Skip to main content

Major changes to structure of RGF and personnel

Some major shifts in the way gymnastics is being managed in Russia, and in the personnel. 


Irina Viner has resigned as President of the Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation.


A decision has been made to merge the RGF, the Russian Trampoline Federation, the Russian Sports Acrobatics Federation, the All-Russian Federation of Sports Aerobics, and the All-Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation into a single RGF.


The new President of the RGF will be Oleg Belozyorev, CEO and Chairman of the Board of JSC Russian Railways.  He was the only candidate standing at the election.  


Nikita Nagorny has been made Vice President.  He says: ‘I have the honor of becoming the vice-president of the Federation and being responsible for the direction of artistic gymnastics in our country!’


Nagorny says he won’t retire from competition for the time being, despite announcements from Valentina Rodionenko to the contrary.  


I’m unsure what the implications are, but both Nagorny and Belozyorev have been sanctioned by the US/EU for their support for the war; Belozyorev is not a banker, as former President of the RGF Titov was, but a politician with a long history, presumably with links to Putin.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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...

30 years in elite sport: Oksana Chusovitina

You've been competing internationally for over 30 years. How has gymnastics changed over that time? Is there anything about your sport that has remained the same for decades? First of all, the age has changed. More mature athletes are competing now, which makes me happy. Secondly, the apparatuses. They've become more comfortable and sophisticated. Gymnastics in general has become more challenging, but in my youth, people performed mostly the same elements as they do now. Back then, this was par for the course, but now it surprises many. It's a bit amusing. Has the nature of the training itself changed? For me personally, absolutely. Now, my life isn't just about my athletic career. I'm involved with the Oksana Chusovitina Academy, which was personally opened by the President of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev. It has 155 students, both girls and boys. I used to train three times a day, but now I train once. The entire afternoon is taken up with the academy and organi...

National team coaches 2024, the Russian Federation - a full list

In January each year the Russian Gymnastics Federation publishes its list of coaches and gymnasts who have made the training teams for their country.  You will find below a transliteration of the list of national team coaches, 70 of them in total.  The oldest member of the team is Valentina Rodionenko, 88, the youngest Ivan Galonenko, 24 - he is a bars coach, to the junior women's team.   The senior coaches to the senior teams would all have qualified as coaches during the Soviet era.  Many of them work out of Moscow, Vladimir and Rostov, former Soviet strongholds of gymnastics.  The doctors are all attached to Yaroslavl.  St Petersburg has two coaches listed, but there are no St Petersburg gymnasts on the senior national teams at present.  There are no coaches from Russia's Far East.  This region has been highlighted as a geographical area President Putin is targetting for sports development and investment over the coming years.   ...

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more