I’ve reached a time in my life when it’s more important to watch the birds and listen to my nephews and nieces laughing than it is to write about Russian gymnastics. I have a couple of ‘wrap ups’ in the pipeline but that’s all, folks. The Olympics just aren’t the Olympics without the Russians, at least for me. I wish Russia would put their energy into great sport instead of military endeavours. I’m no fan of the IOC and the Russian gymnasts did a lot of good for peace and friendship over about 70 years. But Russia’s leaders are letting their people down. I’ll continue to walk alongside Angelina Melnikova and will post occasional updates of her work and life on my RRG Facebook page. She is remarkable. I hope that Russia’s young gymnasts can find a way to continue what is essentially their livelihood, if necessary by moving overseas. It would be great if some of them could study abroad. I’m unfollowing Nagorny. He walked with a swagger round the competition hall at Russia Cup
I’m supposed to be taking some time for my mental health, not writing blog posts about gymnastics. It’s not only my mental health, but that of the whole gymnastics and sporting community. You, my readers, know that the Court for the Arbitration of Sport has reassigned the bronze medal in the FX event at the Olympics. We finally have the right finishing order, but the FIG is at huge fault here. The appeals system went wrong in both its substance and its process, and before that the judges had failed, giving us inaccurate marks and unfair finishing orders. The gymnasts, Jordan Chiles and Ana Barbosu, are suffering and instead of unbounded joy and pride they feel humiliation and confusion and embarrassment. That the judges couldn’t get the medals in the right order first time (and that there’s still one out there, Sabrina Voinea, whose question is left unresolved) is the biggest pair of oversized pants since the last time the FIG messed up. That coaches only have a minute to lod