Skip to main content

Russian team prospects and a proliferation of question marks

Putting aside worries about injuries, we have seen this year how the deselection of certain gymnasts from competition rosters can influence competition outcomes and delay the often simplistic conclusions we gym fans want to draw.  Komova's lack of appearance on the senior front leaves us completely befuddled and Mustafina's sudden withdrawal from the European Championships beheaded Russian, European and, arguably, World gymnastics.  We are unsure whether these two gymnasts can possibly make it back to their former level and Dementyeva now appears as the poster girl of the forthcoming Russian Cup competition.  However, she might as well have a giant question mark over her head for all the credit she is given for her achievements.

Similarly, the recent EYOF was without its top contender (Anastasia Grishina) and her closest domestic rival (Anastasia Sidorova), leaving us wondering how the results would have been affected if the Russian team had included those we consider to be close to unbeatable on the European stage.  Larissa Iordache, the strong leader of the European junior field at this competition, will now suffer the same fate as Dementyeva as her achievements are questioned thanks to the absence of two of her rivals.  Is this placing of question marks part of a pattern?  Will we have any reliable indicator of the Russians' competitive form before the European Championships next year?

There is not much point in over-stating the Russian women's prospects at the up coming World Championships, but I do not believe they are as poor as many state, including Alexandrov.  Nevertheless, there are some benefits in building up slowly towards the Olympics.  A gymnastics team is only as good as its reserves; if a team cannot win without its leading performer, then the chance of leading the sport more than momentarily is pretty poor.  Injuries are to be expected and team training and selections should take this into account.  I would be surprised if they don't.

Interesting to see the women's team selection for EYOF.  I know that the two Anastasias were supposedly injured, but this was clearly a 'new generation' team, selected from Republics infrequently represented on national teams, with two girls from the same club.  These gymnasts were amongst the stand outs in the recent Spartakiade, but I wonder if there was any deliberate strategy involved?  I remember the excellent Ekaterina Privalova, who despite some rather good results at national competition repeatedly missed out on international assignments thanks to the impoverished state of her local republic.  Hopefully the wider geographical spread of home clubs represented by girls on the national team is an indication of wider reaching financial provision for the sport.  Putin has publicly nailed his colours to the post of sports funding and is expecting Olympic medals as part of a long term funding strategy to 2020.

I was quite surprised to read Alexandrov's rather calm dismissal of the Russian women's chances at Tokyo, supported by a statement that it's difficult to get the girls to work hard when there is little competition for a place on the team.  I agree to the extent that I do consider qualification for the Olympics to be the most important outcome of Worlds this year; but to admit that your team isn't really working as hard as it might is a bit of a weak admission, if that is what he is really saying.  Or perhaps there is some kind of subtle psychology going on that I don't understand. 

Let's hope that the upcoming Russian Cup will provide a few answers as to the form of Afanasyeva, Semenova, Nabieva, Dementyeva and Belokobylskaya.  With a revived Komova, this could form the core of the Russian team.  And it's not a bad one, is it?

Comments

  1. Really interesting article thanks :) I hadn't realised Privalova had missed out on international assigments because of the state of her home republic (which one was it out of interest?)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Rachel, I believe she was from the city of Samara - the same home town as Anna Dementyeva!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice article. I don't understand why the mention of Fukushima though. Worlds will be in Tokyo. They are more than 200Km from each other @@

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oooh ... brain drain ... such a silly mistake, I have made it elsewhere. Will correct! Thanks.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Interview with Artur Dalaloyan

 Artur Dalaloyan on the competition in the national team, performing at the BRICS Games and the desire to rest ❓After performing in the all-around, Nikita Nagorny admitted that he did not devote much time to training before the BRICS Games. Accordingly, his physical fitness left much to be desired. What can you say about yourself in this regard? - I can say with absolute certainty that performing in the all-around requires 100% preparation and, accordingly, a large training volume. I did this volume, so I calmly went out on the platform, realizing that I was capable of completing the all-around. ❓Didn't you lose heart when it became known that the Friendship Games might be postponed until next year? - Of course, we expected that the Friendship Games would take place on time. They, like the BRICS Games, were quite a big additional incentive: after all, they are international competitions. Therefore, I tried to work in such a way as not to lower the level of the all-around. ❓Do you s

Fact or fiction? The press, gymnastics and pregnancy doping

It was a Sunday morning.  I was drinking my coffee and contemplating the day ahead - a workout at the gym, shopping for groceries, an evening reading a book, or catching up on last night's episodes of crime thriller The Bridge .  How nice it was not to have to think about work for a day. Then I saw it - a story about the history of doping in The Observer .  Interesting reading. Of course, cheating is as old as the hills.  It is, unfortunately, human nature for some people to try to gain easy advantage in any kind of competition.  That is why we have laws, rules, ethical guidelines.  People who cheat should face justice and shouldn't complain when they are found out. But the story about pregnancy doping bothered me.  Hadn't that been found to be fictional?  The author began with Olga Kovalenko's allegations made in 1994 - but the rumours had started way back in 1991 with the documentary series More Than A Game .  The practice of pregnancy doping was dis

‘Biles turned gymnastics upside down’ - interview with Angelina Melnikova

Interview by Norik Serobyan, Sports Correspondent,    Metaratings “Foreign gymnasts write that they miss us and are waiting for us.” Melnikova - about Spartak, Olympic Games 2024 and plans Two years ago, Angelina Melnikova became one of the main stars of the Russian team at the Tokyo Olympics, where Russian gymnasts won gold. Now the leader of the Russian team competes only at domestic competitions. In an interview with Metaratings.ru, the world and Olympic champion told what she does outside of sports. From our conversation you will learn: how high is the level of competition in Russia; what is her motivation to perform without international competitions; when is he planning to retire? what he thinks about participating in the Olympics; why does he support Spartak? “In Russia the level of competition is low, there are two or three athletes who fight for the podium, this is very few” – More than a month has already passed since the Russian Cup. You probably managed to analyze your perf

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more