Guess Who Qualified for US Elite

Our Russian Season has just learned that Russian born, WOGA trained gymnast, Irina Alexeeva, just qualified for US elite gymnastics over the weekend. Irina was born and raised in Moscow and coached by Dina Kamalova, the infamous coach who deserted Mustafina and travelled with Irina's parents to America. Dina was offered a position at WOGA and her pupil enlisted there as well; while the coach is believed to now be working in Denver or elsewhere, Irina settled in Plano, Texas and began adjusting to life and sport in a new country. She was trained by Liukin for some time but is now a pupil of Laurent Landi (Madison Kocian's coach). For years, she's teased us with training videos featuring 6.0+ difficulty, and impressed in a similar manner by putting up some notable scores on beam, bars and floor at Masilla, Woga Classic, and Gymnix. I haven't formed an overall impression of her because she's barely been in the public eye, but I gather that her most confident work is still done in training. Perhaps because she's seen so little of it, her performances in competition have a nervy edge. Take this half solid, half jittery beam routine for example (14.350):

Up to this point, she's competed elite by using her Russian citizenship and gym affiliation at international events that allow it, while prevented from doing domestic US meets. It's clear that Irina's strengths could be useful to the Russian team but she's never been to Round Lake and isn't brought up under their program (and I doubt the proud Rodionenko's would accept her now). As it's become more and more unlikely she'll ever compete for Russia I did begin to wonder just what exactly her plans were. Getting dual citizenship as a Russian is nearly impossible because of the breakdown in international treaties between the Kremlin and western governments. All dual citizens residing outside of Russia are required to register upon their next visit and those living in Russia with dual citizenship must publicize their foreign country ( a new law starting in 2014). But if Irina has found a way to retrieve dual citizenship, she can qualify for US Classics and then Nationals. If this is indeed the case, I'm sad to see this one lost to Team Russia, especially as she once said she would like to compete for her home country despite training in USA. Here's a snippet of her 2016 UB routine: 

From personal experience I can tell you it's very hard on children when their parents up and move to a new place. I don't begrudge Irina any opportunity she takes at this point because the entire situation was always beyond her control.  Have a great day, readers. Congratulations, Irina. 

Update: Irina's optionals scores can be found here .