Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Every picture tells a story - no official results from Batumi yet, but the RGF has pictures of the EF awards ceremonies - V - Paseka. UB - Komova. FX - Ablyazin PH - Kuksenkov R - Davytyan Molodyets!

Belyavski and Ignatyev shared the AA gold :-) Here are the results available to date for the Batumi International.  As mentioned some time ago, Aliya Mustafina is not scheduled to compete in this event, and there is no live streaming.  Let's hope for video coverage. This is only the first stage of selection for Worlds.  Russia Cup, in just over three weeks, will help the coaches make up their minds about who is in the training squads.  After that, the decision will depend on who performs well in training and in final control competitions at Round Lake.  I expect there will be more results to come from this particular competition.   If I am reading the situation accurately - and it is very early days - there could be some surprise selections to Worlds.   15 year old Angelina Melnikova won the junior all around competition.  I understand from Ksenia Semenova on VK.com that Seda Tutkhalyan fell on floor, but she recorded a score of 15.6 on beam.  Ksenia Afanasyeva performed vault only

Enjoy a photo gallery of the Russian MAG and WAG teams in podium training for the Rusudan Sikharulidze International competition, that will be the first stage of selection for Worlds.  http://sportgymrus.ru/photos/mezhdunarodny-e-sorevnovaniya-po-sportivnoj-gimnastike-rusudan-siharulidze/nggallery/mezhdunarodny-e-sorevnovaniya-po-sportivnoj-gimnastike-rusudan-siharulidze-foto-e-mihajlovoj/razminka-foto-e-mihajlovoj-1/page/3

Four years ago, Russia were defending World Team Champions.  Beset by injury and retirements, however, they did not expect to be able to send their 'best' team to the forthcoming World Championships in Japan - in fact, with local safety

Andrew Rodionenko: no guarantee of inclusion in the team for the World Cup, we did not allow anyone - everything will be decided at the Cup of Russia The Russian national team in gymnastics continues to prepare for the main start of the season - the World Cup, which 23 October - 1 November will be held in Glasgow (Scotland). Russia coach Andrei Rodionenko told the special correspondent of the Agency of the sports information "All Sport" Victor Limasovu about current news from the team. Read the first part of an interview with Andrew Rodionenko (pictured). - Andrew F., can call gymnasts who have already booked a place in the team, which will perform at the World Cup? - Now all the top athletes are preparing for the Cup of Russia, which will be held in September in Penza. There are no guarantees about the inclusion in the squad for the World Cup, we were not given to anyone. I understand that we have and the more famous artists, less famous, but the main problem lies in the fac

Elena Shushunova was born on 23 April 1969 in St Petersburg, home of 1980 Olympic Champions Elena Davydova and Alexander Detiatin.  The 1985 World and European Champion, and 1988 Olympic  Champion was coached by Viktor Gavrichenkov, who went on to lead Natalia Ziganshina to a World overall silver medal in 2001, and who served briefly as National coach of the Russian women's team. Her career spanned two different eras of gymnastics, each symbolic of their times.  Her earliest international competitions as a junior (1981/2) showed Shushunova to be a daring trickster, typical of the generation of female gymnasts who emerged in the late 70s and early 80s - tiny acrobats, technicians with dynamite.  Later in her career, especially by the time of the Olympics in 1988, her technical prowess was enhanced by an expressive presence that positioned her firmly in the next generation of artist-acrobats who dominated the sport to 1992.  Drawing on what Gavrichenkov described as a 'hidden dep

This picture of Svetlana, taken in 1992 at the European Championships in Nantes, is one of my all-time favourite gymnastics shots.  The name of the photographer is Ewa Bednarska. Every single detail of Svetlana's position reveals the intense forward momentum and harmony of the movement at the moment the shutter clicked.   The angle of the head and eyeline communicate a sense of coiled energy that also reveals itself in the position of the arms and the clenched fists.  Even the swirling design of the leotard echoes the cursive, distinctive shapes that the gymnast created. What was remarkable about the routine as a whole was that the gymnast barely stopped moving.  There were no static poses or contrived arm waving.  The leaps flew through the air without any suggestion of bounce or rebound.  Every single action created a coalescent expression of the music. You can watch Svetlana here as she won the silver medal all around at those Championships.  She had her hands down on the final

Yesterday, I published the one thousandth post for RRG since it began, almost five years ago, on September 24th 2010.  Thanks to you, dear readers, the blog has accumulated 3.7 million page views in that time, and has over four thousand followers on its Facebook page.   It has been a fascinating time during which I have travelled to Moscow, interviewed some of my gymnastics idols, and most importantly made friends.  I hope to continue with my work here. I want to say thank you to everyone who has helped with the production of this blog.  I have enjoyed every moment of it, and hope you will stay with me as I continue to develop it.  Welcome to all new readers and contributors, too.  And an especially big thank you to all of you who post such interesting comments.  It has been a great time. In no particular order, and with advance apologies for any omissions. Vladimir Zaglada Lupita Irina from the RGF Leonid from VTB Natalia Kalugina Olesya Engel Ni

It had somehow escaped my attention that yesterday was the birthday of two Olympic Champions from Moscow, 1980 - Alexander Detiatin and Elena Davydova.  Happy Birthday to both of these amazing gymnasts! Alexander Detiatin had competed at the Olympics in Montreal in 1976 as part of the Soviet Union's plan to begin to challenge the unbeatable Japanese team.  National coach Leonid Arkayev had faith in him as one of a new generation of ambitious young men, and his plans first came to fruition with a gold in the team event in the 1979 World Championships, the USSR's first since 1958.  Detiatin also made his mark, taking first in the all around competition.  His victory here asserted his leadership of the Soviet team, an incredible feat considering his team mates included such legends as Nikolai Andrianov and Alexander Tkachev.   Then in 1980, he became an international legend when he won the Olympic all around title. Like Detiatin, Elena Davydova was one of a group of adventu

Such a lot is said about artistry these days - but you don't really see much evidence of it in the gymnastics.   There are flashing moments of brilliance that some people enjoy - for example, a gymnast like Brazil's Flavia Saraiva is a favourite for her spirited and expressive floor and beam.  Others might prefer the structured work of a gymnast like Kyla Ross.  For me, though, the idea of consummate artistry has been lost almost totally - the last time I saw anything like it was in 2012 when Komova performed her floor so brilliantly in the all around final.  But without a mechanism to reward artistry - something that is absent from this Code of Points - there really isn't much point even trying any more. Aliya Mustafina was interviewed recently while on holiday in Italy and expressed the opinion that artistry was something that was inborn, rather than trained.  She uses a metaphor to describe this - some gymnasts have five gears, not four, and the ability to express and

Gymnast Polina Fedorova told about his sporting career More recently, we enthusiastically watched as the Russian team performs at the World Summer Universiade in South Korea. Our team has once again demonstrated its sporting successes. It is gratifying that among them was a resident of Chuvashia Polina Fedorova. Master of Sports of Russia in gymnastics, team member of the Russian Federation, DYUSSHOR ward number 6 in gymnastics, a student of the Chuvash State University. IN Ulyanov - it's all about the fragile, single-minded girlfriend Pauline. We were able to communicate with the young athletic talent. - Pauline, tell me, please, how did your sports career? - My sports career began when I was 6 years old. In the gymnastics, I have 13 years. For the first time I saw the acrobatic sport gymnasts still in kindergarten at the matinee. The girl, who so deftly did the exercises, I was fascinated. Admiring her performance, I realized that I wanted to learn how to perform these complex tr

Daria Skrypnik became the standout individual gymnast today at the European Youth Olympics, taking a medal in every event - gold in team, all around and bars, bronze on beam and silver on vault and floor.  In fact the Russian girls did very well, with every single gymnast earning a medal besides her team gold - Eremina a bronze on vault, and Ilyankova bronze in the all around and bars.  An emerging team in this competition were Belgium and in particular rising star Axelle Klinckaert, who won both golds on this final day, on beam and floor, as well as the silver in the all around (very close - tie break with Skrypnik). In the men's event, I think it is fair to say that Britain had the upper hand, taking the team gold.  Their leader was Joe Fraser who won the AA and parallel bars gold.  Hamish Carter took silver on floor behind team mate Gianni Regini-Moran.  It was quite a surprise, given his team's record on the piece, when Russia's elegant Alexander Sychugov won pommel hor