Press conference - Taking stock of the Olympics

On 16th August a press conference took place at the RBK Press Centre in Moscow.  The head coaches, some of the personal coaches (with the exception of Viktoria Komova's coach, Gennady Elfimov) and the gymnasts were present to discuss the future of Russian gymnastics.  I have no idea if a key question highlighted in the lead up to the conference, do the coaching staff need to be changed, is of any real significance.  Lupita's translation (below) addresses matters of coach training and availability, the plan for the coming four years; the Code of Points and its revision for the new quad, whether there is a judges' 'conspiracy', and a degree of contextualisation of Russia's current gymnastics legacy in relation to the history of the sport and the Soviet Union.

There does seem to be concern amongst the personal coaches of the women's team, with both Sergei Zelikson (Anastasia Grishina) and Maria Ulyankina (Maria Paseka) suggesting that head coach Alexader Alexandrov's personal involvement in the preparation of Aliya Mustafina was to the direct detriment of their gymnasts, meaning that Mustafina received greater attention from the national coaching team.  Sour grapes? - perhaps.  But also intriguing when you consider what Alexandrov had said in his earlier interview - that Zelikson had followed his own path with Grishina, ignoring advice from the national coaches, and that he (Alexandrov) had regretted not insisting on a more structured training plan.

Anastasia Grishina with coach Sergei Zelikson

It's hard to interpret the cultural nuances of these exchanges - North European cultures are notoriously candid and direct.  There is surely truth in what both Alexandrov and Zelikson are saying - they are merely seeing things from different perspectives.  I do hope they can resolve their mutual position and work together for the benefit of the gymnasts.  Grishina is a beautiful gymnast with great potential, but her body language and facial expressions (close to tears at the beginning of her floor exercise in team final) betrayed how intimidated she felt at this level.   Mustafina is a magnificent competitor, and Alexandrov should take a great deal of credit for nursing her back to competition fitness after a career-threatening injury (not the first time he has done this: don't forget that Dmitri Bilozerchev was his gymnast).  With coaching time evidently at a premium (see what the Rodionenkos say about this), it is clear that Mustafina was a good investment who paid off when she won the team's only gold.

Remember the circumstances under which Alexandrov took on Mustafina as his personal charge?  Personal coach Dina Kamalova was poached by Texas-based, former Soviet Olympic gold medallist, Valeri Liukin to help to prepare Mustafina's main competition for the 2010 World Championships title, Rebecca Bross.  Mustafina went on to win that competition.   It is not the first time that Alexandrov has 'rescued' a talented gymnast in difficult circumstances; he played a significant role in coaching the legendary Svetlana Boguinskaia after she so tragically lost personal trainer Liubov Miromanova shortly after the Seoul Olympics. 

Nor is it the first time that coaches have complained of favouritism within the national team; I am reminded of the anonymous letter of complaint sent by several coaches to the team leadership, about the selection of a certain 'mediocre' gymnast to the 1986 Junior European Championships (that gymnast was Svetlana Boguinskaia, who went on to win the competition) (as reported in Zaglada, 2010).

There is much to say about the following edited highlights, translated by Lupita from the video recording provided on the summary page.  It is worth taking a skim through the video: observe the body language of a very quiet Alexander Alexandrov (seated behind Valentina Rodionenko), enjoy watching Viktoria Komova struggle with a fit of the giggles.  The room lights up whenever one of the gymnasts takes the floor; Aliya Mustafina has learned how to deal with the press well and engagingly; Anastasia Grishina has grown up no end.  There is a picture gallery there also.  The pictures you can see on this page were taken from a gallery at the Russian Gymnastics' Federation website and you can find edited highlights of the pictures at the RRG Facebook page.  We have tried to select the meatiest items in this edit.

Lupita's edited translation:

Taking stock of the Olympics

Question: Our gymnastics national teams achieved a very good result. What prevented other Russian athletes from achieving better results?

V. Rodionenko: For us it’s quite difficult, because we watched their performances on TV, and not always. We cannot answer.

Question: After a few days how do you assess your performance?

Afansyeva: I don’t know what to say, but I’m happy with the team’s performance. I’m not totally happy with my own performance. But I already said what was difficult for me.

Komova: I think that we did everything we could, we fought and tried to do everything as we do during training, we achieved some things, and we failed other things. I think that we performed well. But, right now, we cannot beat the Americans. Yet, silver is also good.

WAG National coach Alexander Alexandrov

S. Zelikson:  In these gymnastics competition many athletes, from which we expected good performances and who were leaders at world level, made mistakes. A lot of mistakes. The Romanians, who won the European championships, Jordyn Wieber, who was a candidate for the AA. And all of our girls who worked well  (I mean Nastia as well).  There were performances that we didn’t expect because at home they did everything. Many leading gymnasts made mistakes: Mackayla Maroney, for instance. The Olympics are a competition where it’s difficult to predict anything. 

Concerning my gymnast, I didn’t expect her to perform as she did. Neither did she. There’s a psychological situation where suddenly an athlete can’t perform easy elements. It’s impossible to predict it. This is why we have to prevent those mistakes, but it was impossible to predict them. I cannot be happy with her performance, but I cannot reproach her because it was the Olympics.

М. Ulyankina: After the euphoria, you begin thinking that everything could have been different. I can say about my gymnast: if she had begun to train earlier (she was injured), if she had worked on landings ... she could have beaten the American gymnast. It’s all about our insufficient conditioning. I don’t complain to her, but I think that the main issue in our team is that our head coach had a personal gymnast. This is my standpoint as a coach. When I watched TV and listened to the commentators and other specialists (i.e. Lidia Ivanova), all the team worked for Aliya. Thanks, Aliya, she didn’t let the team down, if someone thinks that the other girls didn’t perform well. Today, if we begin a new quad, the head coaches shouldn’t have personal gymnasts.

А.Rodionenko: Thank you for quite complex questions. I think that the girls are not prepared to answer those questions, they are not able to analyze the team’s performance, and they can only answer concerning their performance. The coaches’ opinion is more objective, but it’s also related to their own gymnast. We don’t give a score to a performance. The Olympic Committee, the Ministry of Sport are objective concerning the Russian delegation that competed at the Olympic Games.

 Is there a judges’ conspiracy against Russian gymnasts?

Valentina Rodionenko: I wouldn’t call this a conspiracy. In our sport, unfortunately, the judging is very subjective.  Every judge has his or her opinion, apart from the CoP.  But there’s a subjective opinion about the execution of an element.  This is why we say that there’s no objectivity in judging.  It’s difficult to say that it’s a conspiracy. 

Although what happened with Balandin’s rings score, when even Adrian Stoica, President of the men’s Technical Committee, said that the score should be different, which would have meant gold?   But the guy wasn’t even a medallist. And, you understand, when the American girl in vault falls on her bottom, doesn’t perform the vault, and she wins silver. This also was an outrageous instance. And those instances were not an exception, unfortunately. 

 But we are at the beginning of a new quad, there’s a project for new rules, with changes. We expect them to be more objective. Currently, the judges can manipulate the scores.

Andrei and Valentina Rodionenko

A .Rodionenko: Often the journalists tend to think that the success of a gymnast depends on the judges’ score. It’s so in our sports. The same happens in rhythmic gymnastics, synchronized swimming, diving.

In gymnastics the judging system aims at matching the level of gymnastics at a specific moment. This is why the CoP is changed every four years. The CoP is the Bible for us. But the problem is, like for any other law, that as soon as the CoP appears, some people want to change or to improve the weaknesses. Literally six months later, a year later, we come back to the starting point of the previous quad.

Gymnastics first appeared at the Olympics in the 19th century.  First the rules were two pages, then three, and currently they are books, but nothing has changed, except the complexity of giving the final score. First there were three judges, then six, now twelve, but the principle remains the same. When someone is judging, he or she has an opinion about the gymnast being in the handstand position or not, or in the pike position. We can’t look for a panacea in the CoP, we have to do everything to prevent mistakes when applying those rules. Another problem is that there are contradictions between the rules. For instance, you can protest against the difficulty part, but you can’t for technical execution. You can’t protest for a gymnast who is not on your team but who has made a clear mistake. Only the country of this gymnast can protest.

Last: in all sports except gymnastics, when people reach the level of a final, the judges are the best qualified, the most responsible. Take the example of football, where the most objective and demanding referees are selected. In gymnastics it’s the opposite. At the finals the judges come from countries with no finalists and they are much weaker.  It doesn’t make sense. We have submitted a proposal a few times. Yet, it’s not convenient for the FIG, it’s not convenient for the countries that don’t win medals. It’s not a conspiracy; it’s only about friendly relationships around a table. They spend a good time together, on the following day they are judges and they give Balandin the score they think necessary.  If one of our judges was there, they might be more lenient.  Concerning vault, it’s impossible to suppress those personal relationships. You can’t forbid them. We have to try to reduce the judges’ manipulation. Our proposal is that the finals should be judged only by judges from the countries of the gymnasts who made finals. We have tested it at the Russian Cup with great results.

What are the strengths of our rivals?

А.Аleksandrov: First, I’d like to congratulate all the women’s programme because during this cycle we were first in 2010 and second last year. Now we won second place, although there was the will to fight the Americans. We couldn’t do it for different reasons, but I think that silver is honourable. I want to congratulate the gymnasts, the coaches, those who helped us and financed us, VTB and the Ministry of Sport, because you understand that without this support it’s not simple to achieve something nowadays.

Concerning the rivals, I’d to add that the Americans have been experiencing a boom for three quads. They have won their third All Around Olympic title. And they have won the team final. Their team has more depth than ours. When there’s rivalry, the results improve automatically. At the same time, the Romanian team improved in one season. Last year, they didn’t win any medals, but now they did at the European Championships. It’s true that the Olympics are the Olympics. But all the teams prepare very, very well. Even China, that didn’t achieve the results of the previous Olympics, but they excelled on beam.

Currently, the Americans are stronger, first because of their reserve (depth). We trained every girl that we had. But the rivalry is very strong, and the future won’t be that easy, considering that generations change more often than among men. We must look for girls who will be able to compete at a good level.

Denis Ablyazin

Denis Ablyazin: The strength of the Chinese team is high bar, parallel bars; the Americans are also strong on bars and high bar. The Japanese team doesn’t have extraordinarily strong events; their performances are always well balanced among all events.

E. Garibov: There are always countries stronger than us at some events, and vice-versa. I’d like to tell you about the high bar final. Of course, I was stunned by the Dutch gymnast’s performance. Nevertheless, I want to say that it’s possible to compete with him; I’ll have to upgrade a bit my routine. I think that there are no strong countries at every event. It all depends on the mistakes they make.

The teams’ depth (Reserve)

V. Rodionenko: Today it’s difficult to say because since 2000, when a lot of Olympics medals were won, gymnastics started to lose its position. Some people relate this to the dismantling of the Soviet Union as many coaches went abroad to work. Moreover, the conditions became much harder; a lot of schools were closed. Our main problem is coaches. This is why we lack more gymnasts or reserve. Our sport is complex for coaches, six events for the men, four for women. Every event has requirements and the coach has to be highly qualified. When we mention the creation of a reserve, it takes seven years to prepare the national team. But those who make the team are young gymnasts, with health problems. We pay attention to this, but as long as we don’t have an army of professional coaches who know gymnastics well, it’ll be difficult to achieve this. Even at university  level, gymnastics is together with chess. Graduates from those schools know little about artistic gymnastics. Nobody wants to work in this difficult discipline. But nothing is impossible. There are good schools with professional coaches. We are making progress little by little. I think that in the future Russia will win the leading positions that we lost 12 years ago.

Expectations for the next Olympics

V. Rodionenko: We always have the highest aims and objectives. We were never satisfied with x medals. Even now, when we went to the London Olympics, we understood that it would be difficult. When you have lost your position, it’s very difficult to win it back. We understood very well that, in order to be in the medallist’s positions, we had to be much better to reclaim the position we had in the Soviet period. 

For Rio de Janeiro we have the highest ambitious. We have to fight. Our gymnast said in an interview that we will win in Rio. And we believe in our men’s team, in those young gymnasts who created such a good impression: perhaps they didn’t win so many medals as we wanted, but things are not simple.

The girls should win gold at last. They have got everything for that. I hope that these girls won’t quit and others will come to the team. We will do all we can.

S.Zelikson:  When the team came back after the European Championships, there were a lot of injuries. If Andrei Fiodorovich [Rodionenko] had not introduced corrections, decreasing the loads, I don’t know what the state of the team at the Olympics would have been. We have mentioned that the gymnasts have had many injuries. If we solve this injury problem ... And if, as Marina Gunnadieva [Ulyankina] has put it, the head coach won’t train one of the gymnasts because it doesn’t allow creating a normal atmosphere in the team, there are possibilities. If we look at the team, we are no worse then the Americans. 

 And when people say that we cannot beat them, I can explain that two and a half to three years ago Grishina, as a junior, beat the Americans, all the team that competed at the London Olympics. In March, after three events, she was first. She made a mistake on bars. This is why we can beat them; we only need specific requirements to achieve it.

Can the gymnasts drive the car they have been given?

А.Grishina: No, I don’t think so if you’re under 18. As Ksyusha [Afanasyeva] is over 18, she can drive and will do it herself.

Ksenia Afanasyeva

K.Afanasyeva: I lack confidence in driving, I’ll soon learn. The worst thing is to drive in Moscow. As I live in Tula, it’s easier. 

Question: Did you like the car? 

К.Afanasyeva: What a question! It’s an Audi А7. 

 A.Rodionenko. This is perhaps the press conference where journalists ask most questions. In 2005, I came back to Russia. The situation of gymnastics was to be or not to be. In order to have a renaissance of gymnastics, there was the programme of Viacheslav Festisov for the development of all sports. It all started with the construction of gyms. [At Lake Krugloye, the national training centre] there was water in the women’s’ gym trampoline. This gym was refurbished after two years. 

And in 2008, when we were beaten everywhere, we had prepared for the Olympics for two years. In this sense, this quad has been a little bit easier. But much more difficult with the gymnasts’ and coaches’ level. Concerning the work of the Soviet national team, I can say there were 15 Republics.  If there was a talented kid in each republic, it meant 15 talented gymnasts. This was only half of the people we had on our team. Currently, the boys and girls who make the national team need corrections in basic gymnastics elements. But the most difficult thing is to change the coach’s mentality, coming with the gymnast. ... Now we have a group of good professional coaches able to prepare elite gymnasts. […]

V. Rodionenko: I’d like to add something concerning the conditions. We now have ideal conditions for training. Another gym will be built for the men’s team at Krugloye. But I think that the worst problem in Russia is sports medicine, which lags behind other countries. This is why we had to recover our gymnasts abroad. Aliya recovered in Germany. Abroad ,orthopaedic surgeons are better. We have a well-known specialist – Arkhipov. In gymnastics there are a lot of injuries. Now the Federation want to handle this and pays a lot of attention. We hope to solve this for the next quad.

What are the gymnasts going to do after elite sport?

Aliya Mustafina

А.Mustafina: I think none of the five gymnasts has planned to quit elite sport. We’ll all rest and we’ll resume training.

А.Grishina: Currently, we have to recover, heal our injuries, rest and fight again.

E.Garibov: This depends on every gymnast. So far we don’t plan to quit and we want to train for the next Olympics. I cannot guess what will be in the future and what I’ll do after elite sport. I’ll decide that perhaps after the next Olympics or after the other Olympics if health allows me to go on. When we get older, we’ll have other plans, we’ll see.

D.Ablyazin: I also intend to continue and to prepare for the next Olympics. If I compete well, I’ll perhaps train for the following ones. So far I don’t’ think about the future.

Is there a plan for artistic gymnastics?

А.Rodionenko: Yes, such plans exist. There’s a document for the beginning of the next quad. One of the items is what the team can achieve. I was there when Vladimir Mutko, the Minister of Sport, expressed a negative opinion about those plans. Many teams had a plan, but they didn’t achieve the results. Some teams, including athletics, overcame the plan by two gold medals. Strict plans don’t work. It’s not about a trade. It’s about life, life in sports changes all the time. The young people in front of you change after four years, there are other programmes.

V. Rodionenko: Our country functions in such a way that we must plan our work. Now a new quad begins, we have to prepare a plan for the national teams. The plan implies huge funding. Even the names of the possible candidates are included. The aim of the plan is to compete at the Olympics. The gymnasts were not aware of how many medals we had to win. I think they don’t need to know. We had a plan: two, two, and two. We fulfilled the plan for silver and bronze, and we didn’t win the second gold medal. Because we had certain losses during the quad, as Andrei Fiodorovich said. We’ll analyze the competition again; we’ll say what to do in the next quad, which changes have to be made. It’s not a plan like the one he had in Soviet times, when if you didn’t achieve it, they’d cut your head off.

М.Nazarova: I’m Afanasyeva’s coach plus the coach who accompanies all our girls who won the team silver. I can say that any of them, when they go to the Olympics, they want to achieve the best results after having worked for four years, some of them for  eight years. I think that our girls are very good. They worked a lot, they could have won gold, but I want to congratulate them.

Viktoria Komova, Anastasia Grishina, and a Grishina family dog