Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Via VK.com.  Google translate A big interview with Aliya Mustafina was published on MATCH!. We provide a small excerpt below, and the full version is available on the website at the link below  ❓ Aliya, you are now the head coach of the junior artistic gymnastics team. What does your typical day look like? 💜 My current life is similar to what it was when I was competing. In the morning, I have breakfast and go to work by 9:00, we train for four hours, have lunch, rest and train for another three hours. During the training camp, the athletes live at the base. They live and train on the same territory. ❓ Do you manage the gymnasts' personal trainers or do you evenly distribute the responsibilities? 💜 We work in contact with the personal trainers, I listen to their opinions. For example, if the trainer believes that their athlete needs to be given a little rest or do fewer repetitions of a particular exercise, we do so. ❓ Describe the current generation of children. Do they nee...

First of all, the gymnasts are continuing to work on their applications to compete as neutral individuals in FIG competitions.  I know for sure that the applications will include Viktoria Listunova and Angelina Melnikova. Please bear in mind that Russia still won't be competing as a team.  There will be limits on the numbers of gymnasts they can send to each competition, but I don't know how this will be decided or how the qualifications to Worlds will work.  Or if qualified individual gymnasts will even be allowed to go to the Olympics.  Will the gymnasts take their own personal coaches with them, or will the national coaches accompany them?  It's all a mystery. The national team rosters for 2025 have been published and not much has changed. The list of coaches seems almost identical.  Head coaches are still the Rodionenkos, Alfosov remains as head of the men's team and Bulgakova is still looking after the women.  Mustafina has kept her job as head of...

This morning, I wanted to reflect on the present, and the near future. Only 9 days to go till the World Championships in Rotterdam (well, podium training begins in 9 days). Can the Russian women win? What is the significance of this competition to them? Is it possible to predict the outcome of a competition? Does it matter who takes the medals? What is ‘winning’, anyway? We all know that medals will be distributed in team, all-around, and event finals, and that huge emotional significance is attached to world titles. And not just for the competitors - I personally will cry buckets if Russia win any kind of gold. But let’s be pragmatic. Rotterdam is only a step on the way to the London 2012 Olympics, and all the athletes there must tread a precarious psychological pathway between living in the now, and preparing for the future, en route to probably the biggest experience of their lives (which some of them may not make). Rotterdam is merely a battle, not the who...