Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

I wanted to give you some links to the Federation's website where you will find some important information. But first, look here at some beautiful pictures of the Russian girls during a control workout attended by Russian Minister for Sport, Valeri Mutko. It's great to see them all looking relaxed and confident, with Aliya Mustafina amongst the fold. I read on the IG forum that Mustafina will be travelling with the Russian team to Tokyo to provide moral support - not on the competition floor, but from the stadium.  If this is true, I think it's great both for the team and for Aliya. Russian Head Coach names Russian team for Worlds  - This is essentially a rehash of the Novosti article linked to on this blog on the 23rd September, including Paseka in the team Andrei Rodionenko confirms Russian women's team for worlds .  'Final' announcement made on the 27th September including Inshina in the place of Maria Paseka Alexander Balandin discusses his recent in...

I caught this video of Evgenia Kanaeva in qualifications for Rhythmics World Championships currently taking place in Montpellier, France. I'm not a great follower of rhythmic gymnastics but I do think this is a beautiful performance. And my, how it took me back. Remember Tatiana Frolova in 1983, using a derivation of the same music. I just wanted to share this happy memory and coincidence with you. Tatiana Frolova came 5th all around in the 1983 World Championships where she was also a floor finalist. She was silver medallist all around at two USSR Cups (1981 and 1984), took silver medals on bars at the USSR Championships in 1981, and two bronze medals, on vault and floor exercise, in 1983. She was born on 26th April 1966 and lived and trained in Bryansk. I cannot verify this, but think that the leap seen at 1.02 is Frolova's own invention.

edited 25/9 - there is some uncertainty as to whether this is the official announcement - let's wait and see who travels to Tokyo. Andrei Rodionenko ( via RIA Novosti ) has announced the 'final' teams for the Tokyo World Championships. Changes can still be made. Men: Garibov, Khorokhodin, Ignatyev, Belyavski, Ablyazin, Cherkasov, Golutsotskov, Pluzhnikov Women: Afanasyeva, Komova, Dementieva, Belokobylskaya, Nabieva, Polyan, Paseka Surprising to see Polyan still listed on the main team instead of Inshina but perhaps there is something we don't know. Or things may change right up until the last moment. Rodionenko is apparently worried about the conditions out in Tokyo in the wake of Typhoon Roke which killed 12 people and is causing landslides. There is some discussion of the consequences of cancelling this event. PS Google translate of the day: Alyona Polyan = Alan Field. Is there something we should know?

As ever, the run-up to the World Championships provides a rich source of media on Russian Gymnastics.  Thanks to the Russian Gymnastics Federation for providing the links below: Tulsa news - Ksenia Afanasyeva will compete at the world championships Moscow Live - 12th September - Maria Paseka returns (Russian language version) English language version Antonova, Ksenia (date and publication unknown) 'Nikita Ignatiev: Soldier's Son' There is also now an entire section of the RGF site dedicated to the World Championships where a link to the official site including the full schedule of competition including working order for qualifications can be found. 'Arms Race' Russia 2 video on Sportbox including the Russian men in training, including brief conversations with Andrei Rodionenko, Konstantin Pluzhnikov and Anton Golutsotskov.  Addresses the increasing levels of difficulty in the sport and training methods. Interview with Alexei Nemov on Russian programm...

The 7th Annual Penza International finished today with Viktoria Komova confirming her position as the brightest light in Russian gymnastics with two golds on bars and beam.  Tatiana Nabieva took gold on vault while veteran Ksenia Afanasyeva took gold on floor.  European champion Anna Dementyeva had a difficult competition this time round, missing out on medals completely, but Yulia Belokobylskaya showed how consistent she can be with even performances throughout the competition.  Full results are available here (in order of presentation, you will find men's and women's apparatus finals, junior women's finals and junior men's finals, in case you don't speak Russian). I'm guessing this was a hard competition for the girls, given its timing as they prepare for Tokyo, but then surely part of the point was to give them a test under stress and fatigue.  It remains difficult to predict who will be the final two members of the team for Tokyo.  I would suggest that Ta...

This competition included all gymnasts on the Russian training squad for the Tokyo World Championships as well as gymnasts from Ukraine and Kazakhstan.  It has been identified as one of the selection criteria for the final Russian team.  Apparatus finals take place tomorrow.  Full results are available here , and a link to a photo story with the main podiums here . Women's All Around In the official all around competition only two Russians competed: Komova and Afanasyeva.  Other Russians competed qualifications but their all around scores are calculated and shown out of sequence - ditto the men's competition. The  result shows Kononenko taking the bronze medal with a score of 54.125 which otherwise would have placed her behind Inshina in 6th place all around. 1    Viktoria Komova             58.35 2    Ksenia Afanasyeva       ...

Those of us in the UK are lucky enough to have reasonable TV coverage of gymnastics on the BBC, who have just published the following schedule: Tuesday 11 October Women's Team Final 1050-1310, BBC Red Button/online 1300-1500, BBC Two/online Wednesday 12 October Men's Team Final 0950-1240, BBC Red Button/online 1330-1530, BBC Two/online Thursday 13 October Women's All Around Final 0950-1155, BBC Red Button/online 1300-1500, BBC Two/online Friday 14 October Men's All Around Final 1050-1350, BBC Red Button/online 1300-1500, BBC Two/online Saturday 15 October Individual Apparatus Finals 0520-0830, BBC Red Button/online 1630-1800, BBC Two/online Sunday 16 October Individual Apparatus Finals 0550-0905, BBC Red Button/online 1600-1730, BBC Two/online The link is here . I'm guessing it will be worth checking and rechecking closer to the time.  :-)))   :-))))

View pictures of Leonid Arkayev, former chief of Russian Gymnastics, on the floor here .  He has kept his youthful looks and seems very happy in Saransk. More seriously, he did present some important papers at the gymnastics masterclasses this weekend as part of the Russia - Country of Sports conference held at the International Olympic University in Saransk, Leonid's home town where he is now President of the regional gymnastics association and chief coach of his own gymnastics facility (he says he has always had more than one job and couldn't be happy with less).  This was  an important event attended by most prominent people in Russian sport including Valeryi Mutko, Russian Minister for Sports, and Technical Director for Russian Gymnastics, Andrei Rodionenko. You can find an English language translation of the programme here , links to information at the Russian Federation's site here , and a link to various photograph galleries of the conference here . When I ...

When I began this blog, almost a year ago, part of the intention was to consider the nature of gymnastics today and the continuing changes the sport has been through over past decades.  I questioned whether and how the Code of Points played a role in shaping the progress of the sport, and reflected on the continual struggle between the artistic and technical as exemplified by earlier conflicts between Jahn and Ling (see Aykroyd, 1987, for a fuller discussion). More recently I have considered fairly closely the FIG's Code of Points from the perspective of ongoing efforts to simplify its next edition, due to come into force from 2013.  I have observed that the Code has developed from (i) a set of guidelines into how to judge gymnastics performance into (ii) a highly deconstructed and directive set of standardized measures stipulating how gymnastics skills should be valued and marked. I am reverting briefly to Bourdieu's notion of sport as cultural capital (1991) and his thinki...

The Russian Gymnastics Federation website has an interesting interview with Andrei Rodionenko about the men's and women's teams for the forthcoming World Championships. He identifies Emin Garibov and Denis Ablyazin as important newcomers to the Russian men's team - outlining how both have become stronger over the past year, but still need to make improvements.

I-G.tv has just launched a gallery of Soviet and Russian gymnasts with a profile of Natalia Yurchenko . This is the first in a regular series.  There are some beautiful pictures of Natalia today and in her competitive hey day, a preface by Vladimir Zaglada, and a table detailing most of Natalia's major competitive achievements.  Vladimir has done a beautifully rendered Russian language translation for I-G.tv.  You can read a Google translation of it in English there if you wish, or view the original below. Natalia Yurchenko: ‘a synthesis of risk and beauty’ Queen Elizabeth I will always remember Natalia Yurchenko’s face.   Those brooding, dark eyes somehow expressed a whole rainbow of feeling that I could never put into words.   Yurchenko began her floor exercise that way; eyes cast down, head to one side.   The music animated her gymnastics, at one time emotional but never over-gestured.   Facially impassive and inscrutable, you could read the wo...

The Gymnastics Coaching blog tips Wieber for gold all around here, ahead of Komova. I prefer not to make predictions - who can say what might happen on the day - but in principle I tend to agree - at full strength Komova is the better gymnast, but I am guessing that she will be below strength on floor, bars and vault in Tokyo. I wonder what would happen though if Dementieva could hold her routines together in an all around final? As for the team competition, who knows?  These days so much depends on the gymnasts remaining healthy.  Which has become almost as much of a lottery as the 3-3 competition format which can see team rankings plummet thanks to a single bad luck event. At the end of the day, all that really matters is that the Russians qualify for the Olympics, but I know I won't feel this truth when we hit the thick of it.  I'm keeping my nails carefully filed over the coming weeks.

Viktoria Komova, Maria Paseka, Tatiana Solovyova and Maria Stepanova participated in this weekend's World Cup event in Ghent, a well attended competition with the exception of the USA and Romania.   The Russian men were represented by Andrei Cherkasov, Anton Golutsotskov and Dimitri Stolyarov. China really showed great promise here, winning four of the gold medals. Viktoria Komova performed excellently to win bars but suffered a fall on beam, ending in 5th place.  This was a useful warm up for Tokyo and, surprisingly, Viktoria's first international senior competition.  Elsewhere, Maria Paseka did not look quite repaired from her injury, struggling with her landings on floor and looking rather flat on vault.  Albert at the All Around Gymnastics news was present and did some fantastic quick hits (how does he manage to watch the routines, write down the skills and keep track of scores all at once?  Does he have an executive assistant?).  Elsewhere,...

The main part of the Russian men's team for Tokyo (minus Golutsotskov who travelled to Ghent for the World Cup) competed this weekend against Italy.  A parallel junior team competition also took place, with the Russian team led by 2010 Youth Olympics participant Daniil Kazachkov. Russia won both the senior and junior team competitions, with Emin Garibov taking the senior all around, and Daniil Kazachkov the junior.  It might be a little early to say that the Russian men are rejuvenating themselves, but the signs are quite good at present, despite a clear weakness on the pommel horse.  I was impressed by Denis Ablyazin's start values. International Gymnast carries full results and a news story about the competition.

TV channel Rossiya 2 carried this brief news story on the 6th September.  It includes interviews with Aliya Mustafina, Alexander Alexandrov and team doctor Vladimir Timonkin.  Aliya will resume full training, hopefully, in December this year.  GOOD LUCK, Aliya! 

Nominative registrations for the forthcoming World Championships are now available at the FIG website . Russia has confirmed its teams as follows : MAG Konstantin Pluzhnikov (reserve) Emin Garibov Sergei Khorokhodin Nikita Ignatyev David Belyavski Denis Ablyazin Anton Golutsotskov It is great to see some new faces on the team.   WAG Alyona Polyan (reserve) Ksenia Afanasyeva Viktoria Komova Anna Dementieva Yulia Belokobylskaya Tatiana Nabieva Yulia Inshina Inshina, Komova and Belokobyskaya compete at world championships for the first time.   Maria Paseka did not quite make the cut this time - she didn't look ready at the Ghent World Cup this weekend and, besides, Inshina complements the team's skill set much better.  But remember, this time last year Dementieva was the reserve gymnast. Komova and Dementieva have their personal coaches travelling with them to Tokyo.  WAG judges for the Russian team are Vera Kiryashova (coach to Tatiana ...

There has been quite a discussion about the Code of Points going on at the Gymnastics Coaching blog - with particular reference to the safety angle - there have been 35 comments to date from all corners of the world, so it's an interesting read. In the meantime, I have been looking back at the 1989 edition of the Code.   I found this introductory section: 'It is the responsibility of the judges, based upon the present Code of Points, to grasp in its totality: the construction of the exercises as a whole the difficulty value of elements and connections the flow of the movements the synchronization of the music with the floor exercise while sufficiently considering, aside from the technical perfection of execution, the harmony and strength of expression as well as the aesthetics of presentation'     Doesn't this somehow encapsulate so much of what is missing from the current, highly deconstructed, Code? PS  I also did a little review ...

As you may have read earlier, Russian team contenders Viktoria Komova and Maria Paseka are scheduled to compete at this World Cup competition over the weekend.   Their compatriots Maria Stepanova and Diana Sapranova are also on the roster. For Maria Paseka especially, this could be an important test for selection for the World Championships. I will be updating results early next week, but in the meantime Double Front has some information on the competition and there is a website here.

I am grateful to Albert and Alar at the All Around Forum discussion board who have published a good translation of the programme for the Gymnastics Masterclass to be held at the annual ' Russia - Country of Sports ' conference to be held at the International Olympic University in Saransk next week.  It's worth visiting the Russian Gymnastics Federation website where you will find various links and information about the conference.  At least 51 delegates will attend the gymnastics masterclass alone, including some fairly familiar names including Yulia Khorkina. 9th September - Theorical Sessions Bruno Grandi : Trends in the development of gymnastics in the world Rodionenko Andrey F.: The development strategy of gymnastics in the Russian Federation until 2020. Arkayev Leonid Yakovlevich Forward-predictive models before 2020. Rodionenko Andrey F. "Scientific and methodological basis of training in gymnastics" Suchilin Nikolai G. Pedagogical and biomechanical ...

Queen Mustafina has been nominated for the Women's Sports Foundation's Sportswoman of the Year Award.  Please vote for her!  She is the only gymnast amongst ten athletes nominated from across sports including swimming, athletics and ice-skating.  Nastia Liukin is a previous winner of this award. To vote, you should go to the following URL: http://www.facebook.com/WomensSportsFoundation You should 'like' the Women's Sports Foundation first of all. Then go to the album of pictures of individual finalists in the competition and 'like' the photograph of Aliya.  At present she is in fifth place, well behind golfer Yani Tseng who leads the field by a large margin, but closely matched with four other sportswomen. The top three finalists will be announced on the 16th September, and invited to an awards ceremony on 19th October 2011.  The final deadline for voting is the 5th September, so not long to go ... Good luck Aliya!  Get voting all gymnastics fans...