Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Olympic Champion and long-serving Captain of the Russian gymnastics team, David Belyavski won’t be competing at the Russian Championships later this month.  His daughter, Alyssa, begins school in September and he wants some family time - for example to give his daughter a long-promised trip to Disneyland in China.   Andrei Rodionenko, head coach of Russian Gymnastics, has agreed to this - ‘family is the most important thing’, he reportedly said.  In the meantime his wife, Valentina Rodionenko, has had her say, promising David a retirement party before his departure on holiday.  ‘I’ll have to sort that out [I’m not retiring]’, said David to TASS.

Viktoria has travelled to these games, but isn’t competing AA or at full strength.  She’ll be supporting her team, and she says she will also be following the international teams here. In Sovietski Sport, senior coach Valentina Rodionenko explains: ‘ Senior coach of the Russian national artistic gymnastics team Valentina Rodionenko spoke about the condition of Victoria Listunova, who was not allowed to fully compete at the BRICS Games.  💬We are taking care of Victoria Listunova, I will tell you honestly. We are under the supervision of doctors, because she has a problem. We were given time so that we would not burden her with elements that are difficult for her specific section of the spine. Now we specifically did not allow her to compete, although she is very eager. You know, doctors tell us not to rush, and we listen to them. Now she was going through, I tell her: "Vika, calm down, no need." I think that she will be suitable for the Cup in Novosibirsk. She needs gentle el...

Valentina Rodionenko reports that the men's team is in full training at Lake Krugloye. Denis Ablyazin hasn't needed a break and is training 'at full strength' - (and if you subscribe to his Instagram account you will see him practising routines on p bars and high bar). David Belyavski joined training a little late, as he has been abroad on his honeymoon. Maria Paseka is returning to training on the 4th December after taking treatment for a back injury. Rodionenko says that Aliya Mustafina is excused training for the time being - Liubov Baladzhaeva helped with the translation here.  Apparently the gymnasts, as salaried athletes, cannot just take time off without permission from the Federation.  I understand that this means no change to Aliya's competitive status, ie she will not be training or competing for the time being, until such time as she gets bored and decides she wants to make a comeback!  From her Instagram account, Aliya is currently suf...

At 4 o'clock this morning BST, the IOC Executive Board made an announcement to the effect that three individuals appointed by them will have a final say on which Russian athletes can compete at the Rio Olympic Games. 'Participation of Russian athletes in Rio The EB decided to delegate the final decision on the acceptance of entries of Russian athletes to a Review Panel composed of three IOC Executive Board Members: Uğur Erdener, Claudia Bokel and Juan Antonio Samaranch.  The Review Panel is due to make a final decision in the coming days.' RRG's take on this This latest, very last minute twist in the controversy surrounding Russia's participation in the Games, suggests that the IOC has a degree of concern over the likely consistency of decisions taken by the sports' governing bodies to whom they delegated decision making only a few days ago.   It is difficult to see how an appointed panel of three individuals will have time to consider the data pres...

. Video interview with Valentina Rodionenko and Nikolai Kuksenkov Translation by Liubov Baladzhaeva Interview took place before the IOC decision to allow clean Russian athletes to participate in the Games, but after the publication of the McLaren report and WADA's recommendation of a blanket ban. Valentina Rodionenko: right now the gymnasts are training with even more motivation, despite the doping scandal, and they really want to go to Rio. If they’re banned, four years of training would be for nothing. Four years of their life were spent on preparation and they didn’t do anything else.  But we’re going to fight, because Russian people only get stronger facing hardship.   Meldonium isn’t a performance enhancing drug, it’s used for recovery only, it shouldn’t even be considered doping and banned. No one really tested if it enhances performance, but it got banned nevertheless. There are changes on the doping list all the time, you blink and another substance gets banned...

Tutkhalyan and Melnikova - gymnastics dynamite and Russia's not so secret weapon for the Rio Olympics Just as I was about to go to bed last night one of our readers posted a link to a Tass article in which Valentina Rodionenko repeats the team membership for Europeans, but with a significant change, replacing Seda Tutkhalyan with Natalia Kapitanova as a reserve.  This Allsport article , linked on the RGF website this morning, still includes Seda as reserve.  I give up; there is never a final word.  Team selections are a difficult thing and especially so with injury rates in the sport as high as they are.  Media reports are unreliable.  Or Valentina changes her mind as often as she changes her fur coats.  Only one thing is for sure.  We will know who will compete when the teams walk out into the arena on Wednesday 1st June.  Maybe. Aside from the obvious observation - how must it affect the girls to be so unsure? - I'm going to repeat again ...

More than forty Russian athletes across ten different sports have tested positive for the recently banned drug meledonium, but Valentina Rodionenko has firmly pointed out that Russian gymnasts do not have a problem. Doctors closely monitor the gymnasts' diet and intake and in the sport of gymnastics they have to be especially careful as even a small change in what the gymnasts consume can affect balance, eg on the beam.  Valentina says that the doctors were aware of the change to the list of banned substances, and no problems are anticipated. Source -  http://m.rsport.ru/artist_gym/20160317/905190441.html

Valentina Rodionenko has confirmed that Mustafina is back in training.  Tass This year the Ministry of Sport has published the full lists of gymnasts training with the national team - youth, junior, senior reserve and senior.  You can find the full lists, including the coaches, in Russian language here , and there is a transcription of the gymnasts' names in English at JAS's blog, Videos of Russian Gymnasts . As usual, you will find that there is a little delay before the lists catch up with the reality.  For example, Maria Bondareva's name still appears on the listing for the senior reserve team, but sadly, she announced her retirement for medical reasons some months ago.  The senior lists otherwise include all those in training for the Olympics.  You can read what I think of the early announcements of the Olympic teams here .  The full Olympic teams will include only five gymnasts, so competition for places will be fierce and, no doubt, health wil...

Believe it or not, only four months have passed since RRG published its interview with the former WAG national coach of Russia, less than a year since Alexander Alexandrov left Lake Krugloye (for good?), and not even 18 months since Russia took the silver in that Olympic team final.  So much has changed in Russian gymnastics since 2010 ... there has been a toning down of expectations, a growing hush around goings-on at Lake Krugloye, an almost deliberate talking down of the prospects of the next generation (who are, admittedly, very thin on the ground).  I am speaking here exclusively of WAG - the situation in MAG seems different and will not be addressed in this post. Checking the statistics of my blog readership is an almost daily activity for me.  Finding links to my blog posts is always a surprise, and I am delighted that anyone finds time to read my blog at all, let alone comment on it!  When I published the Alexandrov interview I knew there would be ple...

World and Olympic Champion, Aliya Mustafina, will travel back to Moscow on the 2nd November, ready for surgery on an injured meniscus in her right knee on the 3rd, head coach Valentina Rodionenko said today in an interview with R Sport .  Aliya tore the ACL in her left knee in spring 2011 and recovered from surgery to win gold in the London Olympics in 2012. The injury is not serious and it is expected that recovery will take six to eight weeks, allowing Aliya to begin training for Rio in early January, all being well.  'It's just a strain', said Rodionenko, adding that medical advice suggested it would be better for Aliya to have the surgery than suffer the pain. Aliya made the decision herself to have the surgery in Russia this time, rather than in Germany.   She will make her recovery at Round Lake (the national training centre) and if she is well enough will travel to Israel on the 10th, to participate in the rehabilitation camp with the rest of the national te...

'Should Mustafina compete in Glasgow, considering her fragile state of health? - aren't the Olympics more important?' are the key themes of this brief news piece by Elena Vaitsekhovskaya, a top sports journalist who has interviewed Alexandrov, Arkayev, Starkin, Mustafina and Rodionenko in the last five years since Aliya won the World Championships. Elena stresses that this year nothing unusual has happened.  Aliya has worked hard with her new coach Sergei Starkin.  She did a 'great job', demonstrating her work at the European Games in Baku where she won the all around, bars and team events as well as silver in the floor exercise. But, says Vaitsekhovskaya, more important than the medals was the fact that Aliya showed a new technical level, began work on upgrades for the Rio Olympics.  Just competing in one event - the Baku games - could be enough for a veteran athlete of Mustafina's experience.  The body ages in both time - and injuries.  Athletes always respond...

Aliya Mustafina - competitive status has been veiled in mystery.  Photograph is by leading Russian photographer, Sergei Bermeniev The mist surrounding Aliya Mustafina's official competitive status lifted just a little this afternoon as head coach Valentina Rodionenko first announced one set of names for the forthcoming World Championships, then added another to the roster.  'Yesterday, Mustafina decided to clench her teeth and prepare for Worlds, despite her back pain.  We know her condition and cannot force her to train ... We will take seven gymnasts to Glasgow', said Rodionenko.  Later, Andrei Rodionenko added that ten gymnasts will join a training camp tomorrow at Round Lake to prepare for Worlds - and participate in final selection.  Names are given below. We will have to look for Mustafina's own words to provide the definitive account of her miraculous return, and of course the only team that will matter is the team that marches out into the arena in Octob...