Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Tatiana Nabiyeva celebrates her golden week in Penza Given the recent brouhaha about Tatiana's continuation or otherwise in gymnastics, I wanted to remind readers of one of the up points in this feisty and popular gymnast's career.  What follows below is a 'reprint' of a post published on 22 August 2013. Tatiana Nabiyeva shone this week in the Russia Cup, taking five of the six available gold medals (all around, team, vault, uneven bars and beam; she withdrew from the floor competition for which she had qualified), thereby establishing herself as the current spiritual leader of Russia's gymnastics team.  This is a dramatic turn around for the 18 year old from St Petersburg.  Before this summer's Universiade, Nabiyeva's last all around competition of any note had been the 2010 World Championships, where she finished in seventh place.  Since then, she has battled chronic back pain, a significant growth spurt and a drubbing from Russia's head

Vladimir competes at the 1980 Olympics 1976 Olympics (silver medal in the team) and 1980 Olympics champion (gold in the team) Vladimir Markelov, comes from Ozersk in the South Urals. For a long time, Director of the children's club at CSKA Moscow (Elena Shevchenko, Dina Kochetkova, Dmitri Bilozerchev). His coach was Ivan Morozov, who Vladimir remembers fondly : 'he told us there were no frightening skills, just difficult ones.' They went on to learn the new elements step by step. Vladimir created his own originality on high bar which is still performed today by men and women - you can see it in the video. And read an interview (in Russian) including a memory of the security arrangements at the Montreal Games - armed guards accompanied all the athletes' coaches. (Don't forget that in Munich, Israeli athletes were murdered in a terrorist attack on the Games. :-((. ) http://ozvest.ru/srochno-v-nomer/17705-vladimir-markelov-zhizn-sostoit-iz-sluchajnostej-olimpijskij-che

2012 Olympic silver medallist, and multiple European medal winner in her native city of Moscow in 2013, Nastia Grishina, has retired, confirms head coach Valentina Rodionenko in an interview with Albert Starodubtsev of Tass. 20 year old Grishina, a beautiful beam and floor worker who was once considered to have significant all around potential at world level, married recently.  She has been studying journalism at a Moscow University. Rodionenko wasted no time in ascribing Grishina's waning as an international star to her changing coaching arrangements since the Olympics.  Regular readers of this blog will know that Sergei Zelikson, whose tenure as Grishina's personal coach was terminated suddenly in 2012, was recently re-appointed to the national WAG team as tumbling coach.  'The leaders of the Moscow Gymnastics Federation made a fatal mistake a few years ago, when they decided to transfer Grishina to a different coach', said Rodionenko.  'You couldn't take Gris

Valentina Rodionenko has confirmed that 2008 and 2012 Olympian Ksenia Afanasyeva is currently in Munich undergoing a variety of treatments on her ankle.  As Ksenia has previously explained, the ankle became injured in 2012 during preparations for the London Olympics, and has given her much pain intermittently ever since.  The head coach explained that it isn't possible at the moment to speak of competitions, but that she hopes for the gymnast to return to training as soon as she has recovered. As reported earlier this week, Aliya Mustafuna is back in training.  The process is gradual as she rehabilitates her knee to a full training load, and Valentina explains here that she is working on a new floor routine. The gymnasts will be participating in World Cup competitions this year, including Stuttgart and Glasgow. Other good news is that MAG team captain Emin Garibov is back in full training.  This should reinforce the strength in depth of the men's team, and hopefully improve the

Valentina Rodionenko has confirmed that Mustafina is back in training.  Tass This year the Ministry of Sport has published the full lists of gymnasts training with the national team - youth, junior, senior reserve and senior.  You can find the full lists, including the coaches, in Russian language here , and there is a transcription of the gymnasts' names in English at JAS's blog, Videos of Russian Gymnasts . As usual, you will find that there is a little delay before the lists catch up with the reality.  For example, Maria Bondareva's name still appears on the listing for the senior reserve team, but sadly, she announced her retirement for medical reasons some months ago.  The senior lists otherwise include all those in training for the Olympics.  You can read what I think of the early announcements of the Olympic teams here .  The full Olympic teams will include only five gymnasts, so competition for places will be fierce and, no doubt, health will play a part in

Natalia Yurchenko in 1984, on the cover of magazine Smena ('camera') When I was a girl, I used to watch gymnastics.  Avidly, concentratedly, passionately.  There was no Youtube or internet so every second of the three or four hours I had pored over on our little black and white TV set had to fuel my interest for a full twelve months, maybe even more.  I had to imagine the rest. The language of gymnastics was exotic and alien to me : Voronin, Tkachev, Tourischeva, Korbut, Tsukuhara.  As the years passed, I became familiar with the meanings and took great pride in being able to pronounce the names.   I grew up in Lincoln, a small town in the East Midlands of England.  Nobody I knew spoke Russian or knew any Russians, and there was, besides, no way of accessing Russian language publications or broadcasts.  Tabloid stories of Cold War, culture and sport, tinged with a strong flavour of suspicion, fear and mystery, developed my taste and fascination for Russian gymnastics.

Natalia wins gold at the World Championships in Budapest, 1983 1983 World Champion Natalia Yurchenko speaks directly to readers of RRG in this exclusive interview.    Early years: In the summer of 1976, at the age of 11, I was accepted to a sports boarding school in Rostov-on-Don. I remember it was a 4-level building with the cafeteria on the first floor, academic classrooms on the second floor, rooms for girls on the third floor and rooms for boys on the fourth floor. There was one TV on the ground floor and the kids who stayed at school over the summer (about 20-30 kids), were able to watch the Olympics. Nadia Comaneci’s outstanding performance made us feel jealous because usually the Soviets were the unbeatable favorites. We did feel some relief with amazing performances from Nellie Kim and Ludmilla Tourischeva. Besides Ludmilla, there was a gymnast from Rostov-on-Don, Svetlana Grozdova! And, we were really thrilled to see the very little and cute Maria Filatova. B

Aerial view of Christ the Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro. It's 2016, a year of many hopes and promises for us all, Olympians or not.  We are all looking forward at this time of the year and I hope everyone achieves at least a little of what they plan.  Begin your work now, and enjoy the journey.  Most of all I wish everyone much happiness and peace. In Russia, the gymnasts are back at Lake Krugloye and beginning their preparations for the summer, 'step by step' as Aliya Mustafina put it this morning on her Instagram.  Sergei Starkin has been keen to stress the importance of the men's team and in particular Denis Ablyazin to Russia's Olympic effort.   Valentina Rodionenko has made some announcements of team membership for the summer Olympics, but these are too early to make any difference - everyone is training for the Games and the key decisions will be taken much later in the year.  The announcements were initially made via the Russian Olympic Committee's