Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

I’ve added a list of links to video documentaries on this page which will gradually be expanded. The first link is to the documentary ‘What makes Milo fly’ (1996). Lavinia Milosovici, the famous Romanian who won floor at the Olympics in 1992, might not be the most artistic gymnast. But I do remember her with affection. Her fierce competitive attitude and simple acrobatics brought their own form of aesthetic to the sport. And the documentary really underlines how amazing the most mundane gymnast is. Not that Milo was ever mundane, but hopefully you get my meaning! Please do add links to any videos you think should be included in the list by means of comments, and I will transfer them to the list.

Happy Russian Gymnastics Day! http://www.sportgymrus.ru/press/news/4755/default.aspx

Can judging ever be objective? Part 2 Now that the flurry of World Championships is well and truly over, I have been cogitating on the different perspectives on gymnastics discussed earlier in this blog and attempting to analyse what we can learn from the latest developments. The thing that repeatedly strikes me right in the eye is the prescriptive approach of the Code which seems to try to apply a painting-by-numbers type formula for good gymnastics. I believe that this alienates judgement of the aesthetic dimension of the sport and imposes a set of assumptions which not all of us share. In turn, this disadvantages those gymnasts who attempt to express artistry and discourages the development of an artistic approach to the sport. It facilitates an approach to gymnastics marking that favours verbal reasoning over aesthetic judgement, thus opening the door to all forms of behind-the-scenes nit-picking and making the sport increasingly political. Finally, it reinforces a k...

I'm laid up with a virus at the moment and will update this blog with some 'proper' writing as soon as looking at the computer screen doesn't send shooting pains through my eyes. Oh joy. In the meantime, however, please find below a list of some lovely media coverage about the Russian girls and Mustafina. Sigh. I have a less lovely question re the code, or rather Rebecca Bross's beam score in the all around. Could any of you clarify you views on this and perhaps enumerate the E score deductions and how the D score would have been affected? How would artistry/posture/line have been taken into account? It just seems to me that 14.1 was rather out of synch with other scores on the apparatus given what seemed to me to be a huge hiatus mid routine that then led to a fall. (Please note: I am a code dissident: I think it tries to formulate the sport out of existence - how can you calculate something that is at least as much art as sport? However, I would be int...

I'm laid up with a virus at the moment and will update this blog with some 'proper' writing as soon as looking at the computer screen doesn't send shooting pains through my eyes ;-) Oh joy. In the meantime, however, please find below a list of some lovely media coverage about the Russian girls and Mustafina I have a less lovely question re the code, or rather Rebecca Bross's beam score in the all around. Could any of you clarify you views on this and perhaps enumerate the E score deductions and how the D score would have been affected? How would artistry/posture/line have been taken into account? It just seems to me that 14.1 was rather out of synch with other scores on the apparatus given what seemed to me to be a huge hiatus mid routine that then led to a fall. (Please note: I am a code dissident: I think it tries to formulate the sport out of existence - how can you calculate something that is at least as much art as sport? However, I would be interested...

I'm struck low with a virus at present but wanted to update you with the latest Russian media coverage of Mustafina and the Russian team victory. More proper writing will follow soon! One incidental question: could I have views on the execution deductions taken from Bross's beam routine in the all around? And how did the bobble and fall affect her D score? I'm not at all code-wise and certainly don't like the code we have at present; but the score did seem to me to be somewhat out of synch with what was awarded elsewhere in the competition (14.1 for a routine with a large hiatus mid-way through, followed by a fall) There are a few more bits and bobs of Russian press coverage that are nice to read, and one video, in German, English and Russian ('what do I have to do to make you smile?' is the final question to Mustafina). Interview with Mustafina and Rodienenko: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcEu4qShleQ Alexandrov: Russian gymnasts - stinkers! http://www.c...

What an extraordinary statement. What on earth does Karolyi mean by this? What does she mean - ballerina? When we hear the word, our immediate associations are - elegance, grace, posture, effortless poise, beauty. Aren't they? And isn't this exactly what we would want from our gymnastics? Well, I can entirely understand why Karolyi wouldn't want elegance to win. Given the state of some of the gymnastics that emanates from her training camps. This often gets confused with a question of body type, size, shape, weight or looks, quite a sensitive issue given the age of many of these competitors. But I will take just one example that perhaps even isn't at the extreme end of the scale. America's Rebecca Bross. She has more or less the same basic body type as say, for example, Mustafina - powerful, proportionately long limbs, strong bodied. But look at the differences. Just look at the differences. Consider line, elevation, fluidity of movement, range o...

A Russian team has never before won the world championships title in gymnastics history. The last time we heard that sad, soulful anthem played for a team of six women was in 1991, during the era of the Soviet Union, and there was not one Russian girl on that team. You would have to go back as far as 1985 to find more than three Russian women on a winning Soviet team. So this era of Russian gymnastics is truly outstanding and exceptional, and full of promise. When Komova graduates to the Russian senior team in January, all things being equal, the two top all around gymnasts in the world will be training at Lake Krugloye. Last night I saw a dominant Russian performance in the all around competition. For many, many years I thought I would never see this again. Brown-eyed Aliya Mustafina, only just turned 16 years of age, raised the flag for Russia. And if I sound uncharacteristically reticent in my description of this amazing gymnast, it’s simply because I lack ...

And finally, the anthem of gymnastics has been played in honour of the Russian team at a World Championships. Aliya Mustafina, Ksenia Afanasyeva, Anna Dementieva, Tatiana Nabieva, Ksenia Semenova and Ekaterina Kurbatova fought like titans to win Russia's first ever world team gold medals, at the 2010 World Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam today. Detailed results are available at http://www.longinestiming.com/sports/gym/ag_wc2k10w/C73D_ResultsTeam_GA%20Women%20Senior_Concours%20IV.pdf And there is the most gorgeous short video highlights on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7ZfaGLIcJQ Have the soundtrack turned up, and handkerchief at the ready. I wanted this significant victory to be recorded on my blog as quickly as possible. The least I can say is that I am very, very pleased. And Happy 18th Birthday to Ksenia Semenova!!! More to follow.

This weekend my friend Tracey said to me that she felt that Nabieva’s stoop Tkachev-Pak combination, performed on Saturday at the World Championships for the first time, was quite possibly the most revolutionary moment in gymnastics history since Korbut stood on the top rail of the asymmetric bars in Munich and premiered her unique loop. Those of us of a certain age will remember Korbut’s impact on the sport and the tidal wave of admiration and affection she evoked. Most speak of her amazing ability to communicate and perform, of the unique charm and charisma she projected through her floor routine, of the astounding back somersault on beam. But it was perhaps on bars where her genius shone most brightly. Here she was an amazing innovator and risk taker. The trajectory of that loop is still imprinted in my brain and I have a visual image of it as I speak to you now. Few have had the courage to attempt it since; Mukhina, of course, added a twist, but that was more than thirty yea...

In my usual butterfly manner I am dipping in and out of matters somewhat haphazardly, without looking at individual areas in too much depth. This is partly because I lack concentration at the times I come to write this blog, but also because I tend to like to see a whole picture, even if slightly out of focus, rather than part of a picture in intense focus. Inter-relationships between different phenomena interest me more than single ideas. Also, my passion is for gymnastics and what lies behind its creative and expressive development, rather than a particular set of theories. Gymnastics is not something I observe coldly from the outside; I live each new and old routine, and my judgement of them comes from within me, and is preceded and shaded by many previous experiences. I am an armchair admirer of the sport; my main gymnastic achievement ever was to execute a forward roll without breaking my neck, and yet my recollection of my ‘favourite’ routines is always tinged with emoti...

A news feature has appeared at http://rus.ruvr.ru/2010/10/08/24773120.html highlighting the migration of Russian coaches overseas as a major factor in the downturn in Russian gymnastics recently. Not a surprise, but Valentina Rodienenko quantifies this, asserting that around 364 coaches from the former Soviet Union have left the country. So enhancing the skills of coaches through a programme of training is a priority if the Russian resurgence is to be maintained long term. Some lovely pictures of the Russian girls are on the Federation's website at http://www.sportgymrus.ru/press/photo/3677/4070/default.aspx and include shots of the ever beautiful Liubov Burda, her fellow judges Shevchenko and Korolenko and coaches of the team, including, for the record Viktor Gavrichenkov (shown here with Ekaterina Kurbatova) Alexander Alexandrov Andrei Rodienenko Vassily Alexandrovich (acrobatics coach) Vera Kiryashova (coach of Nabieva) Marina Nazarova (coach of Afanasyeva and Semenova) Vladim...

A news feature has appeared at http://rus.ruvr.ru/2010/10/08/24773120.html highlighting the migration of Russian coaches overseas as a major factor in the downturn in Russian gymnastics recently. Not a surprise, but Valentina Rodienenko quantifies this, asserting that around 364 coaches from the former Soviet Union have left the country. So enhancing the skills of coaches through a programme of training is a priority if the Russian resurgence is to be maintained long term. Some lovely pictures of the Russian girls are on the Federation's website at http://www.sportgymrus.ru/press/photo/3677/4070/default.aspx and include shots of the ever beautiful Liubov Burda, her fellow judges Shevchenko and Korolenko and coaches of the team, including, for the record Viktor Gavrichenkov (shown here with Ekaterina Kurbatova) Alexander Alexandrov Andrei Rodienenko Vassily Alexandrovich (acrobatics coach) Vera Kiryashova (coach of Nabieva) Marina Nazarova (coach of Afanasyeva and Seme...

Thought it would be fun to compile a list of ex-Soviet gymnasts and coaches at the Rotterdam World Championships in an official capacity. This, in no particular order, is derived from the list of nominative registrations - please add more as I will doubtless have missed many! Anatoli Yarmovski – MAG coach, Azerbaijan Galina Marinova (Bulgaria) – guest of the BLR team and apparently of USA team! Same person? Elena Davydova with the CAN team as WAG coach Valeri Belenki – MAG coach, German delegation Andrei Rodienenko - Head of Delegation, RUS Alexander Alexandrov - WAG Team Manager, RUS Oksana Chusovitina – gymnast, German delegation (!) Andrei Popov with the GBR delegation as MAG coach Vladimir Chertkov WAG coach with India team Boris Orlov MAG coach NED delegation Elena Zamolodchikova accompanying person RUS delegation Elena Shevchenko WAG judge RUS delegation Oksana Omelianchik WAG judge UKR delegation Igor Korobchinski WAG coach UKR Artur Akopyan – WAG additional coach, USA delega...

The Rotterdam World Championships website is attempting some quite extensive coverage of the coming competition, including pictures and reports of podium training. Webcam coverage is available, but only if you have a Netherlands IP. Here is a link to their promised coverage : http://www.gymnastics2010.com/en/a101007001.asp Hope they can deliver as they expect - this sounds great!

Just beginning to read an article (Platchias, 2003) from the European Journal of Sport Science entitled Sport is Art. Platchias attempts to identify the common features of art and sport - difficult because both are open concepts. In fact in some ways, art can be said to be delineated by the cultural classes who confer the label of art on certain forms of production and consumption. Think, for example of your local opera house, if you have one, and now consider its status relative to the latest Muse concert. The distinction between the aesthetic and the artistic is important; natural landscapes, for example, or people, can be aesthetically pleasing without being considered to be works of art. And one of the distinctions between art and sport is that art is considered to be without purpose or end product; it is an act in its own right, partly unconscious of its own artistry. While the end product of sport is more purposive. Sport is unarguably aesthetic, but is it ...

Russian team coach Alexander Alexandrov has expressed some optimism about the Russian women's prospects at the upcoming world championships. http://www.sportgymrus.ru/press/news/4066/default.aspx He feels that Mustafina is a good prospect for the all around; and makes special mention of Nabieva's straight Tkachev-Pak combination as 'unique and historic'. And I have to say, Tanya Nabieva is quite probably the fastest improving gymnast I have ever seen - hope she will do well in Rotterdam. If, like me, you struggle to read Russian and find Google translations somewhat bizarre, try International Gymnast online for a better translation.

This morning, I wanted to reflect on the present, and the near future. Only 9 days to go till the World Championships in Rotterdam (well, podium training begins in 9 days). Can the Russian women win? What is the significance of this competition to them? Is it possible to predict the outcome of a competition? Does it matter who takes the medals? What is ‘winning’, anyway? We all know that medals will be distributed in team, all-around, and event finals, and that huge emotional significance is attached to world titles. And not just for the competitors - I personally will cry buckets if Russia win any kind of gold. But let’s be pragmatic. Rotterdam is only a step on the way to the London 2012 Olympics, and all the athletes there must tread a precarious psychological pathway between living in the now, and preparing for the future, en route to probably the biggest experience of their lives (which some of them may not make). Rotterdam is merely a battle, not the who...