Skip to main content

Valentina Rodionenko - it's Aliya's decision to compete

Image
By

In an interview with Sovietski Sport today, Valentina Rodionenko confirmed that the injured Aliya Mustafina is acting on her own volition in participating in the coming week's European Championships.  'Her injury is painful, but not fatal', said the head coach, 'Aliya is very clever, she is trying very hard.'  

Directly after Sofia, Aliya will travel to Munich, to the same clinic where she, Komova, Afanasyeva and Grishina have been treated, for an assessment of her ankle injury.  The ankle is very painful and at the moment Aliya can't tumble or dismount at all, and can only vault into a pit.  In an earlier interview Mustafina has explained that she is saving her ankle for competition, and Andrei Rodionenko has said her participation is subject to the 'state of her feet'.

There are also some brief details of the other injured gymnasts, including Komova, whose injury record Sovietski Sport questioned, suggesting that her recurrent injuries might make her unlikely to make the Rio Olympics. Viktoria slipped on some ice at a bus stop and injured her ankle in the spring, says Valentina here (elsewhere it is said that Viktoria injured herself in training, but that might have been another injury ...).  The operation in Germany was to strengthen her ankle ligaments.  

Afanasyeva has a long standing injury that now needs time to heal, following the operation in Germany. It is important that she is back at full strength in time for the Rio Olympics as she contributes on floor and vault, where she is Russia's only gymnast with an Amanar.  

Grishina's case is more difficult.  Thankfully, she hasn't a complete tear of the ACL as Mustafina had.  Nevertheless, she still hadn't recovered all her Olympic difficulty prior to the injury.

Labels:

Comments

  1. Unknown11 May 2014 at 02:03

    Best wishes to all these girls in their recoveries.

    Does anyone else believe that these announcements are just warning salvos so we are not all totally devastated if Mustafina does not compete in Sofia? Her loss for team finals really sinks Russia. However, in a positive way, I hope Mustafina is suddenly replaced by Paseka for Euros. I know Paseka is not well liked by the Rodios recently, but there is a beautiful video of her training bars that made it's way to youtube and she could get a DTY to her feet without the same risk for personal injury that Mustafina intends to take (and the Rodios are allowing her to take). Anyway, I hope everyone knows that I mean I hope Mustafina is replaced for the good of her health and longevity in sport. I will have all of my fingers crossed that she doesn't suffer greater injury in competition.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gláucia Sousa11 May 2014 at 11:59

      Every time I think it's a tremendous irresponsibility of Rodienkos and medical staff allow Alyia go compete in Euros.

      Only remains for me to believe in God, who at the last moment Mustafina will be replaced or that their injuries do not worsen with stress championship.

      I sincerely would like to see Mustafina competing until the next Olympics.

      If I could, I would send for some Alexandrov judgment in Alyia and Russian coaches.

      No matter, who would be replace Mustafina in this moment.

      Every time I think it's a tremendous irresponsibility of Rodienkos and medical staff allow Alyia go compete in Euros.

      Only remains for me to believe in God, who at the last moment Mustafina will be replaced or that their injuries do not worsen with stress championship.

      I sincerely would like to see Mustafina competing until the next Olympics.

      If I could, I would send for some Alexandrov judgment in Alyia and Russian coaches.

      No matter who will replace Alya. But now, as Queen Elizabeth, I think we can only cross our fingers and ask for an intervention of God. So irresponbilidade.

      We can only pray and ask God save Alyia and her health,and God continue to bless her.(google translator)

      Delete
  2. Queen Elizabeth11 May 2014 at 08:19

    Paseka is not being considered for these Championships (either a back injury or form issues) - see earlier post.

    My opinion is that Mustafina will compete - but only in the team competition; unless she is doing well on bars, in which case we may see her in that final.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mustafina on Roschina

By
ROTTERDAM (Netherlands), October 24. /TASS/. Russian gymnast Lyudmila Roshchina, who won silver in the individual all-around at the World Championships, succeeded precisely because she focused on challenging herself rather than competing for medals. This is the assessment of Aliya Mustafina, a coach for the Russian national team and a two-time Olympic champion, who spoke to TASS. "Of course, I wasn't certain that Lyudmila would end up on the podium in the all-around, though I certainly hoped she would," Mustafina said. "The general instruction was not to think about medals or rankings. As they headed from the warm-up area to the competition floor, I told the girls: 'Don't worry about where you place—just focus on challenging yourselves.' And Lyusya managed to do exactly that." "Her mindset played a major role, too; she was in a very positive frame of mind even back in the warm-up area. So, I wouldn't say that winning this silver was an incre...
Post a Comment
Read more

Roschina on Mustafina

By
 Roshchina discusses Mustafina’s role in the Russian national gymnastics team The Olympic champion has been working with the Russian senior national team since the beginning of 2026 and specializes in the balance beam. "Aliya Fargatovna gives us all sorts of advice and handy tips, which is a huge help to us," Roshchina admitted, adding that Mustafina has been her idol since childhood. Mustafina has been working with the Russian senior national team since the beginning of 2026, specializing in the balance beam. Prior to this, she served as the head coach of the women’s junior national team. Roshchina is 18 years old, and the world championships in Rotterdam mark the second high-level competition of her career. At the 2025 World Championships, she finished 11th in the individual all-around. In August, in Zagreb, she became a European champion as part of the Russian team, which competed under the "World Gymnastics" banner.
Post a Comment
Read more

Roschina on her success in Rotterdam

By
  — Let’s sum up the World Championships. How did it go for you? — First of all, it was a great learning experience for me. Overall, the competition went well, though there is still room for improvement. — If someone had told you before the World Championships that you would take second place in the individual all-around, how would you have reacted? — I probably would have been surprised. I’m not even sure what else to say to that. — How difficult was it to be the leader of the women’s team in the absence of Angelina Melnikova? — I tried to encourage the girls, and they encouraged me as well. I think that, overall, we were a good team. But Angelina is still our leader, and I will look up to her. — I spoke with coach Aliya Mustafina, and she mentioned that the competition within the national team will be even tougher next year…  — It’s great to have such strong competition; it gives you something to strive for and an incentive to keep working. — Did you start out in artistic gy...
Post a Comment
Read more

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more