Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Unless you have been hiding under a rock somewhere, you can't have failed to notice that Romania are now European Team Champions, with Britain in second place and Russia in third.  Congratulations to everyone!  These were well deserved medals. I personally think that winning the bronze was a great achievement for this inexperienced team.  Aliya Mustafina proved that, even at 50%, she is 100% boss.  Kharenkova established herself as a real little scrapper who is now a leader in the team and even in world gymnastics.  Even with the unpredictable Komova I doubt Russia would have done much better today; it comes down not so much to the errors that were made, as to the low difficulty rating of those floor exercises.  The team needs its Olympians for good floor scores, but they just aren't available at present, nor perhaps in the future if I am reading Afanasyeva's rather damning account of the handling of her injury correctly. I wonder if there will be any fall-...