Larissa Petrik- the essence of artistry (1968 video)

Via Natalia Kalugina.

1968 Olympic champion, Larissa Petrik, BB.  How difficult to make such simplicity beautiful. http://youtu.be/EMUEo5P1dGE

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1983 World Championships - WAG

It's worth watching these timeless videos.  Check out the routines of Alla Shishova, especially on beam.  She was ahead of her time.  Also observe the magnificent artistry of Olga Mostepanova and Natalia Yurchenko.  Neither gymnast had intricate choreography, but they were both captivating.  Their work conveyed emotional as well as technical impact.  Yurchenko moves slowly, floating through the air.  Who would think that such a light, slender gymnast as Mostepanova could find all that air time in her tumbles?  Technique, not muscle, gave these gymnasts their power.  Their artistry came from the consummate grasp of technique, something that cannot be expressed as execution or entertainment.  Ilienko, Bicherova, Frolova are other classical members of this team.  They will all be remembered for a very long time.

The Soviet team managed to fall off beam even in those days, but their superior difficulty and technique lifted them above the rest of the field.

The equipment was different in those days, most clearly the vault, bars and floor but the beam is softer now.  These gymnasts also had to prepare two different sets of routines, compulsory and optional.  The discipline of the compulsory programme, which evaluated artistry via a close focus on technique, shows in the optional routines.

You will also enjoy seeing the work of the Romanian and British teams.  Boryana Stoyanova of Bulgaria shines, as does Maxi Gnauck.

WAG team final



WAG AA final



WAG event finals

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Pregnancy doping - the context

For those of you coming to the story about pregnancy doping late, and wondering what on earth those translations I published this morning are all about, some context - 

The Observer published a history of cheating in sport on the 15th November that featured allegations of pregnancy doping in the USSR gymnastics team at the 1968 Olympics. The allegations were pivotal to their story, although they could have chosen a different example to make their point. I have now published three articles on RRG about this - the first an opinion piece with reference to sources refuting the allegation, and this morning translations of two Russian language reports from 1998 and 2001, including a Vladimir Golubev interview with Karasyova in which she describes the whole story as a 'monstrous' lie.  The chronology has become clearer, and a few confusions been cleared up.

I wanted these pieces to go on the record in the English language. 

I have written to the Observer readers' editor twice about this, on the grounds of accuracy, requesting a prominent clarification in view of this archival evidence that the story was bogus.  I do think that they should correct their story, don't you?

Here are the links to the stories published on this blog, in case anyone wants to follow how things have developed.  The articles include all the links and sources you will need.

http://rewritingrussiangymnastics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/fact-or-fiction-press-gymnastics-and.html

http://rewritingrussiangymnastics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-zh-cn.html

http://rewritingrussiangymnastics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/is-monstrous-lie-pregnancy-doping-olga.html

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Pregnancy doping - Olga Karasyova. Kommersant's account of 10th December 1998

Olga Kharlova (left) in 1966, with the USSR World Championships team.  This is before her marriage to gymnast Valeri Karasyov. Lauren Cammenga found the original Kommersant story about the bogus pregnancy doping story.  The date of the article is 10th December 1998, and not as reported in my original article on RRG of 29th November. Do you agree that The Observer should now print a correction to its story of 15th November?

SPID-Info is up the Creek 35,000 Rubles

Author: Maxim Stepenin

Translator: Lauren Cammenga

Olga Karasyova, a USSR, European, world, and 1968 Olympic champion in artistic gymnastics, has been awarded 35,000 rubles in damages from the newspaper SPID-Info. The Ismailovsky District Court awarded this, a record-breaking amount for suits of this kind, in emotional damages for a 1997 interview supposedly conducted with Karasyova. In reality, the interview supposedly given by Karasyova was given by an impostor from Germany.

It was the German journalists who were the first victims of the fraud. What�s more, they fell victim a long time ago. On November 21, 1994, the TV channel RTL, which plays in Germany but is operated in Luxembourg, aired a live interview with a certain Olga Kovalenko. She was represented to the viewers as a merited Master of Sport, 1968 Olympic champion, 1971 world champion, and multiple European and USSR medal-winner in the sport of artistic gymnastics. She gave a sensational expos� of the supposed methods used by the State Committee for Sport and coaches to obtain such stellar results. �They forced us to get pregnant by our coaches, and after 9-10 weeks, just before important competitions, we had to get abortions. The thing is, during that time hormone levels in a woman�s body increase sharply. This stimulates physical development and can boost results. That�s how we won.�

A number of European publications ran the story, and all of them were duped. It turned out that the real owner of all the titles listed above never gave an interview to RTL. The day the live interview aired she was on a Mediterranean cruise with a bunch of Olympic champions from various eras.

There was also a discrepancy over the athlete�s surname. The champion was known by the name �Karasyova,� not �Kovalenko.� She only took her husband�s name, Kovalenko, after she left the sport, although by the time the interview aired she was �Karasyova� once more.

Karasyova, in Moscow, began to be exhausted by reporters from foreign publications, though when they heard the whole story, the reporters became disappointed. She was planning to sue RTL, but that turned out to be too difficult and expensive. Everything would have blown over, except that three years later Spid-INFO, a monthly publication, unearthed the bogus scandal.

In April of 1997, Spid-INFOpublished an article by Irina Ovanesyan called �In Bed with Coach.� Ovanesyan used excerpts from that sensational �interview� and added doctors� commentary. She also said that she �spoke with Olga Kovalenko, who lives and works abroad, over the telephone.�

The real Kovalenko-Karasyova, who has always lived in Moscow, remembers the shock she felt. �After all, everything had already been sorted out! I had even had to give the Russian Olympic Committee an official explanation! And here it was again!� The former gymnast ended up in the hospital with a nervous breakdown. When she was released, she began trying to get Spid-INFO to write a retraction, but wasn�t able to solve the problem amicably. It was then that Karasyova pursued a libel lawsuit. In addition to a retraction, she requested 250,000 rubles in emotional damages.

In court, Spid-INFO insisted that Ovanesyan spoke with a woman named Kovalenko in Germany, and even gave a phone number where she could be reached. Karasyova�s lawyer could not reach anyone at the number, and everything became clear. A few days later the court ruled that Spid-INFOwould have to publish a retraction. The amount of damages was lowered substantially, but 35,000 rubles is still a rare amount for this type of case. Only the Vertinskaya sisters (Anastasia and Marianna, famous Soviet actresses) won more, in their case 142,000,000 old rubles (the ruble was redenominated on 1 January, 1998, shortly before the 1998 Russian financial crisis) from the newspaper Megapolis-Express. Now Karasyova says she has decided to go forward with the lawsuit with RTL.

Karasyova told a reporter for Kommersantthat she�s never heard of the kind of scandalous method of gymnastics achievement that is now attributed to her. �It�s all rubbish,� she said.

With many thanks to Lauren for her translation!  

Link to the Kommersant article - http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/210330

Link to the RRG article which gives the background - http://rewritingrussiangymnastics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/fact-or-fiction-press-gymnastics-and.html

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Viktoria Komova and Aliya Mustafina - interviews

At the recent press conference, both Aliya and Vika gave short interviews.  You can finds videos of them and the ROC's website.

Olesya Mikheeva has found time to provide some translations - thank you!!

Aliya's Interview.
�Operation was done on November 3rd, so about 3 weeks ago, so now I�m recovering/rehabilitating until December 7th, I�m not allowed to jump/run/go upstairs, I�m still wearing a cast. This is the last week of this. After that, I will start a more difficult recovery to build muscles, rehabilitate so in February I can get back to jumping. �

The interviewer asks about her injury and she says she had a meniscus injury. (don�t know how to translate the details)

When can you start training again?
�I think I�ll start training again when I�m out of the hospital because I�m still concurrently rehabilitating my back so until the New Year I will be doing that.�

The interviewer asks something about the judging and Aliya gives a quote, but I�m not quite sure how to translate it. Then he asks if she�s ever been to Brazil and she says �I�ve never been to Brazil, but I want to. Of course I want to.�

Viktoria's interview

About herself on the team in 2015:
�Well without saying, this was my best year because I was finally able to compete, in the European Games we took 1st as a team, unfortunately I wasn�t able to compete individually because it was only 1 per country, and of course the world championships. Of course the world championships didn�t start out too well, in the team competition I performed poorly, there�s not much to hide there, but we finished well, even with gold medals, there were even 4 gold medals, first time in history, that was something incredible.

About returning to the team:
�It was very difficult to return because I didn�t compete for 3 years, those were the very worst years of my life because it was just training and then injuries and there was no more desire because I was preparing and then getting injured right away. I wanted to quit and I tried to quit more than once to be honest, but the Olympics gave me the push to keep going.�

Who impacted your decision to keep going or was it just you?

�Well of course my parents and I myself�. well actually I kind of quit at home, and then Andrey called me and told me to come back right away in 2 days to Lake Krugloye and there I started training slowly and slowly developed a desire again slowly. Also I had fought with my coach and then when I had gotten back into shape I called my coach and said I was ready to work and let�s forget about it and so that�s how I got back on the team.�

About Olympics in Rio

�I have the moral strength, I want to go there, we could say this is my last chance to go because after that I won�t be able to, I�ll be somewhat old for gymnastics. Well of course I want to hope for the best but I don�t want to guess because it�s pointless because anything can happen at the Olympics.�

On life outside of sport

�I rarely have time outside of sport, but I like to sew.� She continues to talk about details related to sewing or types of sewing I�m not sure that she enjoys. �I like to hang out with friends, go to movies, or just hang out. This year we saw on the internet that there would be a meteor shower and went and watched it which was really cool, out in the open air with friends, what could be better.�

What about personal life?
�For now, just sport, I don�t think about personal life for now, first I need to get everything out of sport and then attend to personal life.�

Aliya - http://olympic.ru/news/interview/aliia-mustafina-vse-chto-ni-delaetsia-vse-k/

Viktoria - http://olympic.ru/news/interview/viktoriia-komova/

Good luck, girls!

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'It is a monstrous lie!' Pregnancy doping - Olga Karasyova speaks! (2001)

   Olga with her coach Sofia Muratova in 1971.  You can also see a video of Olga training with Sofia at http://youtu.be/rDLY5Ctbe38

 I wanted to record in English the key points of this 2001 interview with Olga.  Thanks to Maryam Vulis who gave me the link.

Date of article - 7th March 2001

Author - Vladimir Golubev

Link to Russian language source - http://viperson.ru/articles/olimpiyskaya-chempionka-razoblachaet-dvoynika

Olga invited me to visit her cozy one-bedroom apartment. I see family gymnastic albums, remember her youth, and gradually ask a few questions.

- What a voluminous file of documents!  It shows how much time and effort had to be expended to get to court. Correspondence, lawyer requests, decisions, resolutions, agenda ...

- Actually, this story began a long time ago.  Once, German broadcaster RTL screened an interview ... with my double!   A certain woman who said that she was Olympic champion in gymnastics, Olga Kovalenko.  (I actually took the surname of my second husband, but then divorced and again became Karaseva.). She gave a sensational interview, saying that the USSR coach forced the girls to get pregnant and then at the ninth or tenth week to have an abortion!  Doctors know that at these times there is a sharp increase in the levels of male hormones in the woman's body, which in girls increases physical strength and brings new resources of life, a feeling of elation. It is meant to be a kind of doping. "That's how we won," - these are the words of the imaginary "Kovalenko".

Of course, this interview was published by many news agencies, newspapers and magazines. The Moscow correspondent of the Spanish newspaper "ABC" Juan Jimenez de Partha somehow tracked down my phone and asked about the meeting. Imagine his disappointment when I told him it's easy to prove that it is a pure fake. At the time, when my "understudy" was broadcasting live on abortion, I was on a sea cruise.  There is evidence in my passport!

Then "Paris Match" reporter Michel Peyrard, who had seen the "tremendous" interview on RTL, flew in to see me.  He was pretty surprised that I could speak perfect French, but also frustrated because he found no resemblance to the "Olga from Germany".

At this time, my life was difficult.  Stays in hospital, surgery, long-term treatment. My lawyer had not been idle, was preparing materials against RTL. But because the "project" was too expensive, we couldn't proceed.

And suddenly, a Russian newspaper article appeared, smelling of mothballs.  "In bed with the coach." It began like this: "No sports scandal caused such terror in the world community as a story told by former gymnast Olga Kovalenko on the television channel RTL - wrote a well-known western weekly magazine "Sports Illustrated" ...  The correspondent of the Russian newspaper had telephoned Olga Kovalenko, who, they said, was now living and working abroad.  She repeated: "My case is not out of the ordinary. I was just one of many athletes who were prescribed mandatory sex. Girls who refused to do as the authorities instructed were subject to dismissal from the team. Those who did not have permanent boyfriends were forced to have sex with their coaches."

You can imagine my state! I was shocked!  How cheap!   The 'fake Olga' probably took a big fee for the very first interview on RTL, then vanished, and then it was a matter of - "I contacted by phone."  I filed a lawsuit against the newspaper.

I do not like to complain about life, how things worked out, and developed. I suffered a lot. I was born Olga Kharlova, and made friends with Valery Karasev at the World Championships of 1966.  This was the last appearance of our idols Larisa Latynina, Polina Astakhova, Boris Shakhlin, Yuri Titov. Valery  courted me, was so attentive, so insistent that really it seemed - maybe it's fate? We got married, and then we competed together at the Olympics in Mexico City, and at the World Champs in 1970.

We lived together for ten years. I so wanted a baby!  But my husband insisted that it was necessary to save more money to settle. I was eager to work abroad, but it didn't work out. I also liked my work in international management of the State Committee of the USSR. I did this and graduated from the Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages. I had a reference from FIG President Yuri Titov, went abroad, and was preparing to run for the members of the Technical Committee of the International Gymnastics Federation.

Perhaps my happy eyes made my husband jealous.  There were unpleasant scenes. I knew that he was trying to hide his sins. I would have to have been blind not to guess that he was partying on the side.  In the last year of my marriage we had begun to dislike each other, and I realized that I had fallen in love with Yuri Kovalenko. He also worked as a translator, and traveled with delegations to the competitions. On the one hand, I had a husband who was constantly shouting insults, on the other, a man who used to give me flowers, make compliments and sing me songs in English.  Who was I going to choose?

The marriage to Yuri lasted ten years after which he moved to America.  Olga is now married to Mikhail Lifirenko.  Olga says she receives a presidential pension (ten times the minimum salary).  She has some back problems but it seems that the State helps her with physical therapy.  She had a Russian blue cat, Rita, and she and her husband have a large circle of friends.

Going back to the scandal, the interviewer asks about the 1968 team - Luda Tourischeva, Liubov Burda, Larissa Petrik, Natasha Kuchinskaya, Zinaida Voronina, and Olga Karasyova.  Were they forced to have sex!  

- It is, I repeat, a monstrous lie!  I sought only one thing - a correction in the newspaper. And I am very pleased that the court stood up for my honor and dignity. It would be nice to find my German impostor and say so to her face.  However, although I am angry, I can really laugh about it!

On the 24th July 2000 Olga turned 51. But you can't believe it. After all, she is still a real beauty. 

You can read the full background and context of this story at http://rewritingrussiangymnastics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/fact-or-fiction-press-gymnastics-and.html

and a full translation by Lauren Cammenga of a Kommersant news story from 1988 here - http://rewritingrussiangymnastics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-zh-cn.html

A WORD FOR WORD TRANSLATION OF GOLUBEV'S INTERVIEW WILL FOLLOW.

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Fact or fiction? The press, gymnastics and pregnancy doping

It was a Sunday morning.  I was drinking my coffee and contemplating the day ahead - a workout at the gym, shopping for groceries, an evening reading a book, or catching up on last night's episodes of crime thriller The Bridge.  How nice it was not to have to think about work for a day.

Then I saw it - a story about the history of doping in The Observer.  Interesting reading.

Of course, cheating is as old as the hills.  It is, unfortunately, human nature for some people to try to gain easy advantage in any kind of competition.  That is why we have laws, rules, ethical guidelines.  People who cheat should face justice and shouldn't complain when they are found out.

But the story about pregnancy doping bothered me.  Hadn't that been found to be fictional?  The author began with Olga Kovalenko's allegations made in 1994 - but the rumours had started way back in 1991 with the documentary series More Than A Game.  The practice of pregnancy doping was discussed, and in response to a question about whether the Soviet Union gymnasts might have been involved, coach (and BBC TV commentator) Mitch Fenner responded, 'I would believe anything'.

Yes, it made me catch my breath, too.  At the time the papers - quality and tabloid press alike - had little good to say about the sport.  A high profile rumour was also circulating that the female gymnasts were fed drugs to delay puberty, including one case where an 'expert' (we never found out exactly who) had observed photographs of a gymnast where her physical development had actually receded, rather than progressed.  The words 'I would believe anything' summed up the attitude of many in the press at that time.  

Ironically the sensationalistic allegations made the headlines more than the facts did.  Drugs? Unproven.  More likely, the commonly accepted fact that early specialisation, workload, dietary discipline and hereditary factors were all implicated in the generally small size and boyish physique of the top gymnasts.  There were age falsifications to enable very young gymnasts to compete before they were eligible, but the only historic doping allegations to have been found to be of substance relate to the use of steroids during injury recovery in the late 1980s, as part of a German court case against a sports doctor.  The allegations of pregnancy doping seemed completely incongruous in this context.

Yet, as The Observer states, pregnancy doping amongst the all six of the 1968 Soviet Olympic gymnasts was confirmed in 1994 in a German language RTL documentary by someone who claimed to be Olga Kovalenko, a member of the team.  In the absence of an archive of medical records, as existed in Germany, first hand verbal testimony is the only evidence available.  Sports Illustrated and many other respected publications covered the story, which now seemed well founded. The rumour became accepted fact in the West. 

By 2004, however, the story was found to be bogus.  The facts were covered by Russian newspaper Kommersant, and made available in the West via a press release (see full wording at the bottom of this blog post).  The Olga Kovalenko in RTL's documentary was not the Olga Kovalenko who competed (under the name of Olga Karasyova) at the 1968 Olympics.  Kovalenko went to court in Moscow in 2004 to prove the fact - in a case against Russian sports monthly Speed Info - and was awarded a small sum in damages.  She said that she knew nothing about pregnancy doping.  What had been accepted as fact became fiction once again - but the respected publications who had originally covered the story didn't know or care about Kovalenko's legal action.  In the English language the real story - or the lack of a story - remained hidden from view.  The myth remained freely in circulation, and available for repetition by any hapless journalist who didn't bother to look any deeper.  This is how myths and conspiracy theories spread.

There are loose ends.  Why, for example, didn't Kovalenko take RTL to court about their original documentary?  Why did the coach comment?  A difficult question to answer without sight of the original documentary and the context in which words were said by one person or another.  It is impossible to know anything without access to the original players, who have all now moved on and are living their private lives.  Why on earth should anyone want to waste their energy on this non-story?

So I hope that by now it is perfectly clear - no public grounds exist for saying that pregnancy doping took place in the case of the 1968 Soviet Olympic gymnastics team.  The Observer journalist who included the story in his article last week has said to me that he finds the story 'confusing' and, indeed, it is.  Far too confusing to include as fact in an important article in one of the country's leading broadsheet papers.  Apparently the writer has asked a 'prominent Moscow journalist' to help with his investigations.  Isn't it rather late to investigate a story - AFTER it has been published?

There is no story.  I'm not the only one saying this - Le Monde sports journalist and athletics coach Pierre-Jean Vazel, who investigated this in 2013, has tweeted since publication of the Observer article that 'the pregnant Russian gymnast story was a blatant lie and manipulation'. 

I have written to the Observer's Readers' Editor asking for a correction, but so far the article hasn't changed, so it remains on the record and will no doubt contribute to the perpetuation of this false and unfounded story.  I am posting below some screenshots of the key parts of the feature and of the journalist's responses to my tweets about it, so that they remain on the record, too.  I am hoping that eventually some changes will be made, but to be honest I'm not that optimistic.  It seems to me that in this case, the Soviets are considered guilty until proven innocent.

If you know anything more, please post a comment.

Key extract from the Observer article of the 15th November - you can see more in the caption to the picture, above

Comments on the Observer article, available online

Text of a 2004 press release summarising the contents of the Kommersant newspaper report

GYMNASTICS: Karasyova wins libel case
MOSCOW -- Former Soviet Olympic star Olga Karasyova has won damages over
bizarre allegations that Soviet athletes had been forced to get pregnant and
then have abortions to boost their performance.

A Moscow court ruled that the Russian monthly SPEED Info had libelled Karasyova
by quoting her as saying that the ruling body of Soviet sport forced women
stars to have sex with their trainers to become pregnant, the Kommersant daily
reported Thursday.

According to the allegations, after 9-10 weeks of pregnancy the women athletes
were forced to have abortions, but the high level of natural hormones present
in the women's bodies helped improve their performance.

An outraged Karasyova denied she ever made any such allegation against
Goskomsport, which ran sport during the communist era.

The court awarded Karasyova, who won gold at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics,
35,000 rubles (1,750 dollars) in damages. She is now considering legal action
against the German television station RTL, which broadcast similar charges.

In November 1994, the German station aired a sensational live interview with a
woman posing as the Olympic champion, who blew the whistle on illegal methods
used by Goskomsport.

The real Karasyova decided against taking legal action against the German
channel, despite seeing the broadcast during a Mediterranian cruise holiday.
But when SPEED Info published the allegations in April she decided to take
action.

Kommersant said Karasyova had asked her lawyers to launch legal proceedings
against RTL as soon as possible. The former gymnast told the paper that she
never heard of any involvement in the sex lives of athletes by Goskomsport.

Since publishing this article, two further archival sources have come to my attention, which have been translated and published on this blog.  The chronology has become clearer; the dates in my article above are incorrect in places.  

1998 Kommersant article about the court case in Moscow - http://rewritingrussiangymnastics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-zh-cn.html

2001 interview with Karasyova - http://rewritingrussiangymnastics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/is-monstrous-lie-pregnancy-doping-olga.html

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Melnikova wins Massilia Cup

Angelina taking her gold medal AA at the Junior European Championships in 2014. Picture courtesy of UEG.

Yesterday, at the Massilia Cup, Russian junior Angelina Melnikova scored 57.5 to win the all around competition ahead of France's Marine Brevet and Romania's Diana Bulimar, both established senior competitors.  This score would have seen her finish in fifth place a few weeks ago, at the World Championships in Glasgow.  The Russian team, including fellow juniors Daria Skrypnik and Natalia Kapitonova, and senior Evgenia Shelgunova, finished second behind France, after a tight battle.  See scores below.

Angelina on bars - http://youtu.be/oeVEt8UzkHo

On beam -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIMiesOKsdw&sns=tw

On floor - http://youtu.be/JKfUEYt5RSE

Natalia Kapitonova, beam - http://youtu.be/JF1xNqiv2TU

On bars - http://youtu.be/B6jnRxWOyKs

Shelgunova, beam - http://youtu.be/D4sTTo1Fs88

On bars - http://youtu.be/VYtmhnvOcvg

Skrypnik, beam - http://youtu.be/hJ8gmM0BpLo

On bars - http://youtu.be/17HCwkDBy54

Angelina is from Voronezh, where she trains at the same club as Viktoria Komova.  Komova's coach, Gennady Elfimov, now assists in training Angelina, alongside her coaches since childhood.  Angelina won the Junior European AA title in 2014 and scored the highest AA this autumn at Russia Cup.  Unfortunately, as a junior she was not eligible to take the title of Russia Cup champion and had to be satisfied with a special award!  She will be patient though, and wait for her opportunity to prove herself and take her laurels at next spring's Russian Championships.  'Gelya', as she is known by her friends, will turn 16 next July - so it will be great to see if she can qualify to compete in Rio.  

Here is a video of Angelina training, four years ago, at the age of ten.  

http://youtu.be/6REkTP00bWI

Let's wish Angelina and her team mates the very best of luck as they prepare to compete for places on the Russian team at the big competitions of 2016!

Our next opportunity to see the Russian gymnasts will be the Voronin Cup in Moscow, in December.  Anastasia Dmitrieva has confirmed that she is one of the gymnasts training for this competition.

Results of the Massilia Cup - also available at http://www.elite-gym-massilia.com/marseille-gymnastique-championnat-resultats.php?nommenu=massilia-gym-resultats&menurubrique=MASTER%20MASSILIA&menulangue=fr&menutype=f&affiche=oui

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Unsung heroine - Daria Spiridonova

There is an unsung heroine on the Russian team, one who is often taken for granted - Daria Spiridonova.  In amongst all the missed connections, the razzmatazz of announcements and big tumbles that characterised the World Championships at Glasgow, Spiridonova calmly maintained her position as a world leader on bars.   The judges' baffling and bungled decision to 'coincidentally' award the medal to four different gymnasts of varying ability and performance can't conceal the fact that this young gymnast has now medalled on bars in every major competition, senior and junior, that she has entered since 2011.

More than that, Spiridonova's elegance and mature attitude in competition show evidence of a strong head and an adherence to the fundamental principles of gymnastics - economy of line, an effortless, gravity-defying appearance to all her work, and complexity that does not rely on tumbling as its main source of difficulty.  In any other era Spiridonova would have the potential to be a leader all around.  Yes, her falls in qualification were a let-down, and ultimately denied her a place in the final, where no doubt she would have finished in a relatively lowly position. But under a Code that values only Execution and Difficulty, the aesthetic value of work will always be denied in favour of efficiency and reliability.  Would you prefer a Porsche to a Volvo?  The FIG has decided on the latter, gymnastically speaking, even if the engine has been souped up.

No doubt for some of you this will be a controversial thing to say.  How shocking to support Spiridonova, who can't get through a beam routine without hopping to the ground, and whose tumbles are so basic!  She will never win anything!  She certainly doesn't have the greatest record or reliability and her difficulty on vault and floor leaves a lot to be desired.  But what I am speaking of is a different way of judging gymnastics (as opposed to evaluating it), a different paradigm entirely.  A perspective, an added dimension that tragically has been lost to the sport.  

So, it may be perfectly obvious, I found much of the Glasgow women's competition unwatchable, including much of the Russians' work, especially when they were falling all over the place.  A distorted and mangled crazy spectacle of muscled contortions and ungainly flights.   If I wanted to watch acro I would choose an Acrobatic Gymnastics competition, where the form and execution is miles better and where they don't attempt to pretend that they are performing.  Don't tell me about gymnasts who are attempting to recapture elegance in their work through incorporating leaps and turns in place of tumbles.  Gymnastics is supposed to combine elegance and innovation, not be a watered down shadow of itself and such attempts are merely a superficial nod in the direction of artistry.  They do not capture the magnificence of artistic gymnastics at its best, and invariably focus mainly on floor, without considering the other apparatus.  The phenomenon of virtuosity, a character of work that made a gymnast unique and recognisable across all four apparatus, has largely been lost.  This is about more than toe point and leg line or indeed anything that can be put into words or listed systematically in a Code of Points.  You can't make a scribble into a straight line without losing some meaning along the way.

Yes, there were also too many falls.  There are too many injuries everywhere.  All of these things are the consequence of a Code that values D score too highly, that attempts to measure rather than judge execution, that puts administration above artistry and values political correctness above creativity.  That misunderstands what bias and objectivity are and plants its own value judgements as absolute without considering a wider frame of reference.

So that's why I say - look again at Spiridonova and value her for the aesthetic of her work as well as for her difficulty and execution.  She is no Ilienko, but there are nascent qualities that come from the training.  In perhaps more concrete terms, closer to the way that some of you think today, value her as a gymnast of strong mentality, the only gymnast of her generation to survive and thrive in Russia's current team environment.  Who else but Spiridonova has consistently contributed to the team's medal count since 2012?  Only the veterans of London, and they will probably retire post Rio.  Tutkhalyan and Kharenkova have potential, but the team's spirit needs lifting if they are to produce extraordinary results.  Gold would make all the difference, and at present Spiridonova is the only 'new' Russian who looks to have the strength of will and confidence to lead the way.  They may well need her in Rio - for more than just the countable things.

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Aliya Mustafina - on the mend

Aliya has responded to a few questions about her health.  At present, she is at home with her family, undergoing rehabilitation at the clinic where she had a procedure on her right knee on the 3rd November.

'I am not allowed to jump or squat until December 7th' she said.  'I can walk, but with one crutch, which I will need until next week.  I will be at home throughout rehabilitation - so as not to overload the leg.  In another two weeks I will have to have treatments and do exercises.  We'll have to see after that, the doctors will advise ... Once the stitches are removed, there won't be any pain at all'.

Good luck!

http://www.allsportinfo.ru/index.php?id=99245

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Love and peace to France

Our thoughts are with our friends in France.  Please stay safe.  

There are messages of solidarity from many of the Russian gymnasts.  We are all together at this time.  ?? ??? ??????.  Nous sommes tous ensemble.  

Love and peace.

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Daria Spiridonova - I will need to increase my D value and go clean to win in Rio

- To be honest, I have almost forgotten the special feeling that I won the World Championship gold - said Daria Spiridonova. - I am happy, but in general everything is back as it was - and still is.  Only at home, of course, I was greeted and welcomed as a hero (smiles).

- When you flew out to Glasgow, did you expect to return with a gold medal?

- No. And in particular I did not expect that there would be four winners on one apparatus (smiles). This is something incredible, it has happened for the first time in the history of gymnastics.

- What did you talk about with Viktoria Komova when you stood together on the highest step of the podium?

- "How does that even happen?" Surprise and delight at the same time.

- In fact, all four athletes were at the same level?

- In our sport, a lot depends on the judges.  The D scores were all different.  The highest was a Chinese woman, then there was an American, and Vika Komova was a little lower, one-tenth. Probably they were all equal in the purity of execution. I had the feeling that I could have done better than all the others. Well, I have known things to go better; I had a mistake. In general, this year for me has turned out to be very successful on the bars - I was able to finish first at the European Championships and the World Championships.

- How do you feel about fourth place in the team?

- We could do better, but the girls were slightly nervous on the beam - and fell.  We are a little less worried about individual finals - the team is most important.

- What is the mood in the team after the World Championships?

- The journey home was quite fun, our mood was good. However, we were all very tired, and there was a three-hour flight delay and [then we had to wait for a later connection].  As a result, we ended up spending eleven extra hours at airports.

- What are your future plans?

- We still have a few days to stay at home. On November 9th we will go to Israel to work out and relax a bit. The entire World Championships team will go.  It is necessary to keep in shape.   I do not know whether we will have soon a complete vacation.  Apparently, there will be time for a rest after the Olympics (smiles).

- What are your plans for the Rio 2016?

- I do not know whether I will compete anywhere except bars - this is still not known. But to win at the Olympics, it will be necessary to increase my D score and compete cleaner. Therefore, after relaxing somewhat in Israel I will put together a new routine. Maybe add a [?Sin-Bers?] and a new dismount. The warm up for Rio 2016 will be, probably, the European Championships.

http://www.team-russia2016.ru/article/10689.html

Does anyone know what the Sin Bers(!) could be?

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Aliya Mustafina - 'everything is OK'

'Everything is OK, the operation went as planned, under general anesthesia. Now I feel good. While I am in hospital, I will walk with crutches.  Doctors have said that the timing of my return to competition will become apparent as I recover.   But in general, no one can make any predictions - it is too early. 

The plan is that I will recover more or less in three months.  But it is not yet clear when I will be able to begin to train fully again.'

http://www.allsportinfo.ru/index.php?id=99023&b=10&l=40

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'It's very hard without Mustafina' - Valentina Rodionenko

Valentina Rodionenko has confirmed that Olympic champion Aliya Mustafina has successfully undergone surgery on the meniscus in her right knee.  "The operation went fine. We'll see when Aliya will be back.  We hope that it will be all right. All the gymnasts really miss Mustafina and it is hard without her."

Picture courtesy of Aliya Mustafina's personal Instagram.

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A gold medal of gold medals - Viktoria Komova

I would make this my gold medal of all gold medals ... What an amazing comeback from Viktoria Komova ... as the BBC commentators said yesterday, her beauty takes gymnastics 'beyond the textbook'.  And so it should be.

http://youtu.be/_grQzeF55xs

Congratulations to the gymnasts!  

A question mark to the judges ... Those four routines were close, but not equal - it was your job to decide!

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World Champions on the uneven bars!

Lovely montage from Maria Kharenkova for World Champions in the uneven bars, Daria Spiridonova and Viktoria Komova.  Molodyets!  You were the champions of beauty! 

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Molodyets, Maria!

Molodyets!  Congratulations to Maria Paseka, World Champion on vault!  #glasgow2015

My best wishes to Giulia for a good recovery.

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Our judges have yet to reach perfection

'Our judges have yet to reach perfection' Leonid Arkayev, 1989, when asked about the number of ties in gymnastics.  

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EF Day 1 start list

Today's start list #glasgow2015 http://www.longinestiming.com/File/Download?id=00000E0001000002FFFFFFFFFFFFFF01

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WAG AA results

Congratulations to all the medalists, including Simone, who wins for the third time winning, Gabrielle, who has completed a comeback after a break since Olympics, and Larissa who overcame a mountain of disappointment after qualifications.

Russia's promise, Seda, had quite a good first AA competition, but fell on beam and lost rather a lot of marks.  But she is still one of the world's top gymnasts and will do better next time!

http://www.longinestiming.com/File/Download?id=00000E0001000101FFFFFFFFFFFFFF03

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Aliya Mustafina : knee surgery on 3rd November

World and Olympic Champion, Aliya Mustafina, will travel back to Moscow on the 2nd November, ready for surgery on an injured meniscus in her right knee on the 3rd, head coach Valentina Rodionenko said today in an interview with R Sport.  Aliya tore the ACL in her left knee in spring 2011 and recovered from surgery to win gold in the London Olympics in 2012.

The injury is not serious and it is expected that recovery will take six to eight weeks, allowing Aliya to begin training for Rio in early January, all being well.  'It's just a strain', said Rodionenko, adding that medical advice suggested it would be better for Aliya to have the surgery than suffer the pain.

Aliya made the decision herself to have the surgery in Russia this time, rather than in Germany.   She will make her recovery at Round Lake (the national training centre) and if she is well enough will travel to Israel on the 10th, to participate in the rehabilitation camp with the rest of the national team.

Aliya herself has said that she doesn't consider that missing this World Championships will be detrimental to her Olympic preparation.  Valentina added her voice to this, saying, 'Everything will be fine, do not worry'.

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Start list, WAG AA #glasgow2015

http://www.longinestiming.com/File/Download?id=00000E0001000101FFFFFFFFFFFFFF02

Davai, Seda! 

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The domino effect - Russia collapses and must rise again

Newcomer Seda Tutkhalyan did well to improve her floor performance for her team.

It was a tough competition today for Russia.  Put simply, they fell too much for a better outcome.  

The girls were on a swell following a great vault performance and two top class bars exercises.  Next, however, returning champion Viktoria Komova went for an extra dimension on one of her pirouettes - and fell.  It was a domino effect that ran through to first time World championships gymnast Seda Tutkhalyan on beam, and carried over via Kharenkova, back again to Komova. 4.5 points were lost as the checkers tumbled one after another.  In the end, Moscow's Maria Paseka steadied the boat with her fluent floor exercises, and Tutkhalyan held things together with a routine that was much improved since Monday.  Afanasyeva topped things off.  

At the end of the comp, the girls were all cheers and smiles.  But there were glum looks behind the ironic smiles.  I think that all the team will be very unhappy after losing the medal in such a way.

What's the learning here?  It's not the fact that you fell, that can happen to anyone.  More the manner of the reaction to the fall.  

There were some good moments.  Vault saw a significant improvement since Sofia, and floor was much better than in qualifications.  There is clearly much potential on the team.  But potential does not win medals.  Russia needs to learn how to balance on the crest of a wave and exploit the adrenalin of success to pursue gold or silver in future.  This is exactly what the USA does so well and, today, China and Britain did better than Russia.  

Valentina says that all the coaches and gymnasts are upset by this performance. And so they should be.  Even President of the RGF, Vasily Titov, looked a bit sheepish at the medal ceremony.  Perhaps heads will roll, and Romania won't be the only ones seeking coaches after this.  After qualifications Russia looked to be respectable silver medalists here.  But they weren't even scratch bronze medalists.  Home advantage for rivals Britain or not, they should have done better.

In quals, Komova seemed to have mastered her nerves and to be on track in her revival as a team leader.  Hmph - it is back to the drawing board there.  Something has to change if the Olympian is truly to have profited from her career break.  The youngsters have more grace from me for their errors, understandable under the pressure of competition and the strain of seeing their returning hero collapse at the first hurdle.  

I don't want to blame any individual for a team failing - and the coaches have to take much of the responsibility - but Russia needs more confidence than that.  Phoney smiles and shrugged shoulders are probably a sarcastic or philosophical reaction to adverse media and fan reactions to tears - what do you expect, they seem to say?   But I would suggest that the girls need to start building themselves back up during EFs.  I hope that everyone will reflect and realise that this was a lost opportunity to pressurise America in the run up to Rio.  A close fight without Mustafina here could have been even closer with her next summer.  Now, the exclamation mark will remain a question mark, and the pressure is all on Russia to prove themselves once more.  The psychology of winning has to be more positive than we saw today.

Congratulations to the medalists, who all fought hard for their booty.  To all the finalists, who truly deserved to be at the top table of gymnastics.  Good luck for the coming days, and bring home some medals.   Keep heart in the coming months as you prepare for the Olympics.

If Komova wins a medal on bars on Saturday, I hope she gives her beam finals place to Maria Kharenkova - who deserves a boost after a disappointing time here.  The young girl has been competing with a painful right leg throughout quals and finals.  She and Seda both looked very downmouthed about this result.  They are Russia's future and both are much better gymnasts than we saw today.  Russia cannot survive on past glories forever.

Full results are here.  Fetch a handkerchief, a gin and tonic or a bar of chocolate.  No, all three.  http://www.longinestiming.com/File/Download?id=00000E0001000103FFFFFFFFFFFFFF03

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WAG start list

WAG start list, tomorrow 18.39 start #Glasgow2015 http://www.longinestiming.com/File/Download?id=00000E0001000103FFFFFFFFFFFFFF01

GOOD LUCK TO ALL!

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The changing identity of artistic gymnastics - what do you think?

There is a really good comment on my post 'Maybe it's the end'.  It is from Cami, and I didn't want it to remain relatively hidden at the bottom of the post as it is full of ideas for discussion.  Thank you, Cami ... 

Cami says - 

'You make excellent points, about how the identity of artistic gymnastics is changing. that�s the nature of sport though. i feel artistic gymnastics is still unique from any other branch because it is gymnast and apparatus, and nothing else. they are artists with their own bodies (no balls/hoops/or partners). a gymnast must be entirely focused on their physical, emotional, and mental self-awareness. 

but if you are to give a gymnast a numerical score, there must be objectivity. in hockey, soccer - all goals are worth the same regardless of how much style they have. in basketball, �easy� shots are 2 points and �hard� shots are 3, regardless of whether they�re jumpshots or layups, half-court or right at the 3point line. 

Gymnastics has tried to mimic this with the dichotomous d- and e-scores. but ultimately we cannot be like that because our athletes don�t just complete, they perform. as an american, I argue that Simone Biles is artistic because her gymnastics performance is a reflection of her, like painting reflects its painter or a composition reflects its composer. you see it in the way she quirks her hips or throws her shoulders back or directs her line of vision, not just in her flips and jumps. It�s what makes her difficult gymnastics different than say, Aly Raisman�s difficult gymnastics; it�s a difference not just in toe-point and leap-extension but in the ability to draw people in. I feel Aly�s lack of artistry gave her zero cushion in her scores today (especially on BB�), where as oppositely her unique big tricks gave her cushion room in 2012. 

my current favorite american floor routine actually belongs to Bailie Key, one of our non-travelling alternates to worlds. in 2015 she�s struggled some with skills due to a growth spurt, but her floor artistry is loads better. I can tell that she has dedicated a lot of time into how she can best use her body and her strengths to tell the story of her routine. if you haven�t seen it yet, there are several online videos of her on FX this past summer, and I�d love to know your opinion. another american i�d like to know your opinion of is Brenna Dowell (she competed on floor today without her music), who just finished the 2014-2015 year competing on the american university level. it�s a whole different environment for gymnasts, with lower difficulty but many more contests/performances. she�s back on the elite stage now with nothing to lose, and I�d love an outsider�s before/after opinion. 

I won't pretend to know as much about gymnasts from countries other than my own, but some of my recent favorites are vika komova (i thought for sure she was going to win AA in 2012, watching rotation by rotation...), jessica lopez of VEN, several JPN gymnasts, and i'm totally in love with this new crop of NED ladies. if russia and romania represent the "old guard" of artistry, i tend to prefer romania - no offense to you - simply because they seem to have more variety, at least among the girls chosen for worlds/olympics/etc. this is just my opinion watching the competitions, the finalized versions of each routine, not knowing their stories or how they individually approach gymnastics.'

I would just like to add my own take to this - 

Objectivity is not the same as fairness.  Objectivity is a philosophical stance, a way of seeing the world that involves measurement and calculation.  Fairness is a state of making judgements that are even-handed and free of bias.  

It is important to understand objectivity if we want to adopt it in any methodology.  I am simplifying here but want to try to make this clear.  Objectivity takes the position of viewing the world from a distance, as if individual phenomena can be observed as a separate entity from other phenomena and from the person doing the observation.  It assumes that phenomena can be MEASURED and CALCULATED.  Objectivity seeks to identify the phenomenon in detail according to existing knowledge and is dependent on a set of assumptions we call a 'paradigm'.  These assumptions are critical because they are the basis of the objective view of the world and if they are off, can lead to continued misconceptions and a skewing of the vision and measurements.   So for example if our paradigm (assumptions) is that the world is flat and we want to calculate how to travel from one side of the world to another, we would have to take into account the possibility that at some point we would fall off the edge of the world.  If we assume (it is our paradigm) that the world is round, then we can calculate our distance in a straight continuous line.  

Since the early 1990s the FIG has repeatedly emphasised their opinion about the importance of objectivity to fair judging, but WITHOUT STATING THE ASSUMPTIONS or making clear its world view/paradigm of gymnastics. A fair description of what was the intended meaning of 'artistry' appeared in the Code of Points as recently as 1989 but at some point was removed without discussion or debate and was never replaced with anything else.  There has never, to my knowledge, been a clear statement of what the FIG believe the sport is, nor of the assumptions behind the decision to pursue a stance of objectivity in the marking.  I believe that the FIG blithely uses the term 'objectivity' as a synonym for 'fairness' without really considering the implications, or operationalising the Code in a way that is consistent with its world view, assumptions or paradigm of gymnastics.  I also think they would find it very hard to articulate their paradigm without conducting some significant research amongst their members or at the very least undertaking a thorough literature review.  

As you mention, gymnastics' identity has always been fraught with creative tension and it changes all the time - that is why we have so many different forms and sub-forms of the sport.  At present though, women's artistic gymnastics is being torn apart in various ways by the many forces to which it is subjected (too much to write now but there are whole fields of thought involved and while this era isn't yet provoking a rich vein of literature, hopefully it will soon and not just me).  

At the end of the day, are people happy with the way the sport looks?  Is the competitive field deep and rich and diverse?  (I know it is internationally, but I mean in terms of the gymnastics - look at the floor final for a start.)  I understand why fans are delighted to see the artistic presentation of the NED and BEL teams - they are making strides forward - but get real - they finished in 8th and 11th respectively as teams - this is hardly likely to transform the sport.  

Finally, you make a fair point about the relative measurability of hockey and football compared to gymnastics and the idea that the aesthetic doesn't really count there.  The big question is - do we think the aesthetic counts in gymnastics at all?  Your point therefore is really about deciding our chosen paradigm of gymnastics.  If we don't want it to be artistic, it doesn't have to be ... But then isn't that another sport?  Do we want acrobatic gymnastics to replace artistic gymnastics at the Olympics?  We really have to think about this!

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