Right now the Russian women’s gymnastics team are favourites to win Team Gold at the 2012 Olympics.
China, USA and now Romania are trying to find a strategy to challenge. With the return of Anamaria Tamarjan, Romania now has 17 gymnasts in their Olympic training squad.
The excellent new Russian gymnastics blog, out of the UK, summarizes (based on an extensive review of recent media reports) the many challenges remaining now that Russia is again the Russia of old:
If revolutions can only be acknowledged and recognized with hindsight, we are still too early to celebrate the Russian women’s team and all around victory at the Rotterdam World Championships 2010 as such. In many ways, Russian gymnastics is only beginning to turn a corner and to build the foundations for future more solid and consistent victories. …
The Russians’ current success has largely been forged at the hands of Soviet veteran coaches such as Andrei Rodienenko, Alexander Alexandrov and Oleg Ostapenko. Few ‘new faces’ exist in the Russian gymnastics coaching world, and this is clearly a worry. Both Rodienenko and Alexandrov emphasize the sorry state of Russian gymnastics at grass roots level and Rodienenko highlights the problems for mature gymnasts in pursuing their sporting/professional careers once their competitive lives are over.
The mass base of sports that existed during the Soviet era has been eroded, with few professionals available to select and coach young potential thanks to lack of pay. …
Sport in general has become globalized and gymnastics is in no way immune to the effects. Discussions of Dina Kamalova’s apparently sudden exodus to the USA make it clear that this was a significant threat to young Aliya Mustafina’s career in the sport. The intervention of CSKA chief Galina Stepanova and Russian team coach Alexander Alexandrov ensured that Russia did not lose this brilliant, unique gymnast. Kamalova migrated to Valeri Liukin’s empire in Texas to train none other than Mustafina’s main rival for the recent world championships title, Rebecca Bross. …
click through for more – Russian gymnastics – risk, originality, virtuosity – The New Russian Revolution – the way forward. A brief media directory
Click PLAY or watch Mustafina win Beam at the Freddy Cup, changing her routine from Rotterdam.
… She added a full turn to the right immediately after her double turn to the left; a switch-half, back tuck combination, and a new side aerial to one foot (bringing her held leg all the way up) after her front aerial, Onodi. …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFIxnKz96jw
Viktoria Komova won Bars. Read the Freddy IG report.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 