Where have all the Soviet coaches gone?

British Head Coach Andrei Popov took up his position in 2004.  Before that, he had been a successful international gymnast competing for the Soviet Union, a coach at his home gymnastics club in Vladimir, and a club coach working in the UK.

Russia Behind the Headlines has published a digest of a Russian language article about the migration of coaches abroad following perestroika.  It features British MAG head coach Andrei Popov, who with his colleague Sergei Sizhanov (Head coach of the junior team) is leading the British men to greater victories than ever imagined possible just ten years ago.

Popov and Sizhanov are arguably the most successful migrant Russian coaches on the men's international scene, having lifted British gymnastics from a relatively lowly standing to their medal-contending status today.  Popov says that when he took over leadership of the coaching efforts, there were hardly any top seniors competing in Britain, so he looked for the best juniors:

“I scouted throughout England, and found five or six people. A year later, we competed at the European championships and, to everyone's amazement, took fourth place. These same guys won the team bronze medal a few years later at the London Olympics, the first one in 100 years," said Popov. "The more I work with these guys, the more I am impressed by their work ethic. We trained for three hours in the morning and for four hours in the evening. They handled it just fine. The authorities saw our progress and found additional funding."

You can read more about the shifting power relationship between British and Russian gymnastics here.

Former Soviet and Russian WAG Head Coach Alexander Alexandrov also speaks about his experiences in Brazil, comparing the country to his former adopted professional home of the USA.

"Brazil also has its problems. There are not even any decent gyms,” he said. “There, like in America, gymnasts train in different clubs. But, unlike in the U.S., the clubs are not well run. Therefore, it's necessary to have centralized training for the national gymnastics team. And I'm still struggling with the notorious language barrier."

In the original article other coaches were also discussed, including Valery Belenkyi (Azerbaijan-Germany) and Vladimir Vatkin (Belarus-Australia).  I will try to draw out the most important information and fill in any gaps in the coming days.