Gymnastics in post-Soviet Russia : ISSA Conference 2018

I am on my way home after attending the annual World Congress of the International Society of Sport, which this year was held over three days in Switzerland.  More than 300 participants gathered at the University of Lausanne, on the edge of Lake Geneva, to discuss issues relating to the place of sport in society.  Themes covered included sports policy, anti-doping, social exclusion and participation, ethics, disability, gender issues, sports development, globalisation, Olympism and mega-events and health.

I attended the second gathering of the group ISCWAG (International Socio-Cultural Research into women's artistic gymnastics), which is a relatively newly assembled group of academics from all over the world.  You can find profiles of the founder members here.  This year the papers focussed on such subjects as the coach-gymnast relationship and grooming; gender-based violence and gymnastics coaching, and the pattern of older gymnasts continuing to compete in the sport.  There was also a 'keynote' introductory presentation on the development of a research tree to map areas of inquiry into our sport.  I gave a presentation on WAG in post-Soviet Russia.

It is interesting to see how much research is going on into sport and in particular artistic gymnastics, and ISCWAG group members are concerned to engage with the realities and to embrace and encourage positive change in the sport, especially in light of the developing, global, worries about abuse.  I can give you a link to the book of abstracts for the conference, and you will find the artistic gymnastics pages at 26, 27, 41 and 42.  It was a great conference - with thanks to Natalie, Roslyn, and all who made it possible.

My work at present is to try to tell a story of gymnastics in the Russian Federation from its inception in 1992 to the present day.  Based on the interview Alexander Alexandrov gave me in 2013, and on multiple, almost daily conversations with Soviet senior national coach Vladimir Zaglada, I wanted to look at the development of gymnastics in post-Soviet Russia and try to explain how global and local changes in the political and economic environment have affected the institution of sports and in particular artistic gymnastics in Russia. I also make reference to in depth press interviews between Russia's leading sports journalist Elena Vaitsekhovskaya and Russian head coaches, Leonid Arkayev and Andrei Rodionenko.  These interviews were undertaken at times that were figural in the dismantling of the 'old' system and the establishment, or re-establishment, of the 'new'.

The whole story will be covered in a book I am planning.  The presentation shows some interim conclusions of work in progress.  In brief, Russia has moved forward to embrace a participation model for the sport (as opposed to the selection model of the Soviet Union) but without the economic prosperity to back this up, the seeding and nurturing of young gymnasts at grass roots level simply isn't happening at scale.  There are no longer the numbers to create a strong reserve.  The Soviet-era commodification of sports for political purposes has been replaced by an ethic that favours sport for its economic multiplier effects (realised through the staging of mega-events) and puts the financial success of sporting mega-stars on a pedestal.  A few people manage to make their living through gymnastics, but the majority struggle, or fail, to make ends meet.

President Putin's  ambition to re-awaken national pride through sport and to recapture the 'magnificent glories' of Soviet sport has animated some wonderful sponsors such as VTB, who have given billions of Roubles to sport and enabled, not least, the refurbishment of one of the world's leading national training centres at Lake Krugloye.  But the funding is incredibly top-heavy.  While the coaches at the national sports centre are paid well enough, coaches at grass roots receive below-subsistence wages.  There is no strong programme of scientific research into gymnastics in Russian universities, and thus there is a developing intellectual deficit amongst the increasingly scarce, rapidly ageing gymnastics coaching community.  Even though national senior coaches such as Andrianov, Grebyonkin, Alfosov and Kiryashov - in fact the whole team at Lake Krugloye, and the personal coaches of the national team members - have the mettle and track record to stand proudly amongst the best coaches in the world, the sheer scale of Russia makes this a spit in the ocean compared to what is needed to encourage recruitment and retention of young gymnasts and create a sustainable legacy of up and coming coaches and champions.  This isn't only about money.  Alexandrov spoke about changes to the Master of Sports programme needed to encourage gymnasts to stay in the sport whether they trained in Kazan, Moscow or Novosibirsk.

The internecine conflict that has been in evidence in the Russian programme - which Nelli Kim referred to as self destructive - stems from the stresses that Russia is experiencing as it adjusts to the changed cultural and economic environment of state capitalism.  It is not really surprising that at a sporting level there are arguments over how to achieve the best outcome with limited talent coming to the bank at Lake Krugloye.  Alexandrov's ambitious rhetoric of gold has been overshadowed by Rodionenko's quiet determination to work more strategically to create a team that will remain competitive at the top level.  Whose approach is better?  Alexandrov only had four years to make his case, and we only need time to tell if Rodionenko's approach is working.

The only surprising thing is that Russia has hung on to its high international ranking for so long.  Romania managed to sustain gold medals with only a handful of gymnasts for a very long time, but this was dependent on the fiery passion of Octavian Belu and was extinguished almost immediately he left the team.  It is remarkable how one person can provide leadership and make all the difference to a gymnastics programme.

I don't want to make all of my presentation public at this stage, but I will give you the first and last slides.  As ever, please do comment!