highlights from Russian Gymnastics Championships

UPDATE:

Andy Thornton has posted some detailed analysis on the future of the team, as well, on American Gymnast:

Alexander Alexandrov was the head coach for the teams that many would consider to be the most dominant in women’s gymnastics history – the 1989 and 1991 world championship and 1992 Olympic gold medal teams from the Soviet Union. He coached gymnasts like Svetlana Boguinskaya, Natalia Laschenova, Tatiana Lysenko, Tatiana Gutsu, and even recently retired Oksana Chusovitina back when they set a standard for the sport that some would argue has never been reached again. That era is exactly the period of gymnastics many of us think of when we refer to the “good ole’ days,” when the sport centered around beauty, innovation, and originality – and the gymnasts were actually rewarded for it. …

This week’s Russian Cup forecasts a bright future for the Russian women…

Four young Russian stars destined to be world all-around contenders…

==== original post:

Blythe on her new Gymnastics Examiner blog posted some commentary and highlight routines.

Click PLAY or watch Ekaterina Kurbatova on Bars. (Tkachev > Pak > Khorkina II directly connected.)

click through for more – A few thoughts on the Russian Cup