Skip to main content

'Angelina Jolie' alias Aliya Mustafina at Lake Krugloye


While the Russian men prepare to fight for gold at Europeans, the Russian women - and in particular the Olympians who form the core of the team - have been enjoying some party games arranged for them by sponsor VTB.  As you can see, 2013 European floor champion Ksenia Afanasyeva ended up with the 'Oscar'.

You can watch a film of the revelry here - Maria Paseka has a particularly infectious giggle.


The gymnasts were : Denis: Adam Sandler, David: Jennifer Lawrence, Aliya: Angelina Jolie, Viktoria: Dukalis, Maria: Sylvester Stallone, Ksenia: Brad Pitt

Speaking of infectious, Rodionenko has just explained that following surgery Aliya Mustafina is unable to train fully at present.  Rodionenko describes the surgery as 'removal of cysts'; we don't quite know what this means but as Aliya posted pictures of herself after dental surgery earlier this week, I think it is most likely the removal of an impacted wisdom tooth, which can be extremely uncomfortable.  This is just life, dear readers, not a disaster - I wouldn't worry about it besides wishing Aliya a good recovery.

Elsewhere, Valentina explains that the priority for Komova's preparations is Worlds - don't expect too much of her before this autumn is the message, I think.  Keep the faith.

 

Comments

  1. Forgive me for being so pessimistic but at this rate I don't even expect to see Komova challenging for anything at worlds or olympics, ever. Either Russia has been preserving her all these years because she is going to come out and woah us or she just doesn't want is as bad as others. She has been safely wrapped up for years now while other such as Mustafina have been competing through every single injury. The girl will not challenge for even a medal at the rate her training and progress seems to be going, neither at these worlds or at the olympics. Again, sorry for being negative but it's the truth

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. *Sigh* what is it with these pessimistic feeling towards Komova? She has been training since 2012 with set backs of course but she is not out of shape and her bars and beam have look good and her recent appearances. If she doesn't make it as an all around gymnast or doesn't win an individual event, I still see her affording to the team.

      And no, is not the truth when you don't know the facts of her training.

      Delete
  2. I think that if Komova is training then there is a chance that she will contribute to the team at whatever her level is now. Let's wait and see when she competes and how she performs; there is too little information available at present to judge.
    She looks reasonably relaxed and happy in these pictures. I doubt she is staying at Krugloye for any reason but work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I also believe that she can definitely contribute to the Russian team (given their depth); however, I was talking more along the lines of individual at these major meets. I too doubt that she is staying at Krugloye for anything else other than work so lets see what happens with her progress leading up to the next Olympics

      Delete
    2. I think that, at the very least, Viktoria is wholly capable of returning as a great bars/beam specialist. She'll be back one of these days! :) Also, interesting to note that now she is taller than Aliya.

      Delete
    3. I am also starting to have serious doubts about Komova. She's just been kept in the shadows and has had one too many injuries and illnesses for well over 2 years now. There is still no word on her competing at Russian Nationals. I think she can help on bars and beam by the time worlds rolls around but that's if she doesn't injure herself yet again. I'll be the first person quite delighted to eat my words if the opposite turns out to be the case and she comes roaring back as a top AAer again. There is really not much time left to get all of her skills back and to also increase the difficulty for this code of points.... By the end of the year, all the top gymnasts will need to more or less have their difficulty at least partially consistent and then work on honing them next year leading up to the Games.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mustafina on Roschina

ROTTERDAM (Netherlands), October 24. /TASS/. Russian gymnast Lyudmila Roshchina, who won silver in the individual all-around at the World Championships, succeeded precisely because she focused on challenging herself rather than competing for medals. This is the assessment of Aliya Mustafina, a coach for the Russian national team and a two-time Olympic champion, who spoke to TASS. "Of course, I wasn't certain that Lyudmila would end up on the podium in the all-around, though I certainly hoped she would," Mustafina said. "The general instruction was not to think about medals or rankings. As they headed from the warm-up area to the competition floor, I told the girls: 'Don't worry about where you place—just focus on challenging yourselves.' And Lyusya managed to do exactly that." "Her mindset played a major role, too; she was in a very positive frame of mind even back in the warm-up area. So, I wouldn't say that winning this silver was an incre...

Aliya Mustafina - new interview

Aliya in her new Olympic Games outfit.  The teams were kitted out at the Bosco Olympic centre in Moscow last week 'Europeans went quite well, for me personally and for the team.  There were no big blunders or falls and we were able to show a good result.  If we continue to work in the same way as we approach the Olympics, everything will be fine ... Although of course we will need to do a little more in Rio.  For the Olympic Games, everything will be right. 'My knee [Aliya suffered a torn meniscus for which she had surgery last November] is all right, there are no problems with it, I am not worried. 'We will try to fight for first place. But we will be happy with any medals . As usual, our main rivals will be the teams of America, China and the UK. 'It will now be very, very difficult to fight Simone Biles [in the AA] because she has a very large D score. In general, in the individual competition, my goal is just to perform well. The most important thing in the Olymp...

Roschina on Mustafina

 Roshchina discusses Mustafina’s role in the Russian national gymnastics team The Olympic champion has been working with the Russian senior national team since the beginning of 2026 and specializes in the balance beam. "Aliya Fargatovna gives us all sorts of advice and handy tips, which is a huge help to us," Roshchina admitted, adding that Mustafina has been her idol since childhood. Mustafina has been working with the Russian senior national team since the beginning of 2026, specializing in the balance beam. Prior to this, she served as the head coach of the women’s junior national team. Roshchina is 18 years old, and the world championships in Rotterdam mark the second high-level competition of her career. At the 2025 World Championships, she finished 11th in the individual all-around. In August, in Zagreb, she became a European champion as part of the Russian team, which competed under the "World Gymnastics" banner.

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more