Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

I am on my way home after attending the annual World Congress of the International Society of Sport, which this year was held over three days in Switzerland.  More than 300 participants gathered at the University of Lausanne, on the edge of Lake Geneva, to discuss issues relating to the place of sport in society.  Themes covered included sports policy, anti-doping, social exclusion and participation, ethics, disability, gender issues, sports development, globalisation, Olympism and mega-events and health. I attended the second gathering of the group ISCWAG (International Socio-Cultural Research into women's artistic gymnastics), which is a relatively newly assembled group of academics from all over the world.  You can find profiles of the founder members here .  This year the papers focussed on such subjects as the coach-gymnast relationship and grooming; gender-based violence and gymnastics coaching, and the pattern of older gymnasts continuing to compete in the...

The former personal coach of Aliya Mustafina coached the Brazil WAG team for the 2016 Olympics in Rio. The Brazilian team is planning to contest three medals.  Six years ago, under his guidance, the Russian team did the unimaginable, winning team gold at Worlds and beating USA.  Two years later Aliya Mustafina became the most decorated gymnast in London, winning four medals.  In Rio Brazilian gymnasts, who have been coached by Alexandrov for the past three years, are going to fight for three medals – in all-around, team final and beam final. Even if they don’t medal, the fact is that no one expected such fantastic progress from them. Alexandrov wasn’t present on the podium. Like a shadow, he followed the team around, sometimes giving the coaches advice in the mixed zone, then disappearing again. Anyway, there was no time to follow his movements: there were too many exciting things happening in the third subdivision. First, a teeny-tiny 16 year old newcomer to the Olympic ...

An interview by Elena Vaitsekhovskaya with Aliya Mustafina, captain of the Russian artistic gymnastics team in Rio 2016.  With many thanks to Marina Vulis for the translation. Just like four years ago, she is the team leader and knows it.  Aliya Mustafina.  The gymnast who, six years ago, became All Around World Champion, then in 2012 won four medals for Russia at the London Olympics. Aliya Mustafina, born 30 September 1994 in Yegorievsk. Merited Master of Sports of Russia 2012 London Olympics - four medals, gold, silver and two bronzes Three times World Champion (2010, 2013), five times European Champion (2010, 2013, 2016), three times champion of the Baku European Games (2015).   Neither of us really felt like talking about the coming Olympics, the competition and rivals - too stressful, especially now, when we have only a few days left before the Russian Gymnastics team leaves for Rio. [Elena] - You were remarkably good this se...

Denis Ablyazin - coach Sergei Starkin confirms that his preparations are going well Keep your eyes peeled over the coming days and weeks for news of the Russian team.  Offical nominative registrations were published by the FIG over a week ago, but it is almost inevitable that there will be some changes to the team line-ups. Sources close to the Russian team hint that this year it may be their men's team, and in particular specialist Denis Ablyazin, who has the best chance of shining on the podium in Glasgow.  And personal coach, Sergei Starkin, has indirectly confirmed that Aliya Mustafina may well not participate in this month's World Championships, the latest turn in a long round of statement-and-counter-statements made by the Russian team about their Olympic star. As usual there remain significant question marks over the readiness of the women's team.  Journalist Natalia Kalugina visited Lake Krugloye yesterday and her reports indicate that there is still room...

'Should Mustafina compete in Glasgow, considering her fragile state of health? - aren't the Olympics more important?' are the key themes of this brief news piece by Elena Vaitsekhovskaya, a top sports journalist who has interviewed Alexandrov, Arkayev, Starkin, Mustafina and Rodionenko in the last five years since Aliya won the World Championships. Elena stresses that this year nothing unusual has happened.  Aliya has worked hard with her new coach Sergei Starkin.  She did a 'great job', demonstrating her work at the European Games in Baku where she won the all around, bars and team events as well as silver in the floor exercise. But, says Vaitsekhovskaya, more important than the medals was the fact that Aliya showed a new technical level, began work on upgrades for the Rio Olympics.  Just competing in one event - the Baku games - could be enough for a veteran athlete of Mustafina's experience.  The body ages in both time - and injuries.  Athletes always respond...

Russia's WAG team at the 2006 European Championships. Clockwise from back left: Evgeny Grebyonkin, Olga Lozhecko, Viktor Gavrichenkov, Vladimir Timonkin, Andrei Rodionenko, Polina Miller, Anna Grudko, Yulia Lozhecko, Irina Isaeva, Nadezhda Ivanova Picture by Bernard Schwall The piece you are reading is the very first article in a series entitled 'Flashback to ...'.  As explanation,  I am working my way through some archival documents, trying to understand the history of the Russian gymnastics system since 1992.  In this instance I will first provide a commentary to give the context and some background, then a summary of the archival document.  This time, the document is one of the first interviews Rodionenko gave after his appointment as Head Coach.   The interview dates back to 2005.   According to Alexander Alexandrov, (Alexandrov et al, 2013)  Rodionenko was selected for the role of Head Coach at least partly thanks to the influence...