Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Imagine a time when there were no videos, no internet, no blogs.  A time when World Championships results often didn't reach the press (incomplete) until days after the end of the competitions.  When results of the national competitions in other countries took months to reach you, if at all.  No Valentina Rodionenko press reports to ruffle your feathers, no Instagram posts from your favourite gymnasts, no Nikushkin Day videos to familiarise you with what the gymnasts want you to know of their everyday lives.  No live streaming, no video posts of the youngest gymnasts.  Secrets were secrets and details of upgrades and innovations rarely reached the lay person's ear before they were revealed at major competition.  There was no Google translate to help you untangle news of your favourite Soviet gymnast. Information felt like gold.  We pored over words and pictures for every ounce of meaning, sometimes more than was there.  We devoured televised cov...

Photo source : http://www.tomtheobald.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=330 I came across this journal article by joint World Champion 1985, Oksana Omelianchik.  Oksana is a senior judge at major FIG competitions under her married name of Oksana Omelianchik-Ziurkalova. She analyses eight floor routines of the Ukrainian women gymnasts, and draws conclusions regarding the composition of floor routines, and the importance of choreography in floor exercise. I like her review of the importance of choreography to the sport: 'In choreographic training of female gymnasts aesthetic, physical and educational tasks are solved. Aesthetic tasks mean cultivation of musical sense and horizon, training of movement under music; physical – mean development of coordination, flexibility, plasticity, expressiveness and accuracy of movements; educational tasks mean psychological relaxation, cultivation of ability to feel, think, remember and estimate culture of movements [3, 4, 10]. Cho...