War and violence are taken to be the domain of men, in the main ā¦ but women suffer too. The Russian female gymnasts are showing a few bruises. Our ānew generationā of Kalmykova, Vasilieva, Roschina, Andreeva and others look well trained, but the lack of opportunity for overseas competition must be a severe disappointment. 24 year old Melnikova has commented that her career has crossed some very interesting times ā¦ the doping scandal with all its uncertainty, leading to neutral competition status for the team, Covid and the postponement of competitions, if not a battle with the illness itself for some individuals; and, now, the war with Ukraine, leading to sanctions against Russian competitors. Finally, Russiaās rather pointless decision to ban themselves from competition as a kind of āprotestā against the neutral status they were seeking for so many of their team members. The fact that Melnikova could carry away individual and tea...
Gee, what a contrast. Aliya all smiling, Ksenia slightly more serious, and Anastasia... well, my apologies for asking, but does she ever look happy instead of grumpy?
ReplyDelete:-) She does have quite a sweet smile. Perhaps her nose was itching or something.
Deleteshe is just looking down. It's like when someone closes their eyes as the photo is taken..can make them look real sleepy or wierd. i'm sure we have all had akward photos taken of us we are just lucky (unless when we get tagged of facebook :P ) that they wont be online for everybody to pick on them.
DeleteI guess this anonymous is lifje on the International Gymnast Forum. ;) No disrespect meant to Anastasia, but I honestly hope to see her smile a bit more often. Now her smile is such a rarity.
DeleteNow, now.
DeletePoor Anastasia - she's only 15 and probably very shy. Russians smile much less frequently that we do in the West - I walk around with a silly smile plastered all over my face, partly to try to make my wrinkles curl in the right direction as I can't afford cosmetic surgery. Nastia doesn't have to worry about that just yet.
As an entirely optional exercise, I challenge you both to find a lovely photograph of Nastia with a big beautiful smile on her face (there are some), and post a link to it here.
I never ask people to do things I'm not prepared to do myself. So here's a start.
Deletehttp://russiangymnasts.net/anastasiya-grishina/pics/11nats/05.jpg
yes i am (i'm just anonymous here cuz it seemed easier :P )
Deleteanyway i found out what makes her smile! A hug from Queen Elizabeth! http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/404797_320075864701323_100000967355045_929214_283421317_n.jpg
http://gymnet.org/forum/files/2010_euros_anastasia_grishina_fx_aa_01_172.jpg
DeleteOK, I think this one comes close to a happy looking Grishina.
we want to see the same colored medal decorating your neck in London Aliya!
ReplyDelete