Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Queen Elizabeth is officially appalled.  Her flag (unusually, white blue and red) is flying at half mast.  Remember these names - Ksenia Afanasyeva, Viktoria Komova, Anna Dementieva, Yulia Belokobylskaya, Yulia Inshina, Tatiana Nabieva, Alyona Polyan - they are all consummate artistic gymnasts, fulfilling the requirements of the sport to be both artistic and dynamic.   They are a vibrant example of a dying breed, and they alone keep the sport alive. There is not enough time in the world for me to articulate the dissent and dismay I am feeling at present, after the women's all around final.  So for now, I will keep my silence.  Other than to offer my sympathy - and congratulations - to Viktoria Komova in particular, and Ksenia Afanasyeva and the entire Russian team in general.   But shortly, in the not too distant future, I intend to produce a review.  A state of War may shortly be declared.  A War of Words. That is all I have to say a...

Russia did well in the first, qualifying, day of competition in Tokyo, taking 2nd place in the team competition behind a solid USA, with youngster Viktoria Komova taking top position- by a whisker - in the all around.  It was a good performance from a team relatively weakened by the absence of world champion and team leader Aliya Mustafina, and a lingering injury to last year's Youth Olympics Champion Komova. Newcomers Yulia Inshina and Yulia Belokobylskaya performed a fantastic job for the team as strong lead off gymnasts.  Beginning on bars, the team had no margin for error.  Inshina, starting up, had no previous experience of major international competition but showed no sign of nerves as she went through her routine flawlessly.  She is an enchanting little gymnast who performs her floor and beam routines with her head a little to one side, as if deep in contemplation.  A personal characteristic that adds no end of expression to her work.  A nice rewar...

As ever, the run-up to the World Championships provides a rich source of media on Russian Gymnastics.  Thanks to the Russian Gymnastics Federation for providing the links below: Tulsa news - Ksenia Afanasyeva will compete at the world championships Moscow Live - 12th September - Maria Paseka returns (Russian language version) English language version Antonova, Ksenia (date and publication unknown) 'Nikita Ignatiev: Soldier's Son' There is also now an entire section of the RGF site dedicated to the World Championships where a link to the official site including the full schedule of competition including working order for qualifications can be found. 'Arms Race' Russia 2 video on Sportbox including the Russian men in training, including brief conversations with Andrei Rodionenko, Konstantin Pluzhnikov and Anton Golutsotskov.  Addresses the increasing levels of difficulty in the sport and training methods. Interview with Alexei Nemov on Russian programm...

The Russian Cup finished on Sunday with the final day of apparatus finals.  In the women's competition, Komova, Dementieva, Afanasyeva and Belokobylskaya proved to be the most successful of those in contention for places on the national team for the World Championships in Tokyo this October.   In the men's competition, we saw a changing of the guard as Ablyazin, Ignatiev and Garibov began to prove their worth against the falling star of such gymnasts as Devyatovski.  The Russian Federation website carries full results of the men's competition , and the women's competition . The top three in each event, and some more detailed notes, are as follows. Women's Competition Vault  1.  Anna Pavlova          14.225 2.  Anna Dementieva    13.813 3.  Maria Paseka          13.713 4.  Tanya Nabieva       ...

Anna Dementieva has repeated her all around victory at this February's Russian national championships with a gold medal in the all around at the Russia Cup, held this afternoon in Ekaterinburg.  In so doing, she recorded the highest scores on vault (previously a significant weakness, she is said to have mastered a double twisting Yurchenko), beam and floor, amassing a total score of 59.8.  In second place was Viktoria Komova, whose 15.7 on bars was her highest score.  The leader after qualifications, Ksenia Afanasyeva, suffered a double fall on bars and was reduced to fourth place at this competition behind a consistent Yulia Belokobylskaya.  Tatiana Nabieva, competing only on bars and vault, redeemed herself somewhat today after a disappointing round of qualifications.  Her 15.2 on bars was second to Komova and she managed a reasonable vault score of 14.4.   National team contender Ramila Musina did not compete today because of illness. 1 ...

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...

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...

Aliya speaks warmly of the many video montages presented on her website - so nice to hear that she has been encouraged! I believe that both Aliya Mustafina and Viktoria Komova are currently in Germany. Aliya is undergoing an assessment of her rehabilitation progress, while Viktoria has undergone arthroscopic surgery to her injured ankle. (Thanks to Alan Owen for this information.) Reading between the lines, I think there is fair reason to be optimistic that Viktoria will compete at worlds this autumn. Aliya's recovery was always going to take longer, but seems to be going well. She is obviously determined to compete in 2012 and it seems to be pretty much a business-as-usual attitude from her. With Tatiana Nabieva also taking a rest to recuperate her painful back (due back in full training on the 25th May) the Russian team seems to have been beleaguered by injury recently. Well ... I suppose injuries are part of the sport; and it might actually be beneficial for the top...

As I watched Aliya Mustafina prepare for her vault at that fateful competition, resplendent in her royal blue leotard and waspily striped leg warmers, I was reminded of the girl's fearsome heritage, both ethnic and sporting.  Her darkly curlicue features, the fine set of the cheekbone, the intense imperiosity of Mustafina's gaze are redolent of a proud Tatar princess. Put the cornrows back in her hair, add a tiara and a few jewels to that corsage and you are more than halfway there.   Huddled close to coach Alexandrov, her demeanour was that of a prize fighter ready for combat.   Mustafina is her father's daughter (Fargat Mustafin was an Olympic medallist in Greco Roman wrestling).   It would be easy to forget that Mustafina, not yet 17 years old, only graduated to the senior national team in January 2010.  And that she is the first Russian woman in many years to make the transition from junior to senior without succumbing to the pressures and e...

A great day for the Russians as beautiful Anna Dementieva took gold on beam, and spritely young Yulia Belokobylskaya presented a wonderfully precise floor routine for the bronze medal. This means that all four Russian girls medalled at these championships, if you count Aliya Mustafina's leading performance in qualifications - and despite Aliya's unfortunate absence from finals, the Russian girls medalled in all but one event - vault.  So a good competition all things taken into account,  Go today to the Russian Federation's website to see a lovely picture of happy Anna and Yulia. Well, we are all sad that Aliya is facing such a difficult recovery - but confident she will make the best of it in the long run.  In the meantime, the remaining team members have a chance to step up and make their contribution to Russian gymnastics, and it will be interesting to see how the various gymnasts perform under the spotlight,  I for one was highly encouraged by the strong, sta...

I cannot remember a time when even relatively low profile competitions seemed to carry such significance for gymnastics as today.  The internet is at least partly responsible.  Almost instant access to results, images and videos spawns international discussion and debate.  I do not think we should underestimate this power of word, especially now we have the open-ended Code with its prescriptive formulae for deductions and bonuses which can appear to make everyone with a little knowledge into a gymnastics expert.  Gymnastics has always been a political sport in which the importance of ‘reputation’ has regularly played a role in determining competition outcomes, both by influencing the psychological pressures under which the athletes perform and by shaping the expectations and responses of judges.  This means that Federations have many difficult selection decisions to make each year as so much of what their gymnasts do falls under a microscope.   ...

A fuller version of the story appearing on IG appears now in English language on the Russian Federation's website . Much of the nuts and bolts of the translation regarding Viktoria's injury remains the same, including the fairly confident sounding hope that she will be ready to compete at the Moscow World Cup in May, so fingers crossed.  Valentina Rodienenko also confirms that Mustafina, Nabieva, Dementieva, Golutsotskov, Devyatovski, Ignatiev, Balandin, Garibov and Ablyazin will travel to Paris for this weekend's World Cup.  That's the declared European Championships team, minus Yulia Belokobylskaya who is said elsewhere to be travelling instead to Italy for the Jesolo Cup.  Which makes this weekend potentially interesting gymnastics reading. What is a little different, however, is the translation of the comment regarding Aliya Mustafina's participation in the American Cup this year.  This now reads: "Aliya is very tired after the world cup event. That...

International Gymnast reports on a Moskovsky Komomolets interview with Valentina Rodionenko.  Rodionenko gives some quite specific information regarding the injury to Viktoria Komova and suggests that she wasn't fully ready for the National Championships which took place last weekend; furthermore, her place on the team for Berlin is under question.  The current line-up includes Dementieva and Mustafina (all around) with Nabieva and either Belokobylskaya or Komova providing specialist back up.  Let's see how things turn out!  Still early days.  A team with Komova providing specialist back up on beam would indeed be very strong ... and quite a good tactical decision, I'd suggest. In the full version of this Russian language interview which you will find here , Rodionenko also discusses the men's team selections.  Maxim Devyatovski is the top all arounder for the Russians at present, and they are hoping for a medal for him.  David Beliavski and Nikita...

Russian nationals has closed with impressive shows of strength and skill from now established national team members.  A new star also shone for the first time this weekend.  Tatiana Nabieva and Anna Dementieva  strengthened their positions on the Russian team by becoming dual gold medallists, Nabieva taking gold on vault and bars, Dementieva a further gold on beam to complement her all around win.  And with silvers on bars and floor, Dementieva must surely be considered Russia's top female gymnast of these championships.  First time senior Yulia Belokobylskaya took floor gold and silver on beam. Full results are available at the Federation website .  It's unclear what implications these championships have for European team selections as the results ask so many questions, in particular regarding the form of Viktoria Komova, who has clearly faltered somewhat here.  The gymnasts' competitive schedules are busy over  coming weeks, with Mustafina ki...

The Russian Gymnastics Federation website again gives us English language access to a brief summary of some media coverage of the women's all around final, this time from Penza State TV.  Worth a read for the brief comments from Aliya Mustafina, Anna Dementieva and Anna Pavlova!

Full results can be found here . Once again, I have uncovered a mysterious Russian practice, with Viktoria Komova double agenting for both the victorious Central and second placed Moscow team AND Anna Dementieva also doubling up for the winning Central team and the 3rd placed PFO (Volga Federal District??) team. The results are as follows : 1   Central  (Komova, Pavlova, Inishina, Dementieva, Kruglikova, Stepanova)  174.95 2   Moscow  (Mustafina, Komova, Myzdrikova, Novikova, Syrinkova, Chibiskova) 171.132 3   PFO (Volga Federal District?)  (Dementieva, Telitsina, Skorodumova, Polyan, Lavrushina, Smirnova)  164.4 4  St Petersburg  (Sazonova, Nabieva, Sapronova, Terenteva, Krylova, Zemskova (did not compete)) 162.6 Aliya Mustafina apparently won the battle of those competing on all four pieces of apparatus, except for that she didn't perform at all - please see below for an explanation.  In her absence, Deme...

Alan Owen has provided a video link on his gymnast websites to a news story relating to Dementieva's victory at the Russian Championships.  You can link to it here . There are brief Q and As with Mustafina, Dementieva and Pavlova and a short shot of Komova's bars (including a shot of the score board which rather confusingly shows 16.00, not the 16.7 reported in the results ...

Link to the Russian Gymnastics Federation website to view some photos of the all around competition!  Enjoy!