From 'Swan Lake' to 'hard as nails' - the developing rhetoric of artistic gymnastics

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Nabiyeva now married, living in Shanghai

Our dear Tatiana Nabiyeva has married! It appears that she now lives in China.

Tatiana Nabieva - her experiences in China

Tatyana Nabieva and Maria Paseka spent a year in China, working as coaches for the country's women's national team. We spoke with Tatyana about her experience working with Chinese gymnasts and memories of the trip. ❓ How did the idea to go to China even come about? Was this a long-planned invitation from the Chinese side? 💬 This was a complete surprise for me. I was in Dagestan, I had my plans lined up, but Masha called and asked if I wanted to go to China to work. I enjoy risk, so I answered: “Why not, let’s go!” ❓ You went to training camps in Russia for many years as a gymnast and even as a personal trainer. What was your job in China? 💬 Let me correct you, in Russia I only went to a training camp once as a personal trainer, replacing my coach. And we were invited to China as specialists to work on individual apparatus. We worked with the Chinese women's team in Beijing. ❓ What kind of equipment did you work with and did you have any specific task formulated before st

The sad demise of artistic gymnastics

This picture, of 1985 Soviet World Championships team member Irina Baraksanova, is a symbol of what is now lost to gymnastics as a whole, and Russia in particular. Black and white, the picture was taken at another time when imagery came at a premium, technology was simple and memory and emotion played an important part in documenting sports history. A similar picture taken today might be more colourful and have a sharper focus, but lack the nostalgic significance, the scope to challenge the imagination. For all its lack of precision and technical sophistication, this box brownie snap captures the feeling of a unique moment. Baraksanova, in common with many of her team mates, used floor exercise to tell an enigmatic and gentle story built on line, air and just a little bit of acrobatic magic. The position of the head, the asymmetry of the position, the downcast eyes, all speak to me. She combined grace and power, innovation and tradition to make the extreme difficulty of what sh

Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

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