Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Lupita has kindly translated the key points of this Ministry of Sport video which has been doing the rounds on the internet. The national teams are currently training at Ozero Krugloye. They train 2-3 times a day. They have begun a new Olympic quad. Still, important competitions are ahead. Junior gymnasts are training with them.   Every gymnast has an aim: Rio, the Universiade …   For Mustafina the Universiade competition is the most important this year. Their participation at this year’s competitions will depend on their condition. Valentina Rodionenko: I hope everything will turn out well. We’ll fight for the medals. We have to.  The team changed its working system and the staff. Rodionenko: There’s a struggle. We are for more classical gymnastics, with an excellent level of execution.  The Americans show more athletic gymnastics. After 2000 our team lost its position and the Americans imposed their style. Yet, I hope we’ll prove that ...

Lupita translates a 23rd January article from Sovietsky Sport .  Maria Filatova looks likely to secure her Russian citizenship in February.  Good luck, Maria, from all of us xxx This incredible story has been around for 17 years! Born in the USSR, two-time Olympic gymnastics champion Maria Filatova has tried to obtain Russian nationality. Now the end of this process seems to be nearer than ever. Maria Filatova is 51. She was born in Leninsk-Kuznetski. In 1976 and 1980 she became Olympic champion in gymnastics. Many people remember a minuscule girl with funny bows in her hair, who won gold and glory for our country. After the dismantling of the Soviet Union, Filatova worked first in Europe and later in the US. She now lives with her husband and her daughter in Rochester (New York State). Since 1996 she has been trying to be granted a Russian passport. So far she only has an old Soviet passport and a US green card, which don’t allow her to travel to...

It seems that former WAG national coach, now personal coach to Aliya Mustafina, Alexander Alexandrov, is considering an invitation from the Brazilian Gymnastics Federation to take on the role of national senior WAG coach there as they prepare for the Rio Olympics.  Alexandrov would be working alongside his former colleague Oleg Ostapenko, junior WAG coach, who left the Russian junior team for Brazil in 2010, and would no doubt considerably strengthen the Brazilian gymnasts as they prepare for their home Olympics. Nothing is certain yet: Alexandrov went on a fact finding tour to view training facilities and meet the gymnasts recently, and still has to make his decision. If he were to decide to go, he would be a significant loss to the Russian WAG team and in particular to Russia's only Olympic gold medal gymnast.  Alexandrov had recently confirmed that the Russian Ministry of Sport had asked him to stay in Russia and he appears on the RGF's recently published list of coache...

These competitions are ongoing, with full results at the RGF website. Go-Tribe is doing a great job of transcribing these results at her blog , Russian Gymnast Videos .  Key results so far are that national team member Anna Rodionova competed in the Penza Championships and won the all around, while MAG junior Sergei Stepanov won the MAG, sharing some of the gold in the individual events with senior national team member Pavel Pavlov. Siberia's Grigori Zyrianov, national junior team member, features in the advertisement for the Kemerovo competitions.  Courtesy of the Russian Gymnastics Federation

Enjoy this video of the Russian national gymnastics team in training in Lake Krugloye.  Seen here : Denis Ablyazin, Yevgenia Shelgunova, Maria Paseka with tumbling coach Vasily Ivanov (practising a straight double front), Aliya Mustafina, Valentina Rodionenko, Vikto ria Komova (with coach Gennady Elfimov), Ekaterina Baturina with choreographer Olga Burova, newly appointed beam choreographer Marina Bulashenko with WAG junior head coach Olga Bulgakova, senior WAG head coach Evgeny Grebenkin, Ekaterina Kramarenko practising bars with Grebenkin. The gymnasts will take a week's break now and then return again to Lake Krugloye to prepare for Russian Championships, which will qualify the team travelling to European Championships (Moscow, 17th to 21st April). Not surprisingly, the Russians plan to send full teams to Europeans (6 men, 4 women, do not forget that these are the individual European Championships with no team competition). For the men, this is an important com...

Viktoria Komova celebrates her 18th birthday today, and in celebration Voronezh residents made this roadside tribute to the Olympic silver medallist.  Happy Birthday, Viktoria! Picture courtesy of Sovietski Sport Slightly less happily, Viktoria's mother, Vera Kolesnikova, has now confirmed that Vika will miss this spring's Russian Championships, and European Championships, to rest a back strain.  The Russian Ministry of Sport has elaborated, with translation courtesy of Alar at the All Around Forum : 'Viktoria will be in Voronezh where she'll continue to train lightly and do some conditioning. She's excused from participating at Russian Championships and Euros, but will prepare for Worlds. Nothing serious was found with her back. Her pains were attributed to delayed puberty and it was decided that she has not fully recovered from the workload before the Olympics yet. She was given a month to recover physically and mentally.' I wish Viktoria a ...

Yuri Korolev (right), has joined the Russian national coaching team.  He is seen here congratulating his gymnast, 2012 Olympian Dmitri Barkalov. The RGF has now updated its list of national team coaches.  The senior management team includes Andrei Rodionenko and his wife Valentina Rodionenko as Head Coach and Senior Coach of the men's and women's teams respectively, with Evgeny Grebenkin installed as Senior Coach of the women's team.  (Grebenkin has stepped down from his personal coaching responsibilities for national reserve team member Ekaterina Baturina.) Nikolai Yepishin has taken up a position as Senior Coach of boys and girls.   Valery Alfosov, Nikolai Krukov and Olga Bulgakova remain in their existing positions as Senior Coaches of the men's, junior men's and junior women's teams respectively. Alexander Alexandrov, personal coach to Aliya Mustafina, is confirmed in this position on the national coaching team, and Gennady Elfimov, coach to Vik...