Like a trampoline, rumors bounced Galieva higher and higher. "Every difficult skill that I learned proved that I belong on the team." Galieva became the national champion. She was going to Atlanta as team captain despite the team's opinion. Only after the Olympics did Svetlana Khorkina admit, "Roza helped us a lot, it would be hard without her."   Atlanta met Galieva with one question: "Did you really sell the Barcelona Olympics? If you had to do it over again, would you do the same?" Roza did not understand anything. But it was simple. Guselkina (that's what the team called Gutsu) lives in America now. Waking up, forgotten by everybody after a 4-year post Olympics sleep, she confused everyone about who was right and who was wrong [in Barcelona]. "Galieva sold me the Olympics," that's the meaning of all of Gutsu's interviews.   "She is just jealous that I am still competing. A second Olympics is such a rarity for a gymnast." But nobody is taking this chance away from her. "Everything is up to you." Atlanta proved difficult for Roza. The Russians win silver. From Atlanta, Galieva brought a team silver. "Sometimes we did not believe that we could win a medal. Silver - we were very fortunate." Galieva did not win any individual medals. "On the vault, I could have gotten bronze. But the judges underscored me. Why? I don't know." Maybe Guselkina's interviews cost Galieva thousandths of a point so valuable in gymnastics. Judges can read too. American fans, obsessed with gymnastics, definitely read the interviews. Galieva was the most disliked non-American. When she was performing, they screamed out insults. "I was on the beam while they were booing and whistling (whistling in Russia is like booing in the USA - Yulia). I could not concentrate. I don't even know how I fell. I finished my combination like in a vacuum."   Atlanta for Galieva was disappointment and pain. In Sheremetevo [the airport in Moscow], Roza was empty. "I am tired living like this. I don't want anything anymore."   After the Olympics Roza, as usual, quit. At the nationals in March [1997] she already had a job, she passed exams with the highest mark and became a judge. But... according to new rules only girls 16 and over are allowed to compete in Worlds and Olympics. There are not many good gymnasts of that age on the team. So, Galieva came back. "I have to get lucky sometimes. It's impossible that life always turns its back on you, right ?" In August, Lausanne[Switzerland] will host the World Championships [of Gymnastics]. Valentina Krasnykh Translation by 'Yulia,' 'sarah', and 'Andrei!' Pictures from 'More Than Just a Game,' Sports Image, 1992 Olympic triplecast, GymCan, TV Azteca, and NBC.