Insomnia and uncertainty - drama or crisis in Russian women'sgymnastics?

It is 4 am in London, and I am awake, thinking about the uncertainties and worries of the previous 24 hours.  Primary amongst them is one that I live mostly vicariously, through the voice of this blog.   The sad result of yesterday's competition has disturbed my peace of mind and there are nothing but questions.

• Can Mustafina find once again the form that saw her win the 2010 World Championships, the zest that led her to win gold at the London Olympics, the genius that saw her grab gold from the ashes of the Antwerp World Championships in 2013? 
• Can Russian women's gymnastics find its feet once again? 
• Was Alexandrov's fiery, reluctant resignation the end for the team?

For the last four years, I have followed the fortunes of Russian senior gymnastics, as closely as I can, blog by blog. It hasn't always been easy to find the thread, to follow the reasoning of these charismatic, volatile and often illogical people.  A large part of the emotional energy in maintaining the blog has been put into constant questioning of the political situation surrounding the coaches, and in particular the coaching of the women's team.  

Following the emergence of tensions between the two Rodionenkos, Andrei and Valentina, and the women's team coach, Alexander Alexandrov - well, it was difficult not to take sides.  To put it plainly, Alexandrov's case was so much stronger and clearer than that of the Rodionenkos that there just didn't seem to be much argument at all to support the Rodionenkos.  Alexandrov's interview with this blog was so comprehensive it left little room for the Head Coaches to wriggle out of their rather uncomfortable position.  The entire 'gymternet' community railed against Valentina for some of her clumsier statements, but the gymternet does not decide who will be head coach, or how the gymnasts will be trained.  So despite the strength of argument, and Alexandrov's connections at the Ministry of Sport, the Rodionenkos have still held fast in their positions.  There is still little real reason to believe that their long tenure at the top of Russian gymnastics is at risk to this day.

Latterly, I have preferred to take a back seat, to try to remain neutral.  Part of the problem has been Andrei Rodionenko's stolid silence on the situation; by avoiding defending himself expressly, he has cleverly avoided stepping into the pile of contumely that has increasingly surrounded Alexandrov; his stealth and subtlety at quiet odds with the blunt defensiveness of his outspoken wife.  Recently, one of Rodionenko's allies - a coach who spoke out against Alexandrov at the infamous press conference orchestrated by Rodionenko where the basis of Alexandrov's demotion was laid out - elaborated on circumstances surrounding her gymnast Paseka's selection for the Olympic team.  More of the jigsaw seemed to fall into place.

A problem, though, is that Russian gossip is far more intriguing than the British kind, seems to be almost a way of life and often bears little relationship to the reality of events (except of course, the brutality of the exit route Alexandrov was forced to take, the clear unhappiness etched on the face of Mustafina yesterday, and so on).  Social media has made it accessible to the Western world in a way that hasn't been possible before.  For the blogger and gym fan alike there are intricate problems involved in unravelling what is essentially the natural expressiveness and sensitivity of the 'Russian soul' laid bare to Western eyes (principally, in this case, mine).  You could write a book about it. 

Further rumblings that team spirit had become a problem under Alexandrov - that the girls' nerves were constantly on edge - in light of the happy, almost light-hearted spirit amongst the team now presenting itself in Nanning - seemed to confirm that the light was shining on the other side of the story.  Rodionenko had repeatedly absolved himself of any responsibility for the injury rate of his women's team and, given the world situation of injury left, right and centre, and the historic lack of strength in depth on his team, his claims seemed to have some validity.

However, since the beginning of these Championships, a trio of highly influential women have spoken out, pointing out the weaknesses of the WAG team's performance in Nanning and overall since the Olympics.  You will recognise the names of two of these women - Svetlana Khorkina and Larissa Latynina.  The third should be well known to those who follow this blog carefully - Elena Vaitsekhovskaya.  She is a leading sports journalist in the field of ice skating and gymnastics in particular and is unique amongst Russian journalists in having presented Alexandrov's story in the Russian press.  I believe her to be close to Alexandrov.  Private sources also lead me to speculate that the tide is turning.  Perhaps change is on the way.

So I am up at the ungodly hour of 4 am to bring to you some vital reading on Russian gymnastics, with many thanks to Lauren Cammenga, who has provided the translations from the article by Vaitsekhovskaya, and to Nico whose post on Gymfever woke me up.  Vaitsekhovskaya is particularly interesting because what she implies is that Russia hasn't really made any progress since Alexandrov left.  The benefit of their pre-Olympics training has now expired.  Their time is out, in other words.  No personal criticism of Mustafina is intended - it is all about the coaching.

Elena Vaitsekhovskaya

- Says that she remembers a conversation with Alexandrov, a long time ago.  It was, he said, the most difficult thing, for a gymnast to decide whether to continue with a career, or to finish.  If you continue, everything that was past had to be left behind, and the effort had to begin anew, from scratch.  A gymnast can't continue without being fully dedicated to finding a new level of complexity and physical fitness; the old level that won the first gold medals will only carry a gymnast through for one year, or a maximum of two.

- Doubts the reasons cited by the Russians for Aliya's failure in the all around final.  Alexandrov was right, she says : she does not think that Mustafina has made any actual progress in the two years since London and contends that Mustafina won all of her medals in 2013-2014 on sheer force of will.  In the All Around final she saw what she believes is Mustafina's lessening ability to win medals by the skin of her teeth, to turn determination into medals.  Can Mustafina continue to win medals over the coming years?  She thinks not, because her difficulty level hasn't increased; also because she has failed to win medals at this World Championships.

- Thinks that Mustafina near won Russia's team bronze single-handedly, and she does not agree with Valentina that it was worth as much as gold, because the Chinese and Romanians were so weak that Russian should have been able to beat them easily.  The team final did not bring forward a single performance by a Russian woman that made her gasp, or that demonstrated a new level of complexity.

-  Does not agree that the men's result was a failure, given that two gymnasts are still recovering from surgery, and Denis Ablyazin is seriously injured.  She says that despite the result, the performance was good.

-  Calls into question whether Russia's veterans will ever return.  Thinks a team with Mustafina and Komova would be able to achieve a lot but doubts whether it will happen when a comeback by Komova after a two year absence is almost inconceivable.  She is also not sure whether Mustafina will be around much longer.

-  Says it is worrying that for the last two years Russian gymnastics has survived on the back of one gymnast; and that they have got rid of the only coach who has ever achieved his stated goal (Alexandrov).

Svetlana Khorkina

'I believe that our gymnasts did not have any stamina, self-confidence.  I must say that even I was very worried last night for all of us. I am very sorry for the completely stupid mistakes that have affected the result of the original.'

On the selection of the team, the absence of Afanasyeva and Komova due to injury, she said : 'So, it's time to leave, perhaps?  We had injuries in our time - we kept them to ourselves, not for the public.'

Larissa Latynina

Andrei Rodionenko was 'fundamentally wrong' in his assertion that gymnasts' injuries were not the reasponsibility of the coach.  Most injuries took place during training.  'Usually an attentive coach will see in advance that an athlete is tired or that she has some problems. Therefore, it seems to me that such a large number of injuries is the result of including errors in the preparation. I did not go to "Round Lake" and did not see how the guys and girls were preparing for the Championships, so I can only judge by what I see as a result.'

She went on to suggest that the gymnasts needed to work with psychologists - in her time, this role was fulfilled by the personal coach, who worked closely with the gymnasts.

As I write this, Denis Ablyazin is competing in the men's floor final - and may win a gold medal.  Russian gymnastics is ever in motion ... and always intriguing.

Further reading

Undesirable Alexandrov - Elena Vaitsekhovskaya's commentary post 2012

Alexander Alexandrov in his own words - Part 1 of 4

Nelli Kim - Russian gymnastics has closed in on itself

'Maria - A Victory on the apparatus' Interview with coach Maria Ulyankina in which she discusses the circumstances surrounding Maria Paseka's training and selection for the 2012 Olympics http://m.sovsport.ru/gazeta/article-item/746932