Skip to main content

Aliya Mustafina: 'Masha is very determined'

From Aliya Mustafina on Instagram: 'thanks for the invitation' she says to Alexei Nemov

A brief interview with Sovietski Sport is summarised here.  Original interview is at http://www.sovsport.ru/news/text-item/712772

Olympic gymnastics champion Aliya Mustafina today went to a party organised by famous gymnast Alexei Nemov, entitled "Sochi-Moscow-Rio".  Alexei handed out some awards, sponsored by the magazine 'Grand Sport'.  It took place in the Veshny Arts Centre.

- Aliya, soon you are going to Germany for a check up on your ankle. How do you feel now?

- Walking does not hurt, it only hurts when I tumble.  I really would like the doctors to figure out what is going on with my foot, and why I cannot load it. And how to treat it  ...

- As I understand it the European Championships did not disappoint you in any way, despite the fact that you lost to Downie on the bars?

- No, no disappointment.  I did not show a routine of the highest difficulty, and just performed as well as I could.  I did OK, and didn't fall anywhere, so I see no reason to get upset. For the World Championships on bars, I will try to prepare a programme to compete at a World level.

- As far as I know, the coaches discouraged you from traveling to Sofia, but you still decided to go. With injury.

- I myself wanted to perform, I'm not used to missing out if I can compete at all.  Besides, I knew it was important to help the young girls, who were on the podium for the first time.

- Maria Kharenkova became European champion on the balance beam, beating Iordache.  Nobody expected it, including Masha herself.

- Well, why would no one have expected it?  For example, I knew that Masha has a strong programme, a good "start value".  If she does everything clean, she may well fight Iordache. Masha is still a little girl, she just came onto the team, she's only fifteen years old, but she is very determined.  I think she has a good future. Her bars are a little weak, but it will be possible to improve.





Comments

  1. Is that Alyona Zmeu in the red dress?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Aliya sounds like such a mature and grounded ambassador for the Russian WAG team, comparing to others.....I think she should do PR for the team when she retires! LOL!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A timeline of Soviet Olympic history

'If you want to be like me, just train!'  1951 poster promoting the basic physical training system in the Soviet Union.  The man in the picture has the coat of arms of the Soviet Union on his top, indicating he competes at international level.  Picture courtesy of A Soviet Poster A Day Jim Riordan published his article, 'The Rise and Fall of Soviet Olympic Champions', in 1993.   In 1992 the Soviet Union, under the aegis of the Commonwealth of Independent States, had made its last hoorah at the Olympic Games.  The Barcelona Olympics had also marked the 40th anniversary of the Soviet Union's participation in their first Games, at Helsinki in 1952.  Soviet men and women had dominated the artistic gymnastics competitions at both. In the following timeline I extract from Riordan's article key points leading to the accession of the Soviet Union to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1951.  It makes for fascinating reading, addressing such...

UPDATE 23/9 - Russian WAG team for Nanning confirmed

Daria Spiridonova will compete at her first World Championships this autumn.  Picture : RGF Natalia Kalugina has confirmed the Russian team for Nanning : Aliya Mustafina, Maria Kharenkova, Tatiana Nabieva,Ekaterina Kramarenko, Alla Sosnitskaya, Daria Spiridonova.  Reserve : Polina Fyodorova Here is a paraphrased translation of a comment by Natalia Kalugina on her Facebook page : 'Aliya has confidence in competition and she is, kind of, a coach to this team.  In Europe she succeeded in this role and she has told the coaches that she even liked it. The main fighting force will be Kharenkova, Sosnitskaya and Spiridonova.  Accordingly, the strongest apparatus will be beam (Marina Bulashenko With God!).  The Chinese women, of course, have been known to win that apparatus, but if one falls, they all fall.   Alla Sosnitskaya could compete in the vault final, and - in theory - on the floor. On bars, of course, Russia will probably lose to the Chinese women, but the...

Tatyana Nabiyeva on work and love in China

Some highlights from a long interview with 2010 World champion Tatyana Nabiyeva.  Source: Russian team page on VK.com.  Translation - Google translate A big interview with Tatyana Nabieva about the peculiarities of work and life in China, the bright years of her sports career, a little about modern gymnastics and about love. On the Nabiyeva flight — At the same championship, you presented a new element on the bars, which was later added to the rules with your last name (flying over the top bar with a straight body, difficulty group F. — Sport24). How did you come up with the idea to try something new? — Actually, it happened spontaneously, I think. We worked with Vera Iosifovna [Kiryashova] on the purity of the elements on the bars, sometimes I didn’t fly all the way to the Shaposhnikova element. Once I didn’t fly all the way to the bars either and stood on my feet between the bars, bending my legs in flight for safety. Then Vera Iosifovna said that this was a different eleme...

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more