Skip to main content

Andrei Rodionenko 'I am not looking for a replacement for Ablyazin'


Head coach Andrei Rodionenko today confirmed that, by hook or by crook, Denis Ablyazin will travel to Nanning and participate in World Championships.  Ablyazin missed key finals in last week's Russia Cup, and has been suffering severe knee pain.  He is undergoing investigations in Munich at present.  An announcement about the nature of his injury is expected in the next few days.

Rodionenko said he would be ready to take Ablyazin for his rings exercise only, where the Olympian has a realistic medal chance.  He also suggested that vault might be a possibility - 'even on one leg'.  

In a report in Pravda, Rodionenko is also reported as saying that the knee injury was 'nothing serious'.

Source : http://www.temapenza.ru/news/sports/item/7997/

Comments

  1. [sigh]

    I believe that Rodionenko must care about his athletes, but he can come across as crass and ruthless. I cannot believe Rodionenko would so cavalierly dismiss Ablyazin's severe knee pain as "nothing serious." An athlete's pain should always be taken seriously. Ablyazin took himself out of two event finals that he was certain to win. That does not mean "nothing serious." And it would be highly irresponsible to let Ablyazin vault on an injured leg at Worlds. That could be career ending for a potential Olympic gold medalist.

    I suspect that there are cultural communication differences between Americans and Russians, but I am often appalled by what Rodionenko says about his team and his athletes.

    I do hope Ablyazin is healthy to go to Nanning. Since teams have room for six athletes this year, they could use Ablyazin on rings only, if necessary to protect his knee.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Please, tell me there is something wrong with this translation. He can't be that crazy can he?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Svetlana Boginskaya: I was always a bitch* in gymnastics

Svetlana Boginskaya, 15 years old, with her medals from the Seoul Olympics Nico translates the latest interview with gymnastics legend Svetlana Boginskaya, during a recent visit to her home country of Belarus. Svetlana Boginskaya: I was always a bitch* in gymnastics, so now I ask for forgiveness from everyone who came in contact with me. The National Olympic Committee of Belarus held a press conference with three-time Olympic Champion in artistic gymnastics, Svetlana Boginskaya. The meeting was devoted to the 25th anniversary of the Olympic Games in Seoul. In South Korea the Belarussian won two gold medals in the team competition and vault. As a gift to the Olympic Hall of fame, the famous gymnast, now living in the United States, donated one of her trophies that she won at the 1990 European Championships and a pennant for Best Female Athlete of the USSR in 1989. How happy we were when we could share with such stars as Boginskaya, Scherbo, and Ivankov,...

Our Nelli Kim : a new documentary

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...

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more