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...
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Midsummer madness - high season gymnastics 2013
Anastasia Grishina at this spring's European Championships. Courtesy: RIA NovostiIt 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...
Monday, May 27, 2013
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...
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...
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Is gymnastics still Russian? A post-Europeans, early Olympiad perspective
Mustafina needs more connections without intermediate swing, says coach ZagladaRussian 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,...
Friday, May 17, 2013
A Day in the Life of Svetlana Boguinskaia - 1992
Svetlana Boguinskaia during team qualifications at the 1988 OlympicsI'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...
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...
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.VaultBarsBeamFl...
Sunday, May 12, 2013
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. ...
