Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Today, we embark on a series of insightful and, occasionally, gruesome articles looking at the achievements of our FIG President, Professor Bruno Grandi. Grandi took up office in 1996, having been Vice President of the Italian Gymnastics Federation since 1987. I suppose he will modestly claim only partial credit for the abolition of compulsories following the 1996 Olympics. The wheels of this particular change were set in motion before he came to power. But our President Bruno surely embraced it, wholeheartedly. Brett Davis, my former editor at The Mogilnyi , posted this morning a wonderful montage on his Facebook site, comparing the highest scoring floor compulsory (Lilia Podkopayeva) with the lowest scoring (Eileen Diaz). For me the distance between the marks (9.85/8.4) in no way expresses the glaring differences in their work. View it on Youtube . Brett's post was a timely reminder of how vital the compulsory exercises once were, and how they emphasised the importan...