Skip to main content

Lake Krugloye - rewarding the gymnasts and coaches/considering the future

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 discussed. Key reference was made to the need for future investment, and development of the numbers of gymnasts and coaches as a pre-requisite to continued and improved success. Credit was also given to the Federation, the Ministry of Sport, and to sponsors VTB. Rodienenko also made reference to ambiguity in the marks awarded to two of the Russian gymnasts. Key points included :

Rodienenko asserted that this was a well deserved victory they had been working towards for more than a year. The Russian team was now recognised as the best team in the world. But Russia now has to prove that this result was not accidental. It is always more difficult to defend a title than to win for the first time. Important factors in the victory this time were the girls' own experience, skill and strong desire to win. The role of their personal coaches, state coaches, and training staff at Lake Krugloye was also vital, as well as that of the Federation and the Russian Ministry of Sports (note: presumably the Ministry are key fund-holders).

Alexandrov thanked supporters of Russian gymnastics and said that the competition at next year's World Championships was bound to be even more difficult than this year.

Valentina Rodienenko mentioned that after a short holiday the girls were now back in training at their improved facilities in Lake Krugloye. From 2011 the senior team will be joined by those girls born in 1995, including Viktoria Komova.

Andrei Rodienenko makes mention of the ambiguity of rules which affected the marking of Mustafina and Kurbatova's (sic) vaults at the World Championships and says a similar problem also affected a Swiss gymnast (note: this was presumably Ariella Kaeslin). The Russians have been proved right, and he is confident that similar problems should not arise again in the future.

As regards the future development of the sport, Alexander Alexandrov highlighted a lack of coaches recruiting young gymnasts in the regions. Pay is poor, and this role is currently left to fanatics of the sport! Additional funds in this respect were needed in order to support improved performance. Mustafina added that if more gymnastics centres were built to accommodate training for greater numbers of children, better results would follow. In this respect, Valentina Rodienenko highlighted the work of Federation chief Andrei Kostin and sponsors VTB. The Federation had been able to give gymnastics equipment to 122 schools. She highlighted the importance of the Academy of Physical Education in Malakhovka (province of Moscow) where a number of young girls and boys between the ages of 9-12, and their personal coaches, undertake training under the guidance of specialist Nikolai Yepishin. A key goal is to educate both the coaches and the gymnasts as a basis for forward development of the sport in the region.

With thanks to the website of the Russian Federation where this and other useful information can be found : http://www.sportgymrus.ru/

Edited 8th November 2010 to include some corrections to the translations, kindly provided by Kyan at the All Around Forum.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Review of Russian WAG at the 2014 World Championships

The Russians during a team talk in training for the World Championships.  Courtesy RGF Bronze all the way for Russia then.  Beyond the euphoria and surprise of this morning's competition there doesn't really seem to be much to write home about. I am delighted for Aliya personally that the efforts she has made to help the team have provided her with some tangible result, but the principal feeling at the end of the competition is that of relief.  As Vaitsekhovskaya said in her article last week, there were no moments of shock and awe from the Russians, and that's what will be needed if they are to compete for gold medals in Rio (translation available here ). Let's consider a timeline of the competition : before, during and after. BEFORE The promise of a return to the Worlds stage by Viktoria Komova gave Russia a feeling of optimism pre-Russia Cup.  However, Viktoria's performance at this important competition gave little reason for celebra...

Aliya Mustafina - I competed as best I could

Picture credit RGF Aliya speaks in Sports Express http://news.sport-express.ru/2014-05-18/699607 I am very pleased with my performance today, I don't know what the judges didn't like about my bars, but I didn't ask them ... I did my routine fairly well without serious error. On beam I didn't have the start value but I received the highest execution score.  We will try to fix that before the World Championships. Considering the problems I had with my ankle, I think I performed to the optimum at the moment.  I did everything I could. I'm not  the least bit sorry that I performed here -  Very glad that I could help the team. I think my presence made things easier for the girls.   It is very difficult to compete at such serious senior competitions for the first time.  Of course they were very worried.   But I'm sure that with time they will learn to cope easily with their nerves (smiles). 

Sport, friendship and the Olympics - reflections on McLaren report implications for Russian gymnastics

BREAKING - President Putin on the McLaren report -  http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/52537 What is happening today, is perhaps the end of an era.  The end of an era when sport was truly playful, and international.  Will we ever see our athletes in the same way again? The findings of the McLaren report are devastating to me.  They made me think about the value and meaning of the Olympics.  People have written whole books and volumes of books about the history of the Olympics. I am not going to try to unravel all the different strands of the history of the Olympic movement from the Ancient Greeks to the present day.  I'll just reflect here on the current values of Olympism; you can see below an extract from the new Olympic Charter , which was published in 2015. I certainly am inspired by the values of Olympism; I have followed the Olympics all my life.  But unfortunately it seems that they have been under attack, not just in Russia b...

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more