Skip to main content

Happy New Year!

Dear Readers

I moved house in October and am still filtering through boxes and reordering my life - moving is always like this!  This morning, I have begun to browse through my gymnastics archive and to reflect on just a little of the material that has given my writing life over the past few years. 

Over the coming year or so I will be posting on this blog less, as I wish to concentrate on the preparation of a book I have been planning for some years - please be patient.  My archive will continue to fuel my ideas, but I will also need to keep up with current developments in the sport in Russia.  There is a lot going on, not just within gymnastics but within the wider political, economic and social spheres.  I don't want to give too much away, but I will keep you up to date with anything major.

It has always been a joy to share things with you on this blog and I intend to continue.  Today, I'll post a few scans of items I have found in my collection - there will, sporadically, be more as I gradually work through it all.

The quality of the pictures is dictated by (a) the condition of the original object held in my collection and (b) the technical limitations of publishing pictures on the blog.  You will find the same, occasionally more, images on my Facebook page and my Twitter account, where the picture quality is a little better.

Enjoy!

Svetlana Boguinskaia, from a special feature just prior to the 1992 Olympic Games, that appeared in London's Sunday Telegraph colour supplement

Grigori Missiutin, in the same feature.  Go to RRG's Facebook page to see more.


Comments

  1. Happy New Year, Queen Elizabeth! May happiness reign in your home! ����������

    ReplyDelete
  2. Happy New Year!!!🎉💜

    ReplyDelete
  3. Happy New Year and thanks for all your contributions thus far in the gymternet!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Who really won the WAG All Around?

You will find a link to the FIG's newly published book of results at the Olympic Games here .  This year, they have broken down the judge's execution scores so you can see exactly how each judge evaluated the gymnasts' performances.  It makes for interesting reading - if only I had more time to analyse each judge's marking.  A skim reading already highlights multiple inconsistencies in individual judges' marks and makes you wonder why they bother with the jury at all. I have taken the time to look at the reference judges' scores for the top four in the women's all around.  The FIG explains here what their role is, and how they are selected.  I even used my calculator, which is a risky thing in my hands.  My, how I wish we could have seen a similar document for the Tokyo World Championships. I wonder if anyone can explain how, if the FIG's Code of Points is so objective and fair, it is possible to come up with two different results using two differ...

Is gymnastics still artistic?

Such a lot is said about artistry these days - but you don't really see much evidence of it in the gymnastics.   There are flashing moments of brilliance that some people enjoy - for example, a gymnast like Brazil's Flavia Saraiva is a favourite for her spirited and expressive floor and beam.  Others might prefer the structured work of a gymnast like Kyla Ross.  For me, though, the idea of consummate artistry has been lost almost totally - the last time I saw anything like it was in 2012 when Komova performed her floor so brilliantly in the all around final.  But without a mechanism to reward artistry - something that is absent from this Code of Points - there really isn't much point even trying any more. Aliya Mustafina was interviewed recently while on holiday in Italy and expressed the opinion that artistry was something that was inborn, rather than trained.  She uses a metaphor to describe this - some gymnasts have five gears, not four, and the abilit...

UPDATE 23/9 - Russian WAG team for Nanning confirmed

Daria Spiridonova will compete at her first World Championships this autumn.  Picture : RGF Natalia Kalugina has confirmed the Russian team for Nanning : Aliya Mustafina, Maria Kharenkova, Tatiana Nabieva,Ekaterina Kramarenko, Alla Sosnitskaya, Daria Spiridonova.  Reserve : Polina Fyodorova Here is a paraphrased translation of a comment by Natalia Kalugina on her Facebook page : 'Aliya has confidence in competition and she is, kind of, a coach to this team.  In Europe she succeeded in this role and she has told the coaches that she even liked it. The main fighting force will be Kharenkova, Sosnitskaya and Spiridonova.  Accordingly, the strongest apparatus will be beam (Marina Bulashenko With God!).  The Chinese women, of course, have been known to win that apparatus, but if one falls, they all fall.   Alla Sosnitskaya could compete in the vault final, and - in theory - on the floor. On bars, of course, Russia will probably lose to the Chinese women, but the...

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more