'Iron Aliya' - Mustafina and the Soviet sports rhetoric

Aliya Mustafina in podium training earlier this week.  Picture: RGF

Rhetoric:  'The art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the exploitation of figures of speech and other compositional techniques'

From Aliya the champion, we now contemplate Aliya the hero, or 'Iron Aliya'.  There is something about her that is redolent of Russia's Soviet sporting past, and that isn't just in the style of her gymnastics.    The narrative surrounding Mustafina at this competition has moved on somewhat since her appearance at last year's Worlds.  A mystical aura of greatness now accompanies Mustafina whenever she hits the competition floor.  In Sofia, the circumstances of that injury and the rhetoric surrounding Aliya's amazing abilities are only enhancing her presence.

First of all, we have the fantastic pictures of that compelling, beautiful and expressive face.  Then we have the story of her life with its connection to the Soviet sporting past: an Olympic medal winning Greco-Roman wrestler for a father, a legendary Soviet coach.  Her story is littered with loss; the incidental migration of her first coach and the forced migration of her second, a father figure and muse to her World and Olympic gold medals.  She has overcome serious injury to win Olympic gold, recovered magically from illness to dominate the Universiade, overcome a lacklustre Worlds with a beam gold medal that nobody could have predicted.  She is Mustafina, or Iron Aliya as the Russian press has labelled her.  At these Championships, she has carried the full weight of Russia's expectations, to create a story that is ever richer in meaning.

To understand the development of Aliya's presence in the world's imagination we have to look back to the recent history of Russia and its The interpretation of sporting hero status is something that the Soviet press 

Mustafina's story, as interpreted in the press, online, and through the eyes and words of friends, coaches and fans

Unlike other Russian sports heroes - Khorkina perhaps, or Sharapova - Aliya has not succumbed to the allure of the post-Soviet Russian bling, the ostentatious wealth that is so revered in Russian society.  She still lives in the same Moscow apartment with her parents, sister, and their black and white pet cat.  

  Mustafina, at least in part because of her exceptionally expressive face and talent for pulling out extraordinary performances at the clutch point of a competition

By the time Mustafina competes at the Rio Olympics (assuming she wants to go on for another two years) she will be 21, and no doubt at the height of her powers, gymnastic and personal.  She will command a significant emotional response from her audience, but part of her charm is that she is only human.  Will Aliya write her name alongside Comaneci, Tourischeva and Latynina?  There is a long road to travel, but she has begun well ...