Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Sport is the low hanging fruit of world politics. The IOC ban on Russian athletes has kept Russian soft influence to a minimum over past years. I understand the emotion.    For example, how could Nagorny (a Russian World and Olympic champion) compete alongside Ukrainian rivals when he has openly endorsed the war, and even encouraged his Russian team mates to join up and take part in the military action? In this video  FIG President Watanabe is welcomed to Round Lake, Russia’s national training centre for gymnastics, by Russian head coach Andrei Rodionenko and the aforementioned Nikita Nagorny.    Rodionenko is a long-serving member of the international gymnastics community.    He has been head coach of Soviet, Australian, Canadian and, now, the Russian teams. Watanabe is campaigning for votes in his quest to be voted IOC President.    That’s like the Prime Minister of the UK putting himself forward as Head of NATO - it’s a big step.  ...

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...

Presidium of the Russian Gymnastics Federation 🇷🇺 Artistic gymnastics: Vasily Titov (First Vice President), Nikita Nagorny (Vice President), Andrey Rodionenko, Dmitry Andreev, Alexander Klochkov, Anton Krapivin. Rhythmic gymnastics: Anastasia Tatareva (Vice President), Olga Kapranova (Vice President), Yana Lukonina, Victoria Anikina, Raisa Terekhova and Dmitry Golovin. Trampoline jumping: Nikolay Makarov (Vice President), Vladislav Skakun, Irina Karavaeva, Anatoly Kovarsky, Alexey Ryzhkov and Elena Fedorenchik. Sports aerobics: Vladislav Oskner (Vice President), Svetlana Perevalova and Svetlana Lukina. Sports acrobatics: Irina Nikitina (vice-president), Teimuraz Gurgenidze and Dmitry Vinnikov. ❗Oleg Belozerov, the president of the Russian Gymnastics Federation elected on October 1, is also a member of the presidium.

See https://live.fig-gymnastics.com/schedule.php?idevent=6405 for the full information The leaders in the main events in Olympic order are USA, Biles, Biles, Kocian, Biles, Biles.  American gymnasts fill the first three spots AA, the first spot on vault, two of the top three on bars, and the top two in beam and floor respectively.  The Soviet Union was never as dominant as this - nor was the scoring as inflated.  Like the USSR, America deserves its success in general, but the bars scoring in particular has raised some eyebrows.  I am reminded of the 1972 Olympics when the Soviet Union took almost all the gold - but then again in one, bars, the winner was East Germany's Karin Janz.  Even in those days a slight sense of reality pervaded the scoring. Still though, USA's dominance is unquestionable.  Biles' vaulting and tumbling took my breath away.  America has found its style of gymnastics victory and made it the style of gymnastics globally.  ...

We began the year with a photo montage of Viktoria Komova , who was expected to shine at Worlds ... Olympic gold medallist Aliya Mustafina was in the news ...  ' When I was recovering from surgery, I watched all the competitions. I didn’t panic. Nobody was doing anything that I couldn’t handle. Of course the responsibilities of the Olympics were greater than other meets. The Olympics don’t come along everyday, and not everyone gets there. I cannot say that that responsibility came lightly. In my mind I told myself to simply do my job, and that was all. I worked for 12 years to lay it on the line on the Olympic stage. Six months before the Olympics I was still far from being in gold medal form. It was tough to force myself to work hard, and the doubt that I could make it constantly surrounded me.'   Aliya Mustafina , December 2012 The list of national team coaches was published, officially confirming Evgeny Grebyonkin in his new position as head coach of WAG.  Alex...