Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

It's not a great quality video, but compelling viewing all the same.  It makes me shiver to think that this took place more than 25 years ago. Watch it on Youtube . 1986/87 marked a curiously quiet period for USSR women's gymnastics, culminating in the loss of the world title to the Romanians at the 1987 World Championships in Rotterdam. The 'top names' we see performing here include Olga Bicherova (1981 World Champion; 1981 and 1983 European Champion), Elena Shevchenko (1988 Olympic team champion), Elena Gurova (1987 World team silver medallist) and Alevtina Priakhina (1987 European silver medallist and reserve to the USSR team at the 1987 World Championships). Moscow was a real force in Soviet gymnastics in those days, and our current World Champions would be hard pressed to match some of the difficulty you see the girls training here. I am curious to know the name of the dark haired girl training double doubles with Priakhina. Besides the obvious big nam...

Lupita has provided another good translation of the recent interview in Gymnastika magazine with Russian senior team member, Yulia Inshina.  One of the key improvements that the Russian team has made over the past two years has been the development of greater maturity, reliability and strength amongst those gymnasts who might be considered 'reserves' or the starting members of the team.  This year at the Tokyo World Championships, the two Yulias, Belokobylskaya and Inshina, proved this point strongly.  While expected to do very little, both gymnasts performed to the optimum of their abilities, contributing soundly to the team's overall silver medal by providing a solid beginning to each apparatus.  Inshina, who also qualified to the beam final, finishing in 6th place, hopes for better in the future, and says she is planning to add difficulty to her work in a bid to make the Russian team for the Olympics. Yulia Inshina, born on the 15th April 1995, trains alongsid...

ria novosti 28 June : Komova will train at full force after two weeks - Alexandrov discusses Komova's injury http://translate.google.ca/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fsport.rian.ru%2Fother_sport%2F20110628%2F394804295.html&act=url qualification more important than medals - alexandrov - 29th June 2011 http://translate.google.ca/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fsport.rian.ru%2Fother_sport%2F20110628%2F394804295.html&act=url

Liubov Burda competed for the Soviet Union at the Olympics in both 1968 (age 15) and 1972.  Born on the 4th November 1953 in Voronezh, Burda was coached by Yuri Shtukmann and obtained gold medals (in the team event) at both these Olympics, as well as at the 1970 World Championships.  She was USSR national champion in 1969 and 1970 and won multiple event medals at the USSR national championships and the USSR cup between 1968 and 1971.  A unique element - the Burda underspin (1.5 twists) on bars, was named after Liubov, who remains in the sport till today as a senior member of the FIG women's technical committee. The latest edition of the Russian Gymnastics Federation's magazine Gymnastika includes an interview with Liubov which Lupita has translated, below.   It is a wonderful read, touching on many important subjects, and most moving in her affectionate discussion of her late husband, 1976 Olympic champion Nikolai Andrianov.  Liubov Burda : 'I don't k...

Alan Owen has posted a good translation of a St Petersburg Vedemosti interview with Tatiana Nabieva at Tatiana Nabieva Online .  It is a nice insight into the life and attitudes of this rapidly maturing champion - well worth a read. Picture by permission of the Russian Gymnastics Federation

Don't forget to keep checking I-G.tv , - this interactive website on Russian gymnastics is continually updating itself with competition reports and the like.  There is the recent addition of a profile of 1980s legend Natalia Laschenova, including a commentary from coach Vladimir Zaglada putting Natalia's achievements into the context of overall achievement by Soviet gymnasts of that era, and a nice reference to her choreography. If you scroll down from the Russian language version, you can read the article in its original English language.

Viktoria Komova, born on the 30th January 1995, is already one of the world's leading gymnasts.  Her coach, Gennady Elfimov, is instantly recognisable as the fatherly, protective figure who literally stands by Viktoria through all of her competitive efforts.  Just after the Tokyo World Championships, Gennady gave the following interview with RIA Novosti, which Lupita has translated for your enjoyment! “Viktoria’s not weaker than Mustafina”.                                                     Viktoria with coach Gennady Elfimov at a pre-Worlds control competition -        Tell me, what made Viktoria perform so well in Japan? Well, there no hidden secrets behind this success, in princi...

  Picture of Anna, by permission of the Russian Gymnastics Federation . Anna Dementyeva is a name that many overlook when considering possibilities for next year's Russian Olympics team.  This quiet, but feisty, gymnast is recognised by national team coach Alexander Alexandrov as the hardest worker on the Russian team.  Fans appreciate Anna for her balletic power and precision.  Dementyeva was an indispensable part of last year's Russian team gold medal at the Rotterdam World Championships.  She anchored the team with a confident performance on beam, and set the scene on floor with a routine that was unrivalled for its expression, line and amplitude.  Despite a below par competition at the Tokyo World Championships this autumn, Anna is also amongst the most decorated gymnasts on the Russian team, as reigning Russian, Russia Cup and European all around champion.  Anna, born on the 28th December 1994, trains with her coach Elena Zhiganova in her home...

Full results for this competition can be found at the DTB Cup website and below, if you have a magnifying glass.  I promise, one day, to work out how to do screen captures better. Russia did rather well, taking both the men's and women's team titles.  In the all around, Yulia Inshina took the bronze medal, while Emin Garibov finished 5th for the men.  I like the new generation of Russian men who compete with great motivation, energy and lightness of foot.  The women's all around results linked to videos are also available at Full Twist . I'm delighted to see the Russian women's team do so well, even if things didn't go completely to plan ... very, very sorry that Aliya couldn't compete as expected - she did look upset - but some uncertainty is the nature of recovery from such a difficult injury and it's best to follow doctor's orders in order to be ready for the big fight in London next summer! All three team members - Polyan, Belokobylskay...

Yulia Belokobylskaya and her coach, Nadezhda Dolgoshina.  There is something quite exquisite about watching Yulia Belokobylskaya in competition. A quiet determination to execute her skills with accuracy, certainly, but something extra ... beneath the conscientious attitude of a developing sports professional, I sense an emotional depth to her performances. Perhaps this is expressed best by Yulia herself : 'I dream too much'. Keep on dreaming, Yulia! Still only 15 years old (born 14th December 1995), Yulia's mature performances at this year's European and World Championships belied her tender years. Earning a bronze medal in the floor event final in Berlin this spring was her first major international achievement, and she contributed strongly to the Russian team's silver medal at this October's World Championships. Now Yulia is rewarded with an opportunity to compete at this weekend's DTB Cup in the all around competition. This could count as her ma...

I'm sure you will have read by now that our Royal Highness Queen Mustafina returns to competition this weekend.  The Gymnastics Examiner has all the details.  I understand that  Princess Yulia Belokobylskaya will  compete in the all around, thanks to Queen Afanasyeva's indisposition due to visa problems (why should members of the Royal Family need visas?).    In the meantime, Alan posted this lovely montage on his Facebook Aliya Mustafina Online site.  I wanted to share it with you. With thanks to the montage's creator, iLitter. The world of gymnastics is all the richer for the renewal and refreshment of our leader.

Vote for Viktoria Komova as the Sportsbox athlete of October.  She is currently in second place behind footballer Alan Dzagoev so go on - make a splash for gymnastics!  Viktoria deserves a nice reward after all her hard work this year. Thank you to Alan Owen, who runs Viktoria's website, for alerting me to this.

The first thing that I saw when I linked to Bruno Grandi’s latest address to his adoring public was this : ‘ I am grateful to have fellow authorities who were willing to follow me at a time when others would sow doubt and dissonance in the hearts of a wounded and writhing people, afflicted with the tragic events that wracked Japan .’ And the first thing I thought was, ‘ At last! Finally he understands how distraught we all are at the mess he has made of the sport ’. Then I got things into context a little, and realised he was referring to a different disaster. It is important to keep gymnastics in perspective. But this honestly is a snapshot of my immediate reaction to this part of his address. I must confess I read the next part of Our President’s letter with growing incredulity. In fact, I do wonder if he isn’t being rather sarcastic, here : ‘ Never before, and I speak from no small amount of experience, have the scores given by judges so accurately reflected athlete performanc...

Many, many thanks to Lupita who has provided the following transcription of the Expert.ru interview with Ksenia Afanasyeva. Ksenia is very shy, but speaks with great honesty of her competitive style, and with compassion and affection about her friends and team-mates. She gives a refreshing insider view of the world of international gymnastics that does not comply with the cheesy Make It or Break It stereotype. Ksenia says that her aim is to perform beautiful gymnastics, and that she wants to compete at next year's Olympics. She already does the former, and I very much hope she succeeds at the latter, for her maturity, expression and as a good team leader. Here is Lupita's translation in full: Q – Have you got used to the title of “one of the best gymnasts in the world”? A- Not yet. Q- But you became one of them in the Floor final in Japan at the World Championships. When you travelled there, did you expect to win gold? A- No, I didn’t expect it. It was my dream,...

There are some gorgeous photographs on the Russian Gymnastics Federation website of the gymnasts celebrating their achievements at the Tokyo World Championships - Tatiana Nabieva, Ksenia Afansyeva, Viktoria Komova and Denis Ablyazin. It made me smile to see them so happy.

In a comment to an earlier post ( First Impressions: Komova vs Wieber ), Alfi made the following suggestions regarding the Code of Points. I think we would both welcome any further comments on his proposals, which seem just grand to me: 'FIG, Grandi & Kim if any of you has eyes to read and ears to listen: 1) This is Artistic Gymnastics not Acrobatic Gymnastics. 2) Add an "A" Panel to the code to stand for Artistry and contributes to the score with equivalent weight as Panels E & D. 3) In case of scandalous situations like WAG AA in Tokyo, there should be an Auditor Judge to double check the scores. 4) Judges making the mistakes get suspended or disciplined 5) Review judging after each competition and make case studies and training for the judges. 6) Classify your Judges into CATEGORIES, A, B, C and D. They have to grow in these categories from vertically D - A. Only Category A Judges go to Worlds and Olympics.'

While he doesn't reflect on Russian gymnastics, I'll make an exception here. Kyle has written a good piece on artistry in men's gymnastics which I really like and wanted to share with you. You will find it here: Rewind - A Problem with Artistic Gymnastics