Skip to main content

Russia's great and good comment on WAG qualifications

Image
By
After yesterday's qualification hiccups, Russia's great and good have been putting in their oars and saying what they think.  Read Valentina Rodionenko's comments on The Couch Gymnast.  There is also a press statement by Leonid Arkayev, long time head coach of the Soviet Union and Russia, which I will reproduce word for word below :

Leonid Arkayev, merited coach of Russia:

The Romanians were strong, both of them.  They did make some mistake, Iordache on uneven bars, for example, however, overall they left quite a pleasant impression.  Frankly, I hoped that one of the members of the Russian trio would be able to 'upset' them, by either beating them or finishing between them, but it was not to be.  Grishina's mistakes in subdivision 1 on beam and bars were followed by Afanasyeva's mistake on bars, and then by Afanasyeva and Mustafina's ones on beam (this apparatus was a cursed one for our girls that day), and the Russians finished third, fourth and fifth in all-around qualification.  It is not a big deal for the all around, because Grishina and Mustafina will start anew tomorrow, but we lost a place in the Final on one of the apparatuses, but we will catch up in the remaining three.  As for gymnasts from other countries, I would like to compliment the Ukrainians, but not all of them.  The Spanish are slowly advancing, as do gymnasts from Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands, but overall the level of rivalry in women's gymnastics is not as strong as in men event. 

Comments

  1. TrishaG19 April 2013 at 23:55

    "I would like to compliment the Ukrainians, but not all of them." Hilarious!!!!

    Other than that little gem, fairly accurate and levelheaded. Unlike Rodionenko. I'd love to see Grishina as beam champion just so Rodionenko has to eat her words. Also, Nastia is lovely on beam.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gláucia Sousa20 September 2013 at 00:48

    VR is insane...or just hilarious!!!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Alexander Alexandrov in his own words 1 - A Difficult Decision

By
Alexander Alexandrov with his daughter, Isa, at the statue of Christ the Redeemer, Rio.  (c) Alexander Alexandrov Russian coach Alexander Alexandrov has been prominent in the sport since 1983, when he came to the public eye as coach of the brilliant Dmitri Bilozerchev.  He has over thirty years’ experience of coaching World and Olympic Champions both in the country of his birth and in his adopted home, Houston, USA.  In his most recent position as Head Coach of the national women's artistic gymnastics (WAG) team for Russia, he quite simply resurrected his country’s gymnastics programme, re-establishing his team at the very top of the sport.  Prior to Alexandrov’s appointment, at the 2008 Olympics, Russian WAG had walked away empty handed, without medals.  At last year’s London Olympics, artistic gymnastics was one of Russia’s most successful sports.  Alexandrov’s Russia won the most gymnastics medals of any country competing, and his athlete Al...
11 comments
Read more

Fact or fiction? The press, gymnastics and pregnancy doping

By
It was a Sunday morning.  I was drinking my coffee and contemplating the day ahead - a workout at the gym, shopping for groceries, an evening reading a book, or catching up on last night's episodes of crime thriller The Bridge .  How nice it was not to have to think about work for a day. Then I saw it - a story about the history of doping in The Observer .  Interesting reading. Of course, cheating is as old as the hills.  It is, unfortunately, human nature for some people to try to gain easy advantage in any kind of competition.  That is why we have laws, rules, ethical guidelines.  People who cheat should face justice and shouldn't complain when they are found out. But the story about pregnancy doping bothered me.  Hadn't that been found to be fictional?  The author began with Olga Kovalenko's allegations made in 1994 - but the rumours had started way back in 1991 with the documentary series More Than A Game .  The practice...
3 comments
Read more

Valentina Rodionenko on Alexandrov's dismissal - Lupita translates

By
76 year old Valentina Rodionenko.  Picture courtesy of the RGF . Read below Lupita's translation of what Valentina Rodionenko had to say yesterday evening about the current staff changes at Russian Gymnastics, from Sovietski Sport . Valentina Rodionenko : Alexandrov stays as coach to Mustafina. Therefore, he is not allowed to be a national coach! Head coach Valentina Rodionenko commented on Alexander Alexandrov’s dismissal specially for “Sovietski Sport”.   - Alexandrov hasn’t been fired. You don’t need to make up things like that. We have been assigning the duties. When we dismissed Leonid Arkaev, it was decided that the team’s coach doesn’t have the right to be a personal coach at the same time. Alexander Sergueievich combined both functions, but it was against the rule. Now we have eliminated this. - In an interview with “Sovietski Sport”, Alexander Alexandrovich said that he had been blamed for working poorly. Do you personally think that he d...
26 comments
Read more

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more