Vladimir School of Gymnastics 50 Years on ... an allegory of Soviet and Russian gymnastics history?

Nikolai Andrianov and his son Sergei, in 1980.  Courtesy of RIA Novosti

Once upon a time, Vladimir School of Gymnastics was a workhorse of world gymnastics.  Coach Nikolai Tolkachov fostered the talent of a legendarily stubborn, but deeply talented gymnast, Nikolai Andrianov, who went on to become an Olympic champion.  Andrianov was at the vanguard of generations of ambitious young Soviet gymnasts who then went on to dominate world and Olympic competition during the 1980s and early 1990s.

Those who followed him, twice World Champion Yuri Korolev, for example, were no less talented.  Or we could cite Vladimir Artemov, multiple world medallist and all around Olympic champion in 1988.  More recently, Yuri Ryazanov won bronze all around in the 2009 World Championships, before his life was so tragically cut short.

Tolkachov's generous talent brought forth not only great gymnasts, but also great coaches, for example Viktor Firsov who coached Vladimir Artemov.   Vladimir born gymnasts Andrianov, Korolev and Artemov have all achieved significantly in their post competitive careers, Andrianov and Korolev principally in their home countries, and Artemov in America.  You could say that Tolkachov started a dynasty of great gymnastics.  This video, a 1985 news short from Moscow Meridian, includes interviews with Yuri Korolev, and with Liubov Burda-Andrianova, wife of Nikolai.



A few days ago - on the 12th October - there was an event to celebrate fifty years of the Vladimir School of Gymnastics.  The date also coincided more or less with what would have been the 60th birthday of the School's most celebrated gymnast, Nikolai Andrianov.  It was important enough for Russian local TV to produce a short news story, including interviews with Liubov Burda-Andrianova, Aliya Mustafina, Yuri Korolev and Valentina Rodionenko.  Alexander Alexandrov, Ksenia Semenova and Ksenia Afanasyeva were also in attendance.  Andrianov's life was celebrated here, with the great and good providing tributes to his memorial, and people also remembered the youngster Yuri Ryazanov.



Komsomolskaya Pravda (via the RGF website) have also covered this event, and Lupita now provides a translation of this short article.  Just read what Yuri Korolev has to say.

Vladimir born Dmitri Barkalov (left) shakes hands with coach, 1981 and 1985 World Champion Yuri Korolev (right).  Barkalov competed for Belarus at the 2012 Olympics

Friday October 12^th

The Nikolai Tolkachov Gymnastics School celebrated its 50^th anniversary. Many events were organised and well-known people were invited — World champions of the gymnastics national team, city leaders.

Aliya Mustafina and Ksenia Afanasyeva competed at the last Olympics in London. Aliya won gold and Ksenia won a silver medal. They were in Vladimir not for the anniversary, but to visit Yuri Ryazanov’s tomb.

- Yuri was a very good friend, - told the girls – We couldn’t not come. And we have seen the school. It’s much better than it was when we last visited it.

The school has really improved over the past years. It has been renovated and refurbished. But things are not so easy with the athletes.

- In sport it’s all about cycles, - explained Yuri Korolev, a very well known gymnast from Vladimir, twice all around world champion, who has been coaching our young gymnasts for the past few years. 

- Twenty years ago, the Vladimir School was very prestigious at international level. Currently, it has lost its previous level, although last year it showed a certain trend to improvement. Young gymnast Yulia Tipaeva won the Junior European Cup. We had never had such victories. Among the men, Kirill Prokopev won a Junior championship and made the national team. If he is capable of working as hard as Yuri Ryazanov did, he will go very far.

Yet, this is all about the future. We can talk about problems. For instance, Yuri Korolev intends to leave Vladimir. He is convinced that Vladimir doesn’t need him.

- I was working with a gymnast – Yuri Barkalov, but he’s gone, - said Yuri Korolev. – Currently, I’m unemployed although I earn 20,000 roubles a month. I have prospects. I’ll have to leave my home town.

Yuri Korolev was very harsh on current gymnasts.

- They lack ideals. Now everything valuable is measured in money, аnd not with your country’s prestige, - he said. – By the way, the situation is natural, since we have a group of six rich athletes and the rest works as hard as them but earns much less.

So six young gymnasts have been made rich by their success at this year's competition, while the masses of other equally hard working gymnasts and coaches who might eventually ensure their succession are forgotten?  Note that Korolev complains not of his salary, but of the lack of work available to him.  Olympian Dimitri Barkalov left the Russian team some time ago to find competitive opportunity in Belarus.  It seems that all over Russia, despite the loudly trumpeted capital investment in facilities and events, gymnasts and coaches continue to leave Russia in order to find a way of expressing their talents.

Which is the real face of Russian gymnastics? 

• Sponsors VTB promote the glamorous face, providing support for big capital projects, publicising the national team members via their excellent website, Club VTB.  They headline with the prospect of Olympic and world medals, benefitting from the internationally recognisable brand associations of excellence, diligence and grace to add personality to their otherwise rather homogenous public image, and to differentiate themselves.  
• The Russian Ministry of Sport, Youth and Tourism counts medals as a way of measuring their country's international prestige, and encourages the staging of mega events as a way of bringing tourism and visitor income to different parts of their country.  
• In Lake Krugloye the national coaches bravely attempt to hone the talents of the young gymnasts who come their way from all parts of the Russian Federation.  These are the tip of the iceberg, the internationally visible activity that we all know, love and like to discuss.
• Meanwhile we have the invisible, perhaps even sub-aqua activities of the small clubs, the home gymnasiums of the talented youth and coaches who feed the national training system.

I would not take Yuri Korolev for a complainer.  One of the greatest gymnasts of the 1980s gracefully accepted the misfortune of missing two Olympics thanks first to political forces (the 1984 Soviet boycott of the LA Olympics) and secondly to serious injury (a ruptured Achilles tendon suffered in the run up to the 1988 Seoul Olympics).  He has always been graceful in movement and behaviour.  Korolev worked abroad in France for some time during the 1990s but has invested much of his career in the future of Russia. 

Andrei Rodionenko says that there is a skills deficit in coaching in Russia, yet a coach of the calibre of Yuri Korolev says he feels 'unemployed'; not because of lack of money* but presumably because of a lack of gymnasts.  His only top level gymnast has left Russia and gone abroad to compete, for lack of opportunity in his home country. 

Is this typical of Russian gymnastics everywhere?  Is the fine tradition of Vladimir School of Gymnastics ebbing away? 

Is the story of Vladimir School of Gymnastics an allegory for the developing history of Russian gymnastics?


*(The salary Yuri Korolev quotes is above average for Russia.  You might expect a man of his prestige to be earning more, but it is a living wage, and presumably ample if the work is rewarding.)