Skip to main content

Ksenia Afanasyeva takes retirement

Image
By

Leading Russian gymnast since 2007, Ksenia Afanasyeva has retired from gymnastics for medical reasons, reports Alexei Fililov from R Sport.  

Valentina Rodionenko explained that Ksenia has a serious kidney illness. She is in hospital and will take not just days but weeks to recover.

Afanasyeva is not just a brilliant gymnast but also a kind, humourous and intelligent team captain.  Her presence will be missed by both spectators and fellow competitors in Rio.

Ksenia's place on the Russian team travelling to Rio on Sunday will be taken by the experienced and well prepared Evgenia Shelgunova.

RRG would like to wish Ksenia a full recovery.  Get well soon, Ksenia and we will look forward to hearing about your next steps in your new life.

http://m.rsport.ru/artist_gym/20160721/993115276.html

Labels:

Comments

  1. Anonymous21 July 2016 at 13:07

    Big interview from Valentina Rodionenko about all that happen now and if IOC will ban full Russian team from Rio http://sobesednik.ru/sport/20160721-trener-sbornoy-otstranenie-rossii-mozhet-privesti-k-raskolu

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous21 July 2016 at 13:14

    I must have spent hours rewatching her floor routines. Her artistry and the maturity of her performance were unmatched. Her elaborate and daring choreography will be missed.
    She truly is one of the greats.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous21 July 2016 at 13:38

    Deeply sorry to hear this about Ksenia. It is time for her to move to the status of the Russian Greats to survive Valentina. So the Russian team is getting extinct one by one. Valentina prevails once again. Since Marta is retiring after Rio I think the Americans should consider Valentina. Great choice! Love that scenario ;)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous21 July 2016 at 22:00

    I've loved Afan. Most stoical Russian gymnast at 2012. I wish her a speedy recovcery and all the best for the future.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Unknown22 July 2016 at 03:01

    This woman was truly an artist, and will be missed. Get well soon, Ksenia!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous22 July 2016 at 06:33

    I really hope that she decides to make a comeback after the Rio Olympics. Her artistry and elegance on floor are absolutely unique and when I used to watch her routines I'd get a funny ache in my stomach because her routines were just so beautiful. If she really is retiring I hope she ends up as the principal dancer in the Bolshoi Ballet so we all still get to see those gorgeous movements that she does

    Kat

    ReplyDelete
  7. Unknown5 November 2017 at 18:08

    Ksenia, one of my all time favorites to watch on the FX keeping russian ballet style of dance a strong force and a vital element in WAG a must. great execution, balance, and always wonderfully woven together with her own personal flare. Just amazing!!!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

Russia - back to training

By
Valentina Rodionenko reports that the men's team is in full training at Lake Krugloye. Denis Ablyazin hasn't needed a break and is training 'at full strength' - (and if you subscribe to his Instagram account you will see him practising routines on p bars and high bar). David Belyavski joined training a little late, as he has been abroad on his honeymoon. Maria Paseka is returning to training on the 4th December after taking treatment for a back injury. Rodionenko says that Aliya Mustafina is excused training for the time being - Liubov Baladzhaeva helped with the translation here.  Apparently the gymnasts, as salaried athletes, cannot just take time off without permission from the Federation.  I understand that this means no change to Aliya's competitive status, ie she will not be training or competing for the time being, until such time as she gets bored and decides she wants to make a comeback!  From her Instagram account, Aliya is currently suf...
30 comments
Read more

Olga Mostepanova - from beautiful daydream to World Champion

By
Young Olga in her white leotard and orange hair bows, at her first international competition in Wembley, 1980 I had only been in the Olympiski Stadium, Moscow, for a few moments when it happened: I found myself surrounded by a little army of tiny children, excitedly chattering away in Russian, a language I don't speak.   I strained my ears and heard the names : Aliya, Nastia, Ksenia; I was swept along by this blizzard of pigtails, giggles and pretty eyes; and suddenly I lost myself, and started looking for Olga Mostepanova amongst them.  She might have been there, but (now in her forties) it is more likely that she was hard at work in her own gym, helping a young gymnast learn how to do a walkover on beam. Mostepanova was always like that, even as a child: her gymnastics appeared like a beautiful daydream, but the reality was infinitely more prosaic.  The exquisite plasticity that made her a Champion, the beautiful line for which she is famous, were the product ...
5 comments
Read more

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more