'My little ones' says Tanya Nabiyeva in this personal photo of a training session she is leading. Tanya has been posting many videos of herself recently, in training for the Russian Championships where she will compete for her home team, St Petersburg - and perhaps hope for some individual reward. She looks very happy! Alina and Anfesa, two young gymnasts from St Petersburg trained by World Champion Tatiana Nabiyeva in her hometown. 'Anfesa reminds me of myself as a child', says Tanya, 'blue eyes, big tummy, pigeon-toed. Doesn't understand the whole bargain at all! Just looks up and smiles'. Alina and Anfesa, who (I am guessing) are about 7 or 8 years old, will be 21 or 22 by the time the 2028 Olympics take place. One of the candidate cities for those Games? St Petersburg. With thanks to Tanya for these lovely pictures, and her thoughts. Oh ... GOOD LUCK for the forthcoming competition. PS I am getting the same question from a lot of people - will Tanya ...
Reporting and analysing Russian gymnastics since 2010. Includes original and exclusive interviews with leading coaches and gymnasts, and historical issues dating back to the Soviet Union. The first blog to report extensively on the sport using Russian language sources. I read, I argue, and I have opinions. Be warned.