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| Courtesy RGF |
Wearing her Olympic team final leotard yesterday afternoon, Ksenia Afanasyeva faced off all doubts about her ability to manage pressure with a breathtaking performance on the floor. Afanasyeva's artistry is now matched by her confidence and aggression in the all-important tumbling. Her start value of 6.3 was the highest of the competition, her score of 15.166 superior to that earned in Tokyo two years ago when she took the world title on this apparatus. Short term, she has sacrificed some of the choreography from her Olympic floor routine to favour work on consistency, but a new routine is promised for this autumn's World Championships.
The pressure Afanasyeva faced came from many directions, most tangibly in the audience she faced who included many of the most influential people in sport in Russia. Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko and senior representatives of sponsors VTB were there to check on and celebrate the results of their considerable investment. History faced Afanasyeva in the form of Olympic champions Alexei Nemov and Larissa Latynina. These were just four of the many dignitaries visible in the VIP tribune situated right in front of the floor area and who she faced as she took up her starting position
Afanasyeva asserted her right to a third major gold medal in her seven year long international career with a beautiful and feisty expression of her talent that has all but erased the bad memory of a flunked routine in London's team final last July. At the end of her routine, the Russian who lays the greatest claim to Russia's classical tradition took a deep intake of breath before walking slowly away from the floor area, deep in thought, then running towards the tribune where family and friends congratulated here. It was deeply moving to share her joy.