Aliya Mustafina - I'll continue training after the Games

Aliya Mustafina credits her involvement in sport to her family, especially her father, Fargat Mustafin

Well, by now you will all know that the Russian team won a silver medal in the team competition, their best result since 2000.  They were beautiful, but suffered more errors than they would have wanted to, and were rather distressed about this at the end of the competition.  However, silver is a good result for them and I hope they can raise themselves for all around and event finals where there is much to fight for.  The American girls looked really good on this occasion, producing some consistent gymnastics to take first place absolutely convincingly, and I was delighted to see the Romanians take bronze thanks to the hard work of coaches Belu and Bitang and the gymnasts.  You can find the full results here.

Aliya Mustafina has had a particularly hard - but ultimately rewarding - 18 months, recovering from the career threatening injury she incurred at the Berlin European Championships in spring 2011.  She has shone on both occasions she has appeared in London; she is the spiritual centre of this team and I so hope she can do well in the individual finals for which she has qualified.  Now, you can read a few of Aliya's thoughts as she prepared for these Games, translated by Lupita from an original Russian language article that appeared at Russian Gymnastics' sponsors VTB's website.

Aliya Mustafina came to sport because of family circumstances.   Her father, Farhat Mustafin was a bronze medallist in wrestling at the 1976 Olympics, who�s now a coach.  He says that his wife and he didn�t plan to bring up champions. They just wanted their children to be busy doing something.  They thought: �If they practice sport until they�re 12, they�ll be healthy and when they�ll start serious studies, we'll let them leave sport, and they�ll study.  We don�t want the kids to be in the street.  I took the smaller one when she was going to the kindergarten, and her mum took Aliya to an evening training.  When she was nine, Alya went with her sister.  Although Nelka is two years younger, she remembered her way very well�.   Aliya Mustafina, twice World champion, has gone through the glory and pain of elite sport.  Athletes don�t have free time before the Olympics.  Yet Aliya found half an tour to talk with the correspondent of VTB.

 

� You've just finished school and you are leaving for the Olympics.

� Yes, I managed to combine my studies and my training.  Obviously, I�m happy that the exams are over. I�ll have to decide what I�ll study later.  But of course I�ll decide that after the Games.

� What is more difficult right now?  Waiting?  Or would you prefer the Olympics to begin a little later?

 

� No, it�s difficult to wait for the time when we will perform, when we go into the Olympic podium.  The most difficult thing will be in the UK.  We have to work over three weeks, it�s important not to be betrayed by your feet, your muscles, your nerves. 

� What are your current feelings: "Wow, we feel so strong!" or "we�ll soon peak"? 

� No, so far it�s not �WOW�. These last days are essential to polish everything. 

� ?liya, tell me: �How many times did you have to chase away those thoughts during the past weeks: "What did I get involved in all this for?  I could live a quieter life!"

� ?hat never happened to me! On the contrary, I understand that little time is left.  We need to be patient for a while, to compete at the Olympics and later everything will be easier. 

� Is it easier to compete than to make a decision?

� The Olympics are the most difficult competition.

� Once I asked your father: you were an athlete, your wife is a physicist.  In your family you must have cult for sport and physical sciences.  He answered: the cult of the family...

� For me, family is family with no other words to define it.  ?y mum, my dad, my sister. Obviously, my love for sport comes from my dad.  Although he didn�t fix important goals for me.  Sometimes he said; �Come on, Aliya, if you train hard, you�ll become World Champion".  I don�t know if he believed it or not. My mum and my dad never waited for hours in the gym, as other parents did.  I fell instantly in love with gymnastics.  I liked the Swedish bench, trampoline, later bars � When I was small, everything was interesting and I always had fun. ? t school my favourite subjects were physics and maths.  They are always easy for me because they are interesting. And I understand many things. 

� This surprises many people. Where does the interest lie? 

� How could physics not be interesting?!  How nature�s laws work!  My mother is a teacher.  Before starting the 7th grade, when I started physics, I began to read the textbook�  Since then, physics is my favourite subject. 

� The girls on the team always said that you are able to count the score you needed. Is it true?

� Of course. It�s pure matsh. And, by the way, I am not the only one.  One shouldn�t think that at Krugloye we don�t see or do anything else.

� We can�t stop life. You spend yours at  Krugloye.

� I feel very comfortable there.  Obviously, I seldom see my family.  After the important competitions, we get a free week, but we are seldom home.  The first thing I do is to go to my school. I meet my friends. We have time to go to the cinema and for a walk.  We spend the whole year at Krugloye, I have friends there and other friends in Moscow. In Moscow my friends are not gymnasts.

� Don�t you get tired of elite sport?  You cried more for a year than in your whole life.  It was an important year for you. Your recovery after injury was very long�

� No, I can�t say that I cried for a whole year.  I�m growing older.

� Experiences build your character. Do you feel the changes yourself?

� External and internal changes.  I have grown taller, put on weight.  And I have begun to work in a different way in each event. My previous gymnastics was more like children�s gymnastics.  After the injury, I began to grow taller. 

� One could say that you suffered from the injury.

� Yes, no doubt.  It was more difficult to work.  Perhaps because I am still not used to my new body???? I became more womanly and this is also something new. 

� Do you feel that you preserved yourself after the injury?

� No, I never felt this.  I worked as normal.  It was useful that I came back immediately to Krugloye.  Five days after the surgery I went to the gym.  I could have waited somewhere else, but I went to the gym with my team-mates, they did their job while I did conditioning and helped them�  Now I want the Olympics to start.  And I want to compete, to fight�.  Don�t say that these days are horrible, the last ones. They are useful to polish things. 

� I understand that it�s not the best moment to ask this question, but do you ever think that you will train for another Olympic cycle?

� Yes, I do. In fact, we still have to finish this cycle. And later. Perhaps it will become obvious.

� When you were recovering, competition got stronger in the national team? Can competition be an irritation?

� No, my goal is to help the team. Because, whatever you do, you compete two days only for the team and then begin the individual competitions, performing the best I can. This is the goal.

� Everyone says that you are a perfectionist (a maximalist????).

� I�ll suffer, but I hope everything will turn out OK..

� Alexander Alexandrov used to say that your main quality is confidence. �She is able to concentrate in a competition. Even if the day before she doesn�t hit in the gym, and cries with impotence, she competes and she is able to struggle".

�� You know, after I became World Champion, I  as often asked if something had changed about me.  In fact nothing changed.  Of course I know that Svetlana Khorkina had been World Champion many years before.  It was nice to be compared to her, but Khorhina is Khorkina and I am Mustafina. I want to leave something of my own in gymnastics.

 

 

 

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WAG final start lists

Aliya Mustafina competes on beam in qualifying on Sunday.  FIG

You will be able to find start lists for this afternoon's women's team final here.

Russia begin on vault, alongside the American team.  Their working order at present stands as follows :

Vault : Mustafina, Komova, Paseka
Bars : Grishina, Mustafina, Komova
Beam : Mustafina, Komova, Afanasyeva
Floor : Mustafina, Grishina, Afanasyeva


You see, this team begins and ends with Mustafina and Afanasyeva ...

Ksenia Afanasyeva during podium training.  FIG

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Russian men finish 6th in fiery Olympic final

Denis Ablyazin on floor at this year's Russia Cup.  Courtesy of the RFG

As Britain recorded an historic first medal in the men's gymnastics team competition at the North Greenwich arena yesterday, Russia struggled to fulfill their potential.  With falls on pommels, vault and parallel bars they finished in sixth place, with a team total almost three points lower than that achieved in qualifying.

This must surely be a learning experience for a very young team who have every right to believe that things will turn out better in the end if only they can keep up the work ethic that has seen them make such strong improvements since 2008.

In that time Russia have also had to grapple with a change in the world order which has seen countries such as Britain, Germany, USA and, now, the exciting Ukraine develop into a strong second league in world gymnastics behind the leading crew of Japan and China.  Men's gymnastics in many ways is now a preferable experience to the women's sport for its vibrancy and depth of competition.  It is a pleasure to watch these calmly modest daredevils at work.  Gymnasts must be some of the most sporting, courteous athletes in the world; just look at the way that Uchimura handled himself in the midst of that judging debacle.  See how the Ukrainians reacted to the loss of their bronze medal, the British to their rapid turnaround from silver to bronze.  If the sport is ever let down, it is usually by an official.  The men's sport is so much less shrill,  emotional and contrived than women's gymnastics : the true Olympic spirit of participation, international relations and friendship is alive and kicking.

It's not the end of the line for the Russians; they have gymnasts qualified to finals in the all around and in all events.  They'll live to fight another day.

Read the full results here.

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Artistic gymnastics is alive, well and Russian!

Viktoria Komova, watched by podium coach Maria Nazarova yesterday

Artistic gymnastics is all about amplitude, flight, grace and elegance, expression.  The way the gymnast leaps and somersaults and twists in the air, performing acts of incredible strength and skill but making them look like effortless works of art. The way the gymnast pauses mid-air and makes complex movements with, apparently, all the time in the world.  Let's call it virtuosity. 

In the North Greenwich arena, yesterday afternoon, spectators were treated to a brilliant exposition on the sport of gymnastics by a team of feisty young Russians who have come to London determined to make their mark in the history of the sport.  It is twenty years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, whose gymnastics legacy they embrace. The sport has since moved on, and is now principally the domain of bouncy, synthetically smiling teenagers who bow down only to the sport's Code of Points and their coaches' instructions. For them, the sport might just as well be renamed 'sporting gymnastics' (ironically, a direct translation of the sport's name in the Russian language).  But for the Russians, the requirement is still 'artistic gymnastics'.  They just can't wash the need to be beautiful out of their perfectly tinted hair. 

Russia is a thorn in the sport's side in this respect, even if the international governing body, the FIG, recently declared 'We are missing out on the beauty of gymnastics'.  The team's tendency to take risks and stretch every move to the max - ('amplitude' - watch Viktoria Komova in particular) - runs directly against the current sporting maxim of reliability and consistency encouraged by a lifeless, one dimensional Code that provides little scope to reward artistry.   It also has a tendency to provoke the kind of errors that incur deductions large enough to deprive them of gold medals.  Compromise is not a word in the Russians' vocabulary.   1992 Olympic Beam Champion Tatiana Lyssenko recently explained the Soviet maxim that has become so much a part of Russia's gymnastics ethos:

'No matter how safe you play it, there�s never a guarantee that you will not make a mistake. And taking risks like that was part of our team philosophy: the idea that if you could do something, you should do it�you should show it to the world. It wasn�t about playing a game of points or determining how to use the Code to your advantage. It was about showing the best gymnastics that you could in a pure sense..'

So when they come to a competition like the Olympics, Russia's competitive status is frequently a bit questionable, The errors that are often induced by their take-it-to-the-max approach are penalised by the judges, but without a corresponding bonus being applied for the added artistry and risk they bring, that induces a higher likelihood of error.  Just because they are trying to do more, and represent the sport in all its dimensions. It's not fair.  It's almost as though the FIG would rather not enjoy the artistry of gymnastics any more, despite paying lip service to the opposite view. 

How many errors can you see? - USA gymnast Alexandra Raisman in flight

The reality of the situation can be seen a little more clearly by observing what is happening currently to the American team, where team stalwart Alexandra Raisman has controversially ousted 2011 World Champion Jordyn Wieber from the all around final.  Many are characterising this as a weakness in the sporting rules that limit participation in finals to two gymnasts per country.  This is certainly one way of looking at the problem.  Another way of thinking is that the FIG and what I call the American school of gymnastics has finally eaten itself and got the gymnastics it deserves.  Raisman has avoided penalty for her many gymnastic deficiencies for too long.  The Code ignores her complete dearth of artistry and amplitude; it is blind to the countless errors in form that characterise her work but which are presumably too countless to begin deducting for.  The fact that she has qualified for floor final in first place is a travesty; even from several rows back in the North Greenwich arena her pagoda legs in tumbles, lack of toe point, and mangled lines in flight throughout were glaringly obvious.  But Wieber, a much better gymnast, made errors such as stepping out of the area, ones that have a specific and clear deduction in the Code, that Raisman did not suffer.  It was easier just to stick to the Code, to avoid making a value judgement and giving Raisman the lower scores she deserved, and so America, the FIG, the world has ended up with monstrous gymnastics at the top of the sport. 

There is a ground swell of support for the concept of artistry, and against the FIG's Code of Points, amongst gym fans and commentators, although not many will say so publicly.  After all, the athletic Americans, the enthusiastic Brits, the energetic Canadians, all stand a better chance of winning if artistry is side lined.  Some of their gymnasts might make a nod in its direction, but their teams are generally more athlete than artist, and it's easier to coach if there are strict, quantifiable rules rather than the qualitative, subjective guidelines that are necessarily a part of an artistic sport.

Anastasia Grishina in a daring somersault during yesterday's qualifications

So the only way that Russia will win any gold in the women's gymnastics competition in London this week will be by complying with the judges', and the Code's, limitations and adding sufficient athleticism and reliability to their already recognised arsenal of virtuosity.  They will not have to be a little bit better than their closest rivals (probably America) if they are to win ... they will have to be out of this world.

In yesterday's qualifications, they weren't quite out of this world ... but  getting there.  And with the American team looking a bit rattled, and riddled with internal tensions that result from their largely individualist training system, it's possible that the fight for gold might be tighter than many have predicted. 

This Russian team is spirited, strong and close.  The personalities are intriguing.  Their performances are solid, beautiful and artistically diverse.  They put the air-kissing, cosmetically smiling, endlessly rehearsed American team to shame with their spontaneity and mutual concern.  They deliver an arsenal of difficulty and upgrades that the world hasn't seen from them before, but still have more in the tank.  And then there is the charisma.

Ksenia Afanasyeva performs to a rendition of the theme from James Bond

A key measure of any team's success, according to coach Leonid Arkayev, who presided at the top of Soviet and Russian gymnastics for over 30 years, is the breadth of its involvement in competition - has your team qualified competitors to every event final?  Just as this was true for the resurgent Russian men, it has proved true for the women, who really did themselves justice yesterday.  They finished a relatively close second to the Americans in the team standings (181.463 to 180.429) despite a wobbly floor routine from Komova and a less than usually brilliant bars routine from youngster Anastasia Grishina, who was looking a bit strained at her first Olympics.  Their top two gymnasts - Komova and Mustafina - finished in first and fifth places respectively in the all around, and look likely to compete for medals there.  We also have a host of Russians represented in the all important event finals : it will be a surprise, therefore, if Russia repeats its awful experience of four years ago, and walks away from these Games empty-handed.

Aliya Mustafina, watched by youngster Grishina on beam yesterday

You can read the full results of the competition here; and for ease of reference, here are details of the Russian qualifiers to event finals :

• Maria Paseka landed the all important Amanar vault and added to it with a Mustafina, qualifying in third place for a vaulting event final that no one really expected for Russia!
• Viktoria Komova and Aliya Mustafina qualified for uneven bars final
• Viktoria Komova and Ksenia Afanasyeva really shone on beam, finishing in second and 7th place and hence qualifying for the final there.
• Aliya Mustafina will join Ksenia Afanasyeva in a floor final that will surely be a highlight for Russian fans.

Upgrades shown by the Russians include a double-double on floor from Grishina; a double double dismount on bars from Komova (and Mustafina was back to sticking her 1.5 twisting double dismount); Amanars from both Komova and Paseka;  a double Arabian dismount on beam from Komova.  

Sadly, the Romanian team had a difficult qualifying round and finished fourth as a team, with many expected finals qualifications out of kilter, but I'm guessing that they will be much better tomorrow and might even compete for gold as a team if the top two teams have errors.  It was great to see the British team finish in 5th place, unprecedented for them, and home hero Beth Tweddle qualified for bars final in first place.

Good luck to all gymnasts in Tuesday's team final!!

Pictures are courtesy of the Russian Gymnastics Federation.

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London buses, legacy and a legion of highly impressed soldiers

Ksenia Afanasyeva, watched by Maria Paseka

I had a bit of a moment yesterday.  Sat on the shuttle bus on my way to the North Greenwich Arena, I looked around me, and everything was so pink and shiney and clean and sweet scented, the volunteers all so helpful and smiley.  The sun was even shining.  I was really moved by that bus, and began to weep quietly in my corner, hoping my fellow travellers wouldn't notice.

Perhaps LOCOG had arranged it that way in order to enhance the emotional experience of event goers.  The experience of buying my tickets at the last minute and the relief I felt at being able to attend the world's leading sporting event in my home town was certainly beyond overwhelming.  I probably wouldn't have had that feeling if I had been able to book in advance successfully on any one of the dozen previous occasions I had tried, and been told that tickets were sold out.  Never mind.  Who cares.  A lifelong ambition to attend the gymnastics competition at the Olympic Games has been realised.  It really didn't disappoint at all.  It exceeded my expectations. I now really believe in the Olympics as a power for the good, thanks to that bus, and I hope that all the buses in London are like that forever more.   Isn't that what legacy means?

I wonder what the legion of soldiers who were drafted in to fill the seats on one side of the arena thought of the opportunity of watching teenage girls in tight leotards cavort around the apparatus in daredevil manner?  I do hope they were seriously impressed.  If not, I can think of a legion of gym fans around the world who would willingly have given their eye teeth to be in that arena.

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Tickets!!!

Queen Elizabeth would like to announce ...

That she has tickets!! 

Assiduous searching of the London 2012 website finally paid off.   I will be in the North Greenwich arena tomorrow, equipped with my inhaler, ready to shout as loud as anyone ever thought possible.  I will try to tweet, but it's likely my hands will be shaking quite a lot.






One Queen knows another, and our Queen Mustafina needs some celebration ... this girl is the spirit of the Russian team - God help her and her colleagues tomorrow as they begin their defence of Russia's gymnastics pride.


UDACHI Russia!!!  All the luck in the world - you deserve it!!!

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Russia are back!

19 year old Denis Ablyazin, from Penza, qualified to three event finals

Five young men of Russia have confirmed their return to the top level of artistic gymnastics by putting in a spirited performance, without a backward glance to their country's somewhat changeable achievements over past years .David Belyavski, Emin Garibov, Denis Ablyazin, Alexander Balandin and Igor Pakhomenko seem to have turned the tide of decay in the Russian gymnastics programme, presenting solid, occasionally brilliant, often beautiful gymnastics to finish in 2nd place as a team, just ahead of a British team who were at times equally stirring in the emotional intensity of their presentation.  Yes, both teams, and the USA who finished in first place, were helped by the unaccountably bad days experienced by both Japan and China, long time leaders of the sport worldwide.  I expect that Japan at least will improve significantly on Monday and give the rest of the field some problems in maintaining their current positions.


But Russia look strong and feisty.  In the team final, on Monday, things won't go all their way - no, that is not the nature of gymnastics.  The oldest member of the team, Balandin, is 23.  No other team member is older than 19.  And they will fight.  Remember this when you watch Russia - they are a developing power in the world of gymnastics.  And watch the coaches too - assisting 59 year old Valery Alfosov, a veteran coach of Soviet days, is 30 something Sergei Starkin, personal coach to Denis Ablyazin and evidently a rising star on the Russian coaching scene, trusted sufficiently to appear on the podium at this critical competition.  The Russian programme is looking to the future and a new generation is taking over.

Wednesday's all around final promises to be interesting, with David Belyavski qualified in 2nd place, and Emin Garibov in 8th.  Again, these positions have been helped significantly by the unexpectedly poor performance of gymnastics God Kohei Uchimura.  A great signifier of the health of the Russian team is that they have qualified at least one gymnast to every competition in the men's gymnastics:

• Ablyazin managed to squeeze into floor final in 8th place despite a .3 penalty when he stepped out of the area ... and was there a time penalty as he struggled to finish all that difficulty in one routine??
• Belyavski qualified to pommel horse final in 7th place ... what a turn up for the books, Russia is notoriously poor on this piece
• Balandin and Ablyazin qualified to rings in 3rd and 5th place, respectively
• Ablyazin goes to vault final in first place.  He was quite brilliant here.
• Garibov progresses to parallel bars final in 4th place
• Garibov also qualified to high bar final in 6th place

In all cases, the margin between first and 8th qualifier is so small that almost any gymnast could win the final.  I'm beginning to believe Valentina Rodionenko ... it looks as though Russia has halted the decline of its gymnastics programme, and more ...

Find complete results here.

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Start list for WAG qualifications

2010 World Champion Aliya Mustafina will play a vital role

The FIG has now published a start list for tomorrow's WAG qualification (interestingly, it shows Romania's Iordache doing the all around, so perhaps her heel isn't that bad after all ...)

Remember in qualis, the format is 5-4-3 so there is a little less pressure than in the finals, where every routine counts. 

The working order for the Russian girls is as follows :

Floor : Mustafina, Komova, Grishina, Afanasyeva
Vault : Grishina, Komova, Mustafina, Paseka
Bars : Grishina, Mustafina, Komova Paseka
Beam : Mustafina, Grishina, Komova, Afanasyeva









Mustafina appears as a 'table setter' on floor and beam where she is expected to do a solid job. Captain Afanasyeva has to carry the pressure both on floor and beam as the final gymnast there.  I'm guessing it will be a close battle between Mustafina and Grishina for the second all around spot, assuming that Komova does her job.  Although I would love to see Mustafina lead this team if not the entire competitive field, and believe that her spirit makes that entirely possible.  If the gymnasts all perform to potential, this is a very powerful team.

Judges' assignment for qualis can also be found here.

Looking forward to the final round of men's qualifiers in about half an hour.

Good luck to the Russian team in London!!!  UDACHI!!

Picture of Mustafina, courtesy of the RGF.

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Who's Who - Russia's Women Artistic Gymnasts

Russia come to London as underdogs in the women's artistic gymnastics, the fearsome, powerful USA the most likely contenders by far for team gold.   Saddled with a reputation for alarming inconsistency and an under power team with little reserve, Russia seem unlikely to stem the tide of efficient, stable athleticism that is the strength of the American gymnasts - and of the resurgent Romanians, who beat them at the European Championships in Brussels this spring.

But Russia are ruffling some feathers in London.  The amplitude, expression and technique, always a characteristic of their work, has now been joined by a sassy, confident attitude that has often found more expression on the girls' personal Facebook pages than on the gymnastics podium.  The Russian gymnasts have begun to show their character on the podium, as well as off it - and it is much appreciated by the ground swell of gymnastics fans who have been willing them for so long to show their class and grab at that gold.  Maybe, just maybe, the Americans have had all the credit they are going to have for their athleticism.  Maybe, just maybe, it will take more than 'clean routines' to win this Olympics.  The Russians are the ones who offer the added value of artistry to their gymnastics -  complete with the super-added extra of surprise upgrades.  Keep your eyes open and watch quick hits at the Gymnastics Examiner.  The Russians will be on at around tea-time.

Team captain Ksenia Afanasyeva

Ksenia Dimitriyevna Afanasyeva
born 13th September 1991
Home : Khimki, Tula
N S Nabakova, M V Nazarova, S O Gaidorov

World Floor Champion Afanasyeva goes to London as team captain, her maturity, concentration and determination marking her out as ideal for this role.  She is the only team member of have competed in the 2008 Olympics - where the Russian women came away empty-handed. 

Afanasyeva missed European Championships with an ankle injury, but managed to place fourth all around at the Russian Cup and is still amongst the team's strongest performers on beam and floor.  Her fearsome athleticism and artistry remains untainted and she is expected to contribute strongly in London, where she will unveil a bold and entertaining new floor routine.

Afanasyeva remains the Russians' fourth all arounder in this team configuration - but may be replaced by Paseka on vault if the latter is regularly landing her difficult Amanar vault.

Anastasia Nikolayevna Grishina
16th January 1996
Moscow
O E Sikorro, S B Zelikson, R M Ganina

Grishina is the youngest, least experienced member of this team - but her competitive edge has been tempered by appearances at the Olympic Test Event and European Championships.  A minor leg injury kept her out of the Russian Cup competition, but her selection for the Olympics seems unequivocal.

Strong, solid and graceful, Grishina has that special edge that enables her to improve at every new performance.  Her bars talent is well known, but watch out for her as a dark horse in London, particularly in the all around and on the beam.  Revealed in the last few days is also a rare and highly difficult floor skill - double twisting double back somersault.  If Grishina competes this it will make her a front runner for qualification to the floor event final, and also reinforce her all around efforts.

  
Viktoria Alexandrovna Komova
30th January 1995
Voronezh
G B Elfimov, O M Bulgakova, V V Kolesnikova, N Y Fedina

17 year old Komova - daughter of 1985 World Championships gymnast Vera Kolesnikova - has yet to show her full potential at senior level.  The fact that she is 2011 World Vice Champion all around, and  2011 World Bars Champion. speaks volumes for that potential.

In recent training since arrival in London, Komova has successfully performed a two and a half twisting Yurchenko vault, a double twisting double back dismount off bars and a half twisting double front dismount on beam - all significant upgrades to the partial programme she showed at the Europeans.  

Komova's strengths are her power and grace - the one quality belying the other as she makes her ultra difficult routines look easy.  She also really, really hates finishing in second place.

Aliya Fargatovna Mustafina
30th September 1994
Moscow
Brigada (coaching team), A S Alexandrov, R M Ganina


Since tearing her ACL at the 2011 European Championships, Mustafina has been promising a legendary comeback at the London Olympics.  The first daughter of a 1976 Olympic medal winning Greco-Roman wrestler has inherited some of her father' grit and spirit - and then added some more of her own.

A concentration on bars training during the early months of her rehabilitation means that 2010 World Champion Mustafina has recreated herself as a world-leading bars specialist - and now returns as a super-motivated all arounder.  Mustafina's post-recovery routines may not so far show the polish or difficulty of her pre-injury gymnastics - but her ambition has only grown.  Somehow, somewhere, Tsarina Aliya will find a way to deliver something very special at the Games. 

Maria Valeriyevna Paseka
born 19th July 1995
Moscow
M G Ulyankina, V N Ulyankin, I A Savosina 

Paseka made her senior international debut at this spring's European Championships, where she contributed on vault to the team's silver medal behind the resurgent Romanians.   Her even temperament could make her a useful addition to an otherwise potentially fiery mix of personalities in the likely cauldron of emotions in the North Greenwich Arena.

Paseka has been regularly landing the difficult two and a half twisting Yurchenko vault in training.  This makes her extremely valuable in the team final because of the high start value of the vault.







Pictures of Anastasia Grishina, Aliya Mustafina and Viktoria Komova were drawn from an online picture gallery of the July 6th and 7th control competition at Penza, courtesy of the Burtasy School of Gymnastics.  
The picture of Maria Paseka is courtesy of the Russian Gymnastics Federation.
The picture of Ksenia Afanasyeva is courtesy of the FIG.

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Who's Who - Russian men's artistic gymnastics

The Russian men's team looks likely to make more of an impression here in London than they did in Beijing four years ago, where two bronzes were their total accomplishment.  If team coach Valentina Rodionenko has it right, the team has halted their decline since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and Russian gymnastics is ready to make a statement.  For the men, this is likely to mean medals in apparatus finals.  Less likely are medals in the team or all around contests, thanks to a team weakness on the pommel horse and the competitiveness of the international field, where four teams can fight for bronze (Russia, Germany, Britain and USA). 

But the team does look ready to compete.  Yesterday's quick hits from men's podium training emphasised the team's strength on rings and vault, with the fiery Denis Ablyazin looking a likely contender for gold on floor and vault.  Russia perform charismatic gymnastics and add excitement, charm and beauty to their arsenal of high difficulty skills.  They are young, inexperienced and ambitious - tomorrow's qualification rounds will be the first phase of a fascinating competition.


 

Denis Mikhailovich Ablyazin
born 3rd August 1992
Trains at - Penza, Moscow Dynamo
Coach - Sergei Starkin

Triple European bronze medallist Denis Ablyazin is the firecracker of the Russian team.  He has the world's highest difficulty level on floor and could well compete for gold there and on vault. 

Detractors complain that Ablyazin's floor routine packs in fast-paced acrobatics at the expense of grace and elegance - but the Code requires difficulty and explosiveness, and Ablyazin delivers both in abundance.

Alexander Sergeivich Balandin
born 10th June 1989
Dynamo Petrozavodsk, Karelian Republic
V N Bubnovski, S G Zagorski


European rings champion Alexander Balandin is expected to contribute high scores on his specialist apparatus as well as qualify to the event final there.  He also contributes good quality routines on parallel bars, and may well be called upon to contribute to the team's efforts on pommel horse.

David Sagitovitch Belyavskiy
born 23rd February 1992
Ekaterinburg
V N Lomayev, P A Kitaiski

Graceful David Belyavskiy is one of two all arounders on this Russian men's team.  A poor performance at the European Championships this year was caused by a painful shoulder injury, but Belyavski showed his class by coming back a few weeks later and taking the all around title at the Russian Cup, a key milestone in the Russian gymnasts' preparation for the Olympics, ahead of team mates Sergei Khorokhodin and Igor Pakhomenko. 

Emin Nadirovich Garibov
born 8th September 1992
Moscow Dynamo
A I Sabyelin

At 19, Garibov is the youngest member of this team, yet in competition shows a self confidence beyond his years.  He is perhaps the Russians' most likely chance of an all around medal and, as European Champion on the high bar, bears responsibility for delivering a good score on the event.

Igor Alexeivich Pakhomenko
born 10th June 1992
Leninsk-Kuznetsk
D D Chunasov, T V Popova, E R Saifulin

Pakhomenko, a solid all arounder who came third in this year's Russian Cup, is important to the Russian team for contribution to pommel horse, a real weakness otherwise.  












The pictures are of the Russian men at the control competition held on 6th and 7th July and are copied here from the Burtasy School of Gymnastics, Penza, where you will find a photo album.

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