When asked what she wanted from gymnastics, the young Svetlana Khorkina replied: "I want to be recognised from half a mile away." From a couple of yards, the greatest gymnast of modern times is unmistakable and not just because on the television next to her there is an advert playing in which she is extolling the delights of drinking yoghurt.

HOT ON the heels of De La Guarda and Stomp comes Blast!, another category-defying theatrical experience. The cast is made up of 70 young brass, percussion and visual performers who present high-speed choreographed routines to a musical repertoire ranging from classical to didgeridoo. There's plenty of twirling, tossing, trampolining and daring stunts. Just don't go along with a headache - it's not what you'd call a quiet night out.

IT WAS a typically balmy Catalan evening in Barcelona, when the opening ceremony of the 1992 Olympic Games was staged in the Mont Juic stadium.

BRITISH SPORTSWOMEN need to exploit their sex appeal to make their sports more attractive to sponsors, according to government-funded research published yesterday.

Hippie fitness is taking over the States. LUCIE ROBERTS gets in touch with her karma

What Is It?

IT WAS with a sense of horror that we read last week of Olga Korbut's experiences as a "sex slave", although, given the exploitative and nature of her sport, perhaps we should not be too shocked.

THE WEB home of Manchester United's European Cup final opponents has a section called "Foundation", which reads, rather tantalisingly: "Is that what Franz John imagined when he founded FC Bayern 97 years ago on 27 February 1900 in the Restaurant Gisela, together with eleven friends - that he was creating what was to be Germany's most successful football club! And just because in the 1879 Munich MTV club the main emphasis was on gymnastics, rather than on the then despised `kicking around.'" Head to this site for extensive news and features, including "Neudecker era" and "From Heynckes to Hitzfeld." There's also information on the Olympic Stadium in Munich and the players, as well as a fairly comprehensive statistics package.

GYMNASTICS

THE SWEAT pours, the beat pounds and a voice barks orders every three seconds, writes Ben Russell: "Single-side-step, stepping-up, side- for-two, cap-and-change, side-up-side-and-down. Now we're going to do an A-step."

TEENAGE GIRLS who follow strict diets are 18 times more likely to develop an eating disorder than those who eat whatever they like. Even those girls who diet moderately are at five times the risk, according to researchers who studied 2,000 male and female students aged 14 and 15 over three years.

Ian and Dave have been in prison for drugs and robbery. Just the right people to sort out problem pupils.

SHOBANA JEYASINGH GARDNER ARTS CENTRE BRIGHTON

Our article last week on obesity among children, and the associated lack of physical exercise, provoked a wide response, as did the pieces on the future of lecturers, and the issue of benchmarking subjects