I awoke this morning to a very simple statement from Viktoria Komova, on her vk.com site, which Papa Liukin has translated (via the IG forum):
'Dear friends, fans, and gymnastics lovers. Unfortunately back pain isn't allowing me to train to my full potential and get ready for competitions. I've made the very difficult decision to stop training and take care of my health. I want to thank everyone for their support! Without your love and warmth it would've been more difficult to go all the way. Thanks everyone and see you soon! Love and kisses.'
Well, first of all, good wishes and best of luck to Viktoria, who has struggled since 2012 to re-establish herself fully as a competitive gymnast, whose talent was so great that she secured gold on bars at two different World Championships, four years apart, whose career was littered with controversy, who must be allowed to live her life as she wishes.
I know that the 'gymternet' will now be overflowing with tributes to Viktoria from far and wide. They are deserved. Two individual apparatus golds at Worlds do not even begin to describe this gymnast's potential. The schizophrenic sport of gymnastics never rewarded Komova as she should have been, when she was competing at her best. Two all around silvers, at the 2011 Worlds and 2012 Olympics, were a tragedy and a travesty.
For the Russian team to Rio, Komova's loss is more symbolic than substantial; her withdrawal is the confirmation of what many had suspected for some time. Viktoria's return to World competition in 2015 endorsed her bars genius, but the gymnast was still a shadow of her former self. In a sport where 'going for it' is valued more than virtuosity, artistry, or whatever inadequate word can be used to describe her gymnastics, Komova was never going to be valued appropriately and fairly.
Russia must now simply go for their best performance in Rio with whoever is ready to compete. Sadly for them, the injury list is growing. With Ksenia Afanasyeva currently in Germany for yet another surgery, with Aliya Mustafina currently unable to present four routines in one competition at the same time, with Maria Paseka's presence highlighted by a question mark, the fight for places on the Russian team will be interesting, to say the least, and the fight for medals in the team and individual competition will be ever more difficult.
So, we remember Viktoria and look forward to hearing news of whatever she decides to do next in her life. She is only 21. At an age when most people are only beginning their lives, Viktoria starts life again, as a Champion.
Three words that describe Viktoria for me : melliflous, magnificent, complex.
Further reading about Viktoria on RRG
Viktoria Komova in flight
In general, an ordinary childhood - interview with Viktoria's mother, Vera Kolesnikova
Komova should have won! - reflections on the 2012 Olympic All Around competition
'Who really won the WAG All Around?' - the reference judges gave Komova the win at the 2012 Olympic AA competition.
'Vika, don't cry any more!' Interview post Olympics with Viktoria and her mother
Does Komova need gymnastics?
'Support us, believe in us, watch gymnastics'
'In general, I'm rarely sad' - interview with Viktoria just prior to her 2015 European Games comeback
Viktoria's best floor routine, from the 2012 Olympics
Viktoria Komova : close to perfection on beam at the 2010 Junior European Championships
Is this for real? Is she really retiring? I wish this is just another rumor. I'd still wait and see in Russian Cup. It'll be a great disappointment not to see her in Rio.
ReplyDeleteThese are Viktoria's own words - there is a video of her saying them. I will be very, very surprised if anything changes.
DeleteMaybe I'm being overly optimistic, but perhaps she will come back after she has recovered? She did say see us all soon, albeit without specifying the capacity.
DeleteThere goes the most talented gymnast I've seen in many many years, and my hope to regain my love for gymnastics. I hope she will have a great life!
ReplyDeleteQueen Elizabeth, take a deep breath and relax, bcz Aliya now training all 4 apparatus and Paseka also is training again VT UB
ReplyDeletePlease, don't forget that Aliya is performing easier routines than in Euros 2010. What can we expect from this team? The best hopes are out of contention - Komova and Grishina. How many gymnasts have been lost during this quad? At least ouf of the group of promising gymnasts... Kharenkova? Shelgunova? Sosnitskaya? Dmitrieva?
DeleteHow do you know? I hope its true!
DeleteAbout Komova - what a great loss for gymnastics. She will go down in history like Daniela Silivas as one of the greatest who never won a world or olympic AA. It is really sad, considering she was looking good and competing all four events a year ago the European games.
Could you provide some insight into how you know this please, especially the information about Zpaseka's training.
DeleteQueen Elizabeth, may I have the link of Viktoria speaking?
ReplyDeleteIt is on her private vk.com page - not linkable.
DeleteSparkles and Chalk a Tumbler Blog has the video. QE is right, she is speaking these words.
DeleteCould younpls give the link to the tumblr blog with the video? Thanks
DeleteEvery gymnast everywhere should watch her bar routine from Worlds before every bar workout, while putting on their grips. If that doesn't make you want to do your best, I don't know what will!
ReplyDeleteAre you saying that her chance of the olympics is slim to none? This same thing happened in 2012 when Iordache was injured just before the olympics. She still competed and did a respectable job. I wouldn't count her out of the olympics until the day the olympics begins.
ReplyDeleteShe's out, she's said she's not training. How can she be in?
DeleteMy heart breaks at this but now this is time for Russia to start giving the new girls a chance. This is sad news for me, she as my favorite.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Vaytsehovskaya Komova still trainings in normal regime ( Elena was visiting Round Lake today, coz Sambo 70 and Laishev there president was organizing smt like a gala reception called "Спасибо за Европу! Удачи в РИО!" with the purpose to congratulate girls for Bern gold in Team. And there was plenty of journalists incl Vaytsehoskaya and Kalugina was the host of the party... You can see Aliya and Vika on the backgroudn on picture here http://instaliga.com/bolkhovitin_aleks/1273962429637829338_2227824199
ReplyDeleteDo you have the link to the Vaitsekhovskaya article please? I cannot see the pic you describe at the link given.
DeleteVika is a beautiful gymnast. I hope she decides to continue training. She could be competitive as a two-event gymnast (beams and bars).
ReplyDeleteI disagree with your assessment that she did not deserve her two AA silvers. She did not deserve the gold in either AA competition because, in each competition, the gymnast who beat her was better on that day (in difficulty as well as execution). However, I agree that Vika is very, very special in her movements and in her expression.
How can you say they were better? In my opinion, the judges give better scores to girls from the USA just because they are from the USA. In 2011 Worlds, they lowered Vika's floor D score because she fell out of a spin which they should've given her the difficulty and lowered the execution for falling out of it. That's why Wieber won by less than a tenth of a point and Wieber stepped out of bounds and wasn't as good with her bars routine
DeleteDifficulty? Komova had a higher aa difficulty score than both Weiber and Douglas in 2011 and 2012 lol
DeleteMany people don't feel the same, specialists wrote about it, there are links under the article, one is http://rewritingrussiangymnastics.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/who-won-wag-all-around.html
ReplyDeleteThere was a board of reference judges that were unofficially scoring the meet and by their calculations Komova should have won.
I think she should have won both times, the effort put into correct form was never appreciated, Komova was considered to be technically superior to Wieber and Douglas, there are videos on youtube making comparisons.
Finished or not, still she has no chance of success under the current way of judgement because it has been designed against her. FIG needs USA to win always regardlesы of their line-up and strength of opponents, so Komova’s incredible gymnastics caused the federation to exclude dependence of E score on execution making her style very disadvantageous. Being the best, Komova had low possibility to overscore rivals because better gymnastics was harder in the same time. When better perfomance is not encouraged it is the simplisity that determines scores.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, in sport like all sorts of racing, jumps, weightlifting, etc. gap between champions and other contenders does not exceed few percent. So at the highest level of competition few percent is all advantage in strength one can achive. In gymnastics strength is not the only factor affecting result (D score plus stability). Another one is the simplicity of gymnastic tricks which depends on both execution style and body form (dimensions, weght, weght distribution). A big difference of styles and forms leads to strong discrepancy of the simplicity that greatly exceeds posible gap in strength. Thus under the current system of judgement factors like talent, strenghth, hard training do not mean a lot. They are dominated by the factor of simplicity.
Thus climbing to the top is practically impossible for real gymnasts like Komova due to high real difficulty of execution. In addition the body factor can be even more important as we can see on the example of Biles. Since all WAG is reduced to tumbling both heavy butt and low hight becomes the most sighnificant beacause these features provide the highest speed of rotation under the constant strength of jump. Besides, low height simplifies leg control in air, working on BB, increses stability of landings, and allows to perfom more tumbling passes on limited area. These cheats are also actively used by Chinese, that’s why they construct team of microgymnasts.
Focused on D score and stability, ignoring the difference in real difficulty of tricks, and disregarding aestetics, the current judgement system promotes nothing but ugly body forms and dirty execution. WAG transformes into circus of freakes. Time of Komova and other gymnasts has passed, they are simply inappropriate nowadays.
O please yet under the current way of judgement Komova came away with a gold medal from Worlds. If Komova could stay on beam there is no doubt she would have likely won beam as well don't blame the system acknowledge Komova's weaknesses. I find people have no problem with the system when the Russians win but there are problems when they loose which is often as a result of their mental lapses. I hope Komova can have a healthy life outside of gymnastics its clear her body could no longer handle the rigors.
DeleteMy favorite gymnasts of all time are Vika and Aliya but I like Vika more. Is there a way to see the video? If anyone here has access to Vika's "VK" profile who can download the video for us to see?
ReplyDeleteThis is a sad announcement for gymnastics. I was devastated yesterday and woke up a little crabby this morning. After Aaliya is gone it will be the end of an era of my favorite gymnasts (Grishina, Komova, Mustafina) Hopefully, our juniors will provide some much needed oompf to the RF WAG Team. God Bless you Komova, as much as I yearned for you to win a Gold Medal at Rio, I know you will go down in history as one of the best to have ever competed. I know this in not her retirement statement. It will come, and with all the pomp and circumstance it deserves.
ReplyDeleteAgree, if I were to make a list of truly beautiful gymnastics, with care about precision and clean technique, long lines and artistry Komova would certainly top that, with Grishina, Dementieva, Pavlova and Nastia Liukin.
DeleteI really hope Russia can adopt some new training methods to help mitigate these injuries it seems quite weird most of their gymnast are suffering from back injuries. I dont think we should expect much from Russia for this Olympic cycle its sad they dont have any gymnast who can challenge in the AA. All the best to Komova I hope she can be happy outside the gym.
ReplyDeleteMelnikova had the 3rd best all-around score worldwide in 2016 with a 60.067 (thegymternet - the best scores in 2016)
DeleteAbout Vika retirment V Rod Officeal staitment from today news in RSport http://rsport.ru/artist_gym/20160617/948759841.html http://rsport.ru/photo/20160617/948770700.html
ReplyDeleteSome news about Paseka current status from Velentina Rodioninko from RSport http://rsport.ru/artist_gym/20160617/948802048.html
ReplyDeleteWell well well the circus about Komova retirmen began.. her dad says she just skipping Rio games, but most strange statement come from Grebionkin ...he say she just skipping the champ and he don't now anything about her status in gymnastics http://tass.ru/sport/3376949
ReplyDeleteYes, indeed her father stated she cannot train with pain and sees no point to practice now that she cannot prepare for Rio. He added that hopefuly doctors will help her and she will be able to return and please us.
Deletehttp://m.sport-express.ru/artistic-gymnastics/news/1011902/
ReplyDeletePlease look.
Vika was a great gymnast who, in my opinion, should have been the sole winner of the gold for the 2015 World Championships Uneven Bar competition. I wish her the very best of luck, and hope that she can become healthy as quickly as possible.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree. She had the fewest mistakes (if any) of the four.
DeleteTodd
Btw Komova mom says that Vika will haw kind of treatment in Germany in august https://riavrn.ru/news/voronezhskaya-gimnastka-viktoriya-komova-propustit-olimpiadu-iz-za-boley-v-spine-/
ReplyDeleteToday Komova told that her status in gymnastic is uncertain and maybe she is not retired http://matchtv.ru/news/viktoriya-komova-ya-i-ne-ukhozhu-iz-sporta-i-ne-ostayus-seychas-nuzhno-vosstanovit-zdorove/ PS also Rodionenko now Andrey :P about Russia medal plans in Rio games http://matchtv.ru/news/andrey-rodionenko-sbornaya-rossii-po-sportivnoy-gimnastike-budet-rada-lyuboy-medali-na-olimpiade/
ReplyDeleteNew Komova video interview about wats next to her and so on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgKnkP-HY0g
ReplyDeleteKomova will travel to Germany on july 20 for medicaltraitment according to todays Valentina interview on Tass http://tass.ru/sport/3445591 PS btw Kharemnkova is now trainings at Round Lake :(
ReplyDeleteaccording to Komova tv interview she has it calling in russian "Грыжa и протрузия позвоночника"
ReplyDeleteOuch. That sounds like a herniated disc - can anyone translate?
DeleteThis is really great information found here, I really like your blog. Thanks very much for the share. Keep posting.
ReplyDeleteComplex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS)