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| Alexander Alexandrov, courtesy of Sports Express |
Alexander Alexandrov is not the first coach to leave Russia, and will not be the last. Not too long ago, it was confirmed that over 320 coaches had already left the country to work overseas. There has been a subtle changing of the guard in Russian gymnastics coaching as a new generation of coaches has stepped up to replace the former Svengalis who shaped the sport during the 70s, 80s and much of the 90s.
Take a look at the list of coaches on the RGF website. Very few of the 'old guard' Soviet Russian coaches survive. Chief coach Andrei Rodionenko is one of remaining few, but his personal style has always been cool, managerial, and rather distant, somewhat atypical of his peers. The new generation of coaches are generally set in his image. We are saying a long goodbye to the charismatic paternalism, the sartorial individualism of the Soviet personal coaches. In its place we have the cool professionalism and the smart, if gaudy, uniforms of the Russian management team as exemplified by the charming Evgeny Grebyonkin.
Thinking about it, Alexander Alexandrov stuck out like a sore thumb under this regime. The extrovert, fiery character, the spontaneous and direct interviews, the inspirational rhetoric and frank examination of his gymnasts' characters, all seemed somewhat at odds with the more reserved and controlled self-presentation of Andrei Rodionenko, so often invisible on the competition podium and in public life hidden behind the larger-than-life character of his wife. Rodionenko's conservative approach is probably a matter of necessity given the realities of managing a sport so reliant on government moneys. Today, this requires predictable outcomes and results in a sport that is anything but predictable. But a conservative, predictable approach was not what made Soviet gymnastics great, nor did it take the Russian women to a team gold at the World Championships in 2010. Winning gold means nothing less than complete commitment and a fearless passion to pursue what many will consider impossible. Alexandrov brought these qualities to the Russian WAG team. There are increasingly few of his ilk left in the sport.
Of course, we will probably never really know the full story behind Alexandrov's departure from Moscow; all we can do is gather evidence and consider viewpoints from those who might be in the know. Elena Vaitsekhovskaya, whose interview with Alexandrov from last September was one of the best articles on this subject, has now published a short piece in Sports Express entitled : Why Did Alexandrov Leave Russia? I cannot reach Lupita by email, so what follows is a partial summary based on my understanding of a rather difficult Google translate. Those sections which appear word for word are indicated by inverted commas.
I cannot paint a picture of Alexandrov 'exclusively in pastel colours'. Coaches at that level often have a difficult character, can be very self-centred. As three-time Olympic champion Alexander Karelin said, it's not a priority to be nice if you want to win.
She suspects that Alexandrov was brought to the team in 2009 because it was essential to gain results, at whatever cost. The irony is - now the team have those results, the people who put him in that position want a piece of the glory, and are jealous of the 'upstart', the newcomer who was so indifferent to the opinions of others, and occasionally rude. After the Games in London, it was no secret that the Rodionenkos wanted to get rid of Alexandrov.
There had been speculation during the European Championships that the relationship between Mustafina and Alexandrov had broken down, but the extent of the speculation had been exagerated. Fargat Mustafin had mentioned to her that he would not be completely surprised if his daughter wanted to finish with gymnastics. She had overheard a conversation between Aliya and a young coach, discussing Aliya's need to travel to Penza to spend several days with her partner, around his birthday.
If Aliya competed in any other sport, it would be perfectly OK for her to take the post-Olympic year off, in order to recover. But gymnastics does not allow for such luxury. Alexandrov knew he could not demand the same energy from Mustafina in this post-Olympic year, and perhaps he lost a little interest, which might explain the distance that had developed between the two of them.
But even if Mustafina finishes, her career is far from a tragedy - having recovered from a career-threatening injury to win an Olympic gold medal, having been World Champion, having won four Olympic medals. And 'by the way', the gymnast still considers Alexandrov to be her main coach.
It is strange that Rodionenko-what's his face wants to be cool and distant. It's the exact opposite of how the majority the Russians are, especially in sport. Bellu is known for his cool and diplomatic attitude but in the same time he understands and talks to the gymnast( my mother used to be his student in the 80s and she told me that he has a great knowledge of human behavior and he is a great psychologist), which I'm sorry to tell, Mr R. wasn't so understand his gymnasts. They(RGF) asked for results and Alexandrov gave them the 1st world title in 2010 and their 1st olympic gold medal in 12 years, I don't get it why the Russian coaches complained about this.
ReplyDeleteAliya is truly a good gymnast, but not great( Milosovici, Khorkina, Szabo, Shushunova are great). And let's remember Aliya achieved all her titles under Alexandrov's leadership. I get that Aliya has a challenging charecter(who hasn't ?) and Alexandrov gave her the space she needed, but I guess the old man had enough. That's why their relationship faded away. It is not nice to work with somebody that doesn't want to listen to you, even if it's in their best interest.
It's truly a great loss for the Russians to lose somebody like Alexandrov because how I see it, only the ones from the old school are able to achieve something nowadays. Like Bellu and Bitang. Before they came beack we were gone, and since our 2012 European title we are back in the game. If it hadn't been for them the Romanian gymnastics would have been dead by now.
This WC will be Russia's biggest test without Alexandrov, because if our gymnastic disappears I want the Russians to be on top and not the Americans. Because this sport is aleardy going down down down.
Good luck with bolg Elizabeth. You are doing a wonderful job! :*
Thank you Felicia :-)
DeleteI am sorry for the spelling mistakes.
DeleteI disagree somewhat with the analysis of The Queen. No one has been more bombastic and ego-driven than one Valentina Rodionenko, at whose feet this disgraceful coup lies.
ReplyDeleteAs Svetlana Boguinskaia stated in her recent interview, this was a matter of sheer jealousy. That motivation is not an example of modern "cool professionalism" but a throwback to Soviet-era pettiness. On might - perhaps - understand demoting Alexandrov from head coach to personal Aliya's coach for the next quad for the sake of team unity, but to then make it impossible for him to coach even her by changing workout schedules and withholding resources from her training, makes clear that this was a vendetta, not a need to shift coaching styles.
Alexandrov is known as a very technical coach. Valentina is little more than a self-appointed Commissar, with no actual coaching or experience in the sport, but thirsty for power and attention. Which style is truly forward looking, and which backward?
Oh, I do agree with much of what you have to say ... the interview with Boguinskaia gives some hard information that definitely points in this direction and all the evidence points to this.
DeleteI have the feeling though that there will be more discussion in due course.