Skip to main content

About this blog

By
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.


This blog is edited and written by Elizabeth Booth.  You can find my profile and publication details at Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-booth-36b0b620/?originalSubdomain=uk

If you would like to contact me, please do so via my social media :

Twitter @RussianGymnast
Facebook : www.facebook.com/rewritingrussiangymnastics

Most of my translations, particularly since about 2019, are Google translates.  I have a rudimentary, slowly but constantly growing grasp of the Russian language as well.  

Others have helped with the translations - in particular Liubov Baladzhaeva of Gymnovosti, Lupita and Marina Vulis.

I would particularly like to acknowledge the help of Vladimir Zaglada, an ace gymnastics coach who has endless enthusiasm for the sport and brought to me many of the contacts that have made so much of this blog possible.  Russian sports journalist Natalia Kalugina has also helped.

My thanks are also due to Isa Alexandrova and her father, Alexander, who gave me the astonishing interview in 2013 that told so much about the internal workings of Russian gymnastics.  I have also had interviews and support from Natalia Yurchenko and Maria Filatova, who have shown so much patience as they have answered my questions.

The gymnasts and coaches of the Russian Federation too add much colour to the telling of the Russian gymnastics story with their candid posts on social media.  We now face times of division and conflict that are without precedent in the history of our sport since 1952, but the gymnasts still maintain a public face that is friendly and relateable.  

This blog is about sport, not politics.  Sports has always found the best in people.  I hope that I can continue to find the best as I move forward with this developing history of gymnastics in Russia and so many of the compelling, hardworking and creative people I find there.  I understand why things are the way that they are, but I hope that soon things will change.  May peace and normality return to our relations as soon as possible.

I would also like to acknowledge the suffering of the Ukrainian people at the hands of the Russian state.  War is never right and the wrong people always pay.  May you find peace and freedom from fear, as soon as possible.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

30 years in elite sport: Oksana Chusovitina

By
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...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tribute to Russian gymnast and gold medallist Angelina Melnikova

By
Angelina Melnikova, now 23, is 2021 World AA champion in artistic gymnastics.    She holds a gold medal with her team from the 2020 (2021) Olympics, her second Games.    Visit her home, and no doubt there would be a secure cabinet full of all the various honours, awards and medals she has earned through her career. Angelina Romanovna Melnikova has her primary home in Voronezh, the place of her birth.    The club where she trains is the same one where champions Viktoria Komova, Vera Kolesnikova and Liubov Burda made their names.    1980 Olympic Champion Elena Davydova began her gymnastics life there, too. Melnikova is untypical of most Russian gymnasts.    Her first Olympics, in 2016, were characterised by uncharacteristic mistakes that came in the wake of a nasty hamstring injury.    As the youngest gymnast she seemed unsure and tearful - but still helped her team to a silver medal.   A Russian gymnast beginning so in...
1 comment
Read more

‘My daughter likes gymnastics. For us, this is the big success’. Aliya Mustafina talks to Match TV

By
Via VK.com.  Google translate A big interview with Aliya Mustafina was published on MATCH!. We provide a small excerpt below, and the full version is available on the website at the link below  ❓ Aliya, you are now the head coach of the junior artistic gymnastics team. What does your typical day look like? 💜 My current life is similar to what it was when I was competing. In the morning, I have breakfast and go to work by 9:00, we train for four hours, have lunch, rest and train for another three hours. During the training camp, the athletes live at the base. They live and train on the same territory. ❓ Do you manage the gymnasts' personal trainers or do you evenly distribute the responsibilities? 💜 We work in contact with the personal trainers, I listen to their opinions. For example, if the trainer believes that their athlete needs to be given a little rest or do fewer repetitions of a particular exercise, we do so. ❓ Describe the current generation of children. Do they nee...
2 comments
Read more

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more