Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Imagine a time when there were no videos, no internet, no blogs.  A time when World Championships results often didn't reach the press (incomplete) until days after the end of the competitions.  When results of the national competitions in other countries took months to reach you, if at all.  No Valentina Rodionenko press reports to ruffle your feathers, no Instagram posts from your favourite gymnasts, no Nikushkin Day videos to familiarise you with what the gymnasts want you to know of their everyday lives.  No live streaming, no video posts of the youngest gymnasts.  Secrets were secrets and details of upgrades and innovations rarely reached the lay person's ear before they were revealed at major competition.  There was no Google translate to help you untangle news of your favourite Soviet gymnast. Information felt like gold.  We pored over words and pictures for every ounce of meaning, sometimes more than was there.  We devoured televised cov...

The book arrived on Thursday and I couldn't wait to get started on it.  It's also too large to fit into my handbag, so I won't be able to take it to Berlin, and therefore have the perfect excuse to read it now.  Which I'm doing in my typical butterfly manner, skipping from section to section, from back to front to middle in no particular order.  This ease of reading is facilitated by the author's style, in which the main central thread is his stream of consciousness, leading to the feeling that you are involved in a rather one-sided conversation with your loquacious long-lost Russian (or Ukrainian?) uncle full of stories of his rich life in gymnastics. I'm not even going to attempt a full review of the book until I've had a chance to read it through twice or three times as there is much to absorb, and sometimes what is left unsaid leaves you feeling you haven't quite got the point.  There are some intriguing cliff hangers in the book, especially a brie...