Pavel Kushnikov

Pavel Kushnikov was an office worker at the time of the Stockholm Olympics and learned of his selection for the Russian team only about a month and a half before the competition began. There, he placed 38th as the highest-placed Russian gymnast. He achieved his best result on the horizontal bar with 24.75 points. He also practiced track & field, fencing, and skiing, and played football for the “Merkur” team competing until 1923.

After the Revolution, Kushnikov remained in Soviet Russia and began teaching physical education in 1918 in the frame of the Universal Military Training (Vsevobuch) and later at schools. He hosted radio gymnastics broadcasts became head of the first children’s and youth sports school in Leningrad in 1938. During World War II, he served as a military training instructor in the village of Krutikha in the Altai Territory. Eventually, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour.