Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

An interview by Oksana Tonkacheeva with personal coach to Russia's leading male and female gymnasts, Denis Ablyazin and Aliya Mustafina. Summary below (not word for word) - Next week we'll have the European Championships.  Denis Ablyazin will compete - but not, on this occasion, Aliya Mustafina. - It wasn't just my decision to train Aliya - it wasn't as if Aliya out of the blue knocked on my door and just asked me to work with her . There was a meeting of head coach Andrei Rodionenko, the head coach of the women's team Evgeny Grebyonkin, and Aliya's father.  Everything had to be carefully weighed up - working with an athlete like Mustafina is primarily a responsibility - I thought long and hard.  -  First, I had to explain to Aliya that there would be conditions, and that if she were not ready to fulfill them, we could not even begin.  I have had to make changes myself, not just inside the gym, but outside of it.  The  result t...

Head WAG coach Evgeny Grebyonkin has confirmed further details of the Russian team for April's European Championships, reports Allsport. On the basis of their performance at the Russian Championships, Ksenia Afanasyeva, Maria Kharenkova and Daria Spiridinova have been confirmed for the team.  Fighting for the final place will be Alla Sosnitskaya, Viktoria Komova, Maria Paseka and first year senior Seda Tutkhalyan. The Russian coaches face some tough selection decisions as they attempt to balance a relative paucity of all around talent this year with the diverse specialisms of such gymnasts as Spiridinova, Afanasyeva and Komova.  Both Sosnitskaya and Tutkhalyan (whose D score AA of 23.7 ranks third in the international ranks so far this year, behind Simone Biles and Evgeniya Shelgunova) offer potential at both specialist (respectively vault (Sosnitskaya) and beam (Tutkhakyan)) and AA level.  Much will depend on the nerve of the coaches and the way these gymnasts respond in...

A popular figure ... Coach Anton Stolyar with the Russian team this week Issues and questions still dog the Russian programme despite the optimistic feeling of Komova's return, the apparently rapid recovery of Afanasyeva and the early competition vigour of Mustafina.  By the end of the week, certain factors have been laid bare.  The injury to Grishina makes clear the fact that Russia still largely depends on its Olympians as medal prospects, and they are injury prone and below par currently.  Of the newcomers, only Kharenkova is showing the steel necessary at the very top level, and she is out of the ordinary in transitioning successfully to senior level.  Promising juniors such as Melnikova and Tutkhalyan are not uncommon in the Russian programme, but much less common is the consistency and discipline to raise junior talent to senior medals.  Where, for example, were Shelgunova and Kuzmina this week? Some good work should be acknowledged.  Spiridinova and ...

Young gymnasts line up prior to the first major Championships of the year In an interview with Itar-Tass national head coach Evgeny Grebyonkin has given us some clues as to the competitors in Penza this week. 'All of the strongest gymnasts will take part in Penza, with the exception of Afanasyeva, who has only just begun full training again after a foot operation', he says.  'Komova, Grishina and Mustafina will compete for the top places.  Tatiana Nabiyeva has been unable to decide about the future continuation of her career, and this competition will help her draw a conclusion.' The Antwerp World Championships, back in October, was the women's last major competition.  Since then, Viktoria Komova has recovered from a foot injury she suffered at New Year.  Earlier this year, Aliya Mustafina took a two month break, and she is now working towards achieving optimum form at the European Championships.  She has recovered from her break, but won't be doing anything new...

Personal and national coaches working together : Ksenia Afansyeva's personal coach, Marina Nazarova, celebrates with  Russia's successful women's team at the London Olympics, with bars coach (now team coach)  Evgeny Grebyonkin The RGF has published its full team list again.  It has already been released once, and you can find a review of the gymnasts of the senior men's and women's teams here . For now, however, I wanted to publish in English the list of the national coaches of the senior team.  I will look at the coaches of the junior and youth teams in another post. This list is clearly an official document, bearing the stamp of the RGF and the signatures of several dignitaries, Andrei Rodionenko included, but it most likely will change over the coming months.  It may well be produced more for administrative purposes than for public consumption, so read with caution.  There is some meaty information all the same.  What may be of note is that...

Video 1 Video 2 National beam coach Marina Bulashenko leads a master class of young gymnasts with the assistance of Aliya Mustafina.  Anna Rodionova demonstrates a spin.

European Champion Aliya Mustafina with national team coach Evgeny Grebyonkin in Friday's all around final Alexander Alexandrov yesterday spoke out in defence of his gymnast Aliya Mustafina, sweeping aside speculation that there may be a rift in the charismatic pairing that has delivered gold for Russia at European, World and Olympic level, and confirming that he continues as her personal coach. 'I am too old to be offended', he said, adding that after thirty years on the gymnastics podium he did not take the exclusion to heart.  Mustafina's appearance at last week's European Championships was good enough to secure two gold medals, but her somewhat erratic performance, particularly in qualifications, leaves a few question marks over her readiness for such a high level competition.  She herself acknowledges that she came to this competition not prepared to her best, pointing out that on bars, for example, she was not competing her full repertoire of skills.  B...