It has been a long time since I reflected on Russia and its gymnasts, but there have been some significant events recently so here is an update. 1 The continuing depletion of the national team reserve. MAG head coach Valery Alfosov has stressed that although the men's team appears to be thriving at present, this does not reflect a complete turn round in Russia's fortunes. There are concerns that the longer term development of the team will be erratic. Conditions in WAG seem highly uncertain. The national team relies on maintaining its veterans to ensure the appearance of being in contention for individual medals. Without Paseka and Mustafina the team would have only Ilyankova and Melnikova as gymnasts of medal potential. Furthermore, the measure of Mustafina is purely reputational. There is little evidence that she will return to competition at her previous level, and promising her appearance at the European Games could end up ...
Reporting and analysing Russian gymnastics since 2010. Includes original and exclusive interviews with leading coaches and gymnasts, and historical issues dating back to the Soviet Union. The first blog to report extensively on the sport using Russian language sources.