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More thoughts on US gymnastics, Karolyi - and Zaglada

I’d like to add some thoughts to my earlier post about USA gymnastics and Bela Karolyi:  1. What Bela did, he did. He would agree that his actions were his responsibility. 2. Abusive relationships in USA gymnastics (and no doubt elsewhere) pre-existed Bela’s move to the USA and still exist today. 3. Harsh training existed and exists in all of the ‘artistic’ sports and dance-related forms - eg ballroom dancing, ballet, ice skating, circus.  The training involved in most of these activities is founded on an assumption of the benefits of early specialisation.  It revolves around  ‘ideal’ forms, shapes and postures that are difficult to achieve without early years training - women especially.   4. Wherever prodigious early talent exists, there are predators whose main desire in life is to take advantage of that talent - music, entertainment, maths, sport.  The boundaries very easily become confused.  Who owns the talent?  Who decides how many hours to work, at what level?  FOR WHOSE BENEFI
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RIP Bela Karolyi

RIP Bela Karolyi. We were all mesmerised by the gymnastics that Nadia Comaneci brought to the world.    Some of us wanted to be like Nadia.    Others wanted to share her glory. When Kerri Strug saluted the judges with a hop and a cry of agony, thousands of adults cried for joy, felt inordinate pride that a love of country had inspired such courage and strength.   When generations of elite gymnasts, many of them gold medal winners, spoke out about the abuse they had experienced whilst practicing their sport, those thousands and millions of cheering adults didn’t stop appreciating the gold medals. They did start to look for someone to blame, someone who could take responsibility for the entire systemic nastiness that enabled the abuse to take place.    Some chose the man who came to fame as Nadia Comaneci’s coach, and went on to shape elite gymnastics training in the USA, Bela Karolyi. But who facilitated and enabled Karolyi?    Who endorsed the training that earned the medals?   It was

Vladimir Zaglada - coach, author, friend, father

It is with great sadness that I report here the sudden and completely unexpected death, on 5th October, of our friend Vladimir Zaglada.  I send my love and condolences to his daughter, Olesya.  My thoughts are with the whole family.   Vladimir was born in Lvov, Ukraine, in November 1944.  His father was a progressive lawyer of great courage who was known to defend those who challenged the Soviet authorities.  Vladimir trained as a sports acrobat under the developing Soviet sports system, working in the same club as Olympic champion Viktor Chukarin.  After moving to Moscow, he became a leading coach of women's gymnastics, supporting the development of high level acrobatics.  He worked particularly closely with the up and coming young gymnasts of the early 1980s - you can see him at work in the video 'You in Gymnastics'.  At the national training centre, Lake Krugloye, he worked with Filatova, Mostepanova, Yurchenko, Arzhannikova, Mukhina and more.   Around the mid 1980s Vlad

Nabiyeva now married, living in Shanghai

Our dear Tatiana Nabiyeva has married!  It appears that she now lives in China.

Vasily Titov re-elected to Exec Committee of the FIG

⚡️Vasily Titov re-elected to the International Gymnastics Federation Executive Committee ❗️The vote took place at the organization's congress in Doha. "Despite the difficult political situation, we did not stop cooperating with the International Gymnastics Federation, actively interacted with it and defended the interests of our athletes," Titov said. "We did everything to ensure that Russia's voice was heard. My re-election is not the result of my efforts alone." "This is an understanding in the world that world gymnastics is impossible without Russia, Russia must be present in the main governing body of the International Gymnastics Federation," the agency's interlocutor noted. "Yes, the elections took place in difficult political conditions in the world, but everything possible was done to ensure that they had the least impact on the election results." 🌐 TASS

Russian Gymnastics to expand its national activities

The President of the Russian Gymnastics Federation, Oleg Belozerov, said that the organization plans to develop club tournaments and gymnastics leagues in the country. “A total of 791 thousand people are involved in gymnastics. The development of gymnastics is of historical significance for our country. Because gymnastics training is basic for almost all sports. Gymnastics contributes to the harmonious development of a person” “The calendar of our domestic competitions will be further developed. We will continue to develop competition formats, such as club competitions, and even gymnastics leagues may appear” “But I consider the key issues to be increasing the availability of gymnastics sports for the population, so that almost everyone who wants to can have the opportunity to do it either for a fee or for free, namely to create such conditions, and also to participate in competitions.” 🌐 MatchTV! https://vk.cc/cCNAU3

Oleg Belozyorev : it’s important that we have an international front

Translated from R Sport.  What the President says about relations with the FIG and IOC is echoed by Nagorny in another short interview.  Nagorny wants there to be international competitions with Russian gymnasts - but this doesn’t account for the sanctions.  Given his work as a TV/online producer he may be looking for a form of cultural exchange that sidesteps the usual structures.  But I wouldn’t bet on it happening … Now read on, via Rsport: Oleg Belozerov, head of Russian Railways, who was elected president of the Russian Gymnastics Federation, said that the unification of gymnastics federations of countries was the most important element for direct interaction with the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC). 🙏"I would like to thank all the participants of today's conference for electing me president of the Russian Gymnastics Federation: the Ministry of Sports, the Russian Olympic Committee, and delegates. The most important