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Russia and Ukraine at war - friends, brothers, mothers bereft

February 28, 2022, 3:09 am
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They are literally bereft - torn apart and desperately sad.  Russia and Ukraine, in gymnastics at least, were always the best of friends.  Despite the horrors of the Holodomor, the famine forced on Ukraine by the USSR which claimed the lives of an estimated 3.9 million people, relations between our gymnasts were always observably warm.  If you ever saw a victory podium shared by the two, you would know this to be the truth.  Fierce competition, respect and friendship.  Everything was as it should be.


Russia and Ukraine shared their gymnastics bounty.  Nikolai (Mykola)  Kuksenkov, Ukraine-born but with Russian family roots, competed for both countries and now coaches the Russian women.  His father, Yuliy, coaches the men.  Doubtless there are many gymnasts and coaches whose family lines cross the borders of Russia and Ukraine.  So much of Russia is this way.  Perhaps it is what gives Ukraine so much of its ferocity in defending its motherland.  It feels betrayed by its brother, its sister.  Or something stronger motivates them; the need to continue to love and to be friends with their neighbours. 

Russian Head Coach, Andrei Rodionenko, is Ukrainian by birth.  He has worked in both Australia and in Canada.  His daughter is married to Viacheslav Fetisov, former ice hockey player who now sits in the Russian state Duma and is a former Sports Minister. 

I could list probably hundreds of names of Ukrainian gymnasts who stood alongside, trained and competed with Russians when they were part of the USSR together.  1972 Olympic champion Ludmilla Tourischeva, Russia born, married Ukrainian athlete Valery Borzov and raised a daughter with him in Kiev.  They are in Kiev today.  1980 Olympic team champion with the USSR, Stella Zakharova, still lives and coaches in Kiev and has significant political influence on the sport in Ukraine.  Stella has an account on Facebook and is urging her compatriots to resist the Russian charge.  


Also Kiev based, 1985 World Champion Oksana Omelianchik works as a choreographer and is a high ranking international judge.  Her daughter is a well known actress in Ukraine.  Vladimir Zaglada, born in Lviv, coached on the USSR WAG team in the 1970s and was a head coach at the Dynamo Club in Moscow during the 1990s.  


Following the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991, the first Ukrainian gymnastics gold Olympics medals were Tatiana Gutsu’s in the AA, Tatiana Lyssenko’s on beam, and Rustam Sharipov’s on parallel bars in Barcelona.  Days before, they had won gold as part of the last hoorah of the USSR team - more accurately known as the Commonwealth of Independent States for that Games.  These Ukrainian gymnasts competed alongside gymnasts from Belarus, Azerbaijan, Russia, Uzbekistan.  In total there were five Ukrainian gymnasts out of twelve competing at these games.  The coaches, too, came from across the various Republics, including Oleg Ostapenko who worked at a national level for both Russia and Ukraine through all the years of change and upheaval.  Many of the gymnasts now live and work in Canada and the USA - for example Lysenko, Kalinina, Gutsu, Kut.  They all quite probably have family and friends at home in Ukraine and Russia.  They are friends with Russians - this is a heartbreaking situation for all, tantamount to a bitter civil war in many ways.


If you subscribe to Instagram, you will be able to find the accounts of Ukrainian gymnasts such as Oleg Verniaiev (Verniaiev13) and Igor Radivilov (iradivilov).  Oleg, one of the leading gymnasts in the world for much of the 2010s, whose life began in the Donbas region and who trained there for many years, moved to Kiev years ago to be able to train in peace and safety.  He is posting video of the nighttime raid on his home.  Igor’s home town is Mariopol, a strategically important town in Ukraine’s south east.  Russian troops are currently circling Mariopol.  Igor has posted a video requesting the support of Belarus in not deploying its troops in Ukraine.


Igor is listed to compete at the Doha Cup this week.  If he is not there already, I doubt he will be able to travel there - and he may not wish to leave his family alone in such difficult circumstances. 


The Russian gymnasts - Listunova, Urazova, Minaeva, have now arrived in Doha and are preparing to compete.  They are at most 17 years old.  I wish them well.  Ukraine’s gymnasts have just competed at the Cottbus Cup in Germany where their leading all around man, Ilia Kovtun, took a gold medal on the parallel bars.  Daniela Batrona, who has just turned senior, also won a gold on beam.  Congratulations to all their athletes for continuing to compete under such difficult circumstances.  Heaven only knows when they will be able to go home and be with their families again.

The Soviet Union’s soft policy of influencing international opinion through sport, continued by Putin in recent years, was cynical at policy level.  But, day to day, people are people and quite naturally love, peace and friendship will always find its way.  


Let us pray or reflect on peace for our friends in Ukraine and condemn the actions of Vladimir Putin, a cruel and arrogant man.  Russia, we know this war is not in the name of your people.  I ask you to rise up against your President to stop these aggressions.  Belarus, remain neutral and do not send your troops into Ukraine.  Ukraine, we support you in your incredible bravery and persistence in resisting the advance of evil.  


I don’t know when it happened, but somehow you seem to have advanced into democracy more quickly than your big brother, Russia.  I should have seen this in the many Ukrainian students I taught at University over the past twenty years.  So hardworking, so loving of their families, so open and friendly.  Let Russia follow your example.  

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March 16, 2022, 4:59 am
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http://www.championat.com/other/article-207289-ukrainskie-gimnasty-nashli-pribezhishhe-v-rossii.html

A man need help

The phone call came from the adviser to the Minister of Sports of Russia Oleg Lagutin a holiday. However, for him - work. In Sochi Paralympic Games opened, and a huge machine of the ministerial working non-stop. Muddled story of gymnast and coach-choreographer Natalia Karamushka from Kharkov had nothing to do with the events that unfolded in Sochi. The reaction was instantaneous.

- I understood everything. Let us think. A man need help. There choreographer rate in Saransk.


Once it is necessary to explain what the Olympic Training Center in gymnastics in Saransk. He not only bears the name of a famous Soviet and Russian coach Leonid Arkaeva, but operates under his direct supervision. Leonid Arch - head coach of the men's national team of the USSR in 1972-1992 years. During this period, the team did not lose a significant start. Russia coach and president of Gymnastics Federation Russia until 2004, resigned after the defeat at the Athens Olympics.

Natalia Karamushka - reserve gymnast of the USSR national team 1976-1980 sample period. At the Moscow Olympics is not performed due to injury, although hit the pre-Olympic preparation. Repeatedly won the USSR championships and international tournaments in different kinds of all-round. International Master of Sports. Until the end of March 2014 to work in his native Kharkov choreographer.

In the former hall - hospital

Exactly two weeks after the conversation with Lagutin Karamushka able to leave from the Ukraine, where everything is breathing fire. Leonid Arch met her words that did not forget one of the greatest beauties of the Soviet national team, and the Ministry of Sports Mordovia stressed that waiting for her, because it was a private disposal Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko. But before the happy ending had yet to live. The confusion of the first days in a strange city, mother's illness, the rest in Ukraine, have done their job: coach jerked back. But she could not stay at home. In the room where she used to work, was organized by the hospital, with basic products have problems. And then, already on the chaise, Karamushka returned to Russia. Again Leonid Arch took her in his roomf.
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Is Nabieva a revolutionary? Towards a classification of Soviet and Russian gymnastics

October 18, 2010, 3:26 am
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This weekend my friend Tracey said to me that she felt that Nabieva’s stoop Tkachev-Pak combination, performed on Saturday at the World Championships for the first time, was quite possibly the most revolutionary moment in gymnastics history since Korbut stood on the top rail of the asymmetric bars in Munich and premiered her unique loop.

Those of us of a certain age will remember Korbut’s impact on the sport and the tidal wave of admiration and affection she evoked. Most speak of her amazing ability to communicate and perform, of the unique charm and charisma she projected through her floor routine, of the astounding back somersault on beam. But it was perhaps on bars where her genius shone most brightly. Here she was an amazing innovator and risk taker. The trajectory of that loop is still imprinted in my brain and I have a visual image of it as I speak to you now. Few have had the courage to attempt it since; Mukhina, of course, added a twist, but that was more than thirty years ago.

The loop added a different way of doing things; a large, flighty swoop that challenged the physical constraints of the apparatus and reached out into space in a way that had never been conceived before. It was like an earthquake resounding across the landscape of a previously rather polite sport that had emphasised grace and expression more than power and acrobatics. The loop represented a shift in the perception of the possible. It added dimensionality to the sport, created airtime, defined the large and spectacular. It was a new way of thinking about things, a revolution in gymnastics. And Korbut, then, was most definitely a revolutionary.

Korbut belonged to a tradition of Soviet pioneer – artists, sportsmen and astronauts among them – who characterised the spirit of grand adventure and heroic endeavour as represented in Soviet propaganda of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. She also, still today, stands for something in gymnastics – something wild and crazy that makes you ask: how is that possible? It’s implausible, impertinent, outrageous. Where does the courage come from? And as I watch Nabieva sky rocket above the high bar, standing vertical in nothing but (very thin) air and barely touching the apparatus as she flies from somersault to somersault, I get to thinking: Tracey is right: Nabieva is a revolutionary, too.

And I would like to christen this kind of gymnastics. I would like to name it Bolshoi Gymnastika, literally translated ‘big gymnastics’, but also named for the ballet company and the traditions behind it, large and spectacular, powerful and impressive. Now Bolshoi Gymnastika has been practiced by quite a few proponents over the years. I would say Produnova’s handspring double front was one example. Strazheva performed floor in a Bolshoi Gymnastika style, all angular and flighty. Shushunova was a Bolshoi gymnast, fearless innovator and fierce competitor. These gymnasts were all pioneers. (The men were Bolshoi gymnasts, too. Liukin’s triple back on floor was a revolutionary moment, and so was Tkachev’s flight on high bar.)

There is also Kirov Gymnastika – lyrical, expressive, languid. Kirov Gymnastika lives today in the body, and spirit I hope, of Anna Dementieva. The movement includes such performers as Ilienko and Khorkina. I would like to suggest that all the best Russian and Soviet gymnasts can be placed along a spectrum of gymnastics from Kirov to Bolshoi; some share aspects of both. I have to consider these classifications in more depth as their characteristics inter-mingle across personality, physique, musical and gymnastic dimensions. It becomes complicated when you consider that there is also a folk tradition, as personified by Omelianchik and Lobaznyuk. It may be a question of developing diverse family trees of gymnastics to trace heritage and background of gymnastics, rather than the individual gymnasts. For now I’ll be content with the idea of a spectrum of gymnastics, from Bolshoi to Kirov.

I am going to add a box of video links to the key gymnastics mentioned in these posts.
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Artificial intelligence and gymnastics scoring - your opinions please

November 5, 2017, 4:47 am
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The Guardian yesterday has an interesting article about the FIG's plans to introduce computer judging to gymnastics.  I suggest you give it a read.

It won't surprise you to know that I have lots of things to say about this; I think that AI can contribute something to scoring, but not to judgement.  If the implementation of this initiative is not managed with common sense and imagination, we could find ourselves with a sport that is even more devoid of artistry and the aesthetic.  

In response to a comment asking for evidence of biased judging, especially in favour of the USA, I commented as follows.  Would be interested in hearing your opinions.  

'There is plenty [evidence of bias]. But the judging can be unreliable in all sorts of different directions, not just for the USA.

The problem arises at Code level, when the grading of moves and the bonus points are determined. Every country has a say in this, but naturally those countries with the strongest political representation in the sport will have the strongest influence. It is something that builds up over the years. So for example in WAG we currently have a Code that on floor and vault emphasises powerful acrobatics to the extent that the aesthetic has gone AWOL on floor in all but a few exceptional cases.

Vaulting requirements have changed and are so physically demanding that very few gymnasts in the world can prepare two competitive vaults at international level - e.g. in Europe in 2013 only 13 gymnasts attempted to qualify for the vault final of eight gymnasts out of a field of several hundred gymnasts.

At world level the USA leads in vaulting and acrobatics and there is a significant gap between the leading Americans and the rest of the world. When combined with what could be considered biased judging - a natural human tendency to overlook errors in those considered to have an almost mystical command of the sport - this adds up to an advantage [which might be considered a bias]. For example, Simone Biles' highly acrobatic work is astonishing in its accuracy and has extremely high difficulty scores, yet the judges seem to ignore failures in the aesthetic quality of her work. Gradually her scores on bars and beam have crept up as belief in her strengths elsewhere make it uncomfortable for the judges to deduct. The 'wow' factor blinds judges and fans to the less than perfect state of artistic presentation in some of Biles' work while others with more grace and less athleticism struggle to find the same certainty and confidence in the judges' evaluations of their work. These are minor, often and usually tiny granules of distinction that build up in one gymnast's and one style's favour over another. They in turn affect the shape of the sport as it progresses and the Code develops, and in performance affect the psychology of the gymnast and the reliability of competition.

A computer system that relies on measurement and quantification of movements will only emphasise these distinctions and detract from the aesthetic side, unless its implementation is carefully managed to allow for the judges' panel to pay more attention to the impression of the whole routine. There would have to be a splitting of the scores to introduce a technical mark (computer) and an artistic score (judges). As far as I can read, the FIG hasn't yet considered this, so unless the target of 2020 is purely a pilot run, they are getting ahead of themselves on every apparatus except vault. If the pilot is on vault only, as this article seems to suggest, then that could be a good thing as vaulting is a single skill and the measurement and judging process already seems to be highly technical and well elaborated.

The role of President of the FIG is at face value a mouthpiece job, yet for decades this mouthpiece has influenced the direction of the sport disproportionately and favour has been cast on his (no female President ever!) national programme. Titov during the Soviet dominated era saw the language of gymnastics favouring aesthetic, innovative gymnastics, Grandi presided over a period of growth for Italian WAG gymnastics [with the introduction of the additive score leading to the only Italian AA World Champion, with a fall], and now Watanabe introduces a technological step forward that is of potential benefit to the Japanese economy, while the JPN gymnastics programme continues to lead MAG and to grow WAG.

Introducing computer judging will only emphasise the growing tendency in both MAG and WAG to favour content over quality unless the FIG considers the whole picture and implements gradually with review of the gymnastics routines favoured [in addition to the calculation of D scores and deductions for faulty execution] and their likely influence on the direction of the sport.'
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Beyond grief

January 19, 2018, 4:33 am
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I cannot find the words to express my thoughts and feelings about the Nassar tragedy.  We are an international community of people motivated by a love for gymnastics.  In the main, young people are the only ones with the energy, skill and daring to be able to compete.  These young people are completely reliant on elders to train safely, to progress healthily and to be happy.  The betrayal when this all goes wrong is total and inexcusable.  To think that there is even one person exists who sees this reliance as an opportunity to hurt and repress individuals for the sake of their own pleasure - it is evil.  J K Rowling's Death Eaters, the Dementors of Harry Potter, have nothing on Nassar and his depraved, selfish pursuit of power.  The horror is complete. 

I have awoken to the scale of this horror terribly slowly, as if incapable of distinguishing life from nightmare.  I am removed from the everyday reality of these awful experiences, yet they keep me awake at night.  For the survivors, it is a grief, and it is beyond grief.  We experience grief and live with grief as a way of saying goodbye to those we loved and love.  The survivors, their families and friends, have to live with this grief every day.  We who support them have to help this terror to move beyond grief, but there will always be grief for those who were robbed of their childhood, their innocence, the joy they expressed in their talent.  It may grow a little smaller with time, but it will always be there.

As Simone said in her statement, so eloquent, direct and honest, she must find a way of living and being happy.  That must seem a long way away, though.  It must at least be a small relief to see that USA Gymnastics has finally taken some action, and closed The Ranch as national training centre.  In my view, its associations and history are such that it should be demolished.
 
What has happened is not just about gymnastics or sport; it is, as McKayla said, about predators who gather on the doorstep, wherever there are young and vulnerable people.  Athletes are particularly vulnerable not just because they begin training at a young age, but also because they have a dependence on advisors and others who tend to be in a position of power over them, and who can use favouritism and politics to disfavour and discredit the athlete, however great their talents, effort and joy.  To this extent, sport needs to take a lead in creating change and a healthier balance of power.  As Jessica on Gymcastic has said, in reality the athletes have all the power in the Nassar case.  But that power has taken years and decades to build.  Can we only listen to our athletes or give them the power of veto if they are legends, gold medal winners and champions? 

The Nassar case is unique in scale if not, sadly, in nature.  A coach who systematically abused young footballers is currently under investigation in the UK.  We remember the allegations made by Eberle, Dunca and others in Romanian gymnastics of the treatment they experienced at the hands of the Karolyis and others back in the 70s and 80s.  There are parallels with the various doping scandals of which we are aware.  East German athletes were fed unnamed 'medicines'.  Many young athletes will simply take whatever their coach or doctor gives them and tells them to take; the athlete pays for the infringement legally, physically and mentally, but may not always be the guilty one. Athlete doping is therefore often abuse.

Is sport worth it at all?  If what is supposed to be a joyful expression of commitment, talent, health and playful competition becomes a playground where only the evil play, should we continue?   But that would be to give darkness the higher ground.  We must find a way of reclaiming sport, and make things better.  Is it too early to begin to speak of next steps and learning?  Instead of stepping deeper into the inferno, we have to try to lift the situation into daylight and begin to build something better and new, or Nassar will have won.

Blame and responsibility are two concepts that are regularly aired in angry fan communications.  In going beyond grief, we have to separate the two, and be clear what we mean.  Blame is a backward looking, angry idea.  We seek someone to blame to vent our anger, to emphasise and reassure ourselves that we are not to blame.  Blame involves seeing the problem from a black and white perspective, I-am-right-you-are-wrong.   And, of course, in this case, it is hard to escape the fact that Nassar was to blame for his own actions.  Nassar will have to live with his wrongdoing for the rest of his life.
 
But it would be wrong for the rest of us to be stuck in blame forever.  Blame is about the externally driven energy of sticking something nasty on somebody.  The process and pain of establishing that blame has been formalised in court and legal proceedings.  Next, though, responsibility is in the internally driven energy to acknowledge fault and put things right.  Responsibility is something discouraged in a context where liability and financial pain are often involved, but morally and ethically, responsibility is needed next.  Somebody, somewhere, has to begin to take responsibility, or all will be lost.  Who?

Listen to our very own Gymcastic, from start to finish, to follow the evidence and arguments as they emerge.  USA Gymnastics' refusal to take the case seriously and to acknowledge their responsibility shaped Nassar's opportunities to abuse and hurt, delivered victims to his doorstep.  Did you know he was not even properly qualified to practice in Texas?  That he worked for the USAG in a voluntary, unpaid capacity?  The girls he was abusing were not even receiving proper treatment for their injuries.  This is thanks to the USAG's negligence, obfuscation and dissembling.  USAG refused to believe complaints against Nassar, increasing the pain of his victims, but also they had not completed even the most basic checks thoroughly.  The US Olympic Committee also has responsibility to check the credentials of all national team doctors, but failed to find Nassar out. 

I have read that what has been uncovered in the Nassar case is a paedophile ring supported at the very highest levels of US sport.  This seems like a crazy conspiracy theory.  But if it isn't so - if USAG and the USOC weren't deliberately working towards a strategic plan of child and athlete abuse - then at the very least they are guilty of terrible, unbelievable, complete incompetence.  Everyone involved should be removed from their positions of power and be investigated for criminal negligence at best.

Sport as a world community has to investigate this case and to learn from it.  This is an international, pan-social issue that affects more than just the USA, gymnastics, and the Olympics.  At a time that pays the correct respect to the survivors, there needs to be a call to action.  An international working party needs to be convened, including the FIG, IOC, USAG, USOC, the relevant medical commissions and child protection authorities – perhaps even UNESCO - to investigate the bigger picture.  We need to learn lessons and to change our practice to ensure that youngsters are granted the right power, and are protected to pursue their lives safely.   The gymnasts involved in this case have been unspeakably brave.  Going forward, we all have to look beyond grief.  We have to find a way of making sense, of being better, of creating a greater light to outshine the darkness and shadow.


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Leninsk-Kuznetsk School of Gymnastics to close.

February 3, 2018, 8:25 am
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The major centre of gymnastics in Kemerovo Oblast, Siberia - the Mametyev School of Gymnastics in Leninsk - is to close in July 2018, reports the RGF.

No announcement has been made in the Club's own website and the reasons for the closure are unclear.  National team members, Anastasia Ilyankova and Nikita Ignatyev, train at the Club and have their families and homes in the district.

Leninsk's greatest hero, Maria Filatova, had recently returned home to Leninsk after a long struggle to secure her Russian passport.  Filatova, who owns and runs a Gymnastics club in Rochester, New York, is much loved wherever she goes and was a trailblazer of difficult and artistic gymnastics during her competitive years.  She has always been loyal to her hometown, creating distinctive choreography for 1992 CIS and Russia team member Tatiana Ignatova.  There is a 2016 documentary about her emotional return to Russia on Youtube.

Other gymnasts who have trained at the Club include Valentin Mogilnyi, Alexei Tikonkikh, Maxim Devyatovski. Andrei Cherkasov and Igor Pakhomenko.



Photo of Ilyankova in Leninsk, courtesy of the gymnast's personal Instagram accoynt.
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Flashback to USA Gymnastics in the 1990s

February 5, 2018, 6:16 am
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In my gymnastics collection that is still gathering dust in my spare room, I have a few copies of a publication called 'Flying Squirrels', produced by a freelance journalist called Keith McCaffety.   This photocopied 'All American Gymnastics Newsletter' was kindly sent to me by friends in America; I never subscribed to the publication directly.

The February 1992 edition included a story about international gymnast Erika Stokes and her experiences in elite gymnastics, including a short section on her life at the Karolyi Ranch.  I seem to remember many more similar stories with details of how the gymnasts were treated there.  Remember, the Karolyis defected to the USA from Romania in 1981.  By 1984 they had made an Olympic Champion of Mary Lou Retton, and by the end of 1991 they had their first World All Around Champion, Kim Zmeskal.  The article about Erika was published in February 1992.

The same edition records a threat of legal action from the USA Gymnastics Federation, whose Director, Mike Jacki, did not like newsletter's fair and frank treatment of gymnastics themes, from injury and abuse to selection procedures.  It is clear that as far back as February 1992 USA Gymnastics preferred to cover things up rather than address problems, and their tactics included coercion and threats.  Nothing much has changed, has it, really.

You can view a PDF of the February 1992 issue here.


I do not intend to change the focus of this blog away from Russian gymnastics issues and opinions.  But events in America have been overwhelming.  I have lots of thoughts about them, and of course my sympathies are with the survivors.  In brief, I firmly believe that gymnastics as a whole needs to do more, and to take the lead in addressing the problems of abuse in sports.  We have all been mesmerised by the pursuit of medals, and we are all guilty of brushing evidence aside.


 

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The vultures are circling - blame and corruption in USA gymnastics

February 6, 2018, 3:29 pm
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Valery Liukin has resigned and the vultures are after his entrails.  But is blame the answer?   

We have all been mesmerized by medals.  We are all involved in the unhealthy culture of sacrificing young women in the pursuit of extraordinary achievement. Nassar and Karolyi could not have existed without our interest.  We have long known of the inhumanity inherent in elite sport.  Is it really our place to condemn those who fed our fascination for so long?  

Liukin has done the honest thing and resigned.  In the past he has apologized for any wrongdoing and seemed prepared to make changes.   He is right when he says we are all looking for someone to blame.  Emotions are running high.  I do not for one moment believe that Liukin is guilty of anything worse than unwise, misplaced, thoughtless words.  He is guilty of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  But no crime has been committed and there are many who have far more difficult questions to answer.

Well now a new head coach can be found and we will see how much difference it will make.  Maybe a new cherry on the cake will make it look more appetising. But if beneath the pretty decoration the cake is rotten still, what's the difference?

Name calling and recriminations - I have seen them both in social media, far too many of them, mostly without foundation - will achieve absolutely nothing.  I have been studying gymnastics, Russia and the former Soviet Union intensively for the last seven years, less systematically for the previous 30.  I still don't know enough about any single coach to point at them and say 'guilty',  There are things and people I feel uncomfortable about, but I am not a one person judge and jury. Was Liukin complicit in the Nassar cover up?  Almost certainly, knowingly or otherwise, as he was part of the leadership team.  There will probably be things that, with hindsight, he wishes he could change.  He will have made mistakes navigating the fine line between tough coaching and abusive coaching .  We have now the benefit of hindsight; but at the time his actions would have seemed right and justifiable, while all was going well.  

I doubt he was a monster though, and none of us have any right to judge him guilty by social media.  At least he is now free to participate fully in any investigation into the culture of USAG.  Resignation was not only the honourable choice, it was also, probably, the only choice.

But the problem of USA gymnastics is far bigger than blame.  Let me take another perspective.  It is 100 years to the day since women in the UK were granted the vote.  A century later, we have women as world leaders, but violence against women is still almost as great a problem as it was in 1917.   The appalling circumstances in USA gymnastics are part of a picture of society's failure to listen to and to empower women, and a tendency to belittle and disbelieve their experiences of violence.

Gymnastics has found itself at the forefront of this difficult subject and should take a lead globally in addressing abuse - violence - in sport.  This tragedy needs to be turned inside out and back to front again and again until we understand the reasons it took place and can suggest ways of moving forward, force some good for the sake of women globally.    All USAG/MSU/USOC can do is to get their houses in order.  They are not doing this very well because blame is their only worry, and blame is indeed the idea in the heads and on the lips of most onlookers.  But  a more positive action is needed to neutralise the evil and re-establish a cycle of good.  My suggestion is that the FIG medical commission lead an agenda for change with the IOC to address abuse in sport.  Gymnastics will not recover by hiding in the corner.  As others have said there needs to be an independent investigation into the Nassar affair and all the surrounding circumstances.  Lessons have to be learned, best practice has to be develooed, findings and recommendations have to be disseminated.  Implications and assumptions have to be identified and acknowledged.

The athlete-survivors are doing amazing things but it should not be up to them to effect change; after all, they are not the ones at fault.  And is the imprisonment of one man really such a great victory?  It took over 200 broken women to come forward and confront one demon.  Many more enablers - and worse - survive behind the smokescreen of the confusion, delay and indecision of the last years. Document shredders will no doubt have been working overtime in many different institutions.  Decades of invisibility are rotting the sport of women's gymnastics from the inside out.  That it took 200 women to overcome one unhealthy man is a disgrace to us all.  For the past decades we were quite satisfied to read the books, to tut with disapproval, to feel satisfied that we 'knew' about gymnastics; but we didn't want change, we wanted medals.  USA gymnastics culture is not just about Nassar, it is about all of us.  Weren't you all only too pleased when the Karolyis came to Texas and made Mary Lou Retton turn gold?

Blame is important when people are looking for a quick resolution of their uncomfortable feelings, and when they want to say 'not me'.  It is understandable when emotions run high, but it is also largely ineffective and counterproductive.  I am aware that there is a history of rooting out guilty individuals in tin pot trials.  McCarthy is a name that comes to mind. In the McCarthy trials good people were thrown beneath the train on the basis of the thinnest evidence.   Surely we in gymnastics do not need to repeat the errors of this past by social media.  For a start at least, Liukin is innocent until proved guilty, and he has not even been charged as yet.  Innocent of which crimes? Being a world beating gymnast?  Creating Olympic champions?  Being of Russian ethnicity?  

We need to begin to stand back and look to ourselves for solutions.  Blame, anger, retribution  and resignations will only get us so far - we need to decide what the real change is that we want to see, and how that marries with the kind of competition and sport we want to support.  

For myself I cannot support a sport that covers up cruelty and abuse in the pursuit of medals.  Nor can I support the empty blaming of individuals whose wrongdoing has not been established in a court of law.  Any evidence of this needs to be treated fairly and impartially to identify lessons to be learned.  So, where next?  
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The rebuilding of Moscow Sambo

February 15, 2018, 12:16 pm
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Moscow's Sambo club, a multi sports complex with a strong gymnastics history, is currently being demolished and rebuilt with new, improved facilities.  This is not the only example of ongoing sports development in Moscow as the new Dynamo complex, sponsored by VTB, approaches readiness.  

Sambo has produced many world and Olympic champions, including Maria Paseka, Seda Tutkhalyan Alla Sosnitskaya and Elena Zamolodchikova. I remember a time when Zamolidchikova could only practice her vault with full run up by beginning it in the corridor beyond the main gym, so this development has to be positive!  

The club is also home to Greco-Roman wrestlers, with Seda's father, Gurgen Tutkhalyan, as a coach.

Renat Layshev, who is an MP in the local Moscow Duma, and Director General of the sports club, posted these pictures on his Instagram account.

Ooo - I almost forgot to mention - figure skaters Evgeniya Medvedeva and Alina Zagitova also compete for the Sambo club!  See them fight for medals at the Winter Olympics this weekend!




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Elena Eremina asks for help for her gymnastics school

February 25, 2018, 12:00 pm
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World and European champion gymnast Elena Eremina, 16.

Elena, and her team mates Lilia Akhaimova, Valeria Saifuluna and Tatiana Nabiyeva, all hail from St Petersburg where they train together under the same roof with world class coaches such as Alexander and Vera Kiryashov. Their predecessors include Olympic champions such as Elena Shushunova, Elena Davydova and Alexander Detyatin

Now, it seems, the club is experiencing some problems - their facilities at a 'new' gym are very poor - no pit, they are landing on concrete floors, the apparatus are old, and there isn't enough space for a busy gym with lots of children.  

The big problem is that the local St Petersburg admin refuses to help with the refurbishment of the gym.  So Elena, via her Instagram account, is asking us to post and repost her message explaining the situation.  

This is a recurring theme in Russia at the moment as we take on board the surprising decision to close the gym in Leninsk-Kuznetsk.  I hope that Elena's campaign is successful and that this doesn't signify wider problems for sports funding in Russia.



Elena at www.instagram.com - search for Heleneremina.


Parents help to prepare the gym last year, but more work needs to be done.



The rules at Pushkin.  Only valid excuses not to train:

About to die
Sick and dying
Dead.

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Gymnastics, doping and abuse

March 6, 2018, 6:52 am
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There is so much talk of sport in the media recently, in a negative way, that I wanted to express my thoughts.


The three themes that regularly emerge are corruption, cheating and cruelty, or a combination of all three.  Sports politics, at various levels local, regional, national and international, are an overarching consideration, as are gender and racial issues.  Most sports are funded by national and local governments on one level or another.  Corporate organisations sponsor sports.  Sporting federations wrangle for power.  Coaches fight for prominence.  Sports relationship to medicine, injury and recovery is currently emphasised as never before.  The battle has become as much one of the doctors as of the athletes.  Perhaps the purest part of sport is the action that goes on in the competitive arena.


The sociological context of sport differs from person to person, country to country and sport to sport.  The framework of political influences begins at a personal level for the athlete, escalating up through the hierarchies of sports coaching and admin, and back down from governmental level through to the preparation of child athletes in gymnasia and athletics grounds.  Sports 'politics' has a capital 'P' and a lower case 'p'.  Political context (with a capital letter) informs the way sport operates and identifies itself and influences sport's structures and position in society.  Sports politics (with a lower case p) is the way that individual sports respond to the environment and go about delivering society's expectations.  All political systems influence sport, and all of human behaviour takes place within the theatre of sport.


Sport is part of an international network of friendship and rivallry.  The Olympics are a unique part of global society in that they bring together athletes from all over the world.  In no other arena but sport and the Olympics does the world come together in this way.  In no other way are the talents of individuals showcased, wherever they come from and whatever they do. 


Sports and the Olympics have not only become an important part of diplomacy and warfare, they have also become a voice and a branding tool for corporations.  Sport as a meritocracy encourages meanings of ethics etc





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DTB Cup - in which I have a moan about the desultory state of WAG

March 18, 2018, 11:29 am
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I just watched the most discouraging competition of my life in WAG, the AA.  Maybe the team competition yesterday was better - I didn't watch - but the AA left me dead cold.  The highlight was an energetic floor routine from Jordan Chiles.  The rest was complete and utter baloney.  The standard of vault has improved, but elsewhere there were falls aplenty (in fact the only gymnast to go four for four was Ellie Seitz, who finished second).  Beam routines lacked any fluidity and were almost all staccato, stuttering shambles.  The standard of tumbling on floor was fairly good, but choreographically the routines were empty.  Where did split leaps go?  When did bouncing on the spot take their place?  When did shuffling while pathetically waving wrists about or wiggling hips and shoulders semi-suggestively qualify as connections?  When did it become OK to fudge half hearted leaps into the corner of the floor mat, as if no one would notice?

In the end, no one will notice, because they will stop watching ... The only way of differentiating this field was by difficulty, which left Seitz in second place despite her being the only gymnast to live up to her potential.  

Poor Melnikova says she was trying out upgrades today, suggesting that explained the fact that her only strong piece was vault.   She is determined and works hard, but the first error (in this case on bars) always leads to subsequent ones.  Without the meltdown she would easily have won this competition, but then there was a collective meltdown across the whole cohort.  Perhaps it is a kind of moral breakdown of the sport after so much dirt has been thrown at it in the wake of the Nassar Affair.  

Is it time for the FIG to lower the bar, to make room for good execution, to remove the incentives to increase difficulty?  To reduce the importance of the D score and increase the weighting of the E score?  Or is this just an anomaly?  MAG seems to go from strength to strength.

Do you agree that WAG has lost its zizz?  Please comment.






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The first time ever I saw the USSR gymnasts

March 27, 2018, 4:01 am
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I saw the poster on the wall of the gym and it surprised my teacher when I asked if I could go.  She had noticed that I didn't exactly love PE ...

But I loved gymnastics and I wanted to see my favourite, Olga Korbut.  My friends Elaine Richardson, Janet Brooks and Mary Andronowski wanted to come too.

We set out in the school coach, all of us excited.  I wore my best purple dress and purple eye shadow and had my little Kodak camera in my bag.  I remember the excitement when we arrived and parked up at Wembley, only a few steps away from the Trident studio where rock band Queen had recorded some of their first album!  I half expected to see them there :-).

We found our seats, up in the higher echelons of the Grand Tier.  There was a strong smell of popcorn.  Scampering school children made the boards beneath our feet echo, seats around us snapped up and down, lending the impression of an ever moving sea rather than an attentive audience.  But I was transfixed.  It was my first time to see gymnastics live; I wanted to experience the magic of Korbut and her team up close.  

Then - bang! - the lights went down and we were plunged into blackness.  'Wooooooooo!!!'  The sudden darkness stilled us all and imposed a feeling of anticipation - then the spotlights began circling the arena; the band began playing; and finally, the announcer introduced the triumphant team. Olga, with her smile; Lioudmilla, waving to the crowd, all the gymnasts perfectly turned out, smartly marching in, wearing their navy blue tracksuits!  I can still hum the tune - that smell, those sounds, immediately take me back over forty years.  I learned to stamp my feet, to clap my hands till they were sore.  And for weeks afterwards there was only one subject of conversation.  I read the programme (picture; look at the creases and crinkles!) till the pages feel apart and can still recite some of the content by rote. For example, a profile of gymnast Paata Shamugia, whose coach Leonid Arkaev had 'informed the boy that gymnastics would be his main occupation from now on', rather than football.

Olga, Nelli, Liudmilla, Maria and Elvira; Alexander and Nikolai; the marching band and the smell of popcorn are always there, the heart and soul of my gymnastics.  The pyrotechnics of today's competition experiences may be more expensive, but they will never be more special than my very first gymnastics dream come true - seeing the Soviet gymnasts in person.

This floor routine is from a US Display in the same year - but you get the impression and a little bit of the joyful, informal feeling that was characteristic of these events. Olga Korbut was more than an entertainer - more than somebody who simply captured hearts.  Look at her line, precision, the beauty of her movements.  She was an innovator, a truly artistic gymnast.  And even though the 'stunts' she performed - daring, risky and inventive - caused controversy and disapproval in parts of her home country and amongst some of the wider gymnastics community, she never lost that special polish that distinguished the outstanding from the excellent. The genius of these gymnasts was how they made the impossible look simple; they were consummate performers for whom the technical and difficult was merely the fundamental, basic requirement of a routine. They were more than just athletes wanting to win; they competed with grace and elegance to elevate gymnastics to an art form. We can learn much from them today.  


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Club Pushkin, home of World Champion gymnast Elena Eremina, faces collapse

April 1, 2018, 1:45 am
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No good news to report at present from beautiful, brave St Petersburg, as the gymnastics club where national team members Elena Eremina, Valeria Saifulina and Lilia Akhaimova all train faces ruin.  Club Pushkin, built up from scratch by coaches Alexander Kiryashov and Vera Kiryashova, is one of Russia's leading gymnastics clubs for women.  St Petersburg gymnasts are technically clean, well disciplined and happy competitors who generally stay in their sport and work with their club for years.  Tatiana Nabiyeva, Ekaterina Kramarenko and Evgeniya Kuznetsova have all trained at Pushkin and earned medals for their country at world level, including gold.  Current senior national Elena Eremina is vice world champion in the all around and uneven bars events.



St Petersburg is a historic city where Imperial Russia left its mark.  The beautiful palaces and waterways mark it out as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of the wonders of the world.  Its spirit is fierce and proud as the survivor of a vicious siege during the Great War.  The home of the Kirov ballet, the Lesgaft Institute, the Hermitage, and great authors such as Pushkin, Dostoevsky and Gogol bears the cultural symbol that is characteristic of its gymnasts.  St Petersburg does more than survive, it thrives and blossoms in every possible way.  Pushkin's gymnasts do more than compete, they perform, and create memories and images that are worth more than medals.

Sadly, it is the management of the city's built heritage that is currently putting the future of the Pushkin gymnastics club at risk.  Recently, new planning rules have been passed in St Petersburg, relating to the height of buildings permitted in the historic parts of the city, where our Club resides.  Pushkin, several decades old now, needed refurbishment.  The plans had been approved and building was about to begin.  But then the hammer fell, as the rules changed.  Pushkin's new construction, once passed by the local authorities, was to be a little higher than the new planning rules allowed, and so building work had to be stopped.  No progress can be made as the proposed height of the building is now illegal.  The old gym, once so full of promise, now stands empty, as good as derelict.

The club's gymnasts have moved to a makeshift facility at the Expo Centre - some distance away from the original club, in a not-so-nice part of the City that involves a long walk for club members.  It was meant to be a temporary measure.  Parents, gymnasts and friends helped with the move and in setting up the equipment, but the temporary facilities can't replace a proper gymnastics home.  The facilities are not safe for elite gymnastics practice; the flooring is hard concrete and there isn't a landing pit.  



It seems crazy that Russia can't help Pushkin to find a way out of this impasse. Everyone just says 'nothing will help'.  Bureaucracy in Russia can be very rigid. Gymnasts are walking away from Pushkin because they can't train in an unsafe environment in such a poor location.  And the historic home of Pushkin gymnastics remains empty and neglected, all because of the bad timing of some planning decisions.

At this rate, there will be no Pushkin club for World Champion Elena Eremina to return to once her back is recovered.  The Kiryashov couple have spent the best part of their lives building up one of the most productive, happiest and successful clubs in Russia, only to see it destroyed in a few weeks.

But miracles can happen.  Surely there must be a solution to this problem?  Can anyone help?

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Korbut/Knysh rape allegations resurface

April 5, 2018, 5:13 pm
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Knysh and Korbut in training, 1973

Olga Korbut has repeated her allegations of mistreatment and rape by her coach, Reynald Knysh, in a Russian Jerry Springer style panel show.  She first made these allegations public in the early 1990s.

Supported by her sisters, and her first husband Leonid Bortkevich, Korbut confronted Knysh, who has repeatedly protested his innocence, revealing that he had been suspended from the national team after an investigation into complaints made in the 1970s.  Korbut says her abuse went on for over one year.

An occasionally hostile audience, and a sceptical panel who included 1968 Olympian Olga Karaseva, could not drown out Korbut's strong and assertive performance.  After Olga was accused of lying, former husband Bortkevich spoke out: 

'I was married to Olga for 25 years and she never lies'.  

It is now too late for any legal redress against Knysh.  
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A Sports Express report of the documentary includes a video of the show.

Update : a better, fuller translation from Luba at Gymnovosti.
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Heroes are only human

April 22, 2018, 5:17 am
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At the next Olympics, the teams will include four all arounders.  This rule change is one of the more positive things that the FIG has done for the sport recently.  Specialists like Denis Ablyazin will still get a chance to qualify for a limited number of specialist spots, but the emphasis on all around achievement is just what gymnastics needs.  The all arounder has always been the most intriguing gymnast, and it is is the all around competition that brings with it the greatest sense of show, endurance and self challenge.  This change will eventually, hopefully, encourage the pursuit of excellent and consistent execution as a route to self actualisation, if not competition medals.  Apparatus specialists can be very exciting, but they are also rather hit and miss.  If the sport's raging epidemic of injuries can also be quelled, and gymnasts can enjoy competing longer, it will be a step forward.



I always love the RGF's photo galleries, especially the way they quietly convey stories and personality.  At these Championships, we are seeing an amazing thing happen, and the picture galleries are ripe with meaning.  What has made this competition so special?  It isn't a tour de force of unbeatable gymnastics, or a changing of the guard or the generations, but I do think that one dimension is the enrichment of the sport into a multi generational community, a developing strength in depth both MAG and WAG, and amongst the coaches.  Artur Dalolyan's second victory as Russian champion lays down a challenge to David Belyavski and Nikita Nagorny; Denis Ablyazin is still going strong; and this week Kirill Prokopyev made steps forward towards a higher profile place on the team, too.  Aliya Mustafina's re-appearance on the competition floor has energised, motivated and encouraged a women's team hit hard by the absence of last year's leader, Elena Eremina, and vault world champion Maria Paseka.  Who would have believed, a year ago, that we would see 2010 World Champions compete alongside each other in 2018?    Nabiyeva's spirit in supporting her St Petersburg team, struggling without its three leading gymnasts, turns my soul inside out, as does Mustafina's amazing, determined return - and Melnikova's sense of finding herself in the all around, her joyous, confident tumbling in the floor final just now.  Viktoria Gorbatova, a first year senior yet to be tested at the highest level, is an unspoken hero so far, and the emergence of Angelina Simakova is encouraging.  They are all, men and women, stronger and deeper than they appeared a year ago, and the coaches, too, seem more diverse, younger, less worried and more focussed on the job.  Russia is fighting again.

And as I write this, Aliya and Viktoria line up for beam final alongside Kharenkova, Melnikova and the rest.  Shivers down my spine too as the PB line up is revealed.  It will be a rough hour ahead, but the determination on Mustafina's face, the cheekiness of Dalolyan's smile, is surely enough to galvanise and encourage the team.

I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.  Except to say, amongst the greatness, there is a lot of grit. Head coach Andrei Rodionenko this week, explaining the lack of spectators in Kazan, said that there were 'no heroes' left in gymnastics any more.  On this, he was wrong in one important way.  Heroes may sometimes find celebrity, but they are measured by more than the number of people who follow them.  Heroes are humans, like you and me, they just decide to be extraordinary and make difficult, challenging work their daily business.  They put their necks on the lines and take action while the rest of us only have the courage to spectate and judge.  They are all heroes, they are all human.  But some of them are legends, living legends.  And there is still time left for them to make their best case for that.


Three generations - Nabiyeva, Melnikova, Simakova.


Mustafina and Grebyonkin



Gorbatova with bars coach Sergei Andrianov


Andrei Rodionenko has implemented some great strategies since Rio that have seen the teams strengthened, and established a calm determination to their work.  A new generation of coaches is asserting itself under his leadership.


Dalolyan, happy as Russian AA champion (as he predicted!)



Angelina Simakova, this year's promise.  Simakova's floor routine, cute and shy, showed a few glimpses of Ksenia Afanasyeva's influence as coach-choreographer- although I am sure that this is just a start.


Angelina Melnikova, who has flowered this spring


Maria Paseka looks as comfortable as coach as competitor - she was here this week on the floor with Seda Tutkhalyan.
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Russia WAG head to Mallorca for their annual active retreat - Eremina with them!

May 7, 2018, 4:36 am
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Russia WAG are travelling to Mallorca today for their annual two week active holiday - mainly two weeks of rest, relaxation and bonding, but with some daily training to keep in shape.  I'm glad to say that Elena Eremina is going there with the team!  It is now still only three months since her op, so still too soon to train fully, but this photo, taken yesterday, shows she has lost neither her beautiful line, nor her desire and enjoyment in gymnastics.  

Aliya is staying in Moscow to continue working there as part of her planned training regime.  I suppose this will also enable her to be close to her family and especially Alisa, her 10 month old daughter.
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Gymnastics in post-Soviet Russia : ISSA Conference 2018

June 9, 2018, 2:44 am
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I am on my way home after attending the annual World Congress of the International Society of Sport, which this year was held over three days in Switzerland.  More than 300 participants gathered at the University of Lausanne, on the edge of Lake Geneva, to discuss issues relating to the place of sport in society.  Themes covered included sports policy, anti-doping, social exclusion and participation, ethics, disability, gender issues, sports development, globalisation, Olympism and mega-events and health.

I attended the second gathering of the group ISCWAG (International Socio-Cultural Research into women's artistic gymnastics), which is a relatively newly assembled group of academics from all over the world.  You can find profiles of the founder members here.  This year the papers focussed on such subjects as the coach-gymnast relationship and grooming; gender-based violence and gymnastics coaching, and the pattern of older gymnasts continuing to compete in the sport.  There was also a 'keynote' introductory presentation on the development of a research tree to map areas of inquiry into our sport.  I gave a presentation on WAG in post-Soviet Russia.

It is interesting to see how much research is going on into sport and in particular artistic gymnastics, and ISCWAG group members are concerned to engage with the realities and to embrace and encourage positive change in the sport, especially in light of the developing, global, worries about abuse.  I can give you a link to the book of abstracts for the conference, and you will find the artistic gymnastics pages at 26, 27, 41 and 42.  It was a great conference - with thanks to Natalie, Roslyn, and all who made it possible.

My work at present is to try to tell a story of gymnastics in the Russian Federation from its inception in 1992 to the present day.  Based on the interview Alexander Alexandrov gave me in 2013, and on multiple, almost daily conversations with Soviet senior national coach Vladimir Zaglada, I wanted to look at the development of gymnastics in post-Soviet Russia and try to explain how global and local changes in the political and economic environment have affected the institution of sports and in particular artistic gymnastics in Russia. I also make reference to in depth press interviews between Russia's leading sports journalist Elena Vaitsekhovskaya and Russian head coaches, Leonid Arkayev and Andrei Rodionenko.  These interviews were undertaken at times that were figural in the dismantling of the 'old' system and the establishment, or re-establishment, of the 'new'.

The whole story will be covered in a book I am planning.  The presentation shows some interim conclusions of work in progress.  In brief, Russia has moved forward to embrace a participation model for the sport (as opposed to the selection model of the Soviet Union) but without the economic prosperity to back this up, the seeding and nurturing of young gymnasts at grass roots level simply isn't happening at scale.  There are no longer the numbers to create a strong reserve.  The Soviet-era commodification of sports for political purposes has been replaced by an ethic that favours sport for its economic multiplier effects (realised through the staging of mega-events) and puts the financial success of sporting mega-stars on a pedestal.  A few people manage to make their living through gymnastics, but the majority struggle, or fail, to make ends meet.

President Putin's  ambition to re-awaken national pride through sport and to recapture the 'magnificent glories' of Soviet sport has animated some wonderful sponsors such as VTB, who have given billions of Roubles to sport and enabled, not least, the refurbishment of one of the world's leading national training centres at Lake Krugloye.  But the funding is incredibly top-heavy.  While the coaches at the national sports centre are paid well enough, coaches at grass roots receive below-subsistence wages.  There is no strong programme of scientific research into gymnastics in Russian universities, and thus there is a developing intellectual deficit amongst the increasingly scarce, rapidly ageing gymnastics coaching community.  Even though national senior coaches such as Andrianov, Grebyonkin, Alfosov and Kiryashov - in fact the whole team at Lake Krugloye, and the personal coaches of the national team members - have the mettle and track record to stand proudly amongst the best coaches in the world, the sheer scale of Russia makes this a spit in the ocean compared to what is needed to encourage recruitment and retention of young gymnasts and create a sustainable legacy of up and coming coaches and champions.  This isn't only about money.  Alexandrov spoke about changes to the Master of Sports programme needed to encourage gymnasts to stay in the sport whether they trained in Kazan, Moscow or Novosibirsk.

The internecine conflict that has been in evidence in the Russian programme - which Nelli Kim referred to as self destructive - stems from the stresses that Russia is experiencing as it adjusts to the changed cultural and economic environment of state capitalism.  It is not really surprising that at a sporting level there are arguments over how to achieve the best outcome with limited talent coming to the bank at Lake Krugloye.  Alexandrov's ambitious rhetoric of gold has been overshadowed by Rodionenko's quiet determination to work more strategically to create a team that will remain competitive at the top level.  Whose approach is better?  Alexandrov only had four years to make his case, and we only need time to tell if Rodionenko's approach is working.

The only surprising thing is that Russia has hung on to its high international ranking for so long.  Romania managed to sustain gold medals with only a handful of gymnasts for a very long time, but this was dependent on the fiery passion of Octavian Belu and was extinguished almost immediately he left the team.  It is remarkable how one person can provide leadership and make all the difference to a gymnastics programme.

I don't want to make all of my presentation public at this stage, but I will give you the first and last slides.  As ever, please do comment!


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Boris Orlov, coach to World Champion Olga Bicherova, has died

July 4, 2018, 1:20 am
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Dutch news site nu.nl has reported the sudden death of coach Boris Orlov.  Boris coached 1981 World Champion Olga Bicherova.  In 1986 he moved from Moscow to Holland and made his home there, holding a number of club and national coaching jobs, including as Head coach of the Dutch national team from 1994 to 1999 .  His gymnasts included Renske Endel and Susanna Harmes, medallists at the 2001 and 2005 World Championships.

Boris was 73.  Our thoughts are with his family and friends.
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Elena Shushunova, the greatest of all time, has died at the age of 49

August 16, 2018, 4:34 am
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Elena Shushunova, European, World and Olympic Champion 1984-1988, has died of pneumonia, reports TASS.  'Shusha', perhaps the greatest artistic gymnast, was only 49. She will be greatly missed and we will remember her with awe and love.RIP.   http://rewritingrussiangymnastics.blogspot.com/2015/08/elena-shushunova-grace-power-complexity.html

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