Olympic arena smiles on Anastasia Grishina

 

 Olympic test event medallists on the uneven bars.  

Anastasia Grishina (centre) gold, Youna Dufourney (France) silver, Jinnan Yao (China) bronze

Picture : FIG/Volker Minkus

At the end of the day, Russian Princess Anastasia Grishina won through with a splendid competitive performance on bars that fully deserved the gold medal.  It was great to hear the Russian national anthem played for the first time in the Olympic venue.  Let's hope it is prescient for many other airings during the summer.   

New!  There is a very nice brief interview with Anastasia at the All Around blog.

Full results of the test event

FIG Youtube Channel including archived live coverage of all the finals and selected routine coverage from qualifications

Piibunina's Youtube Channel including individual routine videos from the test event

It wasn't an easy competition for the Russians, by far, this test event.  First time senior international, Anastasia Grishina, who some had expected to take the competition by storm, had a difficult time during qualification on Wednesday afternoon, and her more experienced colleague, Yulia Inshina, certainly did not show herself to best advantage.  Andrei Cherkasov, gold medallist all around at last December's Voronin Cup, finished a dismal 23rd in the all around competition here and did not qualify to a single final, while the bright young Nikita Ignatyev managed his way to a place in the rings final that did not really amount to much.  It was almost as though someone had put something in the Russians' tea.  Or perhaps the coffee in the breakfast bar was just too strong and gave them all the shakes. 

I say this because, of the women at least, the Russians looked the class of the event.  The beautiful Yao Jinnan and Lu Sui were, sadly, unable to make their strongest case, nominated out of all around qualification by their team management.  There was probably a good reason for this. By beam finals, they both looked injured to me, icing various parts of their lower limbs following inexplicably tentative routines.  This, and the troubles of Grishina, made the unofficial women's all around competition somewhat of a damp squib.  

Of the 'other teams' all success followed the athletic morale of the USA - great consistency and competitiveness.  Italy and Canada were definitely 'psyched' for this competition and the prospect of winning gold in the Olympic arena gave them that extra edge that perhaps was missing in Tokyo.  But the 'background', discordant floor music of the majority gave me a headache.  The standard of tumbling was poor even if the quantity each gymnast produced was prodigious.  The beam 'routines' stuttered and stopped and started from one 'skill' to another, reflecting the need for accurate start and finish positions and precisely defined angular requirements.  

Gymnasts are all great, competitive athletes who compete for the team, go clean, hit their routines and just have fun.  With the exception of, sometimes, the Russians and Chinese, and the occasional maverick from elsewhere.  Those who perhaps are trying for a little more.  Well for the time being at least, until they finally cotton on to what is happening.  

It's not that I do not appreciate the sporting aspects of gymnastics or the fantastic efforts of so many of these 'athletes'.  It is just that the sporting aspects are virtually all that remains of a fine cultural heritage that has been destroyed by the inept or possibly manipulative handling of a few officials at the head of the Code.  People kid themselves into thinking that the approach to marking today is so much more 'fair' and 'objective' than it used to be, made happy by their grasp of a complicated Code that rewards deft handling of a digital calculator, a grasp of intricate technical details, and little else.  They forget, ignore, or simply do not understand the simplistic reductionist influence of a Code whose inherent bias is in favour of the ordinary making a good effort rather than the extraordinary performing an outstanding effort.  

I cannot stop saying this because as soon as we surrender, the pricks have won.  

I am not alone in this.  The internet, competition arenas and media all resound with people saying it in one way or another.  But despite their claims to love artistry, so many seem to be addicted to the idea of gymnastics democracy, and allow the gold medals that are awarded to 'their' gymnasts to anaesthetise their artistic sensibilities and make them feel the sport is somehow acceptable as it is.  So many never experienced the 'better' artistic sport of the 70s and 80s so do not possess the cultural capital that informs an understanding of how much better the sport could be. (This is not limited to the Russians and Chinese.  I am convinced that Phoebe Mills was a better gymnast than Jordyn Wieber, for example.)

I wouldn't mind this at all if this state of democracy that so many support embraced appropriate aesthetic qualities, and if those who supported the status quo were consistent in their allegiances.  But despite their stated preference for 'artistic gymnastics', don't they just love it when 'their' team wins gold?  Doesn't it just serve those elitist, ballet-addicted Russkies and Chinese right when they are beaten by the school sports captain/cheer leader whose jolly smiling face and good attitude made them all feel they could be champions too? 

In London this summer, it is likely that we will hear the star-spangled banner played, on many occasions, during the women's gymnastics competitions.  Their athletic approach to the sport is perfectly suited to the demands of the Code and the competition format.  But just remember, folks, those who win also provide a marker and a basis for the future direction of the sport.  They become part of a heritage of culture and aesthetic, as well as sport.  And if the gymnastics of today spawns the gymnastics of tomorrow, goodness knows how bad the sport will be by Rio ... my headache will worse ...and my blog posts will be endless.

Enough of the rant, back to the competition report, or rather the discussion of the performance of the Russian women.  Artistry on floor is today a question of the inherent elegance of the performer combined with various deftly executed, but largely static poses; there is really only Afanasyeva who manages to bring any kind of expression, performance quality or fluidity to an overly-Code manipulated exercise.  Anastasia Grishina possesses the elegance and her music does not jar but I have yet to see her perform her new routine with real confidence.  The enormous lunge out of the area following her double Arabian was predicted by the wild, rocking twist into the cowboyed forward rotation. 

The pressure of performing in the Olympic arena as her major senior debut must have been somewhat intimidating and yet, taking only a short breather at the top of the podium steps, Grishina bravely marched on to do her vaults well enough to qualify for the final in what is currently her weakest event.  She gave her standard bars performance to qualify there in second place.  Her almost faultless, fluent performance of intricate gymnastic and acrobatic beam elements made this one of the best routines of the competition until the fluffed, rather frightening, dismount.  Grishina had performed this new combination well in podium training and what is not evident from the videos is that she was rushing to avoid a time penalty.  She walked off the podium and accepted some comfort from her coach and the team doctor, the only time she sought support during the whole competition.  

While she showed significant errors in the execution, this was an intelligent competitor at work, one who will learn from her experiences here.  (Do not forget that Princess Grishina comes from the same club as our feisty gymnastics Queen Aliya Mustafina, and her personal coach, Sergei Zelikson, performs a dual Royal role as assistant coach to HRH Aliya.)  Some of the 'skills' Anastasia performed represented a significant upgrade from her junior repertoire at the same time as she has been recovering from injury.    I would not be surprised to see Grishina do much better as the year progresses.

Team mate Yulia Inshina appeared to compete alone and there was barely a word exchanged between her and the rest of the team during the whole of qualifications.  In fact, this was a remarkably mute Russian team and it was difficult to tell what their expectations were.  Inshina demonstrated the feistiness which led her to contribute so well as a start-up gymnast on the Russian team in Tokyo, although with less success.  Rather disappointingly, she failed to qualify for any final.  Her new floor routine is attractive to watch and I liked the music, other than the horrid break mid-routine which is a tic the new Russian choreographer seems to have become rather fond of recently.  Inshina just about hung on to beam rather than performing with the facility that saw her qualify to beam final in Tokyo. But she appears frightened of large flight elements on vault and bars.  

It was presented as a last minute decision to send Inshina to this event rather than Sidorova and perhaps this event was rather a distraction for her as she prepares to compete for an Olympic berth.  Nevertheless, I think it was the right decision to include Inshina as there was so little at issue for her.  It must have been difficult for her, knowing that the youngster by her side is likely to take her place on the Olympic team - yet I do not think she has given up the fight and I hope that both Russians present will take back stories and myths that will motivate their team mates in the fight for places on the Olympic team.