Skip to main content

Gymnastika - new issue out

The Russian Gymnastics Federation has published a new issue of its magazine.

Every time I look at these, I wish I had stuck at my Russian classes ... as things stand, they are a wonderful visual recorder of Russian successes and histories, but I would love to be able to engage more with the deeper things presented here.  This issue has a stunning picture of Mustafina on the cover, and inside it a gem ... a piece on Bruno Grandi entitled 'Bruno Grandi : Russian gymnastics is very beautiful!'.   It's an interview, so the man speaks for himself.  I'd love to know what it says and if I do manage to get into a Google translation or find a translation anywhere that the author doesn't mind me using, I promise to post the findings here.  

You will also find an amazing, Facebook-page-worthy picture of the Russian team, all fitted out in best fashion wear, and serving as the topping for a 2011 calendar.

The magazine also includes a feature on Mustafina along with comments from Alexandrov, a look at the life of the doctors on the Russian coaching team (seems to emphasise the relationship between doctors and coaches and how the doctors work hard to get the coaches to follow their advice), and a feature on Evegenyi Podgornyi.  Podgornyi, incidentally, comments ruefully that 'no one does the triple back any more'.

Worthy of more than the momentary scan I've been able to give it, and perhaps grappling with the Google translate will reveal more ... I'll let you know once I've finished this huge pile of marking.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Artistry versus acrobatics???

Watching videos of this weekend's competitions - the qualification and all around rounds of the Russian championships, medal winners from the American Cup - I am struck, more and more, by the huge difference between the American and Russian schools of gymnastics. It led me to ask the question : do artistry and acrobatics have to be mutually exclusive? (I am afraid that I think naming 'American' gymnastics a 'school' is perhaps lending an undeserved dignity to work which has become excessively obsessed with the difficult and the consistent, but I am using the word here so as not to label unfairly those individual gymnasts who are blameless in the direction of their training.) The FIG's vision for gymnastics is said to embrace more artistry; at least the publicity it has put about on the subject of its new Code makes that fairly plain.  So perhaps the Russians, with their inconsistent brilliance and superior body carriage (Mustafina, Komova, Grishina, Afanasy...

Updates on Russia, and Russian gymnastics

  Kartsev: FX, PB, HB; Suedin: PH, PB, HB; Roschina : V, UB Kalmykova: V, FX; Vassilieva: BB, FX; Kaiumova: UB, BB At times, I have been at a loss as to what to say; I still am.  I don’t think that politics and sport make good bedfellows, but we live in a time of global confusion and sadness.  It has been more than twelve years since Russia has competed under its own flag at the Olympics, and for all I know it could be another twelve or more before things revert entirely to ‘normal’.  I don’t know how seriously to take any of the announcements being made recently, about junior athletes being allowed to compete as Russian, about athletes in the Winter Paralympics being allowed to compete under the Russian flag.  I’d like to see the athletes back and able to live their lives, for them to be able to show off a bit and feel pride in their accomplishments.  But I can’t ignore the bigger picture of death and destruction.  People are lucky if they can live in...

Aliya Mustafina - 'each medal is very special'

'I'm very happy that everything turned out well today  ... Each medal is very special.  The UK team made mistakes, so there was a wide margin [of victory]... But naturally, [what I did] is not enough for the Olympics.  I prepared well for beam and bars but I am not ready for floor, I stepped up to help the team. ... To be honest, I did not look at the scores [when asked how the team reacted to the 6.5 gap before the final apparatus].  Gelya (Melnikova) is a good girl, she did everything and did not falter ... Seda fell on quite a complex element.  There is more work to do, but everything else went well.' [About a protest taken by the coaches on her beam score]. 'I am used to my protests being rejected, everything is normal!' Via vk.com I n other news , the UEG has confirmed that Spiridonova will replace Melnikova in tomorrow's bars final. No reason is given, but it is generally considered that Dasha has a better chance of gold.  This decision also means tha...

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more