Skip to main content

International Gymnast interview with Mustafina, Alexandrov

It's worth gaining access to a hard or digital copy of this month's (January/February) International Gymnast magazine to read John Crumlish's interview with Mustafina and Alexandrov.

Crumlish highlights how Alexandrov and Mustafina have built a strong working relationship in the two years they have been together, with Alexandrov likening aspects of Aliya's personality to his former protege, 1983 and 1987 World Champion Dmitri Bilozerchev. He also comments on how Mustafina's father, an Olympic medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling [note: I believe he still coaches the sport] has been figural in her development as a competitor.

He attributes the Russian team's recent success to the influx of talented newcomers onto the team and the increased levels of difficulty they bring. He also values the rejuvenation and refocussing of the coaching team. Looking forward, but echoing a similar interview International Gymnast published with Leonid Arkaev back in 1988 or 1989, Alexandrov says that the team now has to forget about success and start again at the beginning. There is intention to improve the team's difficulty levels, and he suggests that Mustafina is working towards improvements on floor, vault and beam.

The key themes in Alexandrov's explanation of the recent success of the Russian team are:

increased levels of difficulty,
newcomers to the team,
improved coaching,
injury avoidance and
improved infrastructure thanks to the financial support of VTB.

It is interesting to note the primary importance of injury avoidance, a new emphasis since Soviet days when the the ability to overcome injury was often cited as a heroic quality in World Champions.

Crumlish, J (2011) 'The Mustafina Mystique: Peerless in 2010, the world champion is fearless heading into 2011' International Gymnast January-February 2011, pp 18-20

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,...

Natalia Yurchenko - an exclusive interview

Natalia wins gold at the World Championships in Budapest, 1983 1983 World Champion Natalia Yurchenko speaks directly to readers of RRG in this exclusive interview.    Early years: In the summer of 1976, at the age of 11, I was accepted to a sports boarding school in Rostov-on-Don. I remember it was a 4-level building with the cafeteria on the first floor, academic classrooms on the second floor, rooms for girls on the third floor and rooms for boys on the fourth floor. There was one TV on the ground floor and the kids who stayed at school over the summer (about 20-30 kids), were able to watch the Olympics. Nadia Comaneciā€™s outstanding performance made us feel jealous because usually the Soviets were the unbeatable favorites. We did feel some relief with amazing performances from Nellie Kim and Ludmilla Tourischeva. Besides Ludmilla, there was a gymnast from Rostov-on-Don, Svetlana Grozdova! And, we were really thrilled to see the very little and cute Maria Fi...

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more