Plans for the Olympics, the family cat, how Aliya managed her nerves in 2012 and much more - translation on Liubov's blog
Mustafina, Melnikova and Afanasyeva - Russia’s three divas train together to the tunes of Michael Jackson
M elnikova, Mustafina and Afanasyeva take creative control at Round Lake. You can see the video on Angelina Melnikova’s YouTube channel. They are discussing a new floor routine for Angelina; she wants to dance to Michael Jackson. Afanasyeva, 2012 Olympic medalist and a world champion on the floor, has been a choreographer for the national team for a few years now. She says, ‘Gel, first we need to understand the plan—what we’re actually doing.’ They discuss how many tumbles Angelina will perform, and where the tumbles will come in the routine. Angelina says, she likes ‘Billie Jean’, it’s her favourite … But Afanasyeva has other ideas, linking into the dance shapes she has seen in a video: ‘Thriller . Start with Thriller . It begins with that image, right from the beginning when it starts.’ She shows us the dance. ‘I suggest taking a 1.5-minute or 1-minute segment of the dance directly.’ They promise to be in touch by email. ...
Aliya handles it graciously, but I wish Russian sport journalists would stop going on about Simone and the ADHD medication all the time. It's mean-spirited and unsportsmanlike, like when American sport journalists used to constantly prod about Chinese gymnasts possibly being underage.
ReplyDeleteI feel like the the mental state that helps Aliya compete so well comes across in interviews. She talks about gymnastics in a similar way to Kohei Uchimura, interestingly.