Some kind soul - an anonymous contributor - sent RRG a link to this photograph of our team in training just yesterday, listening carefully to the feedback of international judge and member of the FIG WTC Liubov Andrianova-Burda. Another kind person - Natalia Kalugina - was present. She tells me that Seda Tutkhalyan is working hard to overcome her psychological problems - and that we should watch her at the Games. Aliya Mustafina is working hard. Ksenia Afanasyeva (not in the picture; I believe that she is at a clinic in Khimki) can do floor, but her form isn't great at present as she is still in recovery. Beam is going well for the team, vault and bars are OK, floor is still rather disappointing; the choreography is poor.
In the picture we can see (top) Anton Stolyar, coach, bars (middle) Marina Bulashenko, coach, beam; Seda Tutkhalyan, Aliya Mustafina, Daria Spiridonova, Natalia Kapitonova, Angelina Melnikova, Maria Paseka and (half in, half out) the choreographer, Olga Burova. In front of the girls is Liubov Andrianova-Burda, and in the foreground (I think) we have Marina Nazarova, who in addition to being Afanasyeva's personal coach is also now a beam coach to the national team.
I know that things are uncertain now; WADA's McLaren report will be published at 9 am Toronto time today, so we are all on tenterhooks about that, and news of the scandal has reached the ears of our team. It cannot be easy for them. It's such a pressured time. For reasons outlined in earlier posts, I think it is unlikely that the IOC will do anything drastic, but the uncertainty must be driving the gymnasts mad, and it's all so damned unfair.
Today (18th July) - Angelina Melnikova's birthday (send her good wishes on Instagram @gelyamelnikova)
- Press day at Lake Krugloye
- The McLaren Report will be published
Tomorrow (19th July) - Maria Paseka's birthday (send her good wishes on Instagram at @maxah1995)
- final team selections will be confirmed at a control competition.
Wednesday (20th July) - Final team selections will be formally announced at a press conference organised by the Russian Olympic Committee
Thursday (21st July) - Russia's case at the Court for Arbitration in Sport will be heard. Russia is appealing the banning of its track and field athletes from the coming Olympic Games.
Sunday (24th July) - the gymnasts fly to Rio, and on arrival they will take up occupation of their accommodation in the Olympic village.
On the 5th August the Olympic opening ceremony will take place
E&OE, and all my own mistakes as I am writing this rather rapidly on my way to work.
One thing I would like to say, sports are once again the victim of politics here. This is such a pity. Sport has the power to create friendships and to transform international relations. If this has been subverted by Russia's Government, then it is a crying shame. But two wrongs do not make a right, it is clear that USADA and CCES have behaved abominally and in gymnastics the athletes are not to blame. I hope and trust that the IOC will formulate a fair and workable solution to this nasty problem that will care for the innocent as well as punish the culpable, and finally enable our gymnasts to make their own case in Rio.
BREAKING NEWS
Valentina Rodionenko says in RSport (interview with Alexander Barmin) that the second control competition took place yesterday. Ksenia Afanasyeva is in hospital with kidney stones and, as we know, Natalia Kapitonova has taken over the second reserve spot from Evgeniya Shelgunova. Angelina Melnikova is struggling with her hamstring (an old injury) and stepped down from the floor mat halfway through her exercise - Rodionenko says she feels that this is lack of experience rather than severity of injury, and is something they need to work on. Aliya Mustafina is working hard, and enduring pain.
Only one of the gymnasts fell off beam during this control competition. Of the three finalists, there were no serious errors. Bars are still their strongest apparatus, and there the team's main competition will be China. But competition is competition, we'll have to wait and see.
The FIG has weighed in - they are opposed to a blanket ban of all Russian athletes and say that the gymnasts should be allowed to compete based on their record of clean tests.
Related reading on RRG
No Russia for Rio?
'Our gymnasts will stand proud'
Related reading from Inside the Games
Russia holds its breath
And finally - precisly which Performance Enhancing Drug does a gymnast have to take, to be able to do this better?
