'We are strong enough to aim at medals of any colour' - Andrei Rodionenko

Ksenia Afanasyeva has been praised for her 'sports character'. 

A round of press conferences took place at Lake Krugloye National Training Centre last week.  Lupita translates here the bones of a key report from Championnat in which the respective coaches - Valeri Alfosov for the men, Alexander Alexandrov for the women and chief coach Andrei Rodionenko - reflect on team strengths and medal prospects.

12th July, at a press conference organized by the Russian Gymnastics Federation and VTB Bank in 'Ozero Krugloye' [Round Lake, the Russian National Training Centre for Gymnastics], the Olympic teams were officially announced by national coach Andrei Rodionenko.

Later, Alexander Alexandrov explained how the team was shaping up during the Olympic cycle: Ksenia Afanasyeva is the only gymnast who participated in Beijing [2008 Olympics] and she has been able to defend her spot for London. In 2010, Mustafina and Nabieva joined the national team; a year later, Komova; and this year, Grishina. The selection resulted from the scores at competitions, the gymnast's character, and her work capacity. A lot of work was carried out.  “I guess the girls will do everything they can to fulfill expectations. And we want their effort to be crowned by success.”  He explained the choice between Nabieva and Paseka.  “We imperatively need a vault with a high base score such as Maria has. This was the case in her favour. We expect her to help the team in London”. 

Concerning all the injuries sustained by the women’s team over the last years, it was discussed if all these incidents had been overcome by, for instance, Aliya Mustafina. “This season Mustafina took part in several competitions, and we saw that she had no problems with her knee”. Alexander Alexandrov is also Mustafina’s personal coach. “Of course, we are working with caution. But she can compete at the Olympics and help the team. Aliya has recovered her programme, except for vault. It’s a very complex vault. She has tried to do it in training, but we haven’t tried it on hard mats". Aliya could come back to the sport after a serious injury thanks to her character, praised by all the other gymnasts.

"All our leaders have a very strong character that they show in all the competitions. Mustafina competed brilliantly in 2010 and Komova became World Champion on bars last year. Grishina joined the national team last season. They’ll be responsible for the big work in the team in London. Concerning Afanasyeva, I’d like to give her special thanks for the high level she has reached over many years, although in gymnastics the sport cycle is very short. To perform in two Olympics one needs a sports character, which she has been proven to have ". 

Then, the men’s team coach, Valeri Alfosov, introduced his pupils: 

"Our men’s team is very young. The oldest is Alexander Balandin, who just turned 23. They all joined the national team in 2012, but they adapted very well and have achieved excellent results. Thanks to their work capacity, their ambition and obstinacy, they were able to stand the competition of elder gymnasts and they reached a spot in the national team. They have already taken part in significant competitions – European and World Championships - and have acquired experience in order to compete well at the Olympics. They are ambitious and full of will to fight any rival." 

 Emin Garibov, as Captain, mentioned the apparatus on which every gymnast excels: "Mine are high bar and parallel bars, Igor Pakhomenko excels in high bar and pommel horse, David Belyavski is our best all-arounder. Denis Ablyazin’s best disciplines are vault, floor and rings. Alexander Balandin’s are rings and parallel bars."

At the end of the press-conference, national coach Andrei Rodionenko answered a question that interested the audience concerning the result that can be expected from the team in London: 

"The Olympic rules in artistic gymnastics are one of the most strict: we don’t have alternates, we don’t have warming-up before the finals. This is why we can only count on doing our own stuff well.  Our aim is to put up decent performances, of which we won’t feel ashamed. If we succeed in doing so, medals will come.  But, frankly speaking, the girls have more opportunities; there is less competition between women’s teams. Only four teams will fight for the medals, while we’re witnessing a genuine “boom” among the men. As we saw in the London Olympic trial, after the first round sixteen teams achieved similar results. We believe in our boys. We have a strong and interesting team, but we have two to three times more rivals. Nevertheless, they are strong enough to aim at medals of any colour".

Picture of Rodionenko and Afanasyeva courtesy of the Russian Gymnastics Federation.