Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

   Olga with her coach Sofia Muratova in 1971.  You can also see a video of Olga training with Sofia at  http://youtu.be/rDLY5Ctbe38  I wanted to record in English the key points of this 2001 interview with Olga.  Thanks to Maryam Vulis who gave me the link. Date of article - 7th March 2001 Author - Vladimir Golubev Link to Russian language source -  http://viperson.ru/articles/olimpiyskaya-chempionka-razoblachaet-dvoynika Olga invited me to visit her cozy one-bedroom apartment. I see family gymnastic albums, remember her youth, and gradually ask a few questions. - What a voluminous file of documents!  It shows how much time and effort had to be expended to get to court. Correspondence, lawyer requests, decisions, resolutions, agenda ... - Actually, this story began a long time ago.  Once, German broadcaster RTL screened an interview ... with my double!   A certain woman who said that she was Olympic champion in gymnastics, Olga Kovalenk...

It was a Sunday morning.  I was drinking my coffee and contemplating the day ahead - a workout at the gym, shopping for groceries, an evening reading a book, or catching up on last night's episodes of crime thriller The Bridge .  How nice it was not to have to think about work for a day. Then I saw it - a story about the history of doping in The Observer .  Interesting reading. Of course, cheating is as old as the hills.  It is, unfortunately, human nature for some people to try to gain easy advantage in any kind of competition.  That is why we have laws, rules, ethical guidelines.  People who cheat should face justice and shouldn't complain when they are found out. But the story about pregnancy doping bothered me.  Hadn't that been found to be fictional?  The author began with Olga Kovalenko's allegations made in 1994 - but the rumours had started way back in 1991 with the documentary series More Than A Game .  The practice...

Angelina taking her gold medal AA at the Junior European Championships in 2014. Picture courtesy of UEG . Yesterday, at the Massilia Cup, Russian junior Angelina Melnikova scored 57.5 to win the all around competition ahead of France's Marine Brevet and Romania's Diana Bulimar, both established senior competitors.  This score would have seen her finish in fifth place a few weeks ago, at the World Championships in Glasgow.  The Russian team, including fellow juniors Daria Skrypnik and Natalia Kapitonova, and senior Evgenia Shelgunova, finished second behind France, after a tight battle.  See scores below. Angelina on bars -  http://youtu.be/oeVEt8UzkHo On beam -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIMiesOKsdw&sns=tw On floor -  http://youtu.be/JKfUEYt5RSE Natalia Kapitonova, beam -  http://youtu.be/JF1xNqiv2TU On bars -  http://youtu.be/B6jnRxWOyKs Shelgunova, beam -  http://youtu.be/D4sTTo1Fs88 On bars -  http://youtu.be/VYtmhnvOcvg...

There is an unsung heroine on the Russian team, one who is often taken for granted - Daria Spiridonova.  In amongst all the missed connections, the razzmatazz of announcements and big tumbles that characterised the World Championships at Glasgow, Spiridonova calmly maintained her position as a world leader on bars.   The judges' baffling and bungled decision to 'coincidentally' award the medal to four different gymnasts of varying ability and performance can't conceal the fact that this young gymnast has now medalled on bars in every major competition, senior and junior, that she has entered since 2011. More than that, Spiridonova's elegance and mature attitude in competition show evidence of a strong head and an adherence to the fundamental principles of gymnastics - economy of line, an effortless, gravity-defying appearance to all her work, and complexity that does not rely on tumbling as its main source of difficulty.  In any other era Spiridonova would have the ...

Aliya has responded to a few questions about her health.  At present, she is at home with her family, undergoing rehabilitation at the clinic where she had a procedure on her right knee on the 3rd November. 'I am not allowed to jump or squat until December 7th' she said.  'I can walk, but with one crutch, which I will need until next week.  I will be at home throughout rehabilitation - so as not to overload the leg.  In another two weeks I will have to have treatments and do exercises.  We'll have to see after that, the doctors will advise ... Once the stitches are removed, there won't be any pain at all'. Good luck! http://www.allsportinfo.ru/index.php?id=99245

Our thoughts are with our friends in France.  Please stay safe.   There are messages of solidarity from many of the Russian gymnasts.  We are all together at this time.  мы все вместе.  Nous sommes tous ensemble.   Love and peace.

British Head Coach Andrei Popov took up his position in 2004.  Before that, he had been a successful international gymnast competing for the Soviet Union, a coach at his home gymnastics club in Vladimir, and a club coach working in the UK. Russia Behind the Headlines has published a digest of a Russian language article about the migration of coaches abroad following perestroika.  It features British MAG head coach Andrei Popov, who with his colleague Sergei Sizhanov (Head coach of the junior team) is leading the British men to greater victories than ever imagined possible just ten years ago. Popov and Sizhanov are arguably the most successful migrant Russian coaches on the men's international scene, having lifted British gymnastics from a relatively lowly standing to their medal-contending status today.  Popov says that when he took over leadership of the coaching efforts, there were hardly any top seniors competing in Britain, so he looked for the best juniors: ...

Believe it or not, only four months have passed since RRG published its interview with the former WAG national coach of Russia, less than a year since Alexander Alexandrov left Lake Krugloye (for good?), and not even 18 months since Russia took the silver in that Olympic team final.  So much has changed in Russian gymnastics since 2010 ... there has been a toning down of expectations, a growing hush around goings-on at Lake Krugloye, an almost deliberate talking down of the prospects of the next generation (who are, admittedly, very thin on the ground).  I am speaking here exclusively of WAG - the situation in MAG seems different and will not be addressed in this post. Checking the statistics of my blog readership is an almost daily activity for me.  Finding links to my blog posts is always a surprise, and I am delighted that anyone finds time to read my blog at all, let alone comment on it!  When I published the Alexandrov interview I knew there would be ple...

- To be honest, I have almost forgotten the special feeling that I won the World Championship gold - said Daria Spiridonova. - I am happy, but in general everything is back as it was - and still is.  Only at home, of course, I was greeted and welcomed as a hero (smiles). - When you flew out to Glasgow, did you expect to return with a gold medal? - No. And in particular I did not expect that there would be four winners on one apparatus (smiles). This is something incredible, it has happened for the first time in the history of gymnastics. - What did you talk about with Viktoria Komova when you stood together on the highest step of the podium? - "How does that even happen?" Surprise and delight at the same time. - In fact, all four athletes were at the same level? - In our sport, a lot depends on the judges.  The D scores were all different.  The highest was a Chinese woman, then there was an American, and Vika Komova was a little lower, one-tenth. Probably they were all eq...

'Everything is OK, the operation went as planned, under general anesthesia. Now I feel good. While I am in hospital, I will walk with crutches.  Doctors have said that the timing of my return to competition will become apparent as I recover.   But in general, no one can make any predictions - it is too early.  The plan is that I will recover more or less in three months.  But it is not yet clear when I will be able to begin to train fully again.' http://www.allsportinfo.ru/index.php?id=99023&b=10&l=40

Valentina Rodionenko has confirmed that Olympic champion Aliya Mustafina has successfully undergone surgery on the meniscus in her right knee.  "The operation went fine. We'll see when Aliya will be back.  We hope that it will be all right. All the gymnasts really miss Mustafina and it is hard without her." Picture courtesy of Aliya Mustafina's personal Instagram.

Isa Alexandrova has kindly translated Alexander's interview word for word.  It gives a  different emphasis in some places to my summary, and adds some more information, so I wanted readers to have access to this right away.  With many thanks to Isa. 1) Alexander didn't quite imply that he is ready to come back to Russia by the end of this year if there is an offer. He said that "it is still hurtful for me to think the way I was treated in 2012. However, enough time had passed, that I was able to better analyze the situation, and I understand that perhaps I did some things not the best way. At that time, I was working for the "final result" and did not pay attention to much else. Mutko and I had a conversation before I left, where he let me know that he didn't want me to leave. Now, the only way I could talk about my coming back is when and if he calls me. I am not going to invite myself back. I am ready to come back to Russia if I am wanted, but I do...