Skip to main content

Viktoria Komova in flight

Image
By
Viktoria Komova.  Picture courtesy of Sovietski Sport

She hovers unsupported in mid-air, flying upwards to grasp the high bar.  It is a moment of supreme serenity and maximum power.  Every muscle is tense, yet perfectly aligned; the only influence of gravity is on Viktoria Komova's fringe and ponytail.

Gymnastics is flight - that moment of freedom as the gymnast denies a surrender to gravity.  Komova flies through the air with the greatest of ease, achieving air time, body line and a rare aesthetic.  She is as light and airy as a swallow, yet the feats she performs demand the power of a Ferrari, the ferocity of a tiger, the toughness of a boxer, the stamina of a long distance runner.

Gymnastics is about far, far more than stuck landings.


Labels:

Comments

  1. M6 July 2012 at 21:27

    I like this little write up on Komova. I do agree gymnastics is a lot more than just having stuck landings. Technique and form is extremely important.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous21 September 2012 at 10:58

    Nice blog.love this post.gymnastic is a good way to maintain your fitness. it shows your physical strength, flexibility and agility..


    rochester mi gymnastics

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Remembering last summer - Nelli Kim, her judges and Viktoria Komova

By
In view of Nelli Kim's recent interview , Lupita and I thought it timely to revisit the performance of some of the WTC President's judges over past competitions ... this article from 27th August 2012 is reposted here, as a reminder. You will find a link to the FIG's newly published book of results at the Olympic Games here .  This year, they have broken down the judge's execution scores so you can see exactly how each judge evaluated the gymnasts' performances.  It makes for interesting reading - if only I had more time to analyse each judge's marking.  A skim reading already highlights multiple inconsistencies in individual judges' marks and makes you wonder why they bother with the jury at all. I have taken the time to look at the reference judges' scores for the top four in the women's all around.  The FIG explains here what their role is, and how they are selected.  I even used my calculator, which is a risky thing in my hands.  M...
42 comments
Read more

Pongo’s predictions for Russia MAG in Rotterdam

By
Pongo is my AI assistant.  Read here his calculations of who might make the best Russian MAG team at the World Championships in October.  Please do feel free to disagree audibly, in the comments and note that Pongo admits, even he makes mistakes.  I don’t generally write such statistical material, so this may be a one off. With apologies for any errors, mine entirely and I wrote the brief.   Yes. I’ve treated this as a genuine team-construction problem , rather than simply taking the six gymnasts with the highest AA scores. For the calculation I used the most recent strong competitive score available for each gymnast: the Spartakiad scores for Yakubov, Novikov and Kisel , and mainly European Championship team-final/final scores for Dukhno, Marinov, Zaika and Sieedin , supplemented by Russian Championship scores where a recent European score was not available. That matters because Dukhno and Marinov, for example, were substantially stronger in Zagreb than some earlier...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nelli Kim - 'Russian gymnastics has closed in on itself' - Lupita translates

By
Lupita has translated this ITAR-TASS interview with Nelli Kim.  It's controversial, to say the least. Ed's note : much of the initial response to this interview - both here and in the wider gymternet -  has focussed on the detail of Kim's words and especially her comments about Viktoria Komova, and smiling.  But I think these have to be taken in context, and not too literally. Don't forget that just a day ago Andrei Rodionenko complained bitterly about the judging in Antwerp, calling Kim's behaviour 'aggressive'. Kim is responding to this here, and to the wider current context of Russian gymnastics.  What she is essentially saying to the Russian coach is 'get your own house in order, produce confident, disciplined, well trained gymnasts - stop complaining, do your job, and I will do mine.'   She goes about saying this in a somewhat long winded way and says some things along the way that seem contradictory, unfair, inappropriate even for th...
30 comments
Read more

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more