Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

A brief report here from the FIG on the recent symposium held to discuss changes to the Code of Points. Oh dear.  Why do I always have to be so horrible to Bruno Grandi?  This says absolutely nothing.  Is it at all possible that Jani Taskannen got to report the results of his research here?  If so, the timeframe didn't allow him awfully long to collect and analyse the data - perhaps the FIG needs to do a course in research methods.  And in writing announcements. Grandi is as wooly as my neighbour's Persian cat, but less cute and about a hundred times more annoying.  He speaks of transparency, then produces an announcement that is about as transparent as the Queen's underwear. What's all this about athletes needing to learn to 'wield the potential and personality of each piece of apparatus'?  Of the need to 'reinvent' and 'simplify' the sport of gymnastics? No, Professor, it's not the sport that needs to be reinvented and simplified - it...

Alan at Viktoria Komova Online confirms that following a medical check up both Viktoria Komova and Aliya Mustafina are due back at the Russian national training centre, Lake Krugloye, on 22nd June and ready to begin light training. Fantastic news! Good luck from all of us, girls

No sooner had I posted yesterday's chronicle of the best women gymnasts of the Olympics than I received a request for a similar collection of the men. So here is a look at the wonderful Soviet men, focussed through the lens of the Olympics. Remember that what you are seeing here, particularly from the early 1980s through to the early 1990s, is but a fraction of the entire body of Soviet gymnastics. The women were always outstanding, but at their best the men were absolutely phenomenal. 1952, 1956 - Viktor Chukarin Chukarin was all around Olympic Champion at two consecutive Olympics, winning four medals at each and leading his team to gold in both. In 1952 his team mate Grant Shaginian took another two golds for the Soviet team; while in 1956 Albert Azarian went home with a gold on rings. Videos of individual routines are thin on the ground, but here is a brief documentary of Chukarin at work, demonstrating some of the heroic personal and gymnastic qualities for which t...

We're all wondering ... who will make the Russian team this autumn? With Mustafina out of the mix, and Komova looking doubtful, it will surely be down to Dementyeva and Nabieva to provide the fireworks, Afanasyeva the backbone ... but who will back them up? Will the Russians look to well-tested veterans like Kurbatova and Semenova to baseline the team, or will relative newcomers provide some zest and depth to round out the picture? Can the Russians surprise us by progressing some of their juniors to senior level? The names of Maria Paseka and Tatiana Sovolyova come to mind ... Paseka vault and floor, Sovolyova bars and beam. It's quite some time since either have been seen competitively, but I dare bet they will be encouraged to train as hard they can to take their opportunity ... Tatiana Sovolyova, beam, Moscow championships February 2010 Or watch it on Youtube . Maria Paseka, floor, Russian championships December 2009 Or watch it on Youtube .

I should be writing some important work this afternoon but instead find myself drifting off to the Olympics ... past, as well as present.  I am a little disappointed not to be able to see the Russians fight for gold at my home Olympics at last ... but never mind.  Let's remember some of the greatest Olympians ever, and hope for the golden tradition to be continued in 2012. 1952 - Marina Gorokhovskaya on uneven bars (she took silver on this apparatus, but was the all around champion) You may well love the interesting techniques she uses here. Look for the enthusiastic audience participation too! Watch it on Youtube . 1956, 1960 and 1964 - Larissa Latynina on floor She's so languid. In 1956, it was the Latynina and Keleti show, with Latynina winning the all around and sharing the gold on floor with her Hungarian rival. In 1960 Latynina held onto both the all around and floor golds, keeping the gold in 1964 but being beaten to the all around title by the glamorous Ve...

Well, folks, if you were hoping to obtain gymnastics tickets and weren't successful at the first bidding, it seems unlikely you will manage to make it into the 02 Arena next summer - according to a report on BBC News this afternoon, the Artistic Gymnastics has already sold out.  This makes gymnastics one of the most popular sports alongside the shooting events, swimming, tennis, athletics, cycling, and diving. If you want to try again: The second wave of bidding, open only to those who applied in the first wave but were unsuccessful in obtaining any tickets at all, will open at 6 am on the 24th June and run till the 3rd July.  You should receive an email today informing you if you were unsuccessful in your bid and I'm assuming there will be a link provided in the email to help you to put your second application in.  A further 2.3m tickets will be available, 1.7m of which are for football :-(  A publication detailing the exact ticket availability by sport s...

Devyatovski and Alexandrov put forward their opinions of the forthcoming World Championships in Fukushima in an English Language translation of an article available here . A representative of the Japanese Federation has visited Lake Krugloye to discuss arrangements at the world championships and to try to reassure competitors of the safety of the environment.  Russia is the only country to be favoured with such a visit. Devyatovski's reaction is on the emotional side: he points out that the gymnasts will have to be there for a minimum of ten days and that the gymnasts are likely to be distracted by their own security concerns.  He finishes his interview: 'Can you guarantee that I'll be able to have a child afterwards?' Alexandrov is more pragmatic, pointing out the sporting political pressures the Russians were under to agree to compete in Japan, in particular the fact that next year a new FIG President will be up for election and of course that qualification for ...

Well, since it now seems highly likely that I won't get tickets for the gymnastics at the Olympics, I thought I would provide a link to I-Gym's blog which provided a very useful set of pictures of the 02 arena.  Just so I can remind myself what a wholly unsuitable arena this is for a gymnastics competition, if you are a spectator with any interest in the sport at all.  I shouldn't feel disappointed at all to miss that aspect of the Olympics! Goodness, your view could be very limited indeed if you are in the back seats.  In fact, I attended some of the World Championships there a couple of years ago, and I must say it was very difficult to get any 'feel' for the competition at all.  The gymnasts were exactly like little dots and you couldn't follow facial expressions or any of those small details that make attending a live event so special.   So I do have mixed feelings about not spending £450 on two hours' entertainment that might involve the use of bino...

Young Russian gymnast Yuna Nefedova recently won an international competition in Helsinki, Finland, just ahead of her 15th birthday.  Yuna is one of a new generation of gymnasts who comes from Tula, home of the two Ksenias Semenova and Afanasyeva.  Her coach is Olga Baranova and she is currently training at the Central Army Sport Club, Vatutinky.   A link to a video and pictures of Yuna can be found here , and there is a brief report on the Russian Federation's website here .  Well done Yuna!

Jani Taskanen, President of the FIG Athletes Commission, has asked for gymnasts to send him their opinions on the Code and how it can be improved, for discussion at the next FIG symposium.  Visit the FIG website here for full details, including Jani's email address.  I think this is a really positive thing. I do hope the FIG will also seek the opinion of other key stakeholders, including coaches. I'm neither a gymnast nor a coach, but I would hope to see a Code that evaluates whole routines - thus emphasising the importance of harmony, presentation and performance as well as calculating values of a disparate collection of difficulties.  I would like to see more judgement of the look of the routine (its artistic value).  A return to the importance of amplitude.  Acknowledgement that technique is only part of the visual outcome of a move, rather than being an end in itself, and that move is only part of a routine.

Visit Tanya Nabieva Online to view two educational videos on artistic gymnastics (2009).  The first is a general look at gymnastics, and you can see Nabieva, Mustafina, Malikova and Musina enjoying themselves in a general run around top Moscow department store, Gum.  It's interesting to see who else you can spot in this ten minute film - Kristina Goryunova is one, but did I also see Anna Dementieva on bars?  Ludmilla Korolenko was observed marking Aliya Mustafina's floor exercise, - and also her sister, Nailya's?  The second video is a relatively unremarkable discussion of the value of magnesium to gymnasts.

Links to Leonid : http://www.gymmedia.com/prioNOlang_en.asp?id=1291&sp=1&rt=AG http://www.gymmedia.com/news/exclusiv/1_99arkajew_e.htm http://violaroadkill.blogspot.com/2009/04/leonid-arkayev-most-terrible-punishment.html http://webspace.webring.com/people/su/um_1035/w97intw.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyvgqOK-16E

A lovely post by the Couch Gymnast reminds me of the continuing need to balance often simplistic media representations of our sport.  Brigid quotes from three recent posts at the Russian Gymnastics Federation site, interviews with Tanya Nabieva , Anna Dementieva and Svetlana Khorkina , and in particular highlights the clear warmth of coach-gymnast relationships.  I would add that in her interview Khorkina almost speaks more about Pilkin ('Grandpa') than she does of herself.  Nabieva also pays tribute to her coaches Vera and Alexander Kiryashov in this month's International Gymnast . The idea of the coach-gymnast relationship as tender, loving, and almost parental echoes the theme of many sources often ignored by the mainstream media.  Bitter recriminations surround certain coaches, particularly in Romania and the USA, but gymnastics has provided as many quietly positive role models.  For example, people seem to love speculating about Arkayev's autocratic be...