Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Aliya Mustafina credits her involvement in sport to her family, especially her father, Fargat Mustafin Well, by now you will all know that the Russian team won a silver medal in the team competition, their best result since 2000.  They were beautiful, but suffered more errors than they would have wanted to, and were rather distressed about this at the end of the competition.  However, silver is a good result for them and I hope they can raise themselves for all around and event finals where there is much to fight for.  The American girls looked really good on this occasion, producing some consistent gymnastics to take first place absolutely convincingly, and I was delighted to see the Romanians take bronze thanks to the hard work of coaches Belu and Bitang and the gymnasts.  You can find the full results here . Aliya Mustafina has had a particularly hard - but ultimately rewarding - 18 months, recovering from the career threatening injury she incurred at the...

Aliya Mustafina competes on beam in qualifying on Sunday.  FIG You will be able to find start lists for this afternoon's women's team final here . Russia begin on vault, alongside the American team.  Their working order at present stands as follows : Vault : Mustafina, Komova, Paseka Bars : Grishina, Mustafina, Komova Beam : Mustafina, Komova, Afanasyeva Floor : Mustafina, Grishina, Afanasyeva You see, this team begins and ends with Mustafina and Afanasyeva ... Ksenia Afanasyeva during podium training.  FIG

Denis Ablyazin on floor at this year's Russia Cup.  Courtesy of the RFG As Britain recorded an historic first medal in the men's gymnastics team competition at the North Greenwich arena yesterday, Russia struggled to fulfill their potential.  With falls on pommels, vault and parallel bars they finished in sixth place, with a team total almost three points lower than that achieved in qualifying. This must surely be a learning experience for a very young team who have every right to believe that things will turn out better in the end if only they can keep up the work ethic that has seen them make such strong improvements since 2008. In that time Russia have also had to grapple with a change in the world order which has seen countries such as Britain, Germany, USA and, now, the exciting Ukraine develop into a strong second league in world gymnastics behind the leading crew of Japan and China.  Men's gymnastics in many ways is now a preferable experience to the women...

Viktoria Komova, watched by podium coach Maria Nazarova yesterday Artistic gymnastics is all about amplitude, flight, grace and elegance, expression.  The way the gymnast leaps and somersaults and twists in the air, performing acts of incredible strength and skill but making them look like effortless works of art. The way the gymnast pauses mid-air and makes complex movements with, apparently, all the time in the world.  Let's call it virtuosity.  In the North Greenwich arena, yesterday afternoon, spectators were treated to a brilliant exposition on the sport of gymnastics by a team of feisty young Russians who have come to London determined to make their mark in the history of the sport.  It is twenty years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, whose gymnastics legacy they embrace. The sport has since moved on, and is now principally the domain of bouncy, synthetically smiling teenagers who bow down only to the sport's Code of Points and their coaches' inst...

Ksenia Afanasyeva, watched by Maria Paseka I had a bit of a moment yesterday.  Sat on the shuttle bus on my way to the North Greenwich Arena, I looked around me, and everything was so pink and shiney and clean and sweet scented, the volunteers all so helpful and smiley.  The sun was even shining.  I was really moved by that bus, and began to weep quietly in my corner, hoping my fellow travellers wouldn't notice. Perhaps LOCOG had arranged it that way in order to enhance the emotional experience of event goers.  The experience of buying my tickets at the last minute and the relief I felt at being able to attend the world's leading sporting event in my home town was certainly beyond overwhelming.  I probably wouldn't have had that feeling if I had been able to book in advance successfully on any one of the dozen previous occasions I had tried, and been told that tickets were sold out.  Never mind.  Who cares.  A lifelong ambition to attend th...

Queen Elizabeth would like to announce ... That she has tickets!!  Assiduous searching of the London 2012 website finally paid off.   I will be in the North Greenwich arena tomorrow, equipped with my inhaler, ready to shout as loud as anyone ever thought possible.  I will try to tweet, but it's likely my hands will be shaking quite a lot. One Queen knows another, and our Queen Mustafina needs some celebration ... this girl is the spirit of the Russian team - God help her and her colleagues tomorrow as they begin their defence of Russia's gymnastics pride. UDACHI Russia!!!  All the luck in the world - you deserve it!!!

19 year old Denis Ablyazin, from Penza, qualified to three event finals Five young men of Russia have confirmed their return to the top level of artistic gymnastics by putting in a spirited performance, without a backward glance to their country's somewhat changeable achievements over past years .David Belyavski, Emin Garibov, Denis Ablyazin, Alexander Balandin and Igor Pakhomenko seem to have turned the tide of decay in the Russian gymnastics programme, presenting solid, occasionally brilliant, often beautiful gymnastics to finish in 2nd place as a team, just ahead of a British team who were at times equally stirring in the emotional intensity of their presentation.  Yes, both teams, and the USA who finished in first place, were helped by the unaccountably bad days experienced by both Japan and China, long time leaders of the sport worldwide.  I expect that Japan at least will improve significantly on Monday and give the rest of the field some problems in maintaining the...

2010 World Champion Aliya Mustafina will play a vital role The FIG has now published a start list for tomorrow's WAG qualification (interestingly, it shows Romania's Iordache doing the all around, so perhaps her heel isn't that bad after all ...) Remember in qualis, the format is 5-4-3 so there is a little less pressure than in the finals, where every routine counts.  The working order for the Russian girls is as follows : Floor : Mustafina, Komova, Grishina, Afanasyeva Vault : Grishina, Komova, Mustafina, Paseka Bars : Grishina, Mustafina, Komova Paseka Beam : Mustafina, Grishina, Komova, Afanasyeva Mustafina appears as a 'table setter' on floor and beam where she is expected to do a solid job. Captain Afanasyeva has to carry the pressure both on floor and beam as the final gymnast there.  I'm guessing it will be a close battle between Mustafina and Grishina for the second all around spot, assuming that Komova does her job.  Although...

Russia come to London as underdogs in the women's artistic gymnastics, the fearsome, powerful USA the most likely contenders by far for team gold.   Saddled with a reputation for alarming inconsistency and an under power team with little reserve, Russia seem unlikely to stem the tide of efficient, stable athleticism that is the strength of the American gymnasts - and of the resurgent Romanians, who beat them at the European Championships in Brussels this spring. But Russia are ruffling some feathers in London.  The amplitude, expression and technique, always a characteristic of their work, has now been joined by a sassy, confident attitude that has often found more expression on the girls' personal Facebook pages than on the gymnastics podium.  The Russian gymnasts have begun to show their character on the podium, as well as off it - and it is much appreciated by the ground swell of gymnastics fans who have been willing them for so long to show their class and grab...

The Russian men's team looks likely to make more of an impression here in London than they did in Beijing four years ago, where two bronzes were their total accomplishment.  If team coach Valentina Rodionenko has it right, the team has halted their decline since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and Russian gymnastics is ready to make a statement.  For the men, this is likely to mean medals in apparatus finals.  Less likely are medals in the team or all around contests, thanks to a team weakness on the pommel horse and the competitiveness of the international field, where four teams can fight for bronze (Russia, Germany, Britain and USA).  But the team does look ready to compete.  Yesterday's quick hits from men's podium training emphasised the team's strength on rings and vault, with the fiery Denis Ablyazin looking a likely contender for gold on floor and vault.  Russia perform charismatic gymnastics and add excitement, charm and beauty to their arsen...

2010 World Champion Aliya Mustafina Thanks to the BBC, we have free wall to wall coverage of the artistic gymnastics at this year's Olympics. Only the podium training remains as a last, unfortunate, omission from mainstream TV. If you have Freeview/Freesat, take a look at your TV guide and you will see 24 extra channels where the various Olympic sports will have their homes. This week's Radio Times has a comprehensive guide to all the channels from which I'll extract the information as to where you can watch the gymnastics. The teams competing in the qualifying sessions are listed according to the order in which they will compete on the apparatus. For the men, this means Floor, Pommel Horse, Rings, Vault, Parallel Bars and High Bar. So, for example, in the first qualifying session Britain will be beginning their efforts on Rings, progressing next to vault etc etc. For the women, the rotations begin on vault, then uneven bars, then beam, then floor. All ...

Vladimir Zaglada has now uploaded to Youtube a complete set of videos of this historic event, featuring 1980 Olympic Team Champion Elena Naimushina and 1981 World Floor Champion Natalia Ilienko..  In total, the seven videos last over one hour.  The Display is distinguished for the quality of the choreography, and serves as a great reminder of the artistic charisma of the Soviet Union.  Vladimir, one of the organisers, here provides a detailed commentary.  Part 1 This is the only existing record of USSR Gala Display at World Gymnaestrada,1991 in Amsterdam (Netherlands). I got this DVD as a gift from American photojournalist Debbie Poe. For a long time I didn't upload it on YouTube. But I think it is right time to introduce this USSR Gala Concert for the World of Gymnastics. This Part is Prologue "People and Nature". Part 2 I was a General Producer of this show, and announcer of the concert.  All choreography and dance, plus ideas for the costume des...

Vera Kolesnikova, with her daughter, Viktoria, in 2005 Vera Kolesnikova became World Champion in artistic gymnastics with the Soviet Union team at the 1985 World Championships, and the next year became all around champion at the Goodwill Games, ahead of team mates Oksana Omelianchik and Elena Shushunova.  Today, Vera is known for her work as a coach and international judge.  She is also, far from incidentally, mother to 2011 World Uneven Bars Champion Viktoria Komova.  Viktoria is expected to fight for gold in the all around competition in a few days' time, at the London Olympics. Russian Gymnastics sponsors VTB has published an interview with Vera, featuring some very sweet pictures of Viktoria as a little girl.  I have already featured these on this blog (see July 18th), but now Lupita has provided a complete English language translation of this interview which you can read below. What are champions made of?  How are champions cut out?...