Thursday, August 16, 2012
Russian gymnastics teams rewarded
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| Courtesy of Aliya Mustafina Online |
The Russian women's gymnastics team - Aliya Mustafina, Ksenia Afanasyeva, Viktoria Komova, Maria Paseka and Anastasia Grishina - have been rewarded for their Olympic efforts in a reception including President Vladimir Putin (seen left with Olympic bars champion Aliya Mustafina). Medallist Denis Ablyazin was also present.
Olympians who received medals have received a fairly substantial cash bonus, and an Audi car ...
There is a library of photographs at Aliya Mustafina Online.
I do hope that all the athletes drive carefully.
Valentina Rodionenko, Aliya Mustafina and Viktoria Komova - Sovietski Sport/Komsomolskaya Pravda press conference
There is masses of press coverage at present as the results of the Olympics are digested. At an international level, the three candidates for the FIG Presidency are making their bids. Read about this at the All Around.
In Russia, much noise is being made by Valentina Rodionenko. As usual, she seems oblivious to the impression her less than measured comments make on international observers - and her gymnasts. Lupita has made a partial translation of a press conference transmitted earlier this week. I should add that Mustafina and Komova handle themselves wonderfully.
I have yet to see evidence of any competition for the Rodionenko's family job at the head of Russian gymnastics and with Valentina fronting the operation, there seems little prospect of a change in PR policy.
Rodionenko and Mustafina: The best gyms are CSKA and Dynamo.
Komova: in London we made mistakes and we even feared we wouldn�t be medallists. When we saw the results, we cried with joy.
Mustafina: we thought that the men hadn�t competed very well and so we had to perform well for them.
Rodionenko: I want to add something. The gap to the Romanians and Chinese teams was huge. The result was painful because we saw that the girls could have fought for gold. In spite of their mistakes, our girls were stronger than the Romanians and the Italians (?).
Journalist: Specialists think that at these Olympics psychology played an important part.
Rodionenko: I don�t think so. The Olympics is the main competition. Everybody waits for four years. And there�s the pressure of the audience. They supported the Americans as loudly as the British girls.
It�s not about psychology. Here there was Anastasia Grishina�s lack of experience. She told us later that she had problems. Aliya is an experienced gymnast. She�s a fighter. When you are in the position of the runner-up, it�s always difficult.
Journalist: Girls, tell me about your Olympic dreams.
Mustafina: I didn�t have any.
Komova. During the competition I dreamed we had won gold and we were all happy.
Journalist: Rhythmic gymnasts have been given freedom [by their coach Irina Viner] after the Olympics. Did you receive freedom after the competition?
Komova: we only had time to go to Bosco�s, we danced. I�m now in Moscow and I haven�t had time to rest.
In Singapore [when Vika competed at the Youth Olympic Games in 2010] it was easier because the gymnasts were less experienced. There were fewer people, less noise. I competed alone. Now we competed as a team. There was more responsibility and more support.
Rodionenko (about the composition of routines): The composition of routines abides by the FIG rules. There will be a new Code of Points for the new quad. The CoP changes every four years. We expect that gymnastic elements will deserve more attention. Floor is not only about acrobatics. We need a good combination of acrobatics and gymnastic elements. Vika has such combinations. You noticed that the American and Romanian gymnast perform acrobatics only. This is why there�s a struggle. We have our position. For the Americans it�s more difficult to reach our execution level. We fight for this. The judges started to pay more attention, but not all of them.
Komova: I think the rivals will be those that competed at the Olympics.
Rodionenko: Other gymnasts may appear. From Italy. But the main rivals are China, the Romanians have problems.
Journalist: Vika, Aliya, do you have the impression that you are able to stand pain more than the American gymnasts? They didn�t have the injuries that you had. Who is stronger?
Vika: we can compete with them psychologically.
Mustafina: In fact, we don�t know everything about them. We see how they perform, they see how they perform.
Rodionenko: I would like to add that if the Americans knew the injuries our girls had, they would highly praise them for their will. The gymnasts who performed had all injuries, pain.
Journalist: Before the program, you said that the Americans are very confident. Specialists say they are on tranquilizers.
Rodionenko: It�s difficult to say.
Now we�ll analyze the preparation of our first team because we�ve realized things that we didn�t pay attention to in the past.
Journalist: For instance?
Rodionenko: Functionally the Americans were far better prepared than our girls. We couldn�t do it because our girls were all injured. Professor Arkhipov was with them. He�s the best orthopaedic specialist in Russia. He was all the time with our team. He knew what injuries they had. Now they have to heal their injuries. Now they�ll go to Spain to a recovery training camp, we cannot overload them as they do in the US. They wouldn�t stand it. This is why they are so strong, so healthy, except for Douglas.
Journalist: like robots�
Rodionenko: I may not be objective. But their gymnastics are not beautiful. We are for classical, beautiful gymnastics, they are for athletic gymnastics. It�s called artistic gymnastics. It has to be artistic. This is our position. If one of our gymnasts became floor world champion last year, it means something.
Mustafina: My future plans are to continue training. To rest and then�
Rodionenko: There�s a competition in Frankfurt.
Vika: we�ll rest until 3 September.
Rodionenko: They�ll go to a training camp in Spain. I think that until the end of the year they won�t be given huge training loads. Now you have to do a step back. But if they want they can compete in Germany, there will be a World Cup stage. I would like to tell journalists that the Individual European Championships will take place in Kazan. Four gymnasts per country will compete. And the Universiade will take place in Kazan. The Universiade is a very prestigious competition. Russia hasn�t won it for a long time now.
Komova: In London we didn�t visit anything. If the competitions are easy, we go and do some sight-seeing. Usually, we just go to the gym and to the hotel.
Mustafina: It�s possible to do some elements that no one has ever performed, but it�s very difficult. There are so many elements in gymnastics that you don�t have time to learn something that nobody does. There�s an element called Mustafina: it�s a bar dismount.
Rodionenko: We write to the International Federation and they give the name to this element. There�s a Komova element on bars. [She�s silent. She doesn�t say anything.]
Journalist: You said that the audience supported the Americans. We saw the judges supporting them also. Concerning Paseka�s bronze instead of silver� Do you think this is only an impression?
Rodionenko: Unfortunately, yes. Russia lost her position. To come back is very difficult. It always is. The judges get used to the Americans dominating the scene. This is why we always tell our gymnasts that we have to be far better. For instance, Mustafina won gold on bars. If there had been the smallest possibility of deduction, she wouldn�t have achieved gold. And she knew it. We got used to what the judges do.
Journalist: Balandin performed very well on rings.
Rodionenko: I know, there was a very difficult situation with Balandin. The Technical Committee�s president � Adrian Stoica- said that his score should have been 0.3 higher, but now the supervisors and the members of the Technical Committee are split, they cannot change anything. Other sports disciplines have democratic rules. With 0.3 more, he would have won gold. There was nothing to deduct. His D score was lower than the gymnast who won, but the winner had a far worse execution. Unfortunately the judges didn�t see it. Or they saw it. The second place went to an Italian. But the President of the FIG is Italian - Bruno Grandi. We don�t have the right to protest the execution score and we don�t have the right to protest another�s gymnast score.
Journalist: Rules change from time to time. Could we go back to a situation where a judge would be responsible for his or her score?
Rodionenko: There will be FIG elections in November. If Titov is elected, I think that he�ll change some rules. Currently, in event finals we can�t find judges from the countries of competing gymnasts. The best countries are represented in the finals. The judges at the finals are from Qatar, countries where gymnastics doesn�t exist. They give the score that another judge gives. We all know that. We can only be much better than our rivals. When we are the leaders, this won�t happen to us. This is the rule in rhythmic gymnastics, ice skating.
In Mallorca the gymnasts will recover with sea water, light exercise. They don�t need apparatus. The girls may tell you. They have already been there.
In Russia, much noise is being made by Valentina Rodionenko. As usual, she seems oblivious to the impression her less than measured comments make on international observers - and her gymnasts. Lupita has made a partial translation of a press conference transmitted earlier this week. I should add that Mustafina and Komova handle themselves wonderfully.
I have yet to see evidence of any competition for the Rodionenko's family job at the head of Russian gymnastics and with Valentina fronting the operation, there seems little prospect of a change in PR policy.
Rodionenko and Mustafina: The best gyms are CSKA and Dynamo.
Komova: in London we made mistakes and we even feared we wouldn�t be medallists. When we saw the results, we cried with joy.
Mustafina: we thought that the men hadn�t competed very well and so we had to perform well for them.
Rodionenko: I want to add something. The gap to the Romanians and Chinese teams was huge. The result was painful because we saw that the girls could have fought for gold. In spite of their mistakes, our girls were stronger than the Romanians and the Italians (?).
Journalist: Specialists think that at these Olympics psychology played an important part.
Rodionenko: I don�t think so. The Olympics is the main competition. Everybody waits for four years. And there�s the pressure of the audience. They supported the Americans as loudly as the British girls.
It�s not about psychology. Here there was Anastasia Grishina�s lack of experience. She told us later that she had problems. Aliya is an experienced gymnast. She�s a fighter. When you are in the position of the runner-up, it�s always difficult.
Journalist: Girls, tell me about your Olympic dreams.
Mustafina: I didn�t have any.
Komova. During the competition I dreamed we had won gold and we were all happy.
Journalist: Rhythmic gymnasts have been given freedom [by their coach Irina Viner] after the Olympics. Did you receive freedom after the competition?
Komova: we only had time to go to Bosco�s, we danced. I�m now in Moscow and I haven�t had time to rest.
In Singapore [when Vika competed at the Youth Olympic Games in 2010] it was easier because the gymnasts were less experienced. There were fewer people, less noise. I competed alone. Now we competed as a team. There was more responsibility and more support.
Rodionenko (about the composition of routines): The composition of routines abides by the FIG rules. There will be a new Code of Points for the new quad. The CoP changes every four years. We expect that gymnastic elements will deserve more attention. Floor is not only about acrobatics. We need a good combination of acrobatics and gymnastic elements. Vika has such combinations. You noticed that the American and Romanian gymnast perform acrobatics only. This is why there�s a struggle. We have our position. For the Americans it�s more difficult to reach our execution level. We fight for this. The judges started to pay more attention, but not all of them.
Komova: I think the rivals will be those that competed at the Olympics.
Rodionenko: Other gymnasts may appear. From Italy. But the main rivals are China, the Romanians have problems.
Journalist: Vika, Aliya, do you have the impression that you are able to stand pain more than the American gymnasts? They didn�t have the injuries that you had. Who is stronger?
Vika: we can compete with them psychologically.
Mustafina: In fact, we don�t know everything about them. We see how they perform, they see how they perform.
Rodionenko: I would like to add that if the Americans knew the injuries our girls had, they would highly praise them for their will. The gymnasts who performed had all injuries, pain.
Journalist: Before the program, you said that the Americans are very confident. Specialists say they are on tranquilizers.
Rodionenko: It�s difficult to say.
Now we�ll analyze the preparation of our first team because we�ve realized things that we didn�t pay attention to in the past.
Journalist: For instance?
Rodionenko: Functionally the Americans were far better prepared than our girls. We couldn�t do it because our girls were all injured. Professor Arkhipov was with them. He�s the best orthopaedic specialist in Russia. He was all the time with our team. He knew what injuries they had. Now they have to heal their injuries. Now they�ll go to Spain to a recovery training camp, we cannot overload them as they do in the US. They wouldn�t stand it. This is why they are so strong, so healthy, except for Douglas.
Journalist: like robots�
Rodionenko: I may not be objective. But their gymnastics are not beautiful. We are for classical, beautiful gymnastics, they are for athletic gymnastics. It�s called artistic gymnastics. It has to be artistic. This is our position. If one of our gymnasts became floor world champion last year, it means something.
Mustafina: My future plans are to continue training. To rest and then�
Rodionenko: There�s a competition in Frankfurt.
Vika: we�ll rest until 3 September.
Rodionenko: They�ll go to a training camp in Spain. I think that until the end of the year they won�t be given huge training loads. Now you have to do a step back. But if they want they can compete in Germany, there will be a World Cup stage. I would like to tell journalists that the Individual European Championships will take place in Kazan. Four gymnasts per country will compete. And the Universiade will take place in Kazan. The Universiade is a very prestigious competition. Russia hasn�t won it for a long time now.
Komova: In London we didn�t visit anything. If the competitions are easy, we go and do some sight-seeing. Usually, we just go to the gym and to the hotel.
Mustafina: It�s possible to do some elements that no one has ever performed, but it�s very difficult. There are so many elements in gymnastics that you don�t have time to learn something that nobody does. There�s an element called Mustafina: it�s a bar dismount.
Rodionenko: We write to the International Federation and they give the name to this element. There�s a Komova element on bars. [She�s silent. She doesn�t say anything.]
Journalist: You said that the audience supported the Americans. We saw the judges supporting them also. Concerning Paseka�s bronze instead of silver� Do you think this is only an impression?
Rodionenko: Unfortunately, yes. Russia lost her position. To come back is very difficult. It always is. The judges get used to the Americans dominating the scene. This is why we always tell our gymnasts that we have to be far better. For instance, Mustafina won gold on bars. If there had been the smallest possibility of deduction, she wouldn�t have achieved gold. And she knew it. We got used to what the judges do.
Journalist: Balandin performed very well on rings.
Rodionenko: I know, there was a very difficult situation with Balandin. The Technical Committee�s president � Adrian Stoica- said that his score should have been 0.3 higher, but now the supervisors and the members of the Technical Committee are split, they cannot change anything. Other sports disciplines have democratic rules. With 0.3 more, he would have won gold. There was nothing to deduct. His D score was lower than the gymnast who won, but the winner had a far worse execution. Unfortunately the judges didn�t see it. Or they saw it. The second place went to an Italian. But the President of the FIG is Italian - Bruno Grandi. We don�t have the right to protest the execution score and we don�t have the right to protest another�s gymnast score.
Journalist: Rules change from time to time. Could we go back to a situation where a judge would be responsible for his or her score?
Rodionenko: There will be FIG elections in November. If Titov is elected, I think that he�ll change some rules. Currently, in event finals we can�t find judges from the countries of competing gymnasts. The best countries are represented in the finals. The judges at the finals are from Qatar, countries where gymnastics doesn�t exist. They give the score that another judge gives. We all know that. We can only be much better than our rivals. When we are the leaders, this won�t happen to us. This is the rule in rhythmic gymnastics, ice skating.
In Mallorca the gymnasts will recover with sea water, light exercise. They don�t need apparatus. The girls may tell you. They have already been there.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Russian TV interview with Aliya Mustafina and Alexander Alexandrov
Here it is, Queensblade's video complete with English language captions. Thanks to Lupita for the link.
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Sovietski Sport interview with gold medallist Aliya Mustafina - Lupita translates
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| Olympic bars champion Aliya Mustafina. Courtesy of the RGF |
It�s so wonderful that it seems unbelievable! Aliya Mustafina, who came back to gymnastics after a serious injury, became Olympics bars champion yesterday in London. For 12 years we haven�t had a bars Olympics champion! The last time, it was Svetlana Khorkina in Sydney.
But it�s not the first time that Mustafina makes history.
by Inessa Rasskazova, Sovietski Sport
She is very silent, introverted; sometimes you don�t get two words from her. She has a strong character; she is incredibly talented... and absolutely unpredictable.
Before the Olympics, national coach Valentina Rodionenko told us:
- I expect anything from Mustafina. With her you never know what to expect. This year, after her injury in Berlin, everything has been difficult for her. She cried at every training session. Aliya was doing beam. She fell. She cried. Went back to the beam. Fell and cried again. It�s difficult for her for another reason: Aliya is a talent and she�s not used to hard work. Everything was easy for her. ?nd now she has to work hard. Yet, I have big hopes for her in London. Aliya is able to concentrate in the important moment. The pressure of the audience, the judges, the rivals don�t exist for her when she competes. She concentrates and performs so well you have to take hats off to her!
Yesterday, in London at the Greenwich Arena, Aliya Mustafina expressed all her genuine beauty. Unfortunately, Viktoria Komova was not able to stand up to her level. She cried so much that she was not able to explain her mistakes, apart from a not so good dismount. She added that she doesn�t know if she will stay in gymnastics. The two silver medals that she has won in London are not a success for the most talented and polished gymnast in the world.
We feel sad for Vika, but we had to wait for Aliya�s performance. Mustafina competed after the most dangerous rivals, including British gymnast Elizabeth Tweddle, considered as the favourite. But Tweddle, after having surprised the audience with incredible elements, didn�t land well.
When Mustafina went to the podium with a steel light in her eyes, the name of the Chinese gymnast � He Kexin � was flashed on the first line of the board. She was first with a high score: 15.933.
Yet we know how Mustafina is able to perform bars. Here, in London, during the AA final, dozens of spectators shouted with astonishment.
She had to do only what she is able to do.
-Aliya, when the British gymnast didn�t nail her dismount, what did you think?
I had never seen such a smile on Mustafina�s face.
- Celebrating too early is not good, and I didn�t celebrate her mistake. I only thought that, if my rivals had committed errors, it would be easier for me. I couldn�t make errors.
She didn�t make any mistake. Nowhere. And she nailed her dismount!
- You are unpredictable for your coaches and � for yourself as well? Do you know what to expect of yourself and when?
- (Laughs) No!
Mustafina : 'I'm not tired of victories'
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| Mustafina after winning the bronze medal on floor last Tuesday |
Lupita translates a Russian press interview with Aliya Mustafina:
After having won the bronze medal in floor, something that she hadn�t expected, Aliya Mustafina became the most titled gymnast of the Russian team at the Olympics!
- ?liya did you know that?
- I did, and I am very pleased. You know, I never chase medals, but if I win one, I feel like winning more and more...
- But today did you guess that something like that could happen?
- Neither I nor my coach bet on floor. We only wanted to finish the Olympics on a beautiful note.
- After your victory on bars, you said that the most difficult thing had been to overcome fatigue. If on that day fatigue was already threatening you, it could have �killed� you in the floor finals.
- ?his is what happened. My feet sank on the floor. But I made myself concentrate!
- I suppose it was difficult to express emotions if your feet were sinking on the floor.
�- I don�t agree with you. Precisely, I was very pleased with my performance emotionally speaking. I lived those moments with delight.
- You didn�t watch the Olympic champion Isbaza�s performance. She was the one who could leave you without a medal!
- I didn�t watch her. What for? I had done everything I could. If I had finished in fourth place, I wouldn�t have been at all disappointed.
- In London the same thing happened twice to you. With the same score, the medal went to you. This happened in the All Around, and now the Italian Ferrari is in absolute hysterics...
- In those situations the judges take into account the execution score. Mine was higher than Ferrari�s.
- Rumour has it that you are going to quit after the Olympics. Is it true?
- Who�s said that? On the contrary, I want to continue. I won�t say anything about the Rio Olympics, we�ll see because that�s long�term guessing. In general, I would like to go to Rio. And I would like to compete and win during the next years, I�m not tired of victories. I think that all this is just starting for me. So I�m very serious about it!
Interview with vault bronze medallist Maria Paseka
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| Maria smiles as she learns she has won a well deserved bronze medal. (Left) silver medallist Maroney reflects. RGF |
Lupita translates a short interview with Olympic bronze medalist on the vault, Maria Paseka
The judges at the vault Olympic final could have given McKayla Maroney a lower score and not the silver medal, said to Ru-Sport bronze medallist Maria Paseka.
In this event the Olympic champion was the Romanian Sandra Isbasa, who, after two vaults, got a score of 15,191. The silver medal went to Maroney (15.083) and the bronze to Paseka (15.050).
"I expected to be one of the medallists because I tried very hard. At the beginning, independently of Maroney�s fall I thought I would win bronze. Later, when I watched the video, I thought I could have been second. But the judges decide everything. Nobody wins crashing his or her vault, and even less a medal", told Paseka in an interview organized in the framework of the BTV project at The Bosco Club.
Paseka won an individual bronze and the silver medal in the team final.
"I could have performed my vault better in the final. Nastia Grishina and Ksiusha Afanassieva made mistakes. We didn�t perform very well on vault and floor. Without those mistakes, we could have won gold", said Paseka.
The gymnast added that, according to their calculations, with an ideal performance in the team final, they could have lost one point to the Americans. �It�s a pity that we didn�t win gold, but I think that silver at the Olympics tells something. Although we want gold, we always want to be first. It means that we have to work to be first because nothing is easy�.
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| Aliya Mustafina in Tuesday's floor final. Courtesy RGF |
My friend Dr Vladimir Zaglada has composed this tribute to champion Aliya Mustafina, the most decorated female gymnast at this Olympic Games.
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