Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Lupita translates a 23rd January article from Sovietsky Sport .  Maria Filatova looks likely to secure her Russian citizenship in February.  Good luck, Maria, from all of us xxx This incredible story has been around for 17 years! Born in the USSR, two-time Olympic gymnastics champion Maria Filatova has tried to obtain Russian nationality. Now the end of this process seems to be nearer than ever. Maria Filatova is 51. She was born in Leninsk-Kuznetski. In 1976 and 1980 she became Olympic champion in gymnastics. Many people remember a minuscule girl with funny bows in her hair, who won gold and glory for our country. After the dismantling of the Soviet Union, Filatova worked first in Europe and later in the US. She now lives with her husband and her daughter in Rochester (New York State). Since 1996 she has been trying to be granted a Russian passport. So far she only has an old Soviet passport and a US green card, which don’t allow her to travel to...

It seems that former WAG national coach, now personal coach to Aliya Mustafina, Alexander Alexandrov, is considering an invitation from the Brazilian Gymnastics Federation to take on the role of national senior WAG coach there as they prepare for the Rio Olympics.  Alexandrov would be working alongside his former colleague Oleg Ostapenko, junior WAG coach, who left the Russian junior team for Brazil in 2010, and would no doubt considerably strengthen the Brazilian gymnasts as they prepare for their home Olympics. Nothing is certain yet: Alexandrov went on a fact finding tour to view training facilities and meet the gymnasts recently, and still has to make his decision. If he were to decide to go, he would be a significant loss to the Russian WAG team and in particular to Russia's only Olympic gold medal gymnast.  Alexandrov had recently confirmed that the Russian Ministry of Sport had asked him to stay in Russia and he appears on the RGF's recently published list of coache...

These competitions are ongoing, with full results at the RGF website. Go-Tribe is doing a great job of transcribing these results at her blog , Russian Gymnast Videos .  Key results so far are that national team member Anna Rodionova competed in the Penza Championships and won the all around, while MAG junior Sergei Stepanov won the MAG, sharing some of the gold in the individual events with senior national team member Pavel Pavlov. Siberia's Grigori Zyrianov, national junior team member, features in the advertisement for the Kemerovo competitions.  Courtesy of the Russian Gymnastics Federation

Enjoy this video of the Russian national gymnastics team in training in Lake Krugloye.  Seen here : Denis Ablyazin, Yevgenia Shelgunova, Maria Paseka with tumbling coach Vasily Ivanov (practising a straight double front), Aliya Mustafina, Valentina Rodionenko, Vikto ria Komova (with coach Gennady Elfimov), Ekaterina Baturina with choreographer Olga Burova, newly appointed beam choreographer Marina Bulashenko with WAG junior head coach Olga Bulgakova, senior WAG head coach Evgeny Grebenkin, Ekaterina Kramarenko practising bars with Grebenkin. The gymnasts will take a week's break now and then return again to Lake Krugloye to prepare for Russian Championships, which will qualify the team travelling to European Championships (Moscow, 17th to 21st April). Not surprisingly, the Russians plan to send full teams to Europeans (6 men, 4 women, do not forget that these are the individual European Championships with no team competition). For the men, this is an important com...

Viktoria Komova celebrates her 18th birthday today, and in celebration Voronezh residents made this roadside tribute to the Olympic silver medallist.  Happy Birthday, Viktoria! Picture courtesy of Sovietski Sport Slightly less happily, Viktoria's mother, Vera Kolesnikova, has now confirmed that Vika will miss this spring's Russian Championships, and European Championships, to rest a back strain.  The Russian Ministry of Sport has elaborated, with translation courtesy of Alar at the All Around Forum : 'Viktoria will be in Voronezh where she'll continue to train lightly and do some conditioning. She's excused from participating at Russian Championships and Euros, but will prepare for Worlds. Nothing serious was found with her back. Her pains were attributed to delayed puberty and it was decided that she has not fully recovered from the workload before the Olympics yet. She was given a month to recover physically and mentally.' I wish Viktoria a ...

Yuri Korolev (right), has joined the Russian national coaching team.  He is seen here congratulating his gymnast, 2012 Olympian Dmitri Barkalov. The RGF has now updated its list of national team coaches.  The senior management team includes Andrei Rodionenko and his wife Valentina Rodionenko as Head Coach and Senior Coach of the men's and women's teams respectively, with Evgeny Grebenkin installed as Senior Coach of the women's team.  (Grebenkin has stepped down from his personal coaching responsibilities for national reserve team member Ekaterina Baturina.) Nikolai Yepishin has taken up a position as Senior Coach of boys and girls.   Valery Alfosov, Nikolai Krukov and Olga Bulgakova remain in their existing positions as Senior Coaches of the men's, junior men's and junior women's teams respectively. Alexander Alexandrov, personal coach to Aliya Mustafina, is confirmed in this position on the national coaching team, and Gennady Elfimov, coach to Vik...

Evgeniya Shelgunova, who progresses to senior international eligibility this year and is the only gymnast of her age on the Russian national team. The Russian Gymnastics Federation has been hard at work, updating the list of those who will be included on the Russian national gymnastics teams this year. For the women, it is a transitional year, with many of those who matured at or before the London Olympic Games still on the national team, and no retirements announced.  This year, the Russians need gymnasts for the Universiade (gymnasts age 18+), World and European Championships (16+) and European Youth Olympics (14+).  The expected post Olympic retirements are likely to be postponed until after the Universiade, which is taking place in Russia (Kazan) this summer.  So the team this year appears rich and full of strength in depth, but it remains to be seen how many will continue competing beyond the end of 2013. New to the senior team is 1998 born Maria Kharenkov...

Svetlana celebrated her 34th birthday yesterday. Performing here on beam in 1992, she wears the leotard of the Soviet national team well before she became famous as a Russian diva. Khorkina had eight skills named after her - two vaults, two beam and one floor element, and three innovations on her particular genius, bars. She shared her career with coach Boris Pilkin (1928-2010) who was the architect of Khorkina's special style of gymnastics, at once powerful and lissom. It was always an intriguing partnership: the fiery blond gymnast, sometimes arrogant, sometimes vulnerable; alongside her elderly, white haired coach, quiet, gentle, a man of few words but whose mind must have been full of gymnastics. Khorkina went on to win nine gold medals at World Championships, including three all around titles. She competed at three Olympics: 1996, 2000, and 2004, winning gold twice, on uneven bars, in 1996 and 2000. Her best result on beam was gold at the European Championships...

Alfi writes : I found on Youtube Demy's BB routine that scored her 15.600 in EFs. Goodness, it is super packed. If she cleans up the minor balance checks, she will definitely get gold in any competition. Please spread the word. Thanks Alfi, here's the video .  Enjoy, and comment!

Viktoria Komova, born 30th January 1995, celebrates her birthday today.  Happy Birthday, Viktoria! Have a lovely day. Time to revisit a picture gallery posted last year ... amd to hope for a good year for Viktoria and her fans. I was doing something far more important, researching an article, when these pictures of Viktoria Komova  caught my eye. They are far from the standard gymnastics pictures of gymnasts celebrating, commiserating, or caught in the midst of their most graceful pose.  Not the best, most aesthetic images to view.  When looking at pictures of gymnasts I am often conscious of selecting the ones taken from the most flattering angle, avoiding the shot with the bent legs, the out of control arms. I took a different viewpoint here, choosing Komova at the most stressed, the least stagey point of her work.  These pictures capture Komova in flight, in the height of motion and effort.  There is no contrivance to them, no trained pose or paus...

Reclaiming Russia’s sporting heritage?   Artistic gymnastics and tourism in Russia Elizabeth Booth The purpose of this paper is to explore the importance of Russia’s cultural identity to its success in artistic gymnastics in the context of the Russian Federation’s attempts to leverage sport as a tourism development strategy.   The importance of sports in Russian society has changed significantly since the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991.   Formerly seen as a tool of propaganda and diplomacy (Riordan, 1977), today sport is aligned with youth and tourism, as can be seen by its strategic positioning under the aegis of the Russian Federation’s Ministry of Sport, Youth and Tourism.   The planned staging of such mega events as the Football World Cup (2018), Winter Olympics (2014) and Universiade (2013) is part of an overall strategy which has seen significant Government and corporate investment in sporting development, focussed on both the athletes and o...