Great Expectations

This weekend, five girls will fly to Germany to take part in DTB Challenge Cup and begin the first in a series of competitions meant to test their usability on a hypothetical Olympic team. Those five girls are: Angelina Melnikova- 2014 European AA champion, Daria Skrypnik- 2014 European bars champion, Daria Spiridonova- 2015 World & European bars champion, Natalia Kapitonova- 2015 Voronin Cup AA champion, and Anastasia Dmitrieva- 2015 Voronin Cup bronze medalist on beam and floor.  Really, this fifth and last spot up for grabs comes down to two main categories: team vs individual potential. Some girls are perfect for a team setting, like Melka, because she can provide scores of 14+ on beam, bars, and floor. Others, like the two Daria's, are guaranteed to bring in an amazing singular score in the team final- but even more tempting- a possible EF medal to add to Russia's haul. And just when fans were trying to sort out who made the most sense, here comes Evgenia Shelgunova on some sort of redemption spree, tallying three all around scores higher than any Russian posted last year- all in the span of three weeks.

So I ask, what are we to make of this?

I think it's safe to say that Zhenya has a lot to prove coming off of a mostly discouraging 2015. She placed a frustrating fourth on beam, bars, and AA at the 2015 Cup, sixth AA at Four Nations Trophy, didn't make the Universiade team, was alternate for the Euro Games and alternate for World's. She always seems on the cusp of becoming a star, no? The largest problem I see with her is her type of gymnastics which can be messy and sometimes downright scary looking, even when she's apparently in control of the skill. This of course makes me wonder how much stock to put in these high scores given at low level meets [where she was the biggest name on the roster]. 

I'm surprised to see how apt and proficient she's become on beam and floor, and not just by her standards, but very clean work in the broader spectrum (heart eyes for the memmel). Shelgunova has competitive d-scores (hi 6.9 BB!) and is reliable everywhere. As beam and floor continue to be weak spots for Russia, there's a case to be made for her participation in Rio, or at least a reconsideration of her demotion to the B-team. I think she deserves to be in the running with other girls like Melka and Spiri, whose all-around scores she's outshined three times now. Of course, the Rodionenko's might be over Shelgy no matter what she does at this point because their second biggest gripe with her is that she performs her best at small domestic meets, exactly the venues she's been competing thus far. Anytime it's a pressure situation- say Nationals or Worlds training camp- she collapses under the weight of their expectations. And they do (or did?) expect a lot from her; she's one of their favorite's specifically because she's the hardest worker in the gym (according to them), and her ability to quickly learn upgrades that meet the team's needs made her a tempting choice for much of 2015. She was earnestly considered for going to Baku, but ultimately, they worried her form would not score well with an international panel, and that's pretty much been the theme of her career and their number one problem with her. She's consistent, we know that. She upgrades quickly, we see that. She works hard, and we admire that. She fills so many tenets of what a good gymnast should be but her poor execution keeps her off the podium domestically and out of the running for serious international spots.

Checkout this DLO
screenshots: jordynslefteyebrow

These last three weeks have showcased her dependability, but my impression is that she needs to prioritize making her gymnastics less, well, painful looking. She's come a long way on beam but her floor still shows some of the scrappiness that FIG judges love to pan and her bars are still wanting from back-to-basics lessons. Russia cannot afford to bring 7.5 e-scores to Rio so having faith in her is difficult.

Five months after being Worlds alt., and four months after
bombing at Massilia, Shelgy is playing no games.

However, we must admit one thing: Shelgunova has never scored this high domestically before, which could indicate that 2016 is different from those other years, and if she scores like this under the more serious 'Nationals' judges, she would be that last minute shake up that makes Russian gymnastics so exciting! Despite being majorly impressed, I'm cautious about this particular gymnast so I'm definitely not about to say she's a lock for Euros or anything like that. But damn if she hasn't done enough to put her name back in the conversation.

Shelgunova's results can be found for two of her meets here and here. She scored a 57.350 at Koshel. 

Editor's Note: I'm going to start downloading videos straight from youtube to my blog because a lot of YT pages disappear and with it, the videos they record. This way, if a visitor wants to read posts going two years back they won't have to deal with clicking on videos that are no longer available. I will always give credit to the source of my videos. In this case, I took my videos from youtuber, russianglitter (x x). If you have questions or concerns on this new policy please email me at sashbib@gmail.com. Thank you.