Skip to main content

Alexander Alexandrov shows confidence in Russian team for Rotterdam

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.

Comments

  1. Bourdieu says in 'distinction' that there are as many different capitals as there are fields of struggle. If sport is the subject of a struggle for distinction (econmically, culturally etc) then he would expect their to be a form of symbolic capital associated with it that would be unequally distributed between the haves and the have nots. I read Clive Barnett et al's 'culture, class distinction' recently which updates Bourdieu for the contemporary UK (sadly not russia!), but which places the emphasis not on cultural consumption as bourdieu does, but in participation. I'm guessing Gymnastics is a sport (art?) with quite high barriers to entry and so I'd expect that participation, active and passive, would denote a form of status distinction. To be fair though, I'm just guessing!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well, there's some more reading for me - thank you. I think this does add quite a lot to think about!
    Does it necessarily have to be ethnically/nationally bound? I suppose different cultures do have different ways of seeing ...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Full bibliographic references for James' reading suggestions above are now added to the bibliography.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sorry - should have used Harvard. If our students found out I'd never live it down! I don't think it has to be bound in those ways. Lots of people criticise bourdieu for being either 1) too french in his frame of reference or 2) too structuralist and not open enough to that kind of diversity. I don't think either of those criticisms really hold, but he made such a point of saying that all theoretical work should be grounded in fieldwork that it was kind of inevitable that he kept his research within his own boundaries....

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks James. I can feel something with a little more depth coming on ......... ooer.

    I'm using this site as a repository for useful references so that I don't ever lose sight of anything useful again ... that's the plan, anyway. Know how to back up a blog?

    ReplyDelete
  6. hmmmm...not sure! will find out...

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Svetlana Boginskaya: I was always a bitch* in gymnastics

Svetlana Boginskaya, 15 years old, with her medals from the Seoul Olympics Nico translates the latest interview with gymnastics legend Svetlana Boginskaya, during a recent visit to her home country of Belarus. Svetlana Boginskaya: I was always a bitch* in gymnastics, so now I ask for forgiveness from everyone who came in contact with me. The National Olympic Committee of Belarus held a press conference with three-time Olympic Champion in artistic gymnastics, Svetlana Boginskaya. The meeting was devoted to the 25th anniversary of the Olympic Games in Seoul. In South Korea the Belarussian won two gold medals in the team competition and vault. As a gift to the Olympic Hall of fame, the famous gymnast, now living in the United States, donated one of her trophies that she won at the 1990 European Championships and a pennant for Best Female Athlete of the USSR in 1989. How happy we were when we could share with such stars as Boginskaya, Scherbo, and Ivankov,...

I am looking forward with inspiration - Melnikova returns to international competition

Angelina Melnikova will be the first Russian WAG to compete internationally since the IOC ban in 2022 when she appears at the World Challenge Cup in Paris on September 13 and 14 this year. Travelling with her will be coach Konstantin Pluzhnikov and judge Elena Redyanova.   Angelina says she will compete AA with a relatively simple programme. I’m glad Angelina is making this start for Russia.  It’s a real tribute to this young woman that she is trusted with the first effort at coming back after such a long time, and I hope people welcome her back warmly.  Angelina will be competing as a neutral athlete, of course.  She was awarded this status after a fair and rigorous process of evaluation by the FIG.   Here is what Angelina said today to Match TV: Olympic champion in artistic gymnastics Angelina Melnikova told Match TV how she reacted to being admitted to the FIG World Challenge Cup tournament in France. ❓What emotions did you experience from the fact that you w...

Russia and Ukraine at war - friends, brothers, mothers bereft

They are literally bereft - torn apart and desperately sad.  Russia and Ukraine, in gymnastics at least, were always the best of friends.  Despite the horrors of the Holodomor, the famine forced on Ukraine by the USSR which claimed the lives of an estimated 3.9 million people, relations between our gymnasts were always observably warm.  If you ever saw a victory podium shared by the two, you would know this to be the truth.  Fierce competition, respect and friendship.  Everything was as it should be. Russia and Ukraine shared their gymnastics bounty.  Nikolai (Mykola)  Kuksenkov, Ukraine-born but with Russian family roots, competed for both countries and now coaches the Russian women.  His father, Yuliy, coaches the men.  Doubtless there are many gymnasts and coaches whose family lines cross the borders of Russia and Ukraine.  So much of Russia is this way.  Perhaps it is what gives Ukraine so much of its ferocity in defend...

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more