- How is Aliya Mustafina’s recovery progressing?
Aliya Mustafina will not recover in time for world championships. We do not
want to risk hurting her. If her injury comes back, or something else happens,
we might not see her at the Olympics in London. But we will be fighting for
medals anyway, since we have good replacements with the other girls. Both
Viktoriya Komova, the three-time 2010 Youth Olympic Champion, and Anna
Dementyeva, the European Champion, can fight for gold medals.
— Which other girls are you counting on?
Kseniya Afanasyeva and Yuliya Byelokobylskaya. This year, girls born in 1995
will be competing on the podium for the first time and I think the youth have
even better prospects.
— Do you think we are strong enough to repeat the success of last year’s world
championships in Rotterdam?
Yes, we will fight for gold this time, too, and I think we are strong enough
to win it.
— How is preparation in the national team progressing?
We have training camps all year around at the state training facility Round
Lake. Sometimes we travel away, for example we held the Russian Cup in
Yekaterinburg. On 15 September in Penza, the Sixth Memorial in rhythmic group exercises in
honour of Yanina Zatuliveter will be held.
— Are meets in Russia helpful in the preparation process?
These competitions give the athletes experience like no others. There is a
certain level of adrenalin there. Of course, they are not meets of the highest
level, but they give results. And competition within the Russian team is
growing. The younger guys are pulling up and we see gymnasts like Maksim
Devyatovskiy not making the team.
— Is the construction of buildings under the Federal plan to develop physical
culture and sport from 2006 to 2015 helping to build our artistic gymnastics
teams?
Yes, of course it is. There are more gyms now and they are very well equipped.
We have no problem in that area at all, things have changed significantly for
the better over recent years. But we still do not have enough high-quality
specialists. If you recall the Soviet era, our coaches coached future
champions in small gyms. And now, given that facilities are constantly
improving, we could achieve the very best results possible if we had the
qualified specialists. There is hope that things will get better in that area
soon.

So Rodionenko thinks that the Russians can win the gold again this year (but knows that it will be a fight). Do you think that Russia can win gold without Mustafina and with  Ksenia Afanasyeva, Yulia Belokobylskaya, Anna Dementyeva, Yulia Inshina, Victoria Komova, Tatiana Nabieva, Maria Paseka and Alena Polyan as their team?

First off, Full Twist must apologise for the lack of fluid and regular updates over the last 2 weeks, as explained we are on vacation and should be home by now but Hurricane Irene has changed our plans… there’s a lot of worse places to be stranded than in America! Although limited internet access does not sit well with Full Twist!

Romanian Gymnastics

The Romanian Nationals took place this week. Ana Porgras grabbed her third title in a row, winning the AA title. She was closely followed by Amelia Racea and Raluca Haidu in second and third. Catalina Ponor returned to competition and finished first on vault, second on beam and third on floor. Sandra Izbasa, Diana Chelaru and Larisa Iordache did not compete due to injury. Amelia Racea has the highest score over the competition on bars, watch here or below

Catalina Ponor looks fantastic, really really great. Both Ponor and Porgras should kill on beam at Worlds for Romania!

Between The Olympics has a full list of all results and links to videos from Nationals or more information on all of the Romanian Gymnastics news, Gymnastics No Ceiling has a great synopsis here.

German Gymnastics

The German Worlds Teams were announced this last weekend. Big names such as Elizabeth Seitz, Kim Bui and Olympic veteran Oksana Chusovitina will feature on the women’s team with Philip Boy, Fabian Hambuchen and Marcel Nguyen. Going For Gold has the full low down here and points out that it’s only 39 days to Tokyo!!

The German Nationals took place to decide this, of course Philip Boy and Elizabeth Seitz came out on top winning the AA titles, with Seitz debuting a full twisting shaposhnikova (some may call it a full twisting maroney). Five time Olympian and veteran gymnast Oksana Chusovitina won the vault title and silver on beam. Kim Bui won the silver medal in the AA and a bronze on floor. She finished fourth in the bars, beam and vault finals. New senior  gymnast Nadine Jarosch won silver on floor and bronze on vault, beam and AA. Phillip Boy won gold on floor and pommel, silver on high bar and 5th on p bars. Newly returned from injury Fabian Hambuchen won gold on high bar and bronze on rings.

International Gymnast has the full details here. GymNiceTic also wrote a post for The Couch Gymnast on the German Nationals here.

Chinese Gymnastics

On August 27th, the Chinese WAG national team held an internal test competition. 14 national team members participated, and all competed in 4 apparatus except He Kexin who passed on beam. John from the Chinese Gymnastics blog has details on this. New seniors Yao Jinnan and Tan Sixin have continued to do well, finishing first and second AA respectively. Huang Qiushuang, He Kexin, Jiang Yuyan and Wu Liufang also competed.

Canadian Gymnastics

Announces it’s team for Worlds:

Dominique Pegg
Talia Chiarelli
Kristina Vaculik
Peng Peng Lee
Mikaela Gerber
Coralie Leblond-Chartrand
Madeline Gardner

via Going For Gold

Other interesting tidbits:

• Spain beats France in a dual meet in Madrid
• GymNiceTic has been doing some great comparisons between Russia and the USA ahead of worlds. Vault , Floor, Beam, Bars.
• Elizabeth has information on the Russian Worlds training squad.
• Gymnastics No Ceiling has all of the information regarding the Russian Nationals here.

Special thanks to the Komov family for the new update! Vika is likely going to be competing at the Russian Cup taking place next month in Ekaterinburg. If all goes well at the Russian Cup, she will be scheduled to compete at another competition taking place in Belgium (I don’t know the name of the event.)

Sounds good but some might fear that this is too soon for Komova since we’re getting so close to Worlds in October.What do you think? Leave a comment below.

This news is also available on Komova’s Official website.

Another article titled “The rebirth of Russian gymnastics” has appeared this week of the Russians training in Spain. The spanish article translates as the following in Google;

During recent decades the Russian gymnastics was a big mystery. It was known that a hundred kilometers from Moscow, near the lake, stood a gray and mammoth sports complex where they lived the best gymnasts, isolated, unrelated to the disappearance of the Soviet Union, first as the difficult transition to democracy later. Or not so isolated, because the advancing pace of reforms and money was scarce, the discipline lost its magic and the Russian team, great ruler of the world scene since the 50′s, it fell from the pedestal.

From Barcelona 92, when he won his last major team title in the strange flag of the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States), Russia, Great Russia, became accustomed to a new role, that of second place. Until last year. A handful of teenagers, some girls almost regained the pride of the Soviet gymnastics becoming the best team in the world, and now look optimistically, one year ahead, the London Games to Olympic glory with the emparentaría Turisheva mythical, Korbut, Davidova, Shushunova …

Much of this new group, led by world champion, the unflappable and somewhat disturbing Aliya Mustafina has changed for a couple of weeks forests landlocked Moscow and the usual sunny, humid, almost suffocating in this July, Palma de Mallorca.Teenagers are a dozen tiny, except Nabieva Mustafina all seem genuine and girls, and 21 technicians, including coaches, doctors, physios , a choreographer … (Men’s team is also here, but that’s another story).

“This is not a concentration as hard as we usually do,” says Alexander Alexandrov, a true legend of the gym, head of the last Soviet team, more than a decade in exile in Texas (USA) and recovered as a coach for the cause the rebirth of Russian gymnastics.Hard to believe because in three hours longer than the duration of the session, gymnasts do not stop for a moment, at one time or another, all release a crybaby. They are more whining or angry reaction to a setback than anything else, but do not seem very happy with their work. ”Because the atmosphere is very different here,” the coach explained later, in a fun and funny English, “for them is very difficult to work in this heat. It’s normal.”

The atmosphere is that of work, but no shouting or bad manners, discipline and smells.Each gymnast knows what to do and does not change device until it meets the objectives. Some, like the sweet Belokobylskaya at the bar, stalls and delays the departure time.

But now a little after 10 am, the hall of the Center for Modernization of Palma is an oven and the gymnasts work in small groups on all devices. Earlier, at seven, have an hour of physical training on the beach and have breakfast at the hotel. ”The main difference with us is the workload,” says Pedro Mir, the host, and largely responsible for the rise in the gym on the island.

Most striking however is Mustafina see in action. The champion broke the cruciate ligament in his left knee in the first year of the Europeans in April. He had surgery in Germany and even protects the joint with a cumbersome protection, and a few exercises in parts. The rhythm of the soil. Mills in parallel. Tuning.

The coach does not have it for the World October in Tokyo: “We’ll see how it is after the summer. If she is well, maybe. But the Games are first injury because it is very difficult.” He does not know even if we Viktoria Komova – “maybe I can make any device” – a prodigy of 16 years undefeated as a junior, the young woman who has created more excitement in recent years. An ankle heavily bandaged today, forced also to undergo surgery before debuting in the top flight.

Closely Komova is even thinner and does not seem to resent the injury, it has already recovered twice as iron in soil, but the most complaints. Neither the music of her floor exercise makes her smile. There is also the European champion, Anna Dementyeva, exercise improved.

“We trained hard but not vacation. The main difference is that we only do one session a day and evening is free. Girls can go shopping, the beach or just relax,” sums Alexandrov. All are dark, and that theirs must be the beach.

The article is accompanied by a photograph of Viktoria Komova training. Marocanu who linked to this article on the International Gymnast forum also includes more photographs from a Russian article. There are also photos of the Russian men further down in the thread.

ONE COACH’S JOURNEY FROM EAST TO WEST: HOW THE FALL OF THE IRON CURTAIN CHANGED THE WORLD OF GYMNASTICS

Until the fall of the Soviet Union the West and the Communists were engaged not only in a heated arms race but a race for Olympic gold, and Moscow poured tremendous resources into the effort, attracting some of the country’s greatest minds. Author Vladimir Zaglada provides a look inside some of the Soviet Union’s gymnastics “think tanks,” such as the Moscow’s Lenin Institute. One Coach’s Journey from East to West also introduces us to some of the brilliant and colorful figures that have advanced the art of gymnastics and examines how the flood of coaching talent into the West has shifted the “balance of power.” The force of this “flood” has been somewhat impeded by cultural and language barriers, which are also discussed in the book. “Hot topics” such as the relentless increase in the difficulty level of artistic gymnastics are also discussed and a number of technical issues are covered, complete with illustrations. Zaglada provides a rare look inside the world of Soviet gymnastics at its height and provides information never before published in English.

Did the machinery that cranked out Soviet gymnastics champions allow for a happy childhood? Why has the balance of power in gymnastics shifted in America’s favor – but will Russia retake the throne? The rigid line between “amateurs” (who are true professionals in almost all senses of the word) and professionals – is the “amateur” in “amateur gymnastics sacred? Is there an ideal physique for women’s gymnastics? How much of current American coaching practice can be traced back to Soviet sports institutes? Ever heard of the “profile system”? What is the difference between an Arabian, an Onodi, and a Mostepanova? Why a few basic terms are constant sources of confusion. How effective was the system of incentives for Soviet gymnasts and coaches? How did the nomenklatura system of privileges and patronage impact Soviet gymnastics?

You can follow Coach Zaglada on Twitter or visit his website.

Tuesday August 16th

12pm – 2pm – WAG Training

3.30pm – 6pm – MAG Training

Wednesday August 17th

2pm – 4.30pm WAG Qualification

5.30pm – 8pm MAG Qualification

Thursday August 18th

5pm – 7pm WAG All Around Final

Friday August 19th

5pm – 7pm MAG All Around Final

Saturday 20th August

4pm – 7pm MAG (Pommel, Rings, Floor) & WAG (Bars & Vault) Apparatus Finals

Sunday 21st August

2pm – 5pm MAG (Vault, High Bar, Parallel Bars) &  & WAG (Beam & Floor) Apparatus Finals

View the preview below

Whilst Komova is training for the 2011 World Championships in October, she is only performing light training since back in Russia. It is hoped that she will be able to compete on at least some apparatus in Tokyo. Presumably vault and floor are debatable.

Mustafina has not been granted permission to train just yet, it has been recommended by her Doctors in Germany that she continues her rehabilitation exercises. She may do some light limited training (no jumping), mainly upper body conditioning and not putting any weight on her leg.

Alan explains how both gymnasts will obviously not be taking part in next months Russian Nationals. The event will help to determine who will make the Worlds team in October. The video in this article shows the Russian girls in Mallorca on their two week break and shows Mustafina working on beam.

Thanks Alan for keeping us updated as always. The question is, if Komova cannot compete at Worlds, who will we see on the Russian team and where could they place? Can they still place on the podium?Leave a comment below with your opinions. 

Read more Aliya Mustafina website and Viktoria Komova website.

Withdrawing from Youth Olympic Festival

Unfortunately, Anastasia Sidorova had to withdraw from the European Youth Olympic Festival because her wrist in still in plaster and she never had an opportunity to return to full training

We haven’t seen Sidorova compete since the Russian Junior Championships in April this year, where she won 4 gold medals and 1 silver. She previously had a shoulder injury which kept her out of the 2011 Stella Zakharova Competition. A pity and we will not see the anticipated head to head between Grishina and Iordache, as of Wednesday Grishina is not listed as competing either.

Photo via Gymnet.org

Viktoria Komova

Is said to be returning to full training in 2 weeks time since surgery on her ankle some months ago. Apparently Komova has had 2 surgeries on her ankle and described how her injuries occurred:

Komova said that the recovery process after the first injury lasted about six weeks, but after the second injury, she could not train for two months. “I was performing a skill and took a step back and twisted my leg — that’s how I got this injury. I got the first injury jumping off bars and the second one on floor exercise. It knocked my ankle out of place. I was taped, but it didn’t save me…And I started all over. But I don’t regret competing then. I wanted to test things…I wanted it and my coach wanted it and it looks like we we just went too fast”, she said.

Apparently Komova has also grown a little bit since being injured, she has grown an extra 11 centimeters in the last 18 months but doesn’t feel that it has affected her training.

Aliya Mustafina

World Champion Mustafina discusses her injury and we learn a little about her.In April  Mustafina underwent surgery on her ACL tear that she suffered at the European Championships, she is now in the recovery phase, she ha snow stopped limping and is carefully following the Doctor’s orders. Despite being out injured, she would still really like to compete in the World Championships in October, even if it was just to be 2 pieces, presumably bars and beam;

“Of course I’d like to return; I want to compete at world championships. There is a chance I can go and compete on two events, but we still don’t know how my leg will be and how quickly I can bring back my routines. But the most important thing for me is the Olympic Games. Even if I don’t go to Japan, that won’t be all that terrible. The main competition will be in London next summer. But if I can go [to worlds], then why not”, she told R-Sport.

However, coach Valentina Rodonenko said that her next competition will be the Voronin Cup in December.

Tatiana Nabieva, Anna Dementyeva and Anastasiya Grishina

Tatiana Nabieva was set to compete in the Moscow World cup but withdrew to injury. Rumors of a back problem circulated online and were eventually confirmed, however it was not said to be as serious an injury compared to Mustafina and Komova;

“Tanya Nabiyeva is not have an injury that would require an operation. Her back has been bothering her for a long time and she has some problems with her upper leg. We are giving her less of a load now, but loading will grow as the competition approaches”

BORIS HORVAT/AFP/Getty Images

Coach Aleksandr Aleksandrov seems to have been plesantly surprised by Dementyeva’s win at Europeans in April, however no comment was made on how she would hold up on the world stage. The Russians have worked on upgrading her routines since Europeans;

“Let’s wait and see. I did not know she could win Europeans. And she got on beam and got the highest score right off and was a point ahead of everyone on one event. She needs to improve her vault and if she does then she can be competitive. She has a good beam routine, even though you can always fall on beam, but for the all-around she has a very high difficulty score. And we are still trying to add difficulty to her programme”, Aleksandrov said.

Grishina will be too young to compete at Worlds in October but will be eligible for London 2012. Aleksandrov compared her to other gymnasts on the world stage, stating that she is very talented.

Konstantin Pluzhnikov

The Russian men’s national gymnastics team member feels that he is not ready to compete all around. Whilst he has increased his difficulty on the rings since winning gold at the European Championships in April, Pluzhnikov feels he should be ok to make the Russian team for Worlds.

“Everyone is trying to do all-around now; without that, you won’t get chosen for worlds or the Olympic Games. There is just no other way to get on the team. But don’t I think I am actually ready to compete in the all-around. Anything is possible, of course, but I have a hard time imagining that I will compete all-around at worlds”, Pluzhnikov said.

He stressed that his main events are rings and parallel bars. “I have a new skill on bars and I’m not quite used to it yet. The other events are average, but with my rings, I think doing all-around would be okay. What I do should be enough (to make the team). If all goes smoothly and on schedule, then everything will be fine”, he said.

On London 2012 and Worlds Championships 2011

Russian National Team Coach Aleksandr Aleksandrov told R-Sport that the number of medals won at Worlds will not play as significant a role as the fight for the right to compete at the Olympic Games in 2012. All teams know that they must place within the top 8 at Worlds in order to qualify for the London 2012 Games.

“If we miss out on a couple of medals or don’t finish in the sports we would like to take but everyone is healthy, then that won’t be so bad. Since we are in the situation we are in, the main objective will be to compete as well as possible and earn our ticket to the Olympics”

MAG gymnast Sergey Khorokhordin told R Sport that Russia are likely to do well at World this year but doesn’t comment on his own chances of going to Worlds;

“I missed Europeans with an injury and did not compete at Russian nationals. For the first six months of the year, I was essentially lost. The guys who went to Berlin (at the European Championships) were more worthy of it than I was at the time and I went home to nurse injuries. As far as my own chances are concerned, I’m not the kind of guy who talks ahead of time. The main thing is to be healthy. At any celebration the first toast is almost always for health. For athletes health is even more important. If I am healthy, the team will need me; that’s what I think about it”, Khorokhordin said.

The gymnast admitted that long workouts in the hot summer were hard. “This year means going to the Olympics, so they let us know there would be no rest. In a few days we are going to Spain for training camp. These kind of camps used to be for recovery, but now they are for preparation. Sure, the sun and the beach are there, but we will be working 90 percent of the time in the gym. A lot of people are saying a lot about our chances at the Olympics, but you have to earn the trip there first”, Khorokhordin stressed

The translation from Russian to English by Google is the following:

Should establish itself as Nabiyev, which has earned the right to speak at the World Cup, but she also injured. Not as serious as Alia Mustafina, but we decided to keep her.

The idea of an injured Nabieva has been discussed on the International Gymnast forum with Amanda Turner reporting that Nabieva is dealing with some personal issues and is not injured.

Nabiyeva is still in St. Petersburg (I believe she went home after Europeans as scheduled and was training there). She does have some issues going on but no doubt the Russians will take measures to turn her situation around. They can’t afford to lose her this year!

So… what IS the deal with Nabieva??

Rewriting Russian Gymnastics has just linked to a brief interview with Russian Coach Valentina Rodionenko. He confirms that Viktoria Komova will indeed miss the European Championships next month in Berlin, as suspected by some bloggers. What a pity, better her protect herself that cut her career short.

International Gymnast has also posted about Komova and named the Russian team who will compete at Euro’s – Aliya Mustafina, Tatiana Nabiyeva, Anna Dementyeva and Yulia Belokobylskaya. The Men’s team is compiled of Anton Golotsutskov, Maxim Devyatovsky, Nikita Ignatyev, Alexander Balandin, Emin Garibov and Denis Ablyazin.

Photo Via Mark Dadswell / Getty Images

Whilst the funding seems to be more geared towards Sochi 2014 (Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games 2014) rather than London 2012, I’m sure that the  Russian gymnastics teams will benefit from it somehow.  It’s fantastic for Russia, if only all countries could have an increase in funding! The Gymnastics Association of the Philippines have asked for a budget allowance of PHP 50 million. The Philipines “has not had a respectable performance in many years”. No harm in trying!

Read more about Russias spending on sports here.

The WAG Russian National Senior Team has been announced. Information is available on the  Gymnastics Federation of Russia’s website too – if you can understand it.  As posted on the Tatiana Nabieva and Viktoria Komova Facebook pages:

Senior national team:

Ksenia Afanasyeva

Yulia Belokobylskaya

Anna Dementyeva

Yulia Inshina

Viktoria Komova

Ekaterina Kurbatova

Violetta Malikova

Ramilia Musina

Aliya Mustafina

Anna Myzdrikova

Tatiana Nabieva

Maria Paseka

Diana Sapronova

Ksenia Semenova

Reserve Gymnasts:

Anastasia Grishina

Maria Dunaeva

Kristina Kruglikova

Irina Sazonova

Anastasia Sidorova

Tatiana Solovyova

Maria Stepanova

Click through to the links to the gymnasts websites!

Tatiana explains the reason for her upset after her performance on bars during the Voronin Cup, discusses that she has problems with her back, how it felt to beat Chuso at the Voronin Cup and the difference in personality between herself and Mustafina. Best of luck to Nabieva for 2011, she obviously knows she has a bit of work to do if Russia are to beat China, USA and Romania.