Happy Birthday, Dasha!

Happy 18th birthday to World Bars Champion, Daria Spiridonova! Have a lovely day, and good luck with your Olympic preparations.

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

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...

Aliya Mustafina - 'I'm just trying to stay healthy'

A brief interview with the World and Olympic Champion from All Sport is summarised below. Russian national gymnastics continues to prepare for the World Championships, which will be held October 3-12 in Nanning (China). Olympic champion Aliya Mustafina told Mary Staroverova about her health and about preparations for the competition. - In June, I went to Germany to solve the problem with my ankle. I had a small operation to clean the joints of a build-up of bone particles. Nothing serious was evident, and the operation went well. Now I have to tumble. But there is still some discomfort, a slight pain at full load, and I can not tumble at full force. For the time being, I try to go easy on my legs. After the Russia Cup I will have to fully prepare for Worlds. That is just one month. Even if I'm not tumbling, I will keep myself in good shape, and that should suffice (smiles). - I can't say if it is a different pain to before Europeans, because at...

Aliya Mustafina - 'each medal is very special'

'I'm very happy that everything turned out well today ... Each medal is very special. The UK team made mistakes, so there was a wide margin [of victory]... But naturally, [what I did] is not enough for the Olympics. I prepared well for beam and bars but I am not ready for floor, I stepped up to help the team. ... To be honest, I did not look at the scores [when asked how the team reacted to the 6.5 gap before the final apparatus]. Gelya (Melnikova) is a good girl, she did everything and did not falter ... Seda fell on quite a complex element. There is more work to do, but everything else went well.' [About a protest taken by the coaches on her beam score]. 'I am used to my protests being rejected, everything is normal!' Via vk.com I n other news , the UEG has confirmed that Spiridonova will replace Melnikova in tomorrow's bars final. No reason is given, but it is generally considered that Dasha has a better chance of gold. This decision also means tha...

Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

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