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...

Liubov Baladzhaeva has provided a good translation of the article from the Saransk and Mordovan Times .  Text in square brackets are Liubov's personal comments.   Leonid Arkayev was fired from the gymnastics center in Saransk that was named after him. It is not clear what was the real reason (or the host of reasons), but the authors speculate that the main issues were conflict over the state-owned apartment given to Arkayev and the lack of results from the athletes he trained. However, when the journalist went to investigate the situation she encountered rumors that Arkayev had a special interest in the female gymnasts. The author claims she was able to talk to some of the victims whose names she can’t reveal. First, the article talks about two issues with Arkayev as a coach that weren’t related to sexual harassment allegations. His former colleague, a gymnastics coach called Irina in this article (not sure if it’s her real name) talked about working with him. Accordin...

Just to let you all know, I am trying to get a translation of a local (Saransk/Mordova) press report that is critical of former Soviet and Russia head coach Leonid Arkayev.  Leonid's contract as head coach of the local facility (the Arkayev Gymnastics Centre ) was terminated last October.  There are three key allegations : (i) that he is difficult to work with and that his training methods are outdated (ii) that there are financial improprieties relating to his state accommodation and to the trading of gymnastics competition titles and (iii) that he has been molesting female gymnasts and that the girls do not feel comfortable around him. Everybody wants to know whether this is believable.  From what I have been able to garner via personal contacts and online comments, views are polarised.  Some influential people have been critical in the past - this isn't surprising for someone in such a high profile position.  It is difficult to judge. It is plain that Ar...

Leonid Arkayev at a recent congress of the RGF Leonid Arkayev, rock of the Russian and former Soviet gymnastics systems, turns 72 today. Now directing his own gymnastics empire at the Leonid Arkayev School of Gymnastics in Saransk - where he works alongside choreographer Natalia Karamushka - Leonid's zest for the sport remains undiminished; in addition to performing as Head of this developing centre, he also still coaches his young gymnasts and remains involved at grass roots as well as national level.  He regularly attends the major international competitions.   The Russian sports establishment needs his unique insight, incisive opinions and inspirational presence, expressed most recently in a characteristically candid and direct interview with leading sports commentator Elena Vaitsekhovskaya.  Of the new generation of Russian up and coming coaches, only Sergei Starkin seems to embrace Arkayev's philosophy of total dedication and limitless energy.  St...

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...

I responded to a question on Gymternet Clan on Facebook recently; which gymnasts did you see in competition first?  Being rather old, my reply was that at the 1976 Soviet Display at Wembley, I was lucky enough to see Ludmilla Tourischeva, Nelli Kim and Olga Korbut.  Quite a heady memory, and one that for some unknown reason sent me in search of Chopin's Nocturne, 9-2, a piece of music that always reminds me of the deep, emotional and expressive Tourischeva.  She is the standout for me these days.  At the age of 16, Korbut's pyrotechnics appealed more.  Olga is still beautiful, very special, but somehow Ludmilla's gentle, complex gymnastics come from somewhere more intense and soulful, closer to me, these days. I haven't posted enough recently, having been busy at a Conference on Cultural Tourism in the Digital Era, in Athens, where as well as listening to and questioning others on their interesting research in this topic area, I had the p...

View pictures of Leonid Arkayev, former chief of Russian Gymnastics, on the floor here .  He has kept his youthful looks and seems very happy in Saransk. More seriously, he did present some important papers at the gymnastics masterclasses this weekend as part of the Russia - Country of Sports conference held at the International Olympic University in Saransk, Leonid's home town where he is now President of the regional gymnastics association and chief coach of his own gymnastics facility (he says he has always had more than one job and couldn't be happy with less).  This was  an important event attended by most prominent people in Russian sport including Valeryi Mutko, Russian Minister for Sports, and Technical Director for Russian Gymnastics, Andrei Rodionenko. You can find an English language translation of the programme here , links to information at the Russian Federation's site here , and a link to various photograph galleries of the conference here . When I ...

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...

I was delighted to see coach Leonid Arkayev honoured at this year's International Gymnastics Hall of Fame induction. Long overdue. I found this picture of Arkayev during his days as a competitive gymnast, at the Novosti picture site . Arkayev has never been publicly recognised in the same way as his Romanian counterpart Bela Karolyi, partly because he does not possess Karolyi's talent for self-publicity and partly because he chose to remain in his home country. He presided over Soviet and Russian gymnastics in one capacity or another from 1972 to 2004. I remember Arkayev's accession to the position of chief coach of the men's team, and the emphasis he put on young talent. He gave responsibility to young gymnasts such as Nikolai Andrianov, revitalising the Soviet team in the process and making way for the supremely strong Soviet teams of the 1980s and early 1990s. I'll never forget Makuts, Korolev, Akopian, Balabanov, Bilozerchev, Liukin, Artemov, Mogilny...

Alexei Nemov talks to Anna Kozina of Rossiyskaya Gazeta about the relative progress of the Russian men's team. An English language translation is available here . It is clear that despite the team's recent success at individual apparatus level, disappointing results at team and all around finals are causing significant worry. Nemov suggests the Russians need to seek the help of additional coaches, specifically mentioning Vyacheslav Boiko, who helped to prepare the national team for the 1996 Olympics along with the late Nikolai Andrianov. Hmmm ... my impression of the Russian men (and this often included Nemov apart from the odd gold medal winning performance) is that they are somewhat casual and excessively philosophical in their approach. I still haven't forgotten Devyatovski giving up the ghost after a relatively minor error on p-bars some years ago. My 51 year old memory has churned up a remark made by Ludmilla Tourischeva some time around 1972 when the Soviet...

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...

There is a long and interesting interview with the Rodienenkos in Sovietski Sport today.  The Google translation is rather difficult to make complete sense of but the interview addresses the prospects for the Russian team at the 2012 Olympics (they are targetting six medals: two golds, two silvers, two bronzes); discusses the reasons for the Russian team's improved performance and the different rates of recovery between the men's and women's teams; and relations with Leonid Arkayev, who apparently is much more relaxed and happy now.  When discussing the performance of Aliya Mustafina, Rodienenko emphasises that her immediate future revolves around training and competing, not celebrity performances and modelling! They were keen to emphasise that they returned to Russia as they were, fundamentally, homesick.  Alexandrov's family has remained in the United States and he now has an American passport.  The coaches do not work in Russia for the money, but because they ...