'Nothing is impossible' - Nikita Nagorny and the Russian men

The atmosphere surrounding the Russian male gymnasts at this year's European Championships was noticeably relaxed and happy as they made their way to their various medals.  This reflects not only a more stable competition performance, but also a refreshed dynamic within the team. 

First, some background.  Russian sport finds itself under unprecedented pressure at present following serious doping allegations and positive tests which have led the International Athletics Federation to propose that Russia's entire track and field team be barred from the Olympics.  Other sports are implicated, and even gymnastics has not emerged unscathed, as senior team member Nikolai Kuksenkov tested positive for trace elements of meldonium in the spring.  Kuksenkov has now been given a pardon and actually competed in Bern, but it seems likely that artistic gymnastics, with its ultra-clean record internationally, has the potential to win medals for Russia at the Olympics without the trauma and bad reputation of positive doping tests.  The sport will come into sharper focus for Russia if they have to go to the Olympics without their best track and field athletes, so the pressure is on for Rio.

Andrei Rodionenko says that the Russian government has not set the team a medal winning target, but that they hope to match their medal tally from London four years ago - eight in total across MAG and WAG.  Considering the waning fortunes of the women's team, the men will probably be expected to provide a greater proportion of gymnastics medals than they did in London - but, of course, the competition is much deeper than WAG, so this may present problems.

Having won a total of three gold medals in Bern - there was no gold at the equivalent competition in Sofia two years ago - the Russian team must now look forward to Rio.  Victory in Europe is significant in men's gymnastics, but at the Olympics the Russians must face not only the British, but also the Japanese, Chinese and Americans.  In Bern, the team scored more points than the winning Japanese team did in the Glasgow World Championships last autumn, but all of their rivals will find the Russians' spirited performance galvanising as they perfect their finished routines for Rio.  There are no easy medals in gymnastics.

As the head coaches and officials emphasised, Bern was only one step on the journey to Rio.  In this article, I will analyse some of the key findings that emerged from interviews with the coaches and gymnasts in the wind-down from the Championships, and make some observations of my own.  Key questions to be considered are :

1. How did the team perform?  What improvements will they make before Rio?  
2. Who is in contention for the team?  
3. What role will the coaches play in all of this?  
4. What implications are there for the sport as a whole, both in the Russian Federation and more widely as we approach the next four years?

Performances and prospects

Russia's good performance at these Championships has been recognised at the highest level of the State; Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko has expressed his satisfaction.  But he also adds that the main purpose of Europeans was to prepare for Rio.  The Russian Government's clear interest in artistic gymnastics must be a pressure as well as an opportunity.  Funding of the central training camp at Round Lake (Ozero Krugloye) - one of the best equipped gyms in the world thanks to sponsorship from the principally state-owned VTB Bank - is good.  But to Russia, sport is state and the pressure to win medals is immense.  The coaches must have an ability to alleviate that pressure and to simplify complicated situations if the gymnasts are to be able to deliver.

I like National MAG coach Valery Alfosov.  He has a simple, direct way, and there is a funny story circulating.  One of the female gymnasts had joined the men at a training camp overseas.  During the team briefing, Alfosov issued the instructions.  'Guys, we have a lady with us.  No farting in the lift, and watch your language'.

He is similarly laconic in summing up performance in Bern, with a light touch when handing out criticisms.  'Britain is our main rival in Europe', he says.  Russia's most experienced gymnast, Nikolai Kuksenkov, was the only one to make any mistakes in team finals, on the parallel bars.  It's clear that Alfosov is unhappy with this, but his job list is for the whole team, not just Kuksenkov:

• On parallel bars, they have to 'maintain the pace of execution throughout the whole exercise, only stopping when planned.  All elements must be executed on straight arms, without any adjustments.'  Alfosov's prioritisation of parallel bars, a specialism for the Russians and Soviets before them, was demonstrated in particular when he accompanied David Belyavski to the podium during his event final.  A rare appearance, and a sign of Alfosov's respect and concern for this great gymnast.
• On high bar, the team must increase their D values - this is very urgent.
• On rings, the men must improve the posture of their strength elements.
• On floor, the height of the tumbles and the precision of their landings is of paramount importance.  Greater elegance is required in the gymnastic moves.  
• On vault, precise landings have to be the name of the day, without losing marks.
• Finally, on pommels the team have to rotate on straight arms and not rely on strength.  

Alfosov admitted that he was 'pleased with how our guys have shown themselves'.  They came to Bern with new routines, but performed without errors.  He didn't really want to pick out any individual for praise, but he had to name David Belyavski and Nikita Nagorny, Russia's two individual gold medallists.


The elegant Belyavski is the most 'Russian' of all the team; light and powerful, with an economy of line that is reminiscent of 1988 Olympic Champion, Vladimir Artemov.  Belyavski has often struggled to show his best in competition, but in Bern carried himself with all the charisma and confidence of a Bolshoi Principal dancer.  His self assurance was shared by the head coach.  'David's success was as expected', said Andrei Rodionenko, 'He was prepared for it.  His attitude now has to endure until the Olympics'.  This was pretty much echoed by David himself, who said that 'good preparation' was the basis of the team gold medal.  A well grounded approach to Belyavski's superior gymnastics, then.  This might seem a bit tough, but the 24 year old from Ekaterinburg knows that he will have to be at his best if he is to contend for individual medals in Rio, and great gymnastics does not happen by magic.  The whole team will need to follow his example if they are to live up to their coaches' high expectations.

The Russian team still revolves around a fairly long-standing team of stars - Belyavski, Ablyazin, Kuksenkov, Ignatyev - along with 19 year old Nikita Nagorny, who, in only his second year as a senior, won a gold medal in the floor exercise, his second individual Europeans first (he won vault last year in Montepelier).  Many are crediting the ebullient Nagorny for the renewed vigour with which the Russian men are tackling competition of late.  You couldn't help but smile at his spontaneous celebration after his medal ceremony, which was shared by all the gymnasts.  (Do you have a few minutes to spare?  I suggest you visit Nikita's Youtube Channel, Nikushkin Day.  It's probably even better if you speak Russian!)

Nagorny is not over-confident, though.  'Two years ago, I looked at the guys on the team and I thought, perhaps, it wasn't even a dream to be part of this.  I thought it was impossible.  This was my first team European Championships and we won!  Now, I want to say that nothing is impossible ...', he said to RSport.  Mature, outgoing and a natural leader, Nagorny is a breath of fresh air in the often tense atmosphere of the Russian gymnastics team and his enthusiasm is infectious.

If, as a person, Nagorny is engaging and outgoing, then as a gymnast, he is more moderate and controlled, a kind of relatively elegant acrobat.  He doesn't completely fit the stylish frame of David Belyavski, nor is he quite the daring acrobat that Denis Ablyazin is.  He is a developing all arounder with impressive difficulty and good execution, but what impressed me even more than this was the seriousness with which he approached his competition.  There is a deliberate style of 'hitting' his routines that owes much to mental attitude, never a strong point amongst the nervey Russians.  Even so, he did make an error in vault event finals.  (The format of this competition, and the timing of the medal ceremonies was extremely challenging for all those competing in multiple finals.)  But then, so did his team mate Denis Ablyazin - and this is a comparison that does the senior gymnast few favours.  While Nagorny squeezed every inch out of his 6.8 D value floor exercise in qualifiers, team finals and event finals, Ablyazin fell short of qualifying to floor final even with a 7 D value, and made errors at every stage of the game.  Ablyazin won the floor world title in 2014, but since then has struggled to find his feet.  He has outscored Nagorny only twice on floor in major senior competition over the last two years.  In Bern, he had an unlucky time with errors on all three pieces at some point of the game - floor, rings (handgrip problems in team finals) and vault, ending up securing two medals instead of the expected four.  In Rio, he will have to grasp back some of the initiative if he is to capitalise fully on his extreme difficulty.  When you consider his position as event specialist, the importance of his position on the team as a main individual medal contender, things really are coming to a crunch.

The 23 year old from Penza - who holds 13 individual medals at World, European and Olympic level - has already been outdone in terms of D value by the amazing Kenzo Shirai.  But then Ablyazin's skills are more varied than Shirai's, who relies in the main on his fabulous twisting skills to achieve his 7.5 D value.  Andrei Rodionenko's opinion of Ablyazin's competition performance recently is that his routines are simply at the very limit of what is possible for him; he has to be at an absolute peak to complete them without error.  The pressure must be huge.  Stories are circulating of a severe and public dressing down given by Valentina Rodionenko to his coach, Sergei Starkin, right after Ablyazin's failed floor exercise.  Starkin held his own.  He knows that he who does not risk cannot win.  This is a simple maxim of gymnastics and I do not expect either Ablyazin or his coach to 'wimp out' and reduce his difficulty.  It takes guts to continue when people have seen you fail, but Ablyazin is a gutsy performer.  I expect he is in the gym right now working on improvements, and we will just have to wait and see how things go in Rio.  If he fulfills his tasks there he may secure as many as three of the eight medals Russia needs, but we will have to sprinkle him with a little good luck.

Ablyazin's struggles highlight a perennial theme within the sport : what of the constant battle between execution and difficulty in men's gymnastics?  What part will this play in the final results in Rio?  Emin Garibov, a former team captain, and an outside contender for the Rio team, feels that gymnastics has become 'a bit of a circus', and that in the 'chase' for complexity, gymnastics has lost some of its inherent 'purity and elegance', alienating spectators who no longer understand how the sport is marked.  'The last two years seem to show that complexity trumps purity, but at the Olympic Games I think that there will be an optimal balance between complexity and clarity', he said.  This 'optimal balance', if it materialises, may favour such gymnasts as Belyavski, but it will depend on the delivery of perfect routines.  Can Russia manage this?  Garibov thinks that there are medal chances, but lists his country's rivals as Japan, China, USA and Great Britain.  There is much for Russia to overcome on the way, but Garibov is certain that the team will 'fight to the last'.

The ever present threat of injury could affect any of the teams and individuals preparing for the Olympics and this is one area where Russia could be vulnerable.  They have good reserves - for example the technically pure Ivan Stretovich and Artur Dalolyan - but their optimal team will include those who competed in Europe, perhaps with Garibov in for Nikita Ignatyev, if the former's training and injury recovery goes well.  The competition format in the Olympics is a little different to that in Europe, meaning that the team needs greater depth at qualification stage.  As usual, the gymnasts who will train for Rio will be selected on the basis of performance in Bern, at Russian nationals earlier this year, and at the summer Russia Cup (begins 27th June).  If everything were predictable in gymnastics, we wouldn't need competitions, so be prepared for shocks and surprises.

The Russian team, coaches, medics and gymnasts

Finally, when they are not flying through the air with the practiced precision and reckless abandon of a fighter pilot dodging bullets from the head coach, the Russian men do seem to have their feet on the ground, and they have taken courage from their victories in Europe.  David Belyavski commented that the team had demonstrated that they were now able to fight for medals at the Olympics in both team and individual events.  The hardest medal in Bern was the team gold, because it meant they had to compete eighteen routines without error.  The same will be true in Rio, but the outcome won't necessarily be the same because other teams may perform even better.  However, given the depth and diversity of the international field in men's gymnastics, team medals may be more realistic than individual.  Russia has made significant improvements to its competitive attitude and gymnastics content.  The men's team has been strengthened by the addition of new blood to the coaching team - young coaches like Andrei Dukhno, a tumbling specialist.  The gymnasts also bring their own personal coaches to the arena.  In gymnastics, teamwork amongst the coaches is as important as the spirit amongst the competitors.  Cohesive relationships in the team are very much in evidence at present and it will be essential for this condition to continue if they are to be successful in Rio.

Sources

Interview with head coach, Valery Alfosov (stadium.ru)

Interview with David Belyavski (and Nikita Nagorny) (Rsport)

Interview with head coach, Valery Alfosov (TASS)

Interview with Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko (stadium.ru)

Interview with Nikita Nagorny (Rsport)

Interview with Emin Garibov (Sportbox)

Further reading on RRG:

A brief profile of David Belyavski

Nikita Nagorny 'absolutely stunning' in pre-Olympic training, says coach

'Mama, don't cry!' Denis Ablyazin as a boy

Emin Garibov : 'I will compete for Russia, but remember Azerbaijan'

Interview with Nikolai Kuksenkov 

Nikita Ignatyev ; 'The All Arounder'

Kuksenkov tests positive for meldonium

WADA ruling about excretion rates of meldonium - implications

Kuksenkov cleared to compete in Europeans following positive test for meldonium