Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Maria Filatova, 1976 and 1980 Olympic Champion.  The pictures are  separated by 38 years, but the person is the same ... HOMELAND FOR A CHAMPION MARIA FILATOVA FIGHTS FOR RUSSIAN CITIZENSHIP (By Indira Kodzasova. Argumenty i fakty, No. 39, Sept. 24, 2014. Translated by Beth Squires.) After a quest that lasted decades, two-time Olympic gymnastics champion Maria Filatova has received the right to enter Russia. “Argumenty i fakty” deserves some of the credit for this. Just so you will understand about whom we are talking, Maria Yevgenyevna not only has medals of the purest tint from the 1976 and 1980 Olympics, she is a two-time world champion, two-time World Cup holder, European champion, USSR champion and more. All her medals weigh more than 40 kilograms! This remarkable person has been living in the US for many years and fighting to obtain Russian citizenship! (See AiF No. 3 for the year 2013.) * * * FYI: AiF asked Putin to grant citizenship to gymnast Filatova. * * * Homeward!...

The gymnasts have posted photographs of themselves at their destination in their respective Instagram sites.  They have arrived safely, and all look happy. It is night time now in Nanning (Saturday, 3pm BST, 10pm Nanning) so I hope the gymnasts are trying to get some sleep. Udachi, Rossiya! 2 pictures via Tatiana Nabiyeva on VK.com Nikolai Kuksenkov and Ivan Stretovich, via Ivan's Instagram account. Thanks to all the gymnasts for being so friendly and generous with their pictures.  It really makes Worlds seem real to those of us who can't travel to China.

Mustafina meme, courtesy of Erikafasana on Tumblr.com Russia's gymnastic teams are now (Friday night, 26 September) airborne, on the long journey from Moscow to Nanning.  As the crow flies, the distance they will cover is some 6,729 km.  The flight will last about twelve to fifteen hours.  When they arrive, the temperature in Nanning will be a sub-tropical 32 degrees, compared to the autumnal high of around 16 in Moscow.  Nanning time is four hours ahead of Moscow.  The gymnasts, and the coaches, will be fighting jet lag, tiredness and stiff joints by the time they reach their destination.  If they are anything like me, they will feel the need for a good long shower, a cup of tea and a nice quiet nap.  The work out can wait till tomorrow. Knowing the nature of gymnastics, they won't get the nap, though, and the work out will be today if time allows.  The gymnasts will have precious little time to acclimatise themselves bef...

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...

Yay!  First news available now of the BBC TV coverage of the Nanning Championships.  Starting on Tuesday 7th October at 3.00 pm until 5.15 pm BST, BBC2 will be covering the men's team final.  Gymnastics will be covered at the same time every day of that week.  Still waiting to hear what the weekend schedule will be.  Given the time difference between Nanning and London it looks as though this is delayed live coverage of the events.  If there is further news about live red button coverage I will update this page.   Further live coverage of event finals has now been confirmed :  BBC1 on Saturday 11th October, 2.20 to 3.50pm BBC2 on Sunday 12th October, 4.00 to 5.30pm Red button coverage begins at 12pm on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and 12.35 on Friday.  Saturday and Sunday times yet to be published. In the United States,  USAGymWorlds.com  also has live streaming of podium training and qualifications. This coverage is exclus...

Polina Fyodorova is now fighting for the final spot on the Russian team As control competitions took place at Lake Krugloye today, Valentina Rodionenko provided an update to the latest selection news, identifying beam specialist Polina Fyodorova as a late addition to the team.    Doctors have also now deemed Ksenia Afanasyeva unready to compete at Worlds as she needs more time to recover from her ankle injury.   Caution is the watchword here as the health of both Ksenia and Viktoria Komova is being preserved for the long road to Rio. Valentina has clarified the status of Maria Paseka, omitted from yesterday's team announcement and the subject of injury speculation.   Maria has suffered an ankle injury recently, and while it is not serious, it has affected the gymnast's confidence.  'The ankle needs time to rest, and bounce back', said the head coach, 'Unfortunately, we don't have that time.  Besides, Maria has doubts that she could perform ... We cannot tak...

Russia's regions are of great importance to their sports development, as they represent a vast potential source of talent, both coaching and athletic.  Sadly, having been a vital contributor to the success of Russia in the Soviet era, the gymnastics regions went into decline around the 1990s and early noughties, following the political restructuring of the Eastern bloc countries. Coach salaries were not paid, so coaches left to earn a living overseas. Facilities were neglected. The sport became unfashionable and young people no longer sought to follow gymnastics seriously, as a career. Gymnastics has never recovered fully, and the problems have extended root and branch into the Russian system.  In 2011 head coach Andrei Rodionenko said that there was only one specialist gymnastics coach training programme in the whole of the Russian Federation, meaning that there are fewer and fewer highly qualified young coaches up and coming.  This is reflected in the compositi...

Veterans Ksenia Afanasyeva and Tatiana Nabiyeva face a race against time to see who will be better prepared to compete in Nanning.  As things stand at present, both will travel to China and the final team selection will be made right before the Championships.  Pictures courtesy of the RGF. Valentina Rodionenko today provided an update of Russia's team selection, highlighting that Viktoria Komova has been deemed unready to compete at the coming World Championships following a doctor's examination.   The team Valentina said will travel to Russia also differs slightly from the nominative registrations published on the FIG website, as Tatiana Nabiyeva has apparently replaced Maria Paseka.  Paseka is assumed to be suffering a foot or ankle injury after pictures of treatment recently appeared on her personal Instagram account.  Nabiyeva and Afanasyeva will compete for the final spot on the team that also includes Aliya Mustafina, Maria Kharenkova, Daria Spiridinova, A...

Picture courtesy of Igor Radivilov on VK.com As Russia's Ministry of Sport released an interview with Valentina Rodionenko in which the Head Coach requested assistance to develop gymnastics in Crimea (see earlier post), Ukraine's vault and rings ace Igor Radivilov posted this picture of himself with team mate Oleg Verniaiev and Ukraine Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk. Does anyone know what this event was, when it took place, and what the awards are? The Liukin's Nico tells me that this was an award handed out in May ... so it might just be coincidence that Igor chose to post it now.

Valentina at the Russia Cup earlier this summer.  Picture courtesy of the RGF Speaking via the official website of the Ministry of Sport of the Russian Federation, Valentina Rodionenko calls for investment in Crimea's gymnastics facilities in Yalta, both for local improvement and to provide the national team with opportunities for warm weather training prior to the Rio Olympics.  She suggests that coaches from Ukraine's war-torn cities of Donetsk and Lugansk who have expressed an interest in working for Russia, may find employment there. Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko met with the Russian national team in gymnastics during a visit to "Round Lake".   State Coach Valentina Rodionenko told press that one of the main themes of discussion was the Federal Target Programme "Development of physical culture and sports in Russia for 2006-2015". - We are very pleased that the Minister took the time to talk with the team, and answer all the questions from the 'excited...

The four men and four women who Andrei Rodionenko says are 'guaranteed' selection to Russia's Worlds team.  The final full selection will be made before the team travels to Nanning on 27th September.  Pictures courtesy of the RGF. Key points summary of an interview between Maria Vorobyeva of R Sport, and Russia's Head Coach Andrei Rodionenko, dated 11 September 2014.  Link to Russian language - http://m.rsport.ru/interview/20140911/771553414.html Upon completion of the Russia Cup in late August, the Russian national team coaching staff announced a list of eight athletes - four men and four women - guaranteed participation in the World Championships. Aliya Mustafina, Maria Kharenkova, Daria Spiridinova and Ekaterina Kramarenko; Nikita Ignatyev, David Belyavski, Nikolai Kuksenkov and Denis Ablyazin.   At the World Championships 2013 Alexander Balandin won a silver on rings, and Mustafina won the balance beam and took two bronzes - in the all-around...

Vote for Nikita Nagorny as Sportbox athlete of the month!  Let's see a gymnast in first place!   http://news.sportbox.ru/Vidy_sporta/Sport/Zolotoy_Pjedestal/spbnews_NI479034_Zolotoy-piedestal-Viberi-luchshego-sportsmena-a

Nikolai observes the bars wryly after an uncharacteristic fall at the 2008 Olympics, a disappointing competition for the Russians Nikolai Kryukov, head coach of the Russian MAG juniors since 2010, was 1999 World All Around Champion and won a gold medal with his team in the 1996 Olympics.  Kryukov's career spanned both Soviet and Russian eras; in his early career, pre-senior, he witnessed the training of such legends as Bilozerchev and Scherbo, and he frequently competed alongside the first Russian Olympic MAG all around champion, Alexei Nemov.   His first major senior competition was the 1996 Olympics, and he continued competing for twelve years till the 2008 Olympics, gathering multiple honours and a reputation for well performed gymnastics and quiet leadership. I have only just found this translation of a 2011 interview (no original source given) on the RGF website.  In the light of the upcoming generation of Russian juniors who are beginning to make an impression (eg S...