Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Yesterday marked the one hundredth anniversary of the first performance of Stravinsky's Rites of Spring, choreographed by Nijinsky. It caused a riot.  Here is a production from the Marinsky Theatre, St Petersburg. Now watch the famous floor routine by 1988 Olympian, 1989 World all around bronze medallist Olga Strazheva, set to an extract of the same music, drawing on Nijinsky's choreography. I remember the impact this made on first viewing at the Stuttgart World Championships. It is impressive for more than the difficulty of the tumbling, the line of the leaps or the accuracy of the spins. It is a whole routine from start to finish; every single movement carries consistent visual sense. There are no transitions. Clearly derivative, the routine is a prominent example of the sport's links to dance and of Soviet Russia's philosophy of sport as culture. It provides an exclamation mark to their creative sporting tradition that at times elevated gymnastics to an...

Anastasia Grishina at this spring's European Championships.  Courtesy: RIA Novosti It seems to be a long time since the Russian team has had such a prolonged quiet time in training.  All I know is that currently, the teams are taking a short break before returning to Lake Krugloye.  There was a control competition at the end of the last training camp, around the 25th May, but no results.  This is quite normal and I hope the silence continues, if it means that everyone is just getting on with their work.  Evgenyi Grebyonkin's recent interview was the epitome of controlled information release, apparently telling a lot whilst revealing very little.  We have a few names to put against the competition roster, but a team's early competitive plans are always open to change. Valentina Rodionenko is taking a well earned break from her media responsibilities, judging by her recent absence from the Russian gymnastics PR scene.  So we don't know which girls ...

Many thanks to Liz McOsker who has contributed these fantastic photo collages comparing various skills - back flip (Komova/Wieber), Tkachev (Afanasyeva/Raisman) and split leaps (various) as performed by the American and Russian gymnasts. Words fail me.

She was the first Russian All Around World Champion, competing here in 1997 on the final piece of the first of three gold medal winning all around performances at World Championships.  She was the Queen of bars, taking gold on the apparatus at two Olympics (1996 and 2000) and five World Championships (1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2001).  The first big star of the post-Soviet era never won an Olympic all around title (some would say she was harshly denied her best chance in 2000 by an immense equipment bog-up) but Khorkina is the one we all remember, the one whose brilliance often overcame her inconsistency.  She contributed eight signature skills to the Code of Points across all four pieces of apparatus. Watch here as in a tight competition - the top four gymnasts were ultimately separated by only 0.093 - Khorkina floats through her original bars routine, including the brand new half-twisting Shaposhnikova that elicited gasps from the audience each time she performed it her...

Lifje has been hard at work, producing these picture collages comparing Olympians Alexandra Raisman and Gabrielle Douglas with their Russian counterparts, Aliya Mustafina and Viktoria Komova. I'll let both pictures speak mostly for themselves, but the differences are absolutely glaringly obvious in the first shots of Raisman and Mustafina.  .  The Douglas-Komova comparison is more, as Lifje says, a question of the details such as toepoint, extension and hands.  I would add to that, back and shoulders.

Mustafina needs more connections without intermediate swing, says coach Zaglada Russian gymnastics is at another one of those turning points ... at the beginning of a new Olympiad, it is time to review and renew.  This post examines the state of Russian WAG gymnastics today, in the context of its cultural roots. Coach Vladimir Zaglada also shares his creative vision for the future in a vibrant interview that considers possible future directions for the Russian team. When I first began following gymnastics, over forty years ago, the cultural influence of Soviet Russia on the sport was very, very strong. Not only did the Soviet Union (USSR) win a large proportion of the major events (in particular WAG - see for example this post on the 1974 World Championships ), the form of the sport also mirrored their concept of gymnastics as something close to the cultural origins of dance and ballet. The Soviet authorities used sport to communicate their cultural and political values t...

Svetlana Boguinskaia during team qualifications at the 1988 Olympics I'm lucky enough to own a copy of a limited special edition entitled 'Svetlana Boguinskaia - L'Etoile de la Gymnastique - Le Charme Slave'.  It is full of pictures of the most photogenic gymnast ever, the best competitor, the best performer.  And it includes a brief interview with Svetlana, in French, where she details the everyday moments of her life as a gymnast at Lake Krugloye.  I'm translating it for you below, as a contemporary account of her training. You will also find a rather intriguing video, from 2005, of Boguinskaia's adult account of her life as a gymnast. 6.45 am.  Someone has just knocked on our door.  Alexander Alexandrov comes into our room; I am already sitting on my bed, having woken up about a quarter of an hour ago.  My eyes still full of sleep, I watch him wake my room mate. 'Come on girls, let's go, let's go' he keeps repeati...

The 1974 World Championships , held in Varna, Bulgaria, were all about Ludmilla Tourischeva. As reigning 1970 World Champion and 1972 Olympic Champion, she took four golds, a silver and a bronze here, affirming her status as Queen of Gymnastics. She medalled on every event. Just look at her bars routine if you want confirmation of her genius - around 6.30 - the twists sparkle with perfection, the routine composed for beauty as well as complexity. The brooding presence of coach Vladislav Rotstorotsky intensely observes Tourischeva's finest competition. The Soviet WAG team took 13 individual medals here, grabbing all the honours available on beam and floor. Of the six competing team members, only Nina Dronova failed to secure an individual title, but she still had her gold from the team competition. Watch out for extracts from the floor routines of Elvira Saadi, Olga Korbut, Rusudan Sikharulidze, Nina Dronova and Ludmilla Tourischeva. The only gymnast not shown is Nelli Kim, w...

2000 Olympic champion, 12-time Olympic medal winner, Alexei Nemov, now appears in a (no doubt, lucrative) advertisement for Mercedes sports cars, with ice skater Evgenyi Plushchenko. Link to Youtube

Many thanks to Gabriel McDonough, who has posted videos - no commentary - of the Russian WAG team during qualifications last summer.  A nice reminder of a great competition, and a lot of work for Gabriel in editing and uploading them. I'm certainly going to be spending some time this weekend, viewing the routines again. Vault Bars Beam Floor

All Sport has an excellent interview with Russian WAG head coach Evgenyi Grebyonkin, which I am summarising here with help from Lupita.  Grebyonkin reveals some of the planned competitions for the girls, along wth some intriguing teasers hinting at secret upgrades.  But, as Lupita points out, it is almost as interesting to consider who Grebyonkin does NOT mention here, in particular Anastasia Grishina an d junior Maria Kharenkova, but also the two Yulias, Inshina and Belokobylskaya.   Grebyonkin says that after her qualification fall on bars at Europeans, Afansyeva is now trying out hand grips.  But she will not compete on bars at this summer's Universiade in Kazan. Russian national artistic gymnastics is currently running a training camp at Ozero Krugloye. Maria Vorobyeva spoke to head coach of the women's national team of Russia Yevgeny Grebyonkin. 'This training camp will last 20 days' said Grebyonkin, ' We now have three athletes preparing for...

David Belyavski during the All Around final at last month's European Championships.  Courtesy RGF Last week, Natalia Kalugina interviewed European All Around Champion David Belyavski and his coach, Valeri Lomaev, on Radio Moscow Echo .  The gymnast is back in training after a short post-European Championships break, working hard in preparation for July's Universiade at a national training camp in the German Olympic centre. He talks about upgrades to his routines (including a triple twisting Yurchenko second vault), his team and his rivals. Lupita here provides a summary of the key points : Valeri Lomaev: Training is going well. All the gymnasts are training well. David Belyavski:  We will fight. I have gained experience. Natalia Kalugina: I am happy for your medal on parallel bars. They require schooling. DB: It was unexpected for me.  Some of the best parallel bars specialists used to come from amongst the Russians. NK: We...