Skip to main content

Media link : interview with Svetlana Khorkina, Sovietski Sport

There is an interview with Svetlana Khorkina here.

The article includes some lovely pictures of Khorkina in her current life as a Russian State Deputy, including one shot with Alina Kabaeva. If I understand the translation correctly, Khorkina's political responsibilities include a specialist interest in the Committee of Youth.

She comments with pride on the achievements of the Russian team this year and identifies closely with Mustafina. She echoes Rodienenko's concerns for the future of Russian gymnastics, however, highlighting the shortage of coaches, and the corresponding poor rate of pay. Today's gymnastics is 'all bent legs', and lacks complexity. She suggests that Code changes after 2012 should be brought about, to encourage greater complexity in exercises, as well as better quality of performance.

On a broader front, she suggests that the Russians need specialist legal sports representation to confront problems of unfairness she perceives, such as Mustafina's revalued vault in Rotterdam and her own unfortunate experience with the vault table setting at the 2000 Olympic Games. Khorkina says that the Russians also need access to better specialist sports healthcare, including nutrition.

Khorkina speaks with great affection and respect of her late coach, Boris Pilkin. She is a proud and happy mother in her private life and appears to manage to juggle the demands of political and home life quite effectively.

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...

Valentina Rodionenko on Alexandrov's dismissal - Lupita translates

76 year old Valentina Rodionenko.  Picture courtesy of the RGF . Read below Lupita's translation of what Valentina Rodionenko had to say yesterday evening about the current staff changes at Russian Gymnastics, from Sovietski Sport . Valentina Rodionenko : Alexandrov stays as coach to Mustafina. Therefore, he is not allowed to be a national coach! Head coach Valentina Rodionenko commented on Alexander Alexandrov’s dismissal specially for “Sovietski Sport”.   - Alexandrov hasn’t been fired. You don’t need to make up things like that. We have been assigning the duties. When we dismissed Leonid Arkaev, it was decided that the team’s coach doesn’t have the right to be a personal coach at the same time. Alexander Sergueievich combined both functions, but it was against the rule. Now we have eliminated this. - In an interview with “Sovietski Sport”, Alexander Alexandrovich said that he had been blamed for working poorly. Do you personally think that he d...

Elena Produnova - interview

The gymnastics group at VK.com has published an interview with 2000 Olympian, Elena Produnova.  Thanks for their permission to provide an edit of it here. People will remember Elena in particular for two reasons: her original vault that no one else has been able to emulate; and her own special brand of powerful  acrobatics, energetic temperament and musical flow, a heady mixture that today's gymnasts find impossible to match. Recently there have been some photographs of Elena working in a gym.  Although she has always said that she wouldn't have a coaching career, it seems that now she is a coach at a gym in Nalchik,  a town in the very south of the Russian Federation, in the foothills of the Caucasian mountains, in the republic of Kabardino-Balkaria.   The first question, tell us how you ended up in Nalchik? - Nalchik came up at the right time, in terms of my life circumstances.  Through my previous work I had a very good friend - head of the sports depart...

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more