The Russian MAG and WAG teams take their preparation for World Championships in Nanning one step further this week, as key players compete in the annual Russia Cup in Penza. There will be team, all around and event finals. The WAG team Last year the gymnasts were rather depleted and suffering the effects of injury; this year the national squad is still short of some of its top members, but has greater diversity and experience up and coming into the ranks, so it will be an interesting time. Last year saw St Petersburg gymnast and fan favourite Tatiana Nabiyeva lead the all around, ahead of Alla Sosnitskaya, Anna Pavlova, Anna Rodionova, Ekaterina Kramarenko and Polina Fyodorova. With the individual-only World Championships up coming in Antwerp, I remember writing that Russia might well decide to send a team of only three gymnasts, such was the paucity of available talent. The final reckoning saw Russia fare a little better than this, although performance lacked depth and re
It's amazing to see how good team GB has become. I hadn't followed gymnastics for years, and it's stunning to see them become a powerhouse. Good for them.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course, congratulations to Valentin! He'll be one to watch in the future.
Ugh! Seriously, Russia what the hell are you doing? How did it come to this? Not only Russia but the European countries that used to be stronger.
ReplyDeleteGB is just running with the momentum coming off of a lot of investment leading up to London (these juniors weren't eligible to peak in time for London is all). Eventually they'll end up where Australia is today, trying to rebuild a decent program many quads after hosting the Olympics, because the only reason they are coming into this success is that capital was put into their programs for the first time. But already the British gov't has ceased its funding following London and now two top elite clubs (one trained 4/5 of the last Olympic team) are already warning that they will close unless they get funding back. That combined with the fact that 1/3 of adult elite gymnasts in GB have retired last years is proof enough to me that we should enjoy this while it lasts. You'll say i'm being pessimistic, but really im just following the trajectory of how these things work.1. Nation gets Olympics 2.nation invests in all sports programs and gov't offers incentives to build training centers, quality facilities, pay for travel expenses to acquire experience, pay for high tech medicine and performance equipment, give generous wages to entice world class coaches 3. a reserve of depth forms- some will peak in time for the Olympics 4. Games ends so govt cuts funding but nation still has "talent residue" that will flow into the next quad or two 5.Eventually the programs that were traditionally underfunded go back to where they were originally..or fall farther. It happened to Australia's gymnastics, swimming, track and field programs, to China's boxing and biking programs and probably so many others I just haven't read about them.
DeleteNow Canada... if they had had Peng Peng Lee they would've taken home an Olympic team silver or bronze medal instead of their historic 5th place. They were so dominating while CHN, RUS,ROU faltered. Canada has been a program quietly but consistently on the rise for years and they're genuine commitment to gymnastics has been without the need of a home-Olympics to fire them up. Because they've invested in gymnastics w/o any looming incentive they must earnestly see the sport as a part of Canada's athletic culture. GB is moving faster, but CAN will stay longer.
My apologies for such a belated reply but I had to reply due to the inaccuracies contained in your comments. Firstly, the British development program began before London was awarded the Olympics so wasn't driven initially by the need to perform at a home games. Secondly, the government which isn't involved in the decision making process hasn't cut funding for gymnastics as you claim. UK Sport has actually substantially increased funding from £10.7m in the 2009/13 cycle to £14.5m in the 2013/17 cycle.
DeleteIn reality the future of British gymnastics looks very bright with more and more talented youngsters coming through the system and funding already secured for the period beyond the next Olympics.
It is a really helpful reply, thank you.
DeleteIt seems to me that gymnastics is becoming a headline sport in Britain ... I hope that the successes at the Commonwealth Games will reinforce the funding decisions.
For the first time in its history British Gymnastics has home grown role models which I think is key to the development of the sport in the UK. People could admire the brilliance of the great gymnasts produced by other countries but kids in Britain probably never thought they could realistically aspire to be like them. Now the likes of Tweddle and Smith and those that have followed have provided the belief that British kids can compete with and beat the rest of the world.
DeleteAs for the sport itself I think you're right about it gaining a higher profile and that can only help feed its growth. At one time the only gymnastics competitions that received coverage in the UK was during the Olympics and Commonwealth Games. Now the BBC covers the european and world championships as well. As for funding I think that is guaranteed for the forseeable future the only question being the level which is based on meeting agreed targets which they seem well equiped to achieve.