Skip to main content

Alexandrov and Mustafina update: RGF confirms Alexandrov's departure

By

The RGF has now confirmed that Alexandrov has left Russia : thank you Laerke and Jennifer Ann for the link.
 




A brief summary of an interview with Valentina Rodionenko follows :
Alexandrov's contract as national coach terminated at the end of last year; his acting role as national team coach ceased at the end of October 2012, which is when he began to concentrate his efforts exclusively on coaching Aliya. Valentina stresses the main justification for this is that Alexandrov could not be team coach and personal coach to Aliya Mustafina at the same time. She also points out that at this spring's Europeans the team won six medals, compared to their poor showing at last year's Europeans when Russia lost to Romania by a significant margin.  Implicitly, therefore, she feels that the national team were underperforming under Alexandrov.  Aliya Mustafina's gold medal at the Olympics came on uneven bars, where she was coached by specialist (now team coach) Evgeny Grebyonkin.
Alexandrov has gone to America to be with his family there. He is a US citizen.
Valentina says that since last year, Alexandrov has become increasingly distant from Aliya and there have been communication difficulties. Alexander did not accompany Aliya to the podium in Europeans, and merely sat in the stands, observing her. Aliya has worked more and more with the apparatus specialists, and in the end wrote a letter asking for Alexandrov's role as her personal coach to be terminated.  Raisa Ganina is mentioned as a coach who has increasingly taken a hand in Aliya's coaching, with Grebyonkin. [Ed - Raisa accompanied Aliya on the podium in Moscow and has contributed to her coaching since her early days under Dina Kamalova.]
In another interview, Valentina says she is 'dissatisfied' with the way that this story has been reported in the press.  But I wasn't aware that there had been any press reports of this to date, apart from these transcripts of her interviews  ...
 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Melnikova withdrawn from Bundesliga

By
  Angelina Melnikova has issued a statement about her participation in the Bundesliga.     The mayor of Chemnitz has withdrawn the gymnast’s invitation to participate in the final.     Angelina’s words: ‘I didn't receive an invitation to the Bundesliga final. Unfortunately, the public attention and political discussions were much greater than the organizers expected. I am grateful to TSV Tittmoning-Chemnitz for the opportunity to participate in the semi-finals and, most importantly, for their respectful and kind attitude. In Germany, I received tremendous support from spectators, athletes, coaches, and referees. A sports arena is a place where athletes meet each other and demonstrate their abilities in their favorite sport. Sport provides the opportunity to showcase the results of their hard work and athletic prowess. Everyone deserves equal opportunities in all areas of life, and every athlete deserves to compete equally in the sports arena and fulfill their dr...
Post a Comment
Read more

Remembering last summer - Nelli Kim, her judges and Viktoria Komova

By
In view of Nelli Kim's recent interview , Lupita and I thought it timely to revisit the performance of some of the WTC President's judges over past competitions ... this article from 27th August 2012 is reposted here, as a reminder. You will find a link to the FIG's newly published book of results at the Olympic Games here .  This year, they have broken down the judge's execution scores so you can see exactly how each judge evaluated the gymnasts' performances.  It makes for interesting reading - if only I had more time to analyse each judge's marking.  A skim reading already highlights multiple inconsistencies in individual judges' marks and makes you wonder why they bother with the jury at all. I have taken the time to look at the reference judges' scores for the top four in the women's all around.  The FIG explains here what their role is, and how they are selected.  I even used my calculator, which is a risky thing in my hands.  M...
42 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

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more