World Floor Champion Ksenia Afanasyeva and her coach Maria Nazarova attended the opening on the 1st December of a new gymnastics hall for the Junior Sports School of the Olympic Reserves in her hometown, Tula. Yet more evidence (see yesterday's post on Denis Ablyazin) of the investment Russia is making currently in its sports effort.
If you are in the UK, you will be able to see on BBC IPlayer a twenty minute programme ('Olympic dreams - the Russians are coming') on the development of contemporary, post Soviet Russian sports, presented by Matthew Pinsent. There is no direct reference to artistic gymnastics, but he visits Ekaterinburg, Moscow and Sochi and speaks to a variety of sporting coaches, athletes and commentators.
'The chaos of the last twenty years is beginning to disappear', he says, and there is reason to expect outstanding results in the near future. But competition from China is a worry; this country adopted the old Soviet mantra of early specialisation, which Russia has now largely abandoned, and is difficult to compete with; 'even Britain can beat us now' says one coach.
Opinion varies as to whether Russia can recapture the glory days of Soviet sports domination - some are more optimistic than others. When I interviewed Leonid Arkayev - back in 1989 - he was of the opinion that an independent Russian team could never reach the same heights as the Soviet Union. This was for logistical reasons as much as anything - competition to reach a Russian team is simply less fierce than it was for the accumulated greatness of the many states making up the Soviet Union.
I hadn't noticed until quite recently that President of the Russian Gymnastics Federation, Andrei Kostin, is also President and Chairman of the Management Board of VTB Bank, one of the most important sponsors of Russian and international gymnastics today. Kostin is a close ally of Russian President Dimitri Medvedev. Gymnastics' close connection to these powerful people must speak volumes for the perceived importance of sport in general and gymnastics in particular to the Russian tourist economy. Elite international sport holds very strong prestige associations for these powerful political and financial institutions.
If you are in the UK, you will be able to see on BBC IPlayer a twenty minute programme ('Olympic dreams - the Russians are coming') on the development of contemporary, post Soviet Russian sports, presented by Matthew Pinsent. There is no direct reference to artistic gymnastics, but he visits Ekaterinburg, Moscow and Sochi and speaks to a variety of sporting coaches, athletes and commentators.
'The chaos of the last twenty years is beginning to disappear', he says, and there is reason to expect outstanding results in the near future. But competition from China is a worry; this country adopted the old Soviet mantra of early specialisation, which Russia has now largely abandoned, and is difficult to compete with; 'even Britain can beat us now' says one coach.
Opinion varies as to whether Russia can recapture the glory days of Soviet sports domination - some are more optimistic than others. When I interviewed Leonid Arkayev - back in 1989 - he was of the opinion that an independent Russian team could never reach the same heights as the Soviet Union. This was for logistical reasons as much as anything - competition to reach a Russian team is simply less fierce than it was for the accumulated greatness of the many states making up the Soviet Union.
I hadn't noticed until quite recently that President of the Russian Gymnastics Federation, Andrei Kostin, is also President and Chairman of the Management Board of VTB Bank, one of the most important sponsors of Russian and international gymnastics today. Kostin is a close ally of Russian President Dimitri Medvedev. Gymnastics' close connection to these powerful people must speak volumes for the perceived importance of sport in general and gymnastics in particular to the Russian tourist economy. Elite international sport holds very strong prestige associations for these powerful political and financial institutions.
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