The Shtukman School of Gymnastics, Voronezh. Courtesy bloknot-voronezh.ru The local infrastructure of Russian gymnastics supports the mass base of participation necessary to develop future champions. The quality of buildings and equipment, coach training and the like all influence how well future champions will be able to train, and whether young gymnasts want to participate at all. Russia's sporting investment did not hold up during the post Soviet years when funding priorities and social attitudes to elite sport changed. 2000 Olympic vaulting champion Elena Zamolodchikova did not have a full length vaulting run available at her local gym where she had trained since childhood. Even at central level money was short. I well remember a television documentary from the late 1990s that showed national training centre Lake Krugloye in a significant state of delapidation. Leonid Arkayev, national coach from 1976 to 2006 said that he could secure money...
Reporting and analysing Russian gymnastics since 2010. Includes original and exclusive interviews with leading coaches and gymnasts, and historical issues dating back to the Soviet Union. The first blog to report extensively on the sport using Russian language sources. I read, I argue, and I have opinions. Be warned.