Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Thanks to M for providing the link to this excellent Sports Express interview by Elena Vaitsekhovskaya.  Lupita here translates - enjoy! Alexander Alexandrov and Aliya Mustafina in training shortly before the Games began.  Courtesy of the RGF In interviews that were aired before the Olympics, the Russian head coach - Valentina Rodionenko-  often mentioned that Aliya Mustafina was not the same gymnast she had been in Rotterdam. That she hadn’t  recovered completely after her injury. That she had started to fear competing and complex elements. In London she could win bronze on bars: this would be the limit of her dreams. Yet, Mustafina came back as a heroine. She rescued the whole team; she competed on all four events, although she had only expected to compete on two in the team final. After the team’s silver, she won bronze in the AA, gold in bars and another bronze in floor. No other gymnast was able to win such an amount of medals... * * * ...

Olympic bars champion Aliya Mustafina.  Courtesy of the RGF It’s so wonderful that it seems unbelievable! Aliya Mustafina, who came back to gymnastics after a serious injury, became Olympics bars champion yesterday in London. For 12 years we haven’t had a bars Olympics champion!  The last time, it was Svetlana Khorkina in Sydney. But it’s not the first time that Mustafina makes history. by Inessa Rasskazova, Sovietski Sport   She is very silent, introverted; sometimes you don’t get two words from her. She has a strong character; she is incredibly talented... and absolutely unpredictable. Before the Olympics, national coach Valentina Rodionenko told us: - I expect anything from Mustafina. With her you never know what to expect. This year, after her injury in Berlin, everything has been difficult for her. She cried at every training session. Aliya was doing beam. She fell. She cried. Went back to the beam. Fell and cried again. It’s difficult for her fo...