Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Aliya Mustafina highlights the support of relatives and fans as 'worth its weight in gold' in this brief end of year note in Sovietski Sport today. 'Without this support, winning the gold would have been much more difficult', she says. Let's look forward to a golden year in 2011 for Aliya and the girls.

The Russian Federation's magazine 'Gymnastika', issue number 3, dating back to May 2010, is available here . As I mentioned earlier, the Federation have updated their website quite extensively, and have now ironed out some of the earlier teething problems. I don't think I have seen this before, and I really wish there were an English language version available, as it is fascinating! The magazine is richly illustrated with full colour photographs and includes features on Olga Mostepanova, Ekaterina Lobazniuk, Elena Mukhina, coach Marina Ulyankina, and the legacy of coach Yuri Shtukman. There is a piece on this spring's 'Olympic Hopefuls' competition in Penza, and an extensive interview with Valentina Rodienenko. There is also a full colour pull out centrefold of Anton Golutsotskov, holding a snooker cue.

The Russian Federation's website carries a notice of this girl's competition which opened today. Results will be updated after the winter break.

The All Around news site carries some more context and background to the re-election of Andrei Kostin. Kostin is the man Andrei Rodienenko credits as of critical importance to the resurgence of Russian gymnastics (see a brief media directory ). I hadn't taken on board that he is also very senior at the VTB Bank, thus cementing the crucial sponsorship arrangement between the Bank and the Federation. Let's hope this means continuing support for all the success the gymnasts are experiencing currently. A link to pictures of the Conference can be found at the Russian Federation's website .

There is an interview with Svetlana Khorkina here . The article includes some lovely pictures of Khorkina in her current life as a Russian State Deputy, including one shot with Alina Kabaeva. If I understand the translation correctly, Khorkina's political responsibilities include a specialist interest in the Committee of Youth. She comments with pride on the achievements of the Russian team this year and identifies closely with Mustafina. She echoes Rodienenko's concerns for the future of Russian gymnastics, however, highlighting the shortage of coaches, and the corresponding poor rate of pay. Today's gymnastics is 'all bent legs', and lacks complexity. She suggests that Code changes after 2012 should be brought about, to encourage greater complexity in exercises, as well as better quality of performance. On a broader front, she suggests that the Russians need specialist legal sports representation to confront problems of unfairness she perceives, such ...

The success of the Soviet Union women was not founded on reliability. Most of their World and European Champions suffered errors en route to their notable victories. Yurchenko was notorious for her unpredictability pre-1982; Shushunova fell twice on bars in qualifications during the 1985 World Championships; Davydova’s gold at the Moscow Olympics was a surprise, given her error rate at previous competitions. Often, it was the most beautiful Soviets who were the least competitive: Ilienko and Shaposhnikova were stunningly erratic. Behind them stood a whole army of astonishing but competitively inept aspiring World Champions, many of them well known but who never made World Champion teams: Groshkova, Priakhina, Shkoda, Mysnik. The entire history of Soviet gymnastics is littered with brilliant, but unpredictable startlets. Their teams were no less likely to win because of it. We were no less in their awe because of it. A certain degree of unreliability – risk - was expected if...

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