Vote for Nikita now!

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

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More thoughts on US gymnastics, Karolyi - and Zaglada

I’d like to add some thoughts to my earlier post about USA gymnastics and Bela Karolyi: 1. What Bela did, he did. He would agree that his actions were his responsibility. 2. Abusive relationships in USA gymnastics (and no doubt elsewhere) pre-existed Bela’s move to the USA and still exist today. 3. Harsh training existed and exists in all of the ‘artistic’ sports and dance-related forms - eg ballroom dancing, ballet, ice skating, circus. The training involved in most of these activities is founded on an assumption of the benefits of early specialisation. It revolves around ‘ideal’ forms, shapes and postures that are difficult to achieve without early years training - women especially. 4. Wherever prodigious early talent exists, there are predators whose main desire in life is to take advantage of that talent - music, entertainment, maths, sport. The boundaries very easily become confused. Who owns the talent? Who decides how many hours to work, at what level? FOR WHOSE BENEFI

Komova should have won!

It was a very tight battle in the North Greenwich arena today, with American Gabby Douglas beating out Viktoria Komova by a mere 0.259 points (see results below) and the legendary Aliya Mustafina sealing her comeback from that career-threatening injury with a well deserved bronze medal. Yes, she suffered a fall from beam after her Arabian somersault but elsewhere she was at her best, a real endorsement of the work of the Russian coaches in nursing her back to almost-top form since that fateful day in 2011. Komova had a faultless competition apart from a step on landing her Amanar vault. Frankly, she must feel utterly shattered after coming second once again by a very small margin to an American who was treated very generously by the judges. Komova soared and took every beam move to the max, rounding off with her rare double Arabian dismount in fine style; Douglas literally sidled along the beam, seeming frightened to take her feet off the apparatus for all but her somersaults. Kom

RIP Bela Karolyi

RIP Bela Karolyi. We were all mesmerised by the gymnastics that Nadia Comaneci brought to the world. Some of us wanted to be like Nadia. Others wanted to share her glory. When Kerri Strug saluted the judges with a hop and a cry of agony, thousands of adults cried for joy, felt inordinate pride that a love of country had inspired such courage and strength. When generations of elite gymnasts, many of them gold medal winners, spoke out about the abuse they had experienced whilst practicing their sport, those thousands and millions of cheering adults didn’t stop appreciating the gold medals. They did start to look for someone to blame, someone who could take responsibility for the entire systemic nastiness that enabled the abuse to take place. Some chose the man who came to fame as Nadia Comaneci’s coach, and went on to shape elite gymnastics training in the USA, Bela Karolyi. But who facilitated and enabled Karolyi? Who endorsed the training that earned the medals? It was

Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

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