Angelina Melnikova ... Top scorer in the Russia Cup AA competition today. Daria Spiridonova in second place was the leading senior in the field, followed by Maria Kharenkova. Seda Tutkhakyan in 4th had a fall on floor but would otherwise have finished top. As Melnikova is junior, this probably means that Spiridonova is Russia Cup AA champion! An unexpected but well deserved title for this distinctive and well prepared gymnast. Well done Dasha! congratulations to all the girls - will publish results as soon as they are available.
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
I do believe that Melnikova, Skrypnik will diminish the chances of some of these seniors in the next Olympics year ...
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I do believe that Melnikova and Skrypinik should go to Rio.
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