Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

A new book on the science of gymnastics has just been edited by a world authority on the subject, Dr Monem Jemni.  Details of the book and its author can be found here . The book is available on Amazon .

The organising committee of this year's World Championships in Tokyo have posted an update here .  I think we can look forward to an excellent world championships later this year :-)

Reuters report the sad news that Nikolai Andrianov has died.  Nikolai Andrianov, the most decorated male gymnast of all time, has died after a long illness at the age of 58. "We've received such tragic news that Nikolai had passed away this afternoon," Russia's national team coach Alexander Alexandrov said. "He had been ill for a long time." Andrianov was suffering from the degenerative neurological disorder multiple system atrophy and was unable to move his arms or legs or talk. He died in his home town of Vladimir. Andrianov held the record for men for most Olympic medals at 15, including seven golds, until American swimmer Michael Phelps surpassed him at the 2008 Beijing Games. He is third on the all-time list of athletes with the most Olympic medals behind fellow gymnast Larisa Latynina (18) and Phelps (16). The Russian won four golds, including the coveted all-around title, two silvers and a bronze at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, then added t...

I cannot remember a time when even relatively low profile competitions seemed to carry such significance for gymnastics as today.  The internet is at least partly responsible.  Almost instant access to results, images and videos spawns international discussion and debate.  I do not think we should underestimate this power of word, especially now we have the open-ended Code with its prescriptive formulae for deductions and bonuses which can appear to make everyone with a little knowledge into a gymnastics expert.  Gymnastics has always been a political sport in which the importance of ‘reputation’ has regularly played a role in determining competition outcomes, both by influencing the psychological pressures under which the athletes perform and by shaping the expectations and responses of judges.  This means that Federations have many difficult selection decisions to make each year as so much of what their gymnasts do falls under a microscope.   ...

See the Gymnastics Examiner for a transcript of the finals, and Stoi ! for a technical discussion of the Russian girls' routines here and at the Jesolo Cup.  Full results are also now available at the French Federation website . Russia have taken two medals in each of all but one of the finals, with Mustafina taking gold on vault, bars and beam.  Iszbasa took the remaining gold (floor) for Romania.  Nabieva managed a silver on vault, but came 4th on bars, while Dementieva took bronze on beam behind her compatriot and Romania's Ana Porgras. The silver and bronze medalists on floor are Chelaru and Dementieva respectively. The men performed rather disappointingly I feel, with Balandin and Pluzhnikov taking silver and bronze on the rings, but otherwise other team members failed to qualify to finals.

Competitions are underway - both the French International (World Cup Category 'A') and the Jesolo Cup, which embraces both senior and junior teams. There is a live blog of the French International finals at the Gymnastics Examiner, now (14.00 GMT). I am grateful to the All Around Forum (Albert) for links to the results of the Jesolo Cup : Senior team Senior all around Not a great competition for the Russian girls who came third as a team behind the USA and Italy, but then again this was a very inexperienced team.  Belokobylskaya was the top Russian girl all around in 7th place. The Couch Gymnast carries a report of the junior competition, which the USA won by a clear margin over the Russian juniors, with Italy in third.  Anastasia Grishina won the bars title, and piibunina provides a video of her routine. Full results of qualification for the Paris World Cup event are here .  With only four gymnasts competing in each final, it's anyone's guess who can wi...

The book arrived on Thursday and I couldn't wait to get started on it.  It's also too large to fit into my handbag, so I won't be able to take it to Berlin, and therefore have the perfect excuse to read it now.  Which I'm doing in my typical butterfly manner, skipping from section to section, from back to front to middle in no particular order.  This ease of reading is facilitated by the author's style, in which the main central thread is his stream of consciousness, leading to the feeling that you are involved in a rather one-sided conversation with your loquacious long-lost Russian (or Ukrainian?) uncle full of stories of his rich life in gymnastics. I'm not even going to attempt a full review of the book until I've had a chance to read it through twice or three times as there is much to absorb, and sometimes what is left unsaid leaves you feeling you haven't quite got the point.  There are some intriguing cliff hangers in the book, especially a brie...

Remember this name: Yuna Nefedova .  According to the Russian Federation website, she is the next in a line of young championships to come from Tula, the home of Olympians Ksenia Semenova and Ksenia Afanasyeva.  Yuna, a 14 year old, has just returned to gymnastics after a long absence due to a back injury, and took the silver medal all around, and gold medal on bars, in the recent Master of Sport competitions held as part of the Central Federal District youth competition in Obinsk. Fuller results will follow; but it's clear that Yuna is a phenomenally determined young competitor.   Here she is competing bars at the 2009 Pre-Olympic Youth Cup,where she won the 12-13 year old age group all around competition against a field of German, Swiss and Dutch juniors. Link here to the video provided by Dutchfan33 on Youtube . Thanks, Dutchfan33! Gymfan.de also provides some nice pictures of her at this competition.

A fuller version of the story appearing on IG appears now in English language on the Russian Federation's website . Much of the nuts and bolts of the translation regarding Viktoria's injury remains the same, including the fairly confident sounding hope that she will be ready to compete at the Moscow World Cup in May, so fingers crossed.  Valentina Rodienenko also confirms that Mustafina, Nabieva, Dementieva, Golutsotskov, Devyatovski, Ignatiev, Balandin, Garibov and Ablyazin will travel to Paris for this weekend's World Cup.  That's the declared European Championships team, minus Yulia Belokobylskaya who is said elsewhere to be travelling instead to Italy for the Jesolo Cup.  Which makes this weekend potentially interesting gymnastics reading. What is a little different, however, is the translation of the comment regarding Aliya Mustafina's participation in the American Cup this year.  This now reads: "Aliya is very tired after the world cup event. That...

Rick at Gymnastics Coaching has alerted me to the publication of the above book, for which a preview is available at the author's website . I have just ordered a copy from Amazon UK for £12.61 including Free Super Saver Delivery.  This will definitely be my Easter holiday reading; it will probably find itself tucked into my handbag for the flight to and from Berlin!  It sounds as though it could be a little more digestible for the everyday reader than Leonid Arkaev's book, How to Create Champions .   Now what I would really like in addition to these two books is an autobiography of Leonid Arkaev, written in English.  Oh, and an English language translation of Alexei Nemov's autobiography, please.

Sports Express today carries a brief interview with Andrei Rodienenko in which the Russian Head Coach confirms that Viktoria Komova will not compete at April's European Championships.  Rodienenko emphasises the need to protect Viktoria's health in the long term at what is a difficult life stage for a gymnast.  It is no great drama; 'we have the Olympics', he concludes. A link to the English language Google translate is here . Edited 10.10.  Further news is also available via Valentina Rodienenko at the IG website. The Russian team for Europeans is confirmed here as Mustafina, Nabieva, Dementieva and Belokobylskaya.  Men will be Golotsutskov ,  Devyatovsky , Ignatyev , Balandin , Garibov and Ablyazin .  Although of course we await official confirmation of this in the nominative registrations due later this month. Rodienenko makes brief reference to the America Cup where Mustafina lost to Jordyn Wieber.  'America is America', she says.  'W...

11 year old Anastasia Sidorova and her coach Olga Sagina give an interview as one of a series of Podcasts to be found on the website of the Bellahouston Gymnastics Academy in Glasgow, recording the visit of gymnasts and coaches from the Olympic Reserve School in Rostov on Don in 2008.  Anastasia provides an outline of the daily working life of an elite Russian gymnast, pretty predictable in its content.  There doesn't seem to be a lot of time for school in her busy schedule! The interviewer points out to Anastasia that her understandably rather stock answers might be influenced by the fact that her coach was standing behind her!  (Never mind the fact that she was only 11 ...)  Coach Olga Sagina, who previously has worked with 2000 Olympian Elena Produnova, added that Anastasia's simple responses were typical of a champion gymnast.  Good attitude and work ethic define success in gymnastics, as much if not more than physical talent.  And while Anastasia is ...

Go to the Russian Federation's website for a 2011 Yearbook gallery of the men and women of the Russian team.  Some lovely happy snaps to be found.

On the occasion of International Women's Day the Russian Gymnastics Federation kindly presented an English language interview with 2000 Olympic All Around Champion Alexei Nemov, now Vice President of the Federation and organiser of his own gymnastics show. He has the ambition of opening his own gymnastics school and is also president of the Moscow Fitness Festival. Nemov shares many of his thoughts about the importance of family (with his wife Galina he has three sons, Evgenyi (19 years old), Alexei and Dmitri (the youngest, 18 months)), the relationship between sport, fitness and health and the importance of a healthy diet. He even provides us with his own tasty salad suggestion! Alexei's two eldest children aren't involved in elite sport, although he seems to think that Dmitri may be a budding gymnast! However, he does suggest that his two elder boys like to keep fit and practice sport for fun. Like Rodionenko, he regrets the diminishing sports infrastructure in ...

The All Around blog has posted a really good editorial on the recent FIG rule changes. More than worth a read!

To be honest, they seem to be making this up as they go along. The rule change has effectively been made after the fact to enable Jordyn Wieber to compete at the American Cup and, it seems, to accumulate points towards a World Cup title. I wonder if it also means though that we were cheated of a Wieber/Komova confrontation at this competition? Would the Russians have selected Komova for the World Cup if it had been an option? Regardless of Komova's current competitive status. I am curious to know about this as a matter of principle. Similarly, were the Chinese or any other teams restricted in their team selections? There is only one team that this favours, it seems - the US. It would be interesting to know if other countries feel they have been unfairly influenced in their team selections and therefore in the accumulation of points leading to the final World Cup titles. Not that the World Cup has any believability at all anyway. Words escape me. Thanks to Nora who ale...

I provide here a link to a Youtube video of Queen Mustafina's March 2011 floor exercise, so that people can marvel at the 3.5 twist. It's unlike me to highlight a single skill in a routine, because gymnastics is about so much more. Here's a link to the video on Youtube with thanks to the poster, Itsnastiafan101. I gather her bars and beam were pretty ground breaking, too, and of course she performs one of the most difficult vaults around as well. With that posture, artistry and amplitude, a true all arounder.

I provide a Youtube video of Queen Mustafina's March 2011 floor exercise here, so that people can marvel at the 3.5 twist. It's unlike me to highlight a single skill in a routine, because gymnastics is about so much more. Here's a link to the video on Youtube with thanks to the poster, yolis94.

I understand there was a small 'competition' in Jacksonville this weekend, and that Queen Mustafina made a brief appearance.  I cannot bring myself to comment on the result, so I will leave it to my friends Bronwyn and Clara at Stoi who really say everything there is to say on this subject.  

Visit the site for a viewing of their 2011 calendar , complete with action shots of the top Russian gymnasts. It seems there is also another round of regional competitions .... I'm wilting ;-)  ...

International Gymnast reports on a Moskovsky Komomolets interview with Valentina Rodionenko.  Rodionenko gives some quite specific information regarding the injury to Viktoria Komova and suggests that she wasn't fully ready for the National Championships which took place last weekend; furthermore, her place on the team for Berlin is under question.  The current line-up includes Dementieva and Mustafina (all around) with Nabieva and either Belokobylskaya or Komova providing specialist back up.  Let's see how things turn out!  Still early days.  A team with Komova providing specialist back up on beam would indeed be very strong ... and quite a good tactical decision, I'd suggest. In the full version of this Russian language interview which you will find here , Rodionenko also discusses the men's team selections.  Maxim Devyatovski is the top all arounder for the Russians at present, and they are hoping for a medal for him.  David Beliavski and Nikita...

A link here to the full results of this competition held over last weekend. In summary, Nikita Ignatiev appears to be arguably the most successful gymnast at these games because in addition to his bronze all around he also managed gold on P-Bars and bronze on High Bar.  Hopefully this means a good future for this young gymnast.  Team mate Pavel Russinyak, in addition to his silver all around, also managed bronze on P-Bars and a silver on High Bar, while Devyatovski couldn't medal in either of his finals, again P-Bars and High Bar.  The Russian team is full of event specialists it seems, with all arounders rather thin on the ground. Results summarised below. Floor 1   Anton Lobachov            14.775 2   Andrei Cherkasov         14.775 3   Dmitri Gogotov              14.65 Pommels 1      ...