Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Lioudmilla Tourischeva, 1972 Olympic All Around champion in artistic gymnastics, was held up as an example of the ideal Soviet citizen.  Here she coaches one of the Soviet Union's leading gymnasts from the 1980 Olympics, Natalia Shaposhnikova The Soviet Union had a genius for lifting sport beyond the textbook, injecting the aesthetic where previously only goals had been in plain view.   This was not only manifest in gymnastics.  Do you remember the ‘Russian Five’, the players who elevated ice hockey to a creative sporting display, mesmerising their opponents and spectators with intricate patterns of play, so rhythmic and entertaining that they could have been set to music?   In gymnastics, a sport where the aesthetic counted as much as the outcome, it was this ability to create spectacle out of competition that resulted in the most extraordinary athletic performances.  The ‘Golden Era’, most commonly understood to cover the years from 1952-1...

This picture, of 1985 Soviet World Championships team member Irina Baraksanova, is a symbol of what is now lost to gymnastics as a whole, and Russia in particular.  Black and white, the picture was taken at another time when imagery came at a premium, technology was simple and memory and emotion played an important part in documenting sports history.  A similar picture taken today might be more colourful and have a sharper focus, but lack the nostalgic significance, the scope to challenge the imagination.  For all its lack of precision and technical sophistication, this box brownie snap captures the feeling of a unique moment.  Baraksanova, in common with many of her team mates, used floor exercise to tell an enigmatic and gentle story built on line, air and just a little bit of acrobatic magic.  The position of the head, the asymmetry of the position, the downcast eyes, all speak to me.  She combined grace and power, innovation and tradition to make the ...

Such a lot is said about artistry these days - but you don't really see much evidence of it in the gymnastics.   There are flashing moments of brilliance that some people enjoy - for example, a gymnast like Brazil's Flavia Saraiva is a favourite for her spirited and expressive floor and beam.  Others might prefer the structured work of a gymnast like Kyla Ross.  For me, though, the idea of consummate artistry has been lost almost totally - the last time I saw anything like it was in 2012 when Komova performed her floor so brilliantly in the all around final.  But without a mechanism to reward artistry - something that is absent from this Code of Points - there really isn't much point even trying any more. Aliya Mustafina was interviewed recently while on holiday in Italy and expressed the opinion that artistry was something that was inborn, rather than trained.  She uses a metaphor to describe this - some gymnasts have five gears, not four, and the abilit...

There is so much I want to say at present, but it will have to wait a little while as my day job takes priority.  Keep your eyes peeled in the next few days for a guest post by Nico about the state of MAG in Russia.   Courtesy Sports.ru In the meantime, Maria Madyrova sent me a link to this Russian blog where you can find a picture series on some of the differences between the athletically trained gymnasts of the USA, and the classically trained sportswomen of Russia. You can argue that the blogger picked particularly unflattering pictures of the Americans, and flattering ones of the Russians, but I do think there is a valid comparison of approaches here ... that is,between the execution of a skill as a Code requirement, and the performance of a routine that has the aesthetic as its priority.

And finally, the judges did some judging. As a result, we have a world champion - Afanasyeva - who is worthy of the honoured title 'artistic gymnast'. At the end of the day, Afanasyeva won because the judges chose her routine as the best. At last, I like to think, artistry influenced the outcome. Only the judges could tell you, though, whether this was actually the case. The top 3 gymnasts all had the same difficulty value - 6.1. They all made errors and so all had deductions. It was very close indeed. Discussing artistry is difficult. It is a concept that is not easily articulated as it is largely intangible. It's also rather contingent on matters of taste. A shared understanding of the vocabulary would be a good starting point though. 'Choreography' as understood by many of us is a synonym for 'dance composition' and yet there is so much more to the art of choreography, including but not limited to ideas of balance, line, rhythm, amplitude....