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.