Skip to main content

Aliya Mustafina: 'Masha is very determined'

By
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.





Labels:

Comments

  1. Anonymous23 May 2014 at 10:22

    Is that Alyona Zmeu in the red dress?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lovenicky23 May 2014 at 13:50

    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

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

National team coaches 2024, the Russian Federation - a full list

By
In January each year the Russian Gymnastics Federation publishes its list of coaches and gymnasts who have made the training teams for their country.  You will find below a transliteration of the list of national team coaches, 70 of them in total.  The oldest member of the team is Valentina Rodionenko, 88, the youngest Ivan Galonenko, 24 - he is a bars coach, to the junior women's team.   The senior coaches to the senior teams would all have qualified as coaches during the Soviet era.  Many of them work out of Moscow, Vladimir and Rostov, former Soviet strongholds of gymnastics.  The doctors are all attached to Yaroslavl.  St Petersburg has two coaches listed, but there are no St Petersburg gymnasts on the senior national teams at present.  There are no coaches from Russia's Far East.  This region has been highlighted as a geographical area President Putin is targetting for sports development and investment over the coming years.   ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nelli Kim - 'Russian gymnastics has closed in on itself' - Lupita translates

By
Lupita has translated this ITAR-TASS interview with Nelli Kim.  It's controversial, to say the least. Ed's note : much of the initial response to this interview - both here and in the wider gymternet -  has focussed on the detail of Kim's words and especially her comments about Viktoria Komova, and smiling.  But I think these have to be taken in context, and not too literally. Don't forget that just a day ago Andrei Rodionenko complained bitterly about the judging in Antwerp, calling Kim's behaviour 'aggressive'. Kim is responding to this here, and to the wider current context of Russian gymnastics.  What she is essentially saying to the Russian coach is 'get your own house in order, produce confident, disciplined, well trained gymnasts - stop complaining, do your job, and I will do mine.'   She goes about saying this in a somewhat long winded way and says some things along the way that seem contradictory, unfair, inappropriate even for th...
30 comments
Read more

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more