Skip to main content

Viktoria Komova in flight

Image
By
Viktoria Komova.  Picture courtesy of Sovietski Sport

She hovers unsupported in mid-air, flying upwards to grasp the high bar.  It is a moment of supreme serenity and maximum power.  Every muscle is tense, yet perfectly aligned; the only influence of gravity is on Viktoria Komova's fringe and ponytail.

Gymnastics is flight - that moment of freedom as the gymnast denies a surrender to gravity.  Komova flies through the air with the greatest of ease, achieving air time, body line and a rare aesthetic.  She is as light and airy as a swallow, yet the feats she performs demand the power of a Ferrari, the ferocity of a tiger, the toughness of a boxer, the stamina of a long distance runner.

Gymnastics is about far, far more than stuck landings.


Labels:

Comments

  1. M6 July 2012 at 21:27

    I like this little write up on Komova. I do agree gymnastics is a lot more than just having stuck landings. Technique and form is extremely important.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous21 September 2012 at 10:58

    Nice blog.love this post.gymnastic is a good way to maintain your fitness. it shows your physical strength, flexibility and agility..


    rochester mi gymnastics

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Who will travel to Berne? A Russian mystery

By
Aliya Mustafina and team candidate Seda Tutkhalyan - both from Moscow Five days left before the MAG European Championships open in Switzerland, and Russian gymnast Nikita Nagorny is posting videos of himself practicing a full twisting Roche vault - I wonder if he will compete it in Berne?  The men's team seems fairly well prepared and ready to travel as announced some weeks ago - Kuksenkov, Belyavski, Ignatyev, Nagorny, Ablyazin.  But the composition of the women's team, who will travel to their first major competition of 2016 next week, seems somewhat undecided.  Will Natalia Kapitonova make her major senior debut in June, or will Seda Tutkhalyan, her dynamic yet unpredictable rival, grace Russia's team?  Or will other gymnasts be brought into play; will further, unexpected, changes be made? If head coach Valentina Rodionenko's recent announcement is to be believed, it is a simple case of replacing the injured Maria Paseka (a vault specialist) with Natalia ...
22 comments
Read more

Maria Filatova: Russian Sparrow Made in the USSR

By
Maria Filatova – the first ever picture taken of her doing gymnastics! By kind permission of Maria Filatova Kourbatova My first memory of Maria Filatova is a little girl with huge, white ribbons in her hair, so tiny she seemed to have to stand on tiptoe to be able to see over the balance beam.  At 4’ 6” tall, she was the smallest competitor at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, yet she was already part of the Soviet senior team, competing alongside such established stars as Ludmilla Tourischeva, Nelli Kim, Elvira Saadi and Olga Korbut.  The ‘Siberian Sparrow’, trained in Leninsk-Kuznetsk by Innokenty Mametyev since a very early age, celebrated her 15 th birthday on the 19 th July 1976, the day of the team final.  That night, she slept with her first – not her last - Olympic gold medal beneath her pillow. For all her cuteness, Maria Filatova was a fearsome gymnast and competitor.  If the crowd were awed by the pyrotechnics of Romanian technician Nadia Comaneci, they we...
5 comments
Read more

Alexander Alexandrov - some better translations and additions

By
Isa Alexandrova has kindly translated Alexander's interview word for word.  It gives a  different emphasis in some places to my summary, and adds some more information, so I wanted readers to have access to this right away.  With many thanks to Isa. 1) Alexander didn't quite imply that he is ready to come back to Russia by the end of this year if there is an offer. He said that "it is still hurtful for me to think the way I was treated in 2012. However, enough time had passed, that I was able to better analyze the situation, and I understand that perhaps I did some things not the best way. At that time, I was working for the "final result" and did not pay attention to much else. Mutko and I had a conversation before I left, where he let me know that he didn't want me to leave. Now, the only way I could talk about my coming back is when and if he calls me. I am not going to invite myself back. I am ready to come back to Russia if I am wanted, but I do...
20 comments
Read more

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more