ICYMI

My vacation destination . Will you go
 anywhere special for World's?

I'm sorry I've been absent from blogging for a few days. With Worlds coming up, I'm trying to handle my work projects so that I'm free for the next two weeks. Most of my job can be handled at home, so staying disciplined has been kinda hard, but it's worth it to work hard now and relax later. I plan to go on vacay next week to Syracuse, NY where I'll be with two good friends and indoctrinate them into loving artistic gymnastics muhahaha; seriously though, they have no idea my entire vacation will be spent glued to a computer screen. It's a pity that during my absence a few unfortunate events have transpired within Team Russia. So, let's talk about them now:

Aliya Mustafina has a torn meniscus and will need surgery after Glasgow. The surgery is simple but it requires two months of rehab and she'll begin training again in January. A lot of people are drawing comparisons between 2015 and 2011 but I think there are some differences which leave me wondering about her chances of another Olympic gold. In 2011, Aliya's ACL injury happened in March and by Worlds of that year she was begging to be included on the team. Her request was smartly turned down but she did compete at the Voronin Cup two months later. Comparative to this time, Aliya was in good enough shape the winter before the Olympics to be allowed to compete AA and score 15+ on two events. At this present time, she hasn't trained in months and it will be January before she begins the arduous process of rebuilding her program and stamina. I just feel that the Aliya of 2011 was actually much healthier and competitive, at this respective time, than Aliya is in our present moment, which means her timetable for recovery and upgrades is shorter than it was last quad. In many ways, she'll be exactly where she was at the beginning of this year; trying to regain her former program but not in a position to pull ahead. However, there's nothing one can do about the inevitable and it's not like she wished injury upon herself so she remains optimistic about getting to Rio (As do I. My pessimism largely concerns her ability to fight for a gold medal but time will tell). 

  

                                            

Team Captain, Ksenia Afanasyeva, suffered another devastating illness last week, after kidney stones formed and lodged in her urinal tract. She had to be hospitalized for 7 days for the infection and only returned to training two days before Russia left for Glasgow (which was today, the 17th). Ever the champion, she will try to do what she can for Russia but her three events are now at the mercy of her health and it's not conclusive that she'll compete. Naturally, she's more worried about making it through team finals than getting into EF's, which previously had been on her radar as well. She just wants to survive these Championships in  relative health, which is more than deserved to her. I wonder if both Shelgunova and Dmitrieva will go to Worlds now, in case they conclude that Afan cannot compete? 

From the FIG: “The 2015 World Championships will feature the most unique judges’ seating ever used at a major competition,” said Butcher. “Judges will be seated in a single line on the outside of the field of play, rather than next to the podium. This will create a very clean look in the competition area and offer some improved views of the competing gymnasts for the judges.” I need to see a picture of this before I decide how I feel about a sport potentially putting public image above efficiency and guidelines. There are a lot of nuisances to be missed by not sitting next to the podium. At least, they still have instant replay (for now…)

The Proposed Changes for 2017 Code of Points (x)

Pictures of media day at Round Lake can be found here.

Interviews by Russia2 with Vika, Afan, and Aliya is here.

Svetlana Khorkina started a tournament in honor of her famous coach, Boris Pilkin. The tournament opens the calendar year of domestic gymnastic competitions in Russia and is hailed as an opportunity for young athletes to measure their level of fitness and preparedness after the summer hiatus. "These competitions give the coaches, and the gymnasts themselves, a chance to understand what stage they are [at] after a long rest. On the eve of the [Voronin] Cup, this Championship requires good preparation. This championship will show the strengths and weaknesses of the parties," said Khorkina. More than 80 gymnasts from Lebedyan, Voronezh, New Oskol, Tula, Prokhorovka, Belgorod and Novomoskovsk are participating. Thats a great participation number, indicating that one day Russia may not have depth problems with finding competitive gymnasts to fill their National Team. Also, how cool is it that Sveta is so involved in the sport at administrative and foundational levels? For all the pictures of the event (and the cute hairstyles), click here.

Courtesy of USAG, US residents can get advantageous podium training and qualification footage right here. USAG is the only federation set to tape podium training, but they will only record Team USA. They will record Russia's qualifications though. I hope footage of Russia's PT will surface from regular fans and volunteers.* BTW, if you are interested in seeing USAG's coverage but are international, please install a proxy hider from now (do some research before you install). In addition to USAG's live and archived coverage, FIG will post random individual videos on their YouTube channel of qualifications. 

Lastly, I wanted to address a mistake I made a few days ago when I posted a rumor about Maria Paseka doing the AA. After hearing back from my source it seems I was mistaken, and the mistake is more a miscommunication built on top of a misunderstanding than erroneous gossip. I've been communicating with an ex-National Team gymnast in Russia over several weeks, when it's a convenient time for both of us, and things can get very tricky when you have to pick up a conversation after not hearing from a person for many days. When last we spoke, we were discussing Paseka and so the next time the conversation was picked up again I did not think to question that 'Maria' was Maria P. not Maria K. I've deleted the post about Paseka doing AA because, while it's intriguing to see the possibilities, Russia does not need one more rumor making fans go crazy right now, ya know? And even if I kept the post up and explained it was a rumor, someone is still going to lose their mind lol so it's better this way. Anyways, I can't wait to see Paseka try to tackle beam next year, because it is true that she's working on the apparatus again. As for what my source was trying to tell me, she only meant to say that after Russian Cup, Maria was not feeling so well (she had a cold; it's snowed twice at RL already) and it was put into question whether she should even do AA or just BB and FX. The information about Paseka doing AA should've been that Maria K will now definitely be doing AA for Worlds and she will try to get back her difficulty on floor (after downgrading for the Cup) but they will test her fx consistency before a final decision is made there. Onward, Maria, we are proud of your ambition to push through your injury and illness. 

Have a wonderful day, readers.

*Popular gymnastics videographer, piibunina, is in Glasgow already so we should def get PT vids, bless him!