Television channel Russia 1 covered the departure of the Russian team from Sheremetyevo Airport, Moscow, yesterday. The Russians are now safely arrived in Rio, [the pictures are of their arrival, from the Asahi TV channel website] and installed in the Olympic village - even if conditions aren't as good as they might be. Valentina Rodionenko has had a few words to say about that, and I'll be covering them later on but in the meantime enjoy this video - and there is a brief summary of the main points in English below.
Even though they didn't know whether or not they will be allowed to compete, the Russian athletes have continued training for the Olympics. The first representatives of the national team are on their way to Brazil. The sport is gymnastics, and they took off from Sheremetyevo this morning.
There is a fighting spirit, and a will to win. Behind the scenes, they are working to their limits, overcoming injuries - and two months ago they showed they are the best in Europe. Now they are flying to Rio, to have a say in whether they can be considered to be amongst the best in the World.
"We are in a fighting mood," - says Daria Spiridonova.
The main team is made up of ten people - five boys, five girls. Then there are four travelling reserves. To earn a place on the team took blood and sweat. At the last minute silver medallist at the London Olympic Games, Ksenia Afanasyeva, had to retire with an ankle injury. She was one of the best in the world on the floor exercise. Maria Paseka, world champion on the vault, had to take a break from training with injury, but managed to confirm her title as Queen of the apparatus three weeks ago at the Russian Championships. There, in the all around, the confident 15 year old Angelina Melnikova won - the Olympic Games will be just the fourth senior competition of her career.
"There is a fighting spirit and I very much want to compete. The most difficult thing is to manage the nerves and excitement. Everything is going well!", said Angelina Melnikova.
Aliya Mustafina, captain of the women's team and winner at the last Olympic Games of a gold medal on the bars, had to take a long break from the all around with a knee injury. Doctors would not allow her to compete on vault. In order to recover, she has had to show complete commitment - in the past few months, you could almost say that she was living in the gym.
"Now everything is all right, I have recovered. All we have to do now is to go to practice and get used to the apparatus"- says Aliya Mustafina.
The male half of the team has shown consistently good results, according to the coach, and is now on top form. Nikolai Kuksenkov, team captain, looks focused and confident. At the Russian Championships, he confirmed his position as the best gymnast. At one time, he was almost barred from participating in the games due to a positive doping test for meldonium. But then the news came at the last minute, the case against him has been dismissed.
"I've been training with the team and I think everything is going well, so I hope for the best results. You shouldn't think about medals and the marks as being the main thing - you should just do your job, that's all, and leave the rest to the judges to decide ", - said Nikolia Kuksenkov.
The gymnastics competition, where 14 medals will be awarded, will be held from 6 to 16 August. The head coach of our team, Andrei Rodionenko, has every confidence in the team. He jokes that the most difficult thing is the long flight.
"All being well, we'll catch a transfer flight from Amsterdam and then it will be another twelve hours before our arrival in Rio. The gymnasts just need to do what they can do," said Andrei.
The team's arrival has been planned to give them time to rest and get back into shape and used to the new apparatus. Russia's fencing teamwill fly out a few hours later. It's still not known whether the athletes will suffer the same fate as the athletics team. Later today, the IOC will announce its decision and then we will know whether Russian athletes will be able to compete for Olympic medals.
Kohei Uchimura supports IOC decision to allow clean Russian athletes to compete : http://www.reuters.com/article/us-olympics-rio-gymnastics-uchimura-idUSKCN1051IC?utm_content=buffer5820b&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
ReplyDeleteSome photos of members of Russiaās gymnastic Olympic team arrive at the airport in Rio de Janeiro http://pictures.reuters.com/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&VBID=2C0FCIKAN8PJ0&SMLS=1&RW=1366&RH=643 P.S. Mustafina photo is special, bcz Aliya looks SO thrilledā¦ http://pictures.reuters.com/Doc/RTR/Media/TR3/a/9/0/c/RTSJG2N.jpg
ReplyDeleteVideo Russiaās Olympic team arrive in Rio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxXAgn2ZxeY
ReplyDeleteI wonder after all the hype around the Russians athletes, what the judging will look like? and I expect more political scores according the political background of each judge and his stance in this case!
ReplyDeleteJohn
nothing that foolish will happen. the fig will monitor each judge and suspend whoever is being biased, as they always have done. artistic and trampoline judges are majority good but RG is a cesspool of corruption (but there the corruption favors Russia so...)
DeleteAgree with anon here....the FIG will monitor everything and with recent sanctions against judges for recent comps I do not think any judge at the games will do anything but their best to judge appropriately and fairly to what they are seeing on the floor at that moment regardless of nationality. Of course there is always mass tension fueling any post games discussion and I imagine the blogosphere will no doubt turn into a war of words for those fans who feel every last performance was unfair and gymnast "xyz" from their preferred team should have won. Hopefully as dedicated fans we can avoid this, be thankful that all teams are rightfully allowed to compete for top honors, and enjoy a vigorous competition where all the athletes produce their best when it counts. We must try to understand too that we are not judges and as much as we may hyper analyze routines in slow motion for weeks after the fact the judges are seeing on the spot performances from a side angle and are judging within moments of the performance. Hopefully the games will run smoothly without any contraversies. Good luck to all the teams! I am eagerly chomping at the bit for the first coverage of the training halls =)
Deletewish I share your trust in those judges and FIG "monitoring system", because I lost it a long time ago, and Fig transparency is questionable for me because they failed deliberately to provide the sanctioned judges' names and their countries and how far their misjudging affected medals and which gymnasts or countries they favored or were biased against, if you have something like that I will appreciate it.
DeleteJohn
Alfosov interview from Olympic village in Rio, about IOC decision and how team was reacting on it, how friendly Rio met them etc. http://www.sport-express.ru/olympics/rio2016/artistic-gymnastics/news/ohrana-olimpiyskoy-derevni-otneslas-k-rossiyanam-pozitivno-1025540/
ReplyDelete