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Artistic Gymnastics - The Tokyo 2020 generation.

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Wishing good luck tomorrow to the Bulgarians with my two favourite exercises from them, two differente eras, two different styles, but the same spirit.

this is one of those extraordinary exercises in which you see what you hear, and you hear what you see

an everlasting masterpiece

#i love almudena's reaction

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If Russia had been banned from Rio, which almost happens, the rumour has it that Putin was going to remove the back-then Minister of Sports for her. She’s good contacts. 

She has also invested in other RG programs like Israel - she’s jewish - and Azerbaijian, so she has influencies in other federations too. 

Ok but I need someone to tell me why and how this Viner woman is so powerful. People make it sound like she bullies the fig on a regular basis and she had a part in the rg cop the being the way it is right now

idk about her and the fig but her husband is an oligarch with russian natural gas money and he's LITERALLY one of the richest humans on earth so. i think thats gotta play at least a little part in it lol

#this viner woman lol #people make it sound lmao

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I know some people had mixed feelings on the author's opinions, but the old rewriting russian gymnastics blog is a treasure trove for recapping a lot of the drama between Alexandrov and the Rodionenkos that went down after London 2012 (mostly from his side of it). It still doesn't quite capture how ugly that got though. Probably the closest AG has gotten to FS levels of drama

An old blog from here ("whatshouldgymfanscallme" I think was its name) also made a great recap of the whole mess, but, yep, I think the Alexandrov's interview came from RRG right?

FS is way more dramatic, like rivalries are in their DNA, in gymnastics the closest is RG, WAG is pretty chill. The Alexandrov's dismissal was huge because of the implications it had on the programme, that whole quad was a mess for Russia. An also because there were coaches publicly attacking him. Other examples of #gymdrama are probably Nunno vs. Karolyi - so funny but second-hand embarrassment -, or 2012 Tour with Nastia arguing with everyone. Or Galieva insinuating someone tried to kill her at 1992 Worlds! That's the most insane thing I have ever read about WAG conspiracies - but I have to clarify Galieva was melodramatic and she thought she was more important that what she actually was.

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loved the drama rundown lmaoo ty! i am officially a second grader in russian gymnastics drama! and yeah true it feels like every month something is happening in rus fs, probably a coaching change or yana and eteri arguing on instagram. its entertaining (at least when I don't want to gouge my eyes out)

I don't follow FS that much except for competitions, but sometimes I like to catch up in the middle of the season and I'm embarrassed with their fights haha. I thought Medvedeva going to Orser was huge, then Kostornaia and Trusova leave Eteri, and then they come back. Everyone fighting each other in the middle lol. Embarrasing.

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Even though it’s IMPRESSIVE a Russian didn’t win the AA for the first time since... Kabaeva failed in Sydney? Whatever, I would find more inspiring Bulgaria winning tomorrow because, in the end, Linoy is a Russian-school-derivative, and definitely Viner not coming had to have some impact on this.

Harnasko or KALEYN winning would have been INSANEEEE. But well, they were never going to get that difficulties. 

Seriously if Bulgaria wins tomorrow not only would be the first time the Bulgarian school gets an Olympic gold medal (!!!!) but it would also mean that only Daiki and Sunisa’s wins will be the ones to “respect” the late WAG-RG status quo. Watanabe came to shake things up lol. 

The possibility of BOTH Linoy and the Bulgarians winning at the same time was something I wasn’t expecting from these Games. It would be A HUGE change for the RG world, especially a big blow for the Russians and Viner personally.  

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11

on a scale of 1-10 how big a deal is this?

or rather, a better metric, is this more or less tumultuous than the simone saga?

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Oh I had kind of forget about zelikson, the drama with him and also grishi's mum

I forgot about Grishina's mom!! That even got into the Russian news. Did they ever reconcile?

Zelikson was a disgrace, although I'm sure he was basically following Rodionenko's orders, because attacking Mustafina was like attacking Alexandrov. But yes, the fact he directly blamed Alexandrov and Aliya in A PRESS CONFERENCE right after the team final LOL.

To be honest I have even thought sometimes that they made Grishina implode on purpose to blame Alexandrov. And about Nastya, the way they treated her after she moved to the Razumovkys... Disgusting, ugh.

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Who is the junior headcoach now that bulgakova has the seniors?

Technically is Grebenkin, but seems the actual coach is Aliya. I don't have very clear how the actual coaching staff is currently in Russia tbh, too many changes in so little time.

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Didn’t know that Baranova - who I think used to coach Elizarova - is now the Russian beam coach, apparently? I thought it was still Ushakova, I quite liked her.

#at least is better than bulashenko #how could she go from coaching Lysenko to that beam rotation in the 15 TF

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who is coaching Gelya now and does she trains at a local gym or only at the NT? I remember last quad with Grebs some of the NT gymnasts were training there full time and the NT coaches were their personal coaches too. Which was weird to me because of the whole Alexandrov drama. I kind of agreed with the others coaches and gymnasts at the time that the Alexandrov situation was not ideal.

Denisevich is still her personal coach as far as I know, but I think they have not left for their home gyms these last months as much as they used to because of COVID. Usually - or at least some years ago - most of the month they were at Round Lake and then a week or so they left for the local gyms - or if the travel was too long they stayed at Round Lake or went to a Moscow gym like CSKA.

Yeah, usually NT gymnasts are mostly coached by the NT coaches, you can see that in how their gymnastics change from the point they arrive to Round Lake. The perfect example is the Van Lueween trend or how everyone got the Russian bars set or similar during the Rio quad.

The Alexandrov-Mustafina was similar to Arkayev coaching basically almost every Russian of the late 90's to 00's lol. Although Arkayev did it to get more money from the state. Basically at that stage they are mostly coached only by the NT staff, but also depends in their coaches attend RL.

Alexandrov was really problematic, but he knew how to get results fast. But yes, for what I have read he was very "excentric" (lol) and that had to be a big shift from Gavrichenko I imagine. Also, that for quite some time Ostapenko were the junior head coach helped too. What a pair!

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What happened with dolly-z and aliya? Why did she leave tumblr? I remember her posts but can’t remember what went down

I think all started because Aliya didn't tell her about her wedding, which was a huge secret, and eventually they fell out. I guess she started not feeling into gymnastics as much as she did because of that? no idea, but she was really nice and her posts were very insightful about the atmosphere inside Round Lake back in those days.

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Omg do you know which German MAG Nabs was obsessed with??? Because that’s amazing and kind of relatable tbh

I think it was Matthias Fahrig? I remember reading it at STOI! a long time ago, but I don't remember exactly the name, sorry :/

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So what Russian Coach would you say its futile to stan their girls? Grebenkin? Poor baby Baturina. And whatever happened to Zubzub?

I would say Kulikova. She basically destroyed Sokova's back and Agafonova has been permanently injured except for 2019. She's the Russian Kim Zmeskal lol.

Grebenkin is a very good coach on bars though.

The truth is that the impact Russian coaches have on their gymnasts is not as much as happens in US, for example, because, unless they are part of the NT staff - like Nazarova, Ulyankina or Elfimov used to be, even Arkayev or Alexandrov, who where the head coaches -, once they arrived at Round Lake they don't work with them as much as Americans do. It's more about the basics and style.

Zubova won beam at Russian Cup! I hope she gets her shit together on BB and FX for next quad, because she could be a strong asset for Russia there for Universiade or minor teams.

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Your drama rundown is honestly gold. I started following gymnastics after rio, and there is so much I don't have a clue about!

Ans I missed so many things! This cycle has been more "relaxed" in terms of russian drama, but the quad from London to Rio was INTENSE. I will try to find posts from 2013 explaining the Alexandrov-Rodionenko feud.

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The Russian coaches' big post

I did this some years ago, I have repeated it with updates.

Only mentioning coaches that have coached multiple gymnasts in the NT through the years, therefore Russian coaches like Pilkin, Natalia Pavlova or Denisevich won't appear here. If there are some mistakes, please, tell me so I can fix them!

The Kyriashovs - Kuznetsova, Eremina, Nabieva, Saifulina

Arkayev - Produnova, Dina Kochetkova, Kovaleeva, Fabrichnova

Nazarova - Semenova, Afanasyeva, Zassypkina, Komnova

Ulyankina - Kurbatova, Paseka, Malikova, Perebinosova, Tutkhalyan, Sosnitskaya, Kuzmina

Zelikson - junior Kapitonova and Grishina (until 2013)

Gavrichenko - Shushunova, Ziganshina, young Akhaimova

Kolobova - Simakova, Gorbatova

Starkin - Kapitonova, Mustafina (from 2014 on), Perebinosova (shifted at some point last quad)

The Razumovskys - Sevchenko (the 1988 Soviet, not the one with “so little talent”), Grishina, Batyrova, Mikhailova

Fomkina- Anoshina, Isayeva, Spiridonova

Sagina - Kharenkova, junior Produnova, Kryuchkova, Sidorova

The Pravdins - Pravdina, Inshina, junior Melnikova

Grebenkin - Baturina, Elkina

The Kuznetsovs - Berger, Zubova, Myzdrikova

Volkova - Elizaveta Kochetkova, Nailya Mustafina

Kulikova - Sokova, Agafonova, Vasilieva (junior)

Kamalova - junior Mustafinas, junior Paseka, junior Alexeeva

Elfimov - Komova, Vorona

Kazakova - Belokobylskaya, Urazova

Guseva - Klimenko, Shchekoldina, Borzykh

Ivanova - Fedorova, Gerasimova, Belousova

Baydina - Kustova (junior), Kalmykova (junior)

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Oh, and how could I forget my favourite rumor: Nabs getting obsessed with a German MAG gymnast at 2010 Worlds and misperforming at finals because he wouldn’t pay attention to her and she was devastated. Our own Anna Karenina, but instead of throwing herself to a train she jumped into a vaulting table. 

lmaooo first grade of russia stan studies! lemme enroll cause im wayyy more knowledgeable on russian drama in figure skating than gymnastics

Russian gym drama is nothing in comparison with FS russian drama, so there is nothing much to say xD

Back in 2012-2013 there was a big coaching fight because the head coach Alexandrov back then and the NT coordinator Rodionenko were enemies since the 80's, and some gymnasts (Dementyeva, Grishina) were direct victims of it. Also the girls of the 2012 quad were a little bit "rebellious" and there was the suspicion Dementyeva was bullied by the older ones because she was the favourite of Alexandrov and he was all about older gymnasts retiring. Also seems Pavlova clashed with the whole coaching staff and the Beijing team too because she blamed them for not medalling or something like that. Then at 2015 Mustafina fell out with the Rodionenkos and left Round Lake just before Worlds. That was DRAMATIC, because none knew back then if she would come back. Then there is the wedding-pregnancies chapter which is also interesting lol

I don't have time right now, but honestly, one month of FS drama is like years of gymnastics drama lol. Nothing really scandalous tbh. Like a NBC fluff would say, they are all like a big family