Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

   Elena Produnova - one of the most beautiful and powerful gymnasts ever Ahead of today's Commonwealth Games WAG vault final, where India's Dipa Karmakar will attempt her handspring double front vault, I just wanted to take the opportunity to remind people that it IS possible to perform this risky skill safely and well. http://youtu.be/nQuIQ9s3ddM Produnova cowboys this attempt but it is high, flighty and well landed.  She was ahead of her time, launching into space off an old-style vaulting horse that did not offer the benefits of the new vaulting table. Dipa Karmakar (see video below) has managed to qualify to event finals at the Commonwealth Games as a consequence of a difficult vault performed very poorly.   http://youtu.be/yE8v5-jlOoY The second vault scored 14.4 with an E score of 7.4.  The difficulty value of the Produnova is 7 - almost a mark higher than the Amanar vault that is otherwise considered to be the acme of women's vaulting achievement.  ...

Senior team members Daria Spirodonova, Tatiana Nabiyeva, Ekaterina Kramarenko, Viktoria Komova and Maria Paseka enjoy some Sunday fun in Moscow.  Picture courtesy of Viktoria Komova on Instagram The women are at training camp at present, preparing for the upcoming, late August, Russia Cup.  The outcome of this competition will determine who is selected for October's World Championships.  There will be six team members competing in qualifications (6-5-4 format) and the usual 6-3-3 in team finals. The faces that I can spot missing from these photographs (see below for a fuller group shot)  are Aliya Mustafina (the only lock to this autumn's team, assuming she recovers well from her surgery, and remains in good health) and Anastasia Grishina, about whom there has been an ominous silence since this spring.  As a reminder, Nastia has had an operation to her knee, as a consequence of an injury sustained on the floor in the Russian Championships.  The Munich clini...

   Two of the Sochi Olympic mascots, Snow Leopard and Hare, enjoy bobsleighing Anna, one of my students on the MA in International Tourism at the University of Greenwich, is collecting data for her final research project, investigating the influence of the Sochi Olympics on  perceptions of Russia and its national identity. It is obviously not a terribly easy time to be doing this research, but Anna will treat the data sensitively taking into account the context, and would welcome your frank opinion, including on the current political crisis and recent tragic events. Please could you find the time to respond to her questionnaire, by clicking on the relevant link below?   I have visited Russia I have never visited Russia I am a Russian citizen Anna has also introduced the research project on her own blog, here .

  I have been lucky enough to be able to collaborate in the writing of a chapter in this book, due for publication on the 31st July and available for order on Amazon  http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0956627064/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE . My chapter is entitled 'Understanding parental influence on child athletes : from fanatical to disinterested parents'.  The chapter considers the relative power relationship of the coach, athlete and parent, and how it can affect the athlete's development.  It draws on some examples from gymnastics, both in Russia and America, as well as from other sports, and considers some of the guidelines developed by sports governing bodies to try to encourage best practice. My co-authors (Butler, Hedge and Cunliffe) are all students on the sports management programme at the University of Central Lancashire, and the book is edited by Dr Clive Palmer.  Regular readers of this blog will recognise him a...

I love all of those Soviet era sports documentaries - the moodiness of the black and white photography, the silences, the variations in tone, in light and shade, the mystery of it all.   There haven't been many films to match them since the end of the Soviet era, and I think this latest video short, authored by Denis Mahafrov, is probably the nearest modern-day equivalent.  Do take some time to view it on Youtube if you can - find the link at the bottom of the page. Roman Lebedev, 'Romka', is a junior gymnast who trains in one of the SDYUSHOR sports schools in St Petersburg.  This short (12 minute) documentary shows him both in training and in his everyday life.  He hasn't yet made the Russian youth team - I don't know if he is even old enough to be considered - but he is an astonishingly serious and hard-working young man whose home is decorated with the many cups, medals and diplomas he has earned during his life so far.   There are interviews with his mother,...

Coach to Nikolai Andrianov, Founder of the Vladimir School of Gymnastics, Nikolai Tolkachev In the historic city of Vladimir, 200 km east of Moscow, the Nikolai Tolkachev School of Gymnastics has been home to many great Soviet and Russian champions.  Local press has provided a portrait of this famous school which is named after its founder.   In this piece the author, Viktoria Kononova, looks to the future as well as the past.  Gymnastics fans new and old will recognise some of the names and faces. The Tolkachev School of Gymnastics creates champions.  The coaches tirelessly prepare athletes. This  Olympic Reserve School was established in 1961 and, by 1991, at the request of the team, it was named after Nikolai Tolkachev. The School has developed many great gymnasts who have rocked the whole world: Nikolai Andrianov, Merited Master of Sports, a seven-time Olympic champion, multiple World and European champion, winner of the first World Cup in gymnastics; Vladim...

Picture of Aliya Mustafina, courtesy of RGF Valentina Rodionenko has provided some updates on the Russian teams and how their preparation for Worlds (Nanning, China, 3 to 12 October) is progressing, via Allsports (http://www.allsportinfo.ru/index.php?id=84328) - The teams are now at camp in Italy, in two small towns close to Milan, by the sea, where the girls travelled on 29th June and the men on 1 July.  The athletes aren't only training, they can also relax. - Komova is working out at Round Lake, she didn't go to Italy.  We will see how she does at the Russia Cup, which will be held late August in Penza. Tatiana Nabiyeva is looking good in training and the other girls are also working.  Ksenia Afanasyeva won't have time to prepare for Worlds, and Anastasia Grishina's participation is also in doubt, we just don't know if she will qualify for the team.   We have hopes for Aliya Mustafina.  As always, she is our number one.  It would be great if there were t...

Nelli Kim at the 1980 Olympics, courtesy of Nellikim.net I have mixed feelings about Nelli Kim.  She was certainly one of the most talented competitors the Soviet Union fielded in gymnastics, and that is saying something. She harvested first place  all around at the 1979 World Championships, her country's only gold medal in a somewhat disastrous competition for the Soviet women.  (That competition has become a very notorious one in history, if one remembers poor Nadia Comaneci's brave performance despite a serious wrist infection, and the winning Romanian team's sickeningly unhealthy appearance in Fort Worth.) Nelli was also a great performer and character.  Her career overlapped a time of fundamental change in the sport - when the lyricism of such performers as Tourischeva was overpowered by the pyrotechnical advances of the likes of Comaneci.  Nelli managed to reconcile the two qualities, and to span the gap between the two eras.  I don't think she ever r...