The generations of gymnasts in Russia move on

Almost two years ago the IOC sanctioned Russia for invading Ukraine.  The IOC effectively banned Russia’s team from international competition in Olympic sports.  

2020/1 was therefore Russia’s last Olympics, but even so they competed then not as Russia, but under the flag of the Russian Olympic Committee.

There has been a long history of ‘diplomatic’ conflict between Russia and the IOC.  You could think back as far as 1984 when the team boycotted the LA Olympics, but more recently we begin with the ‘state doping’ that went on in particular at the Sochi Winter Olympic Games in 2014.  Gymnastics wasn’t affected at that time as the sport of gymnastics is clean, but the sanctions on sport in Russia, in general, have gradually become stronger.  It’s now only possible for gymnasts to compete internationally as individuals, with neutral status.  Neutral status is granted by their sporting administrative bodies, in our case the FIG.  

It’s not an easy job, either applying for neutral status or considering applications.  For the athletes, it takes a lot of courage to make a public stand of neutrality in Russia, when their livelihoods depend on sport; and to appear in front of international audiences, when they don’t know how they will be received.  

For the women, Melnikova has just ventured into the unknown, and came out OK from her time in Paris, even if she has been harshly criticised by some of her compatriots.  But none of the men have been seen in competition for two years.  With the exception of Melnikova, across both MAG and WAG, none of the athletes competing at Worlds have had any senior international experience aside from at those competitions that have taken place in Russia, without full international participation from FIG merited nations (eg BRICS).

Russia has only four MAG athletes with neutral status.  That is two below the number of athletes each country can submit to Worlds.  Of the winning 2020/2021 Olympics team, only Belyavski is still competing, on pommels and parallel bars, and only at home - he doesn’t have neutral status.  

Two years is a long time in sport, and a great deal has moved on in gymnastics.  The bigger picture of war looms large in the world’s future and we don’t know when sport will ‘get back to normal’.  In an interview with Belyavski earlier this year, Stretovich mooted the idea that the sanctions on Russia might continue for ‘another ten years’.  It was a throwaway comment, but it’s not entirely unlikely that this horrible war and all that accompanies it will linger on for a lot longer.  I pray for peace.

Yesterday, at Round Lake national training centre, control competitions took place for the MAG team who are in preparation for the upcoming national championships.  These are always an opportunity for past gymnasts and coaches to show their faces.  This photograph of some gymnasts has surfaced - it shows how quickly the generations are moving on, even in MAG.

L to R: Garibov, Ignatyev, Polyashov, Nagorny, Stretovich, Belyavski, Britan

PS. Dalaloyan is on a skiing holiday in Sakhalin (Russia’s Far East, an island close to Japan).  Don’t know what Ablyazin is doing.  

One of the MAG with neutral status, Daniil Novikov, injured his knee badly at yesterday’s control, so won’t be competing again until the end of the year.