Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Today's Sovietski Sport has an interview with former Russian and twice European champion, 32 year old Alexei Bondarenko. Bondarenko visited the recent World Championships and reports here that he is working on his gymnastics again, despite an injured hand.  He speaks of his devastation at his two disastrous falls on vault in Athens, and of the increased level of difficulty performed today by such champions as Japan's Uchimura.  He also comments on the motivations of the current generation of Russian male gymnasts (he seems to think they are more concerned with winning money than medals), and the lack of financial support he received following his injury which saw him spending four weeks under the care of a Moscow specialist hospital. He shares his Moscow lodgings with a cat, Bond, which makes him a good person as far as I am concerned ;-) Good luck Alexei!

A great discussion going on at the Gymnastics Coaching blog on artistry raises some important questions, especially since Nelli Kim mentioned there may be a future need for harmonisation between the men's and women's Codes.  I have a few thoughts to elaborate on this subject, but office politics (groan) and student assessment must take first place at present. In the meantime, I'll provide you with a link to this excellent discussion.

Russian Sports Classifications explained/Russian bonus system, I guess?! It has always intrigued me - the system of nominating the different levels of competitors in Russian sports, that is.  Thanks to the wonders of Google translate, and the world wide web, we now have that information available from an official source, the Russian Gymnastics Federation website, where this link reveals almost all, for those of us intrigued enough to want to navigate the language You will also find here ' Additions and Changes to the Mandatory Programme ' which I am guessing - please correct me if I am wrong - is the special bonus system of marking operated at some of the competitions. Enjoy!

Charlotte at the All Around Forum reports that Anastasia Grishina and Anastasia Sidorova are planning to compete at the Belgian Top Gym tournament weekend of 27/28 November.  It will be great to hear reports of their progress and performance at this competition which is running for its 14th year. Edited 23/11 - please see comments below - sadly, Anastasia Grishina has withdrawn from the competition because of an injury - she will be replaced by Kristina Sidorova.  Good luck, Kristina - and may I wish a happy, healthy recovery to the beautiful Anastasia Grishina . 

This weekend in Blanc Mesmil, France, the Daniel D’Amato International Tournament took place.  This is a team and individual competition for boys and girls from Spain, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Russia, and local teams from France.  A list of participants can be found here .  Full results have yet to be posted on the website but, via the GymNet Forum Albert reports the following results of the girls’ competition: 1         Ukraine 2         Russia 3         Antibes In the individual competition, Russia’s Yulia Belokobylskaya took first place, ahead of Ukraine's Anastasia Koval and Yevgenya Chernyi.  Well done all! I will update this post with a link to the full results and any observations, if and when they become available. 23rd November - full results of the all around competition are available here . Team competition - we may have to wait a little long...

Cor.  When I began this blog, only a couple of months ago, I never realised quite how much goes on in the constantly evolving world of Russian gymnastics.  I started out by wanting to look back to try to make some sense of what might be happening now and in the future.  As it turns out, current events are enough to keep me occupied, although I expect - jolly well hope - there will be some fallow weeks and months when I will get the chance to be more reflective again. The internet has opened up gymnastics amazingly.  I can remember when every speck of information I could gain about the Soviet gymnasts was precious.  We had to wait months for the results of even the largest competitions.  I remember, for example, tuning into the BBC World Service at midnight to hear the results of the women's all around at the 1985 World Championships, only to disbelieve the report I had heard (Shushunova tied Omelianchik) and to have to wait another few days for highlights...

Results of the Glasgow Grand Prix can be accessed here . Australia's Lauren Mitchell dominated this competition, taking golds on beam and floor. Russia's Ekaterina Kurbatova, the only gymnast to qualify to all four event finals, took gold on vault but finished outside the medals elsewhere. Well done, Katya! Anna Myzdrikova unfortunately finished outside the medals on her specialist piece, floor. In the men's competition, Alexander Balandin took gold on the rings.

While the world focusses on international competitions such as this weekend's Grand Prix, Russian junior and local competition continues. Perhaps a name emerging from one of these competitions will in future make it onto the Russian national team at European, World or Olympic level. They perhaps help to guage the progress of development of the 'mass base' of Russian gymnastics which is so important to its future development. The Russian Gymnastics Federation website provides information about these competitions. First, a regional competition taking place in the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia (capital: Khabarovsk), the largest, but least populated of Russia's 8 Federal districts (the other seven are Central Federal District (capital: Moscow); Southern Federal District (Rostov-on-Don); Northwestern Federal District (St Petersburg); Siberian Federal District (Novosibirsk); Urals Federal District (Ekaterinburg); Volga Federal District (Nizhny Novgorod); and the...

Albert and Nora at the All Around Forum have kindly provided a link to the roster for the above competition. For Russia, Anna Dementieva, Aliya Mustafina and Ekaterina Kurbatova are so far posted to compete. This weekend, Ekaterina Kurbatova and Rotterdam reserve Anna Myzdrikova compete in Glasgow at the Grand Prix (World Cup competition). I will provide links to results for all these competitions once they are complete.

A TV report here records Medvedev's meeting with successful Russian athletes including their gymnastics team from the 2010 world championships. I have added this link to the media directory below.

http://www.net-film.ru/ru/films-finded-page-1/?sp=ru&s=%d0%93%d0%b8%d0%bc%d0%bd%d0%b0%d1%81%d1%82%d0%b8%d0%ba%d0%b0

Russian Gymnasts Prepare for Mexico (1967). This delightful short news video, property of the British Pathe archive, features Zinaida Druzhinina (Voronina) in training for the Mexico Olympics.

The FIG have now published a list of new elements credited at the World Championships 2010 (Rotterdam). You will also find a list of new elements credited at the Youth Olympic Games. Nabieva, Mustafina and (Youth Olympics) Komova have all had uneven bars elements named after them.

My friend Ian from the University of Greenwich sent me this link to the Chinese State Circus's version of Swan Lake. He headed the email - 'Ballet, or gymnastics?'. I found that quite intriguing, and even though I don't have time to write more now, I wanted to share it with you. Please do comment! I'd love to know what you think of this.

If revolutions can only be acknowledged and recognised with hindsight, we are still too early to celebrate the Russian women’s team and all around victory at the Rotterdam World Championships 2010 as such. In many ways, Russian gymnastics is only beginning to turn a corner and to build the foundations for future more solid and consistent victories. The women’s team looks strong; over this weekend we have seen an impressive number of medal winning performances all across Europe. The Russians appear to be building strong reserves as well as celebrating the achievements of their medal winners. But we are still some distance away from witnessing a force to compare with the relentless, invincible gymnastics machine that was the Soviet Union. The technical, political, funding, human resources and artistic changes that Russian gymnastics needs to undergo to reach such a position are still very much underway. Media coverage of the world championships, and in particular during and po...

Lenta (online) ‘Andrei Rodienenko : What are the chances of the Russian gymnasts at the 2012 Olympics?’ Press Conference 12 th November 2012 available at : http://lenta.ru/conf/rodionenko/ accessed 14 th November 2012 Keywords : Rodienenko, Olympics, Soviet Union, system of training, importance of media, international system of physical education, Russian system of physical education, Valeri Liukin, exodus of Russian coaches, ambiguity of judging decisions, FIG, future of Russian men’s gymnastics programme

Andrei Rodienenko has been busy recently answering questions! Here , he considers the theme 'What are the chances of the Russian gymnasts at the Olympics 2012'. Incidentally, I am growing to love the eccentricities of Google translate which perhaps deserves a blog all of its own. Do please enjoy this piece and its literary associations as best you can :=)

The Russian girls have been busy - and very successful - this weekend! All seven gymnasts from the national team (including reserve Anna Myzdrikova) are scheduled to compete by the end of this month. Massilia Cup The wonderful TATIANA NABIEVA competed alongside her team mates KSENIA SEMENOVA and KSENIA AFANASYEVA in Marseille this weekend at the Massilia Cup, and achieved gold medals in the team, all around, bars and vault events. Tanya also took the bronze on balance beam. KSENIA AFANASYEVA took gold medal on floor and silver on beam behind France's Aurelie Malaussena. A fuller report can be found at The Gymnastics Examiner . The Italian Grand Prix World Champion ALIYA MUSTAFINA competed here alongside Youth Olympic Champion VIKTORIA KOMOVA. Aliya won beam and came fourth on bars, while Viktoria took the gold on bars and silver on beam. Full results, and a video of Aliya's performance on beam can be found at Aliya's official website . DTB Cup Promising young ANNA DEME...

A fascinating interview is available to view here : http://www.sovsport.ru/gazeta/article-item/418471 Includes some relatively detailed discussions surrounding the apparently sudden departure of Dina Kamalova (Aliya's coach during her years as a junior competitor) to America, the role of CSKA head Galina Stepanova in helping link Aliya to her new coach, Alexander Alexandrov. Fargat Mustafin also discusses Aliya and her sister Nailya.

A press conference was held at which Rodienenko, Mustafina and Komova discussed the recent world championships and their plans for the forthcoming year. Rodienenko also makes reference to the state of men's gymnastics and to the state of University gymnastics in Russia. Video conference (one hour long) is available here : http://www.tatar-inform.ru/video/1369/ Gennady Elfimov, Komova's personal coach, was also present. Andrei Rodienenko : http://summer.sport-express.ru/gymnastics/reviews/9195/ Aliya Mustafina and Viktoria Komova : http://summer.sport-express.ru/gymnastics/reviews/9194/ With thanks to Nora and Albert at the All Around Forum for posting these links. I intend to post a round up of the best coverage of worlds by the middle of next week, identifying key themes and questions for the future. I will include video links.

Albert at the All Around Forum alerts us to some results from the Moscow Regional Championships, held 26-29 October 2010 and posted at http://www.sport-gymnastics.ru/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=2425&sid=31ec44c5dfd1f31ba0f4e286fd04f553 . Some of the scores noted, in particular those for Maria Paseka, Anastasia Grishina and Viktoria Malikova, appear to be those they achieved for the Russian Nationals earlier this year. I understand that these key results can be re-used for team competition purposes, in order to avoid over-competing key gymnasts who are preparing for higher profile competitions. This compromise allows the ‘home’ club to gain appropriate recognition for the achievements of their gymnasts. I will transcribe here some of the key competition results with a view to registering some new names. Of particular interest are the achievements of Naila Mustafina, Aliya Mustafina’s younger sister ;-) Candidate Master of Sports (girls born 1996-1997) 1. M...

A flurry of activity at Lake Krugloye: first, on the 1st November, Russian minister of Sports, Tourism and Youth Policy Vitalyi Mutko visited the training base to congratulate the women's team on their victory in Rotterdam, and also to present awards to various gymnasts and coaches: Merited Master of Sport medals were given to Ksenia Afanasyeva, Tatiana Nabieva and Anna Dementieva (Aliya Mustafina, Ksenia Semenova and Ekaterina Kurbatova have already received this honour). Merited Coach of Russia medals were awarded to National Team Coach Alexander Alexandrov; acrobatics coach Vasily Ivanov; choreographer Olga Borova; technical trainer Evgenyi Grebenkin (he has special responsibility for uneven bars); and Anna Dementieva's personal coach, Elena Zhiganova. Congratulations to all!! Secondly, the Russian women's team and coaches held a press conference on the 2nd November at which the results of the recent world championships, and prospects for future development were discusse...

Nora at the All Around Forum kindly alerts us to the following article and short video tribute to the irreplaceable Boris Pilkin. http://belnovosti.ru/news/society/2010/10/22/belgorod-prostilsya-s-borisom-pilkinym And see here one of his masterpiece works of gymnastic art. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzSMcTtYkik Rest in peace, Boris.