Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Tatiana Nabieva and Russian team choreographer Olga Burova. Here they are with a friend, practising for a caption competition for the RGF website. Advance entries at welcome at this website. The Russian Gymnastics Federation has now published full results of the Voronin Cup, including the senior and junior competitions (team, all around and individual apparatus) and all the judges' assignments.  Interesting to see Anastasia Sidorova take the highest floor score in the women's all around (14.75) and second on vault (14.6).  None of the Russian seniors barring Komova competed in apparatus finals, and all of them steered clear of vault final.  Vault appears to be a relative weakness for the Russian women, and I guess this apparatus may lose them the Olympic team title when considering the overwhelming reliability and power of the US women. Sidorova was the standout of the new generation (NB, in the absence of her close rival Anastasia Grishina who was home with fl...

There are some gorgeous photographs on the Russian Gymnastics Federation website of the gymnasts celebrating their achievements at the Tokyo World Championships - Tatiana Nabieva, Ksenia Afansyeva, Viktoria Komova and Denis Ablyazin. It made me smile to see them so happy.

Veteran artistic gymnast Ksenia Afanasyeva leads the first day of Russia Cup competition in Ekaterinburg, ahead of European champion Anna Dementieva and newcomer to the senior team, Viktoria Komova.  This annual competition will form an important element of the selection process for the national team for autumn's World Championships.  Full individual results can be viewed on the Federation's website . Afanasyeva is said to be the gymnast on top form at this competition, having fully recovered from an injury she had been carrying for some time.  Viktoria Komova performed extremely well considering she was not initially expected to compete on all four pieces, and achieved the highest score on bars. Only three of last year's World Championships team - Afanasyeva, Dementieva and Semenova - featured in the top ten here (Semenova, recently returned to Lake Krugloye to begin full training, finished in 7th place).  Tatiana Nabieva competed only vault and bars but seems t...

Putting aside worries about injuries, we have seen this year how the deselection of certain gymnasts from competition rosters can influence competition outcomes and delay the often simplistic conclusions we gym fans want to draw.  Komova's lack of appearance on the senior front leaves us completely befuddled and Mustafina's sudden withdrawal from the European Championships beheaded Russian, European and, arguably, World gymnastics.  We are unsure whether these two gymnasts can possibly make it back to their former level and Dementyeva now appears as the poster girl of the forthcoming Russian Cup competition.  However, she might as well have a giant question mark over her head for all the credit she is given for her achievements. Similarly, the recent EYOF was without its top contender (Anastasia Grishina) and her closest domestic rival (Anastasia Sidorova), leaving us wondering how the results would have been affected if the Russian team had included those we consider t...

Visit Tanya Nabieva Online to view two educational videos on artistic gymnastics (2009).  The first is a general look at gymnastics, and you can see Nabieva, Mustafina, Malikova and Musina enjoying themselves in a general run around top Moscow department store, Gum.  It's interesting to see who else you can spot in this ten minute film - Kristina Goryunova is one, but did I also see Anna Dementieva on bars?  Ludmilla Korolenko was observed marking Aliya Mustafina's floor exercise, - and also her sister, Nailya's?  The second video is a relatively unremarkable discussion of the value of magnesium to gymnasts.

A lovely post by the Couch Gymnast reminds me of the continuing need to balance often simplistic media representations of our sport.  Brigid quotes from three recent posts at the Russian Gymnastics Federation site, interviews with Tanya Nabieva , Anna Dementieva and Svetlana Khorkina , and in particular highlights the clear warmth of coach-gymnast relationships.  I would add that in her interview Khorkina almost speaks more about Pilkin ('Grandpa') than she does of herself.  Nabieva also pays tribute to her coaches Vera and Alexander Kiryashov in this month's International Gymnast . The idea of the coach-gymnast relationship as tender, loving, and almost parental echoes the theme of many sources often ignored by the mainstream media.  Bitter recriminations surround certain coaches, particularly in Romania and the USA, but gymnastics has provided as many quietly positive role models.  For example, people seem to love speculating about Arkayev's autocratic be...

Qualification results are now available at the Russian gymnastics federation website . Anna Dementyeva features in the top three on bars, beam and floor with Afanasyeva providing some good back up on beam and floor and Kurbatova featuring reasonably soundly on bars and vault.  Chusovitina leads vault, Seitz bars, Millousi beam and Dementyeva floor.  The Russian team looks reasonably assured of at least some medals at this relatively modest competition. Link here to a video report from Vesti in the run up to the competition, featuring footage of Mustafina training bars in a heavy leg brace and Afanasyeva training beam.  There are brief interviews with Mustafina and Dementyeva; Komova appears in the background, looking reasonably fit to me - could see no evidence of ankle strapping.  Golutsotskov is also featured. Find here a brief news story in which Valentina Rodionenko suggests Nabieva's absence is due to minor injury.