Stravinsky's Rite of Spring - 100th anniversary

Yesterday marked the one hundredth anniversary of the first performance of Stravinsky's Rites of Spring, choreographed by Nijinsky. It caused a riot.  Here is a production from the Marinsky Theatre, St Petersburg.





Now watch the famous floor routine by 1988 Olympian, 1989 World all around bronze medallist Olga Strazheva, set to an extract of the same music, drawing on Nijinsky's choreography.

I remember the impact this made on first viewing at the Stuttgart World Championships. It is impressive for more than the difficulty of the tumbling, the line of the leaps or the accuracy of the spins. It is a whole routine from start to finish; every single movement carries consistent visual sense. There are no transitions. Clearly derivative, the routine is a prominent example of the sport's links to dance and of Soviet Russia's philosophy of sport as culture. It provides an exclamation mark to their creative sporting tradition that at times elevated gymnastics to an art form. The Soviet team employed choreographers from Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre to assist in the choreography of floor routines for the 1989 national team members, and it showed.

Strazheva's routine is not the only one. There are many more Soviet floor routines from which similar comparisons could be drawn. Russian gymnastics borrows from ballet traditions, even today. The influence is about more than dance composition and toe point, has little to do with body type and is evident in more than just the floor. National beam choreographer for the 2012 Olympics, Larissa Ushakova, spoke of how she continued to study dance throughout her career. Former Soviet national coach, Vladimir Zaglada, said in an interview on this blog, dance is in Russia's blood. The diversity of the country's cultural roots is expressed in all its work. Implicitly, sport does not exist in a vacuum.

There are other examples of floor routines set to this music, but they pall by comparison to the great Strazheva, the authenticity of her dance composition and the quality of expression. This powerful gymnast was Ukrainian by birth, but her floor routine is Russian to its very bones.

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Midsummer madness - high season gymnastics 2013

Anastasia Grishina at this spring's European Championships.  Courtesy: RIA Novosti

It seems to be a long time since the Russian team has had such a prolonged quiet time in training.  All I know is that currently, the teams are taking a short break before returning to Lake Krugloye.  There was a control competition at the end of the last training camp, around the 25th May, but no results.  This is quite normal and I hope the silence continues, if it means that everyone is just getting on with their work.  Evgenyi Grebyonkin's recent interview was the epitome of controlled information release, apparently telling a lot whilst revealing very little.  We have a few names to put against the competition roster, but a team's early competitive plans are always open to change.

Valentina Rodionenko is taking a well earned break from her media responsibilities, judging by her recent absence from the Russian gymnastics PR scene.  So we don't know which girls are being the most annoying at present, or which of the gymnasts is having an argument with her coach.  There has been an official announcement from Andrei Rodionenko saying that there will be no announcement about the composition of the team for the University Games yet.  We do know that Viktoria Komova and Anastasia Grishina are not in the mix, but considering neither is a University student at the present time this news isn't going to challenge our understanding.  So far, this information is all on a par with news reports of a small earthquake in China.

But this is pretty much the calm before the storm.  This summer is one of the busiest competitive schedules for the senior and junior teams in a long time.  For the sake of organising your summer break, here are a few dates:

June 17th to June 21st      Olympic Hopefuls Cup, Penza
June 21st to June 23rd      Portugal Cup, Anadia
July 6th to.July 17th       Universiade, Kazan (gymnastics 7th to 10th July)
July 14th to July 19th        European Youth Olympics, Utrecht (gymnastics starts 16th July)
August 15th to August 21st   Russian Cup, Penza
September 30th to October 6th  World Gymnastics Championships, Antwerp

I was surprised to see how relatively early the World Championships are this year.  I wonder what competitions the Russians will use to test the team's preparations for Worlds - and if senior team members competing in Kazan will be excused from competing at the Russian Cup.

Good luck to all the Russian team, MAG and WAG, preparing for these competitions!

(If, like me, you follow tennis, Wimbledon conveniently sits in the middle of this summer madness, from 24th June to the 7th July.)

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Photo comparisons II - back flip, split leaps, Tkachev

Many thanks to Liz McOsker who has contributed these fantastic photo collages comparing various skills - back flip (Komova/Wieber), Tkachev (Afanasyeva/Raisman) and split leaps (various) as performed by the American and Russian gymnasts.

Words fail me.

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Svetlana Khorkina - the first Russian World AA Champion

She was the first Russian All Around World Champion, competing here in 1997 on the final piece of the first of three gold medal winning all around performances at World Championships.  She was the Queen of bars, taking gold on the apparatus at two Olympics (1996 and 2000) and five World Championships (1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2001).  The first big star of the post-Soviet era never won an Olympic all around title (some would say she was harshly denied her best chance in 2000 by an immense equipment bog-up) but Khorkina is the one we all remember, the one whose brilliance often overcame her inconsistency.  She contributed eight signature skills to the Code of Points across all four pieces of apparatus.

Watch here as in a tight competition - the top four gymnasts were ultimately separated by only 0.093 - Khorkina floats through her original bars routine, including the brand new half-twisting Shaposhnikova that elicited gasps from the audience each time she performed it here.  At our seats we, her audience, sat in rapt attention as Khorkina wandered to the end of the arena and stood, head down, right beneath the spot above which the national flag of Russian hung.  The announcement of the score was an emotional moment not only for her but the whole Russian team.  Head coach Leonid Arkayev makes sure he is the first to embrace the new Champion - but watch in the background as personal coach Boris Pilkin quietly signals victory.  He is the one Khorkina turns to for the final, more personal celebration.  Just look at the expression on the old man's face.




1997 World Championships, Lausanne
WAG All Around

1 Svetlana Khorkina 38.636
2 Simona Amanar 38.587
3 Elena Produnova 38.549
4 Gina Gogean 38.543
5 Meng Fei 38.042

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Photo compare collages - Mustafina/Raisman, Komova/Douglas

Lifje has been hard at work, producing these picture collages comparing Olympians Alexandra Raisman and Gabrielle Douglas with their Russian counterparts, Aliya Mustafina and Viktoria Komova. I'll let both pictures speak mostly for themselves, but the differences are absolutely glaringly obvious in the first shots of Raisman and Mustafina.  .  The Douglas-Komova comparison is more, as Lifje says, a question of the details such as toepoint, extension and hands.  I would add to that, back and shoulders.

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Is gymnastics still Russian? A post-Europeans, early Olympiad perspective

Mustafina needs more connections without intermediate swing, says coach Zaglada

Russian gymnastics is at another one of those turning points ... at the beginning of a new Olympiad, it is time to review and renew.  This post examines the state of Russian WAG gymnastics today, in the context of its cultural roots. Coach Vladimir Zaglada also shares his creative vision for the future in a vibrant interview that considers possible future directions for the Russian team.

When I first began following gymnastics, over forty years ago, the cultural influence of Soviet Russia on the sport was very, very strong. Not only did the Soviet Union (USSR) win a large proportion of the major events (in particular WAG - see for example this post on the 1974 World Championships), the form of the sport also mirrored their concept of gymnastics as something close to the cultural origins of dance and ballet. The Soviet authorities used sport to communicate their cultural and political values to the world, and gymnastics in particular became a vehicle for the expression of the Soviet spirit of adventure and scientific exploration prevalent during the Brezhnev era (1964-1982).

The Soviets believed that sport went beyond mere games, into the realm of culture; as a phenomenon it embraced the aesthetic and was almost spiritual in nature. This multi-dimensional idea of sport was often described as 'physical culture' and had its own ethos, known as 'sportivnosti', a philosophy that characterised sport as 'an aspiration to overcome the body's limitations, a dream of spiritual flight, a release from the flesh' (Makoveeva, 2002:9). It was not enough merely to win; athletes had to win with virtuosity, exploiting and expressing to the full the 'beauty and delight of the game' (ibid) that was so central to their thinking.

Gymnastics seemed tailor made for the Soviets' way of thinking, offering scientific innovation, artistic expression and competitive opportunity all in one package. Making sure that they had strong representation on the Executive and Technical Committees of the sport and that their athletes were the most striking, innovative and beautiful in the world, the USSR led the sport for forty years, and shaped it in their image. From their accession to the modern Olympic movement in 1952 to their last hoorah (as the Commonwealth of Independent States) in the Barcelona Olympics of 1992, the sport celebrated the artistic and innovative during a time that is now widely recognised as gymnastics' Golden Era.

After the break up of the Soviet Union, gymnastics benefitted from the depth of gymnastics talent still circulating the system. 1996 Olympic Champion Lilia Podkopayeva trained with the Soviet national junior team, as did 1997, 2001 and 2003 World Champion Svetlana Khorkina and 2000 Olympic Champion Alexei Nemov. Inevitably, however, Russia's influence became watered down.  Changes to gymnastics evolved as the sporting political and cultural influence of the Soviet Union waned and as other countries began to make their presence felt. Competition formats were changed to make it possible for the smaller countries to compete for medals; compulsory exercises were dropped as the FIG did not consider them necessary for the development of high level gymnastics; the Code of Points adopted an additive model; the value of artistry was reduced, almost nullified; equipment changes encourage more acrobatic work.

The legacy of USSR gymnastics remains: firstly, in the elements and movement groups that carry the names of iconic Soviet champions of the past, including for example Yurchenko, Tkachev and Shushunova; secondly, in the coaches from the former Soviet Union who contribute to the leadership of gymnastics programmes in many different countries, for example Belenkyi (Germany), Popov (Great Britain) and Saadi (Canada). (In 2010, Rodionenko (see Kalmkova) said that around 364 coaches had left Russia since 1992, in order to take up coaching positions overseas.)

But gymnastics as a cultural form has changed immensely. The athletic and measurable has taken over from the artistic and intangible. Giant vaults and flighty uneven bars exercises predominate. Balance beam is used as a tumble run rather than as an elevated platform for exquisite skill and beauty. Floor is an outlet for impressive fitness and powerful tumbling. The sport has lost its artistic soul. Attempts have been made to amend the Code to encourage improvement in the presentation of exercises, but the model is broken beyond repair. Gymnastics is just a different sport these days.  Most countries emphasise power and athleticism in their training; artistry comes a poor second, and is generally reduced to a consideration of execution, presentation and performance.

Russia has, unsurprisingly, been the last nation to hang on to artistry and to the artistic legacy of Soviet gymnastics, probably because so much of that legacy builds on its own national cultural heritage and so is second nature to them. For years the coaches have promoted gymnasts whose grace far exceeded their athletic ability, most recently for example the beautiful, now retired, Yulia Belokobylskaya who shone for a brief moment in the 2011 European Championships but has been seen in personal photographs, dressed in a tutu and en pointe, for all the world a stunning ballerina. The Russian insistence on maintaining the aesthetic high ground in the face of an artistically nullified sporting code has made life difficult as gymnasts like Viktoria Komova attempt to do far more than their nearest rivals from overseas by providing an added dimension of virtuosity to their routines for which they often receive little credit.

At the 2012 Olympics Russia expected its greatest WAG team since 2000 to deliver two gold medals. Hampered by injury, by their own high expectations, and by poor strength in depth that is basically a result of poor participation levels during the post-Soviet years - before Putin's interest in sport provided an injection of cash - Russia managed only one gold. By their standards, a little disappointing.  How will Russia look forward to the coming four years?  Can they afford to maintain the fantastic artistry for which they have become renowned?  Or must they finally emphasise greater athleticism, the heart of their rivals' success for the last four years?

This Olympiad is far from typical for the Russians. Normally only two gymnasts would be expected to remain with the team from one Olympics to the next. This year, however, WAG coach Evgeny Grebyonkin has made it clear that to develop the necessary strength in depth, especially during the early part of the Olympiad, the team is reliant upon its veteran performers such as Ksenia Afanasyeva. Mature gymnasts such as Ekaterina Kramarenko, and those who once seemed out of favour such as Tatiana Nabiyeva and Anna Dementyeva, have been recalled to the fold at Round Lake to prepare for the Universiade. For Russia, the first major competition of the year was this spring's European Championships in Moscow.  Next, we have the Universiade (July) and then, the World Championships (October). It is a busy year!

How did the Russians do in Moscow?  What will they need to do if they are to hold or improve their competitive position over the next four years?  I discussed these questions and many more with coach Vladimir Zaglada. Vladimir (see resume below) was a leading technical coach in the USSR during the 1970s and 1980s, head coach of Moscow's famous Dynamo Club for more than twenty years, and is today a well known author and a leading coach working in the USA.  I have collaborated with Vladimir extensively on articles for the website i-g.tv since 2011, and he regularly advises me on questions I have for this blog.

Queen Elizabeth (QE) : The Russian gymnasts have a reputation for being inconsistent. Do you think that they make too many mistakes?

Vladimir Zaglada (VZ) : I do not think that they make many mistakes. If they made too many mistakes, there would be no medals!

QE : What did you think of the performance of Ksenia Afanasyeva at these Championships?

VZ: I remember strongly thinking after the Olympics that she will not compete any more. Now, we see her in her best shape ever. She performs two whips connected to a triple twist: this is the hardest connection, one of the most difficult connections.

The Russians are now working on multiple direction tumbling on floor - this is going to become their real specialism. Connections of twisting somersaults, for example, two and a half back somersault into a half twisting straight front.

QE: We saw Mustafina pull out a bravura performance for the gold overall - and then on bars, where I thought she looked just a little bit less than her best.

VZ : They need to add something in order to be as strong as Tweddle, whose routine is still the best. I worked in Great Britain and very well know how hard Beth and her coaches worked to prepare to be the BEST in the World. I saw her progress every day � what she added to her performance was POWER which came to her not from USSR or Russian Gymnastics School. It was multiple nations' input: Romanian, Hungarian, Bulgarian coaches worked with her for a long time and of course, her amazing coach, Amanda Reddin!

Aliya is very close to being world uneven bars champion, but she still needs to put direct connections with releases and no intermediate swings into her work. The best performers on uneven bars have connections without any intermediate swings.

But this competition - the European Championships - today it is absolutely clear that it is no longer a major competition, or even, in particular, a test event. Are the Champinships as important as the Asian Games? The American Cup? There are fewer gymnasts competing here, from fewer of the important gymnastics countries. The Universiade has also always been less important as a testing event as well, but probably we have to look carefully at its results BECAUSE IT IS A TEAM COMPETITION!

QE: Why do the Russians appear to have fallen behind the competition on vault? Years ago (1985) we saw Elena Shushunova perform a double twisting Yurchenko. Have rates of technical progression slowed? Why are the gymnasts not performing two and a half and triple twisting Yurchenkos?

VA : Vault is not really a strong event for the Russians, but remember that it took about fifteen years for gymnasts to progress from the double back to the triple back (Liukin, 1987), and even now that is not commonly performed ... also the equipment is different, it is more difficult to land from the vaulting table. I think another question would be : why do so few do the Tsukuhara vaults? The FIG judges prefer the Yurchenko ...

Where are the Russians doing double front tucked vaults (Produnova)? Why don�t we see a possible development of round-off entry with half twist to double front? This is a real Russian Style which is very well known to Andrei Rodionenko and other Russian coaches! Where is the Russian triple twisting Tsukuhara performed many years ago? Nobody does it or even tries it ... of course not! Because the FIG just put the Yurchenko � Amanar at the highest level and for this reason it is not really interesting �to jump out of your pants�.

Also, today, the coaches need to be able to predict success - the most reliable vault is still the double twisting Yurchenko - Mustafina in particular is outstanding at this vault.

QE : The standard of difficulty in tumbling seems also to have stalled - I remember Tatiana Groshkova (one of your gymnasts from Dynamo Moscow) performing an incredible double full in layout somersault at the 1990 European Championships. 1996 Olympic Champion Lilia Podkopayeva performed the double front with half out.  But today, the most difficult single tumbles presented are the double layout, and the double double tucked.

VZ : The Russian coaches are stuck; they rely too much on Rodionenko to do their thinking, and this system has reached its limit.  Perhaps it is time to recall some of the old gymnasts as coaches!

QE : What improvements do the Russians need to make before the next Olympics?

Our Russian girls need to do more conditioning and to become more athletic. In this life only the strongest will win. Our girls are tiny. Compared to gymnasts like Alexandra Raisman, a girl like Anastasia Grishina still appears to be like a little girl. The girls need more physical conditioning, not only artistry; they need to be more aggressive.

The situation with the coaches is not the same as before : coaches like Innokenty Mametyev (Maria Filatova), Vladislav Ratstorotky (Tourischeva, Shaposhnikova, Yurchenko), Dmitriev (Lazakovitch) - none of them were small personalities, they all spoke out and had strong opinions. Nobody could put Knysh (Korbut) down. Ratstorotski was of the opinion that the coach had to be in front, had to be a leader and be visible.

QE : Can the Russians win?

VZ : I hope so - but there are many strong countries : USA, China, Japan, Romania, Britain, and now Canada under Elvira Saadi. Saadi is a great coach, and has been mentioned as a possible head coach for Russia, but her influence in Canada is already being felt.

Aliya Mustafina is a real Tartar by nature - a very strong personality, nobody will manage her, it's not possible with such a character. The biggest problem will be if they give too much power to the girl.

Head coach Andrei Rodionenko understands that he cannot go on forever, but is there anybody to replace him? Maybe somebody exists?!!!! Just think - who is there from among the former gymnasts and coaches. How did Valery Liukin become one of the best coaches in the USA? Why don't any of Russia's former gymnasts have an appropriate position in our country's gymnastics hierarchy? Why is Yuri Korolev (even his name tells us that he is a KING!!!) is working just as a conditioning coach ... questions, questions �

Why we do not see private gymnastics clubs in Russia? We need to talk about this more.

Dance is in the Russians' blood, says Vladimir

QE : Vladimir, artistry seems to have become de-emphasised under the changes to the Code of Points. Can Russia still continue to produce its special artistry, will the Russian School of Gymnastics survive?

VZ : Artistry is in our Russian Blood! We are dancing people during all our entire life. It is under our skin and inside of us FOREVER! Because we were for a long time a BIG RUSSIAN EMPIRE with multiple nations and multiple culture. We will never LOSE OUR NATURAL ARTISTRY. All Russia needs is POWER which will be enough to remain strong among strong countries.

So in answer to the question: 'Is gymnastics still Russian' - I think I might say - yes, but only just. 'Sportivnosti', by necessity, seems to have been replaced by simpler, more athletic sporting values, and in order to win, Russia must, as Vladimir says, focus more on their conditioning and difficulty, and develop more power.  In order to reclaim the top competitive spot, Russia will have to follow the Code, rather than attempt to follow their own sporting ethic; to comply with the exigences of the Code, rather than try to challenge them. In the process, I can't help but think that some of the artistry to which Russia is born will become lost, and the sport will move still further away from the artistic model that made it so great during the 70s, 80s and 90s.

Can the Russians continue to accommodate the demands of the fierce artistry to which they are born? Where next for the Russians? What will become of the sport? What do you think?


Vladimir Zaglada was USSR National Consultant Coach and Expert with responsibility for high complexity acrobatics on floor exercise and balance beam, a leading coach for USSR WAG who worked on development of new difficult skills on uneven bars. In 1978 he took full responsibility for Dynamo Moscow Gymnastics School and worked for Dynamo Moscow for more than twenty years. Today, Vladimir is working as Leading Coach and mentor for the BIO Athletics Unlimited located near Olympic Atlanta (USA). His Gymnastics Consultancy Office is working very successfully, giving to their students (gymnasts, coaches, instructors) advanced knowledge in technique and methodical progressions in artistic gymnastics. 

Bibliography

Kalmkova, S (2010) 'Artistic Gymnastics: Russia versus Russia' Voice of Russia 8th October 2010

Makoveeva, I (2002) 'Soviet Sports as a Cultural Phenomenon: Body and/or Intellect' Studies in Slavic Cultures 9-32

Zaglada, V (2010) One Coach's Journey from East to West: How the fall of the Iron Curtain changed the world of gymnastics Bloomington IN: Authorhouse

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A Day in the Life of Svetlana Boguinskaia - 1992

Svetlana Boguinskaia during team qualifications at the 1988 Olympics

I'm lucky enough to own a copy of a limited special edition entitled 'Svetlana Boguinskaia - L'Etoile de la Gymnastique - Le Charme Slave'.  It is full of pictures of the most photogenic gymnast ever, the best competitor, the best performer.  And it includes a brief interview with Svetlana, in French, where she details the everyday moments of her life as a gymnast at Lake Krugloye. 

I'm translating it for you below, as a contemporary account of her training. You will also find a rather intriguing video, from 2005, of Boguinskaia's adult account of her life as a gymnast.

6.45 am.  Someone has just knocked on our door.  Alexander Alexandrov comes into our room; I am already sitting on my bed, having woken up about a quarter of an hour ago.  My eyes still full of sleep, I watch him wake my room mate. 'Come on girls, let's go, let's go' he keeps repeating.  It's early, but it is like that, here at Round Lake - our time is managed as if  we were playing music from a script.

 At 7.10 am the gymnasts assemble on the ground floor, ready for a run through the forest, right around the training centre.

It often reminds me of the forest at home, in Belarus.  At 7.25 our first training begins, and we return to our residence at 8.30, when we have breakfast.  There is plenty of everything you could want.  With my eggs, I will often have caviar, which is served to us one day black, the next red, all through the year.  I usually have tea to drink.

 At about 8.45 we have time for a nap until 10.00, and then at 10.15 it's time for training again - we often begin with floor work and stretches.  This session finishes at about 13.15.

Then it's lunchtime: green salad, then a vegetable soup, fish or meat with polenta or with rice cooked in milk.  Juices are available on the table - orange, apple or grape.  There is never alcohol!  We often have fruit for dessert.

Svetlana Boguinskaia with her 1988 Olympic medals

Then we leave the table and begin our 'recovery'.  This takes place in the second building at the centre, in a large room where there are about 15 small cabins, each with different types of equipment.  I usually have about 30 minutes of recovery, then I see the doctor.  

At 14.30 we have free time which we use for a nap, or for reading.  At 16.30 we train again until 19.30, when it is time for dinner.  Every evening there is meat and fish, and we eat a lot of fruit.  Three times a week, we have classes until 22.00.  On other evenings, we go to the games room where we will play billiards, or maybe to our very own discotheque, at Round Lake!

From time to time, authors or artists come to show us their work, or for example cosmonauts have come to talk to us about their travels in space.  When we have evenings like that, it's like a party, the Soviet swimmers often join us for these events.

Boguinskaia, age 10, in Sport in the USSR, 1983

Elsewhere, talking about her childhood, she says:

I realised I had technical abilities, and I think that right from the beginning, I always wanted to be first.  When I was ten years old, I always wanted to be the best and when I was doing an exercise would always do it the best I possibly could.  I always used to give the best of myself ... I knew that I would be someone.

Tomorrow, in Oklahoma City, a new batch of gymnasts will be inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame, including two Russian legends - Liubov Burda-Andrianova and Yuri Korolev.  To mark this occasion, IGHOF is making videos available of the acceptance speeches of several of the inductees, including Svetlana.  She tells her own stories here, in her own voice - it is very charming and funny and I'm posting it here as an alternative narrative about her life as a young gymnast.

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1974 World Gymnastics Championships - USSR WAG video

The 1974 World Championships, held in Varna, Bulgaria, were all about Ludmilla Tourischeva. As reigning 1970 World Champion and 1972 Olympic Champion, she took four golds, a silver and a bronze here, affirming her status as Queen of Gymnastics. She medalled on every event.

Just look at her bars routine if you want confirmation of her genius - around 6.30 - the twists sparkle with perfection, the routine composed for beauty as well as complexity. The brooding presence of coach Vladislav Rotstorotsky intensely observes Tourischeva's finest competition.

The Soviet WAG team took 13 individual medals here, grabbing all the honours available on beam and floor. Of the six competing team members, only Nina Dronova failed to secure an individual title, but she still had her gold from the team competition.

Watch out for extracts from the floor routines of Elvira Saadi, Olga Korbut, Rusudan Sikharulidze, Nina Dronova and Ludmilla Tourischeva. The only gymnast not shown is Nelli Kim, who secured her first major international medal here, a bronze on the beam.



This comes from Dudnik's channel on Youtube - it is a treasure trove, full of gems of Soviet news shorts: a feature on Olga Korbut from 1969 is a highlight, complete with Olga's back somersault; but you should also take time to see Liubov Burda (due to be inducted into the IG Hall of Fame tomorrow) in the training hall and at home, doing her homework with pet cat by her side! Don't miss 1966 World Champion Mikhail Voronin, or the special feature on Natalia Kuchinskaya.

Enjoy!

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Nemov and Plushchenko advertise Mercedes cars - TV advertisement

2000 Olympic champion, 12-time Olympic medal winner, Alexei Nemov, now appears in a (no doubt, lucrative) advertisement for Mercedes sports cars, with ice skater Evgenyi Plushchenko.

Link to Youtube

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Russian WAG qualifying, London 2012 - videos

Many thanks to Gabriel McDonough, who has posted videos - no commentary - of the Russian WAG team during qualifications last summer.  A nice reminder of a great competition, and a lot of work for Gabriel in editing and uploading them.

I'm certainly going to be spending some time this weekend, viewing the routines again.

Vault

Bars

Beam

Floor

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Evgenyi Grebyonkin : 'it would be risky to show our whole strategy in the first year of the Olympic cycle'

All Sport has an excellent interview with Russian WAG head coach Evgenyi Grebyonkin, which I am summarising here with help from Lupita.  Grebyonkin reveals some of the planned competitions for the girls, along wth some intriguing teasers hinting at secret upgrades.  But, as Lupita points out, it is almost as interesting to consider who Grebyonkin does NOT mention here, in particular Anastasia Grishina and junior Maria Kharenkova, but also the two Yulias, Inshina and Belokobylskaya.  

Grebyonkin says that after her qualification fall on bars at Europeans, Afansyeva is now trying out hand grips.  But she will not compete on bars at this summer's Universiade in Kazan.

Russian national artistic gymnastics is currently running a training camp at Ozero Krugloye. Maria Vorobyeva spoke to head coach of the women's national team of Russia Yevgeny Grebyonkin.

'This training camp will last 20 days' said Grebyonkin, 'We now have three athletes preparing for the  Alexander Dityatin Cup [ed - normally held around 20 May in Dityatin's hometown of St Petersburg] -Tatiana Nabiyeva, Ekaterina Kramarenko and a third gymnast yet to be decided - it depends on the decision of a personal trainer. Also here are three girls from the youth team.  On May 16, they will travel to a tournament in Switzerland [ed - the Lugano Cup] - the winner of the Junior Russian Championships in the all-around, Maria Bondareva, silver medalist at the 2012 European uneven bars Victoria Kuzmina, and Russian junior beam champion Anastasia Dmitrieva.  Young gymnasts born in 1997 - Alla Sosnitskaya, Evgeniya Shelgunova, Anna Rodionova, Ekaterina Baturina - will perform at the World Cup in Portugal on June 10. We want to see how the girls will look a big podium.'

Who is training with the Russian team? 

'Aliya Mustafina, Ksenia Afanasyeva, Maria Paseka, Anna Dementieva, Tatiana Nabiyeva, Katya Kramarenko, Evgeniya Shelgunova, Anna Rodionova, Alla Sosnitskaya, Ekaterina Baturina, Olga Bikmurzina.'

Why isn't Russian floor silver medalist Kristina Goryunova there? 

'Kristina is now with the youth team in Sochi - she is recovering from surgery, but she will remain until the end of the camp.'

How are the leaders of the team - Aliya Mustafina, Ksenia Afanasyeva, Mary Paseka? 

'The personal trainers are planning the gymnasts' training loads. This camp is of a preparatory nature - learning new skills, and recovery. Afanasyeva is trying to get used to hand grips - after her fall on the uneven bars at the European Championships. We managed to persuade Ksyusha of this "in her old age".  She is already doing all of her elements! She is still worried about it, but has agreed to try.  It will be difficult for her to be ready in time for the Universiade, so she won't compete on bars there, but will be ready in time for the World Championships.'

Which athletes will  participate in the Universiade? 

'It's a mystery (smiles).  We are currently training ten girls, and I do not want to single anyone out. All are prepared and understand who has more chances, who has less.  It is clear that the top three contenders are Mustafina, Afanasyeva and Paseka.  But Paseka is open to question - she has only two apparatus. 
  
At the Universiade there will be a slightly different schedule ... At the recent European Championships the important thing was the individual medals - and all the girls finished the tournament with prizes. In Kazan there is a team competition, and we need to consider who will benefit the team.'

How important is the Universiade in the general post-Olympic competition schedule? Why aren't the leading Russian gymnasts resting, like most of their major rivals?  You could even say they have increased their number of starts.

Viktoria Komova is working towards the World Championships this autumn

'Vika Komova is preparing for the World Championships.  She was given the opportunity in January to work with her personal trainer on an individual schedule, to restore her power, and learn new elements. The other girls said they wanted to compete at the Universiade, which will take place here in Russia. When, in September, I spoke with Ksenia Afanasyeva, she said she wanted to help her country at the Universiade. Then she decided to compete at the European Championships and the World Championships. I understand that it is hard for the girls to bear such a burden, but we have no other leaders. And if the girls themselves want to - why not?  

With Mustafina in Kazan, it will be a doubly honourable act!  After the Olympics the whole world is really at rest, only a few work. But in other countries there is a second tier, and we do not have it. But before the 2016 Olympics we have time, we will get on with our work quietly.  There is a new, good girl on the team - Polina Fedorova from Cheboksary.'

You said that the girls are learning new things. Hence, their combinations will become more complicated? 

Mustafina is said to be reinvigorating her bars exercise

'I cannot answer this question - do not want our competitors to know.  But, for example, Mustafina is adding new elements on uneven bars.  After the changes to the the rules her start value is much lower, dropped by half a point.  Before, we led on bars, but now we are at the same level. Aliya learned new elements in the last Olympic cycle, and has now decided to refresh them.

Afanasyeva is also learning more, and currently has the highest SV in the world on the floor exercise. But I'll tell you a secret, it does not stop there, and there is even more to come. Let's see what happens at the World Championship!  Let's keep it secret. It's risky to show our whole strategy in the first year of the Olympic cycle. During the last Olympic cycle we showed our hand too soon and by the final year there were four girls who had SVs of over 7 on the uneven bars.  Here we need a different strategy.'
 
What are the next steps in training for the team?

'Next, we will gather on June 2, and work for exactly one month at Round Lake, travelling to Kazan on July 2.'


Ed : Kharenkova was recently seen in a video of the national junior team in training at Sochi, wearing a hand brace which, along with her absence from recent competition, has led to speculation that she may be injured.

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David Belyavski : 'We can beat the British gymnasts'

David Belyavski during the All Around final at last month's European Championships.  Courtesy RGF

Last week, Natalia Kalugina interviewed European All Around Champion David Belyavski and his coach, Valeri Lomaev, on Radio Moscow Echo.  The gymnast is back in training after a short post-European Championships break, working hard in preparation for July's Universiade at a national training camp in the German Olympic centre. He talks about upgrades to his routines (including a triple twisting Yurchenko second vault), his team and his rivals. Lupita here provides a summary of the key points :

Valeri Lomaev: Training is going well. All the gymnasts are training well.

David Belyavski:  We will fight. I have gained experience.

Natalia Kalugina: I am happy for your medal on parallel bars. They require schooling.

DB: It was unexpected for me.  Some of the best parallel bars specialists used to come from amongst the Russians.

NK: We used to be the best (for example, Nikolai Kryukov [ed: Kryukov was 1999 World All Around champion and won medals on parallel bars at European level in 2007 and 2008]).   These days we are happy with a bronze medal.   David has one of the best routines.   We have to find better execution.

DB:  The all around is the most important for me.   I have to develop  my D scores.   This is more important for the team.  We can upgrade the routines.

NK: How do you overcome fear?

VL: Through training.  

This year is more complicated for us than the year before the Olympics. The Universiade is important for the Federation, for Russia.

NK: The team is very young.

VL: We have to keep the team.  Now, we have reserves.

NK: I was asked to invite David to my programme [ed: assume she is referring to the Federation].   We have a question from a listener: On which apparatus can you win medals? Parallel bars, of course ...

DB:  Floor, Pommel Horse.  Next, I am going to bring back a second vault.

NK: These events require different skills�

DB: They are all indispensable for the all around performance.

NK: Do you want to compete at the Universiade?

DB: I really want to.  I want to prove that what I achieved at the European Championships was not by chance.

NK: It�s the first time in 20 years that the Universiade has been considered the most important competition. The best gymnasts seldom compete there.

 

David with coach Valeri Lomaev

DB: I don�t know what the level is at the Universiade.

VL: The Universiade will allow David to prove again he is a first-class gymnast.

NK: Is it easier to train for big starts by competing at the World Cup?

VL: We don�t have much experience. Time will tell.

DB: We�ll train in Germany until the end of May.  At the German Olympic centre.  (I think Hambuechen was not very well prepared for the European Championships.) There�s a good atmosphere in our team.  We were all members of the Junior team.

NK: Belyavsky and Ignatyev are good all around gymnasts. Does the team need more all-arounders?

DB: Of course.  Kuksenkov is a very good gymnast. We have competed together and so far he has always beaten  me. We�ll see what happens.  He didn�t train for the European Championships.

Concerning Verniaiev, I only read his statement where he said that he learned on the Internet that he had approached Russia wanting to join the team :-)

VL: We are upgrading the routines little by little. We then stabilize the routines for four-five months.

DB: I didn�t choose gymnastics. Gymnastics chose me. There was a school near home.

VL: He came when he was 14, he was very smart. His High Bar was weak in 2005. He proved he was willing to work.

DB: The Olympics gave me experience.  My D scores were not enough to fight for medals though.

NK: Why are we behind the other teams (gymnasts?)?

DB: I also have my own element on Parallel Bars. Other gymnasts are also trying to catch us.

NK: We have often said that we lack difficult elements.

VL: We have to follow a certain pace, we cannot run risks.

DB: The Korean Olympic champion is clean. I can�t say the same about the other Koreans.

At the Olympics I went out of bounds on floor (in answer to a question).

I had a cold before the European Championships. My victory was unexpected.

VL: During the warm up, he agreed not to perform his new elements.

DB: I don�t have an idol in gymnastics. We have to fear the Japanese, the Chinese. From the Ukraine, Stepko, Verniaiev. They are my age. Verniaiev�s D score is higher than Uchimura�s.

You become more confident with time.  All the members on the team are young.

VL: [About the new Code of Points] It�s always difficult. We need good execution.

DB: At the European Championships I was very nervous before Pommel Horse.

VL: He is confident, this is a feature of his character. According to my experience, I didn�t want to force his preparation. I wanted to polish all the elements.

DB: We agree on the elements we want to try.

VL: I help him technically.

NK: A young team went to the Olympics.

DB: Everything went well.

DB: I have to learn new elements on Parallel Bars, Rings and High Bar.  I still don�t feel I am leader.  My second Vault will be a triple twisting Yurchenko.  Matvey Petrov can fight for medals on Pommel Horse.

We can beat the British gymnasts.

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