Skip to main content

Media updates and picture link

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)
Vladimir Kuznetsov (coach of Anna Myzdrikova)
Sergei Ryubakov - don't know if he is a coach or an equipment steward!

Feel free to add names if you recognise anyone not mentioned here!

The pictures were taken during a control competition at Lake Krugloye in the past week or two. I love them for the way they highlight not only the gymnastics action, but also the relaxed and happy interaction going on in the camp.

Comments

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,...

Our Nelli Kim : a new documentary

Nelli Kim at the 1980 Olympics, courtesy of Nellikim.net I have mixed feelings about Nelli Kim.  She was certainly one of the most talented competitors the Soviet Union fielded in gymnastics, and that is saying something. She harvested first place  all around at the 1979 World Championships, her country's only gold medal in a somewhat disastrous competition for the Soviet women.  (That competition has become a very notorious one in history, if one remembers poor Nadia Comaneci's brave performance despite a serious wrist infection, and the winning Romanian team's sickeningly unhealthy appearance in Fort Worth.) Nelli was also a great performer and character.  Her career overlapped a time of fundamental change in the sport - when the lyricism of such performers as Tourischeva was overpowered by the pyrotechnical advances of the likes of Comaneci.  Nelli managed to reconcile the two qualities, and to span the gap between the two eras.  I don't think she ever r...

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more