Skip to main content

Mustafina: It’s easier to coach than compete

Aliya Mustafina is now national coach with responsibility for the junior WAG team.  She runs a happy ship; her gymnasts are confident and there is a good team spirit evident.

The leader of the team, Zlata Osokina, couldn’t compete in Kazan against China this week as she was resting an injury.  Her absence was precautionary.  Now read on as Aliya Mustafina sums up how the competition went.

Source : TASS.  Google translate.

‘Two-time Olympic champion in artistic gymnastics Aliya Mustafina admitted that it was more difficult for her to perform as an athlete than to participate in competitions as a coach. She told TASS about this during a match between the junior artistic gymnastics teams of Russia and China in Kazan.


đŸ’¬ “Now, probably, everyone will be surprised, but it was more difficult for me to perform,” said Mustafina. “I don’t know why this is so, they usually say, on the contrary, it would be better if I went out and did it myself. It was more difficult for me to perform than now to take the girls out.” Of course, there are worries, but there is always hope that everything will work out. There is excitement, but it doesn’t knock you out.”


Mustafina noted that she was pleased with the performance of the Russian team at the competition in Kazan. “We are more than satisfied with the results. Naturally, there is still something to work on, where to strive. And so, for the first start that was quite serious in terms of organization, everything turned out more than successfully,” the coach said.


The leader of the Russian women's youth artistic gymnastics team, Zlata Osokina, was unable to take part in the competition in Kazan due to an injury; now the athlete feels fine. Senior coach of the team Aliya Mustafina told TASS about this during a match between the junior teams of Russia and China in Kazan.


đŸ’¬"Now everything is fine with her, everything is fine. We just took care of her so as not to worsen the situation, so to speak. But nothing serious, everything is fine. And so, in principle, we had the strongest lineup, the strongest girls, not counting Zlaty,” said Mustafina.’


Links :

https://tass.ru/sport/19379401

https://tass.ru/sport/19379307

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Nelli Kim - 'Russian gymnastics has closed in on itself' - Lupita translates

Lupita has translated this ITAR-TASS interview with Nelli Kim.  It's controversial, to say the least. Ed's note : much of the initial response to this interview - both here and in the wider gymternet -  has focussed on the detail of Kim's words and especially her comments about Viktoria Komova, and smiling.  But I think these have to be taken in context, and not too literally. Don't forget that just a day ago Andrei Rodionenko complained bitterly about the judging in Antwerp, calling Kim's behaviour 'aggressive'. Kim is responding to this here, and to the wider current context of Russian gymnastics.  What she is essentially saying to the Russian coach is 'get your own house in order, produce confident, disciplined, well trained gymnasts - stop complaining, do your job, and I will do mine.'   She goes about saying this in a somewhat long winded way and says some things along the way that seem contradictory, unfair, inappropriate even for th...

30 years in elite sport: Oksana Chusovitina

You've been competing internationally for over 30 years. How has gymnastics changed over that time? Is there anything about your sport that has remained the same for decades? First of all, the age has changed. More mature athletes are competing now, which makes me happy. Secondly, the apparatuses. They've become more comfortable and sophisticated. Gymnastics in general has become more challenging, but in my youth, people performed mostly the same elements as they do now. Back then, this was par for the course, but now it surprises many. It's a bit amusing. Has the nature of the training itself changed? For me personally, absolutely. Now, my life isn't just about my athletic career. I'm involved with the Oksana Chusovitina Academy, which was personally opened by the President of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev. It has 155 students, both girls and boys. I used to train three times a day, but now I train once. The entire afternoon is taken up with the academy and organi...

National team coaches 2024, the Russian Federation - a full list

In January each year the Russian Gymnastics Federation publishes its list of coaches and gymnasts who have made the training teams for their country.  You will find below a transliteration of the list of national team coaches, 70 of them in total.  The oldest member of the team is Valentina Rodionenko, 88, the youngest Ivan Galonenko, 24 - he is a bars coach, to the junior women's team.   The senior coaches to the senior teams would all have qualified as coaches during the Soviet era.  Many of them work out of Moscow, Vladimir and Rostov, former Soviet strongholds of gymnastics.  The doctors are all attached to Yaroslavl.  St Petersburg has two coaches listed, but there are no St Petersburg gymnasts on the senior national teams at present.  There are no coaches from Russia's Far East.  This region has been highlighted as a geographical area President Putin is targetting for sports development and investment over the coming years.   ...

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more