Graceful Victory

This news piece looks at each of the three contenders for Rio and talks about their strengths, weaknesses, background, etc. I should let you know that this documentary came out a few months ago but this is the first time it's had captions added to it. The captions appear sporadically throughout the video because the uploader is not fully fluent in Russian but I am grateful for the effort. Because it's a bit old, Soldatova's rise to prominence is not fully addressed (just a few days ago she won Nationals). Mamun and Kudry were seen as the most realistic frontrunners at the time of this video being shot.

Since this time, Sasha, Kudry, and Mamun have separated into different bedrooms at Novogorsk (they used to room together) so each girl is afforded some privacy. All three are at war over two spots and the fight between them is stressful. THEY ARE STILL GREAT FRIENDS but there are too many awkward situations that arise during an Olympic year for them to stay together any longer. For instance, if one girl wins a meet she naturally feels celebratory but has to scale down her emotions for the other two who know that every failure to win is a mark against them. Also, it's best for the girls to not have to overhear conversations between a gymnast and coach because it's nothing personal when a coach is scolding her pupil for not beating her teammate, but of course it's easy to misconstrue as a personal attack. Amid these tensions, they've been split up. The more significant meaning is that it confirms Irina Viner does not know who she's sending to the Olympics. Every RG fan knows that by now there should be two girls with individual rooms at Novogorsk and these two girls are without doubt the one's going to the Olympics unless injury should strike. You see, despite Russia's insane rhythmic depth, there somehow always emerges exactly two girls who are better than the rest by a mile. I think this is the first time since the 1990's that two candidates have not had their fate marked in concrete by now. I feel sorry for the girls, quite honestly, because if one of them should have a mistake at the Olympics the ire she will receive from the fandom of the girl who was deprived of a spot will be intense. No one should still have to prove they deserve to be at the Olympics after they've been selected, but that appears to be the environment emerging. 

My opinion is that Rita and Yana will get the spot because Viner values consistency over risk and Sasha's program is so difficult that it's impossible for her to master it; on day 1 she might win the AA, on day 2 she loses every EF...what the heck? Additionally, Viner clearly favors [Rita] Mamun on a personal level while she favors [Yana] Kudry for her competitive prowess. One instance of this can be seen after GP Moscow; Mamun was allowed to perform a dance for the gala while Soldatova had to redo her clubs routine because she made a mistake with it in the finals. Mind you, Mamun made more mistakes than Sasha throughout the entire weekend of the Grand Prix, including not medalling in AA, but she was not punished for it (for those not familiar with RG and Viner-politics, having to re-do your competition routine at a gala is her unique way of displaying displeasure and saying you're inconsistent). More upsetting to Soldatova fans was that after the competition ended, Viner appeared to be making excuses for Rita's dismal performances, which goes strictly against her tough love policy. They all have SV's valued at 10.00 so even though Sasha technically does display the most difficult RG routines in the world, she is handicapped by this CoP which caps maximum difficulty. Seeing as they're all at a 10 in maximum difficulty, I think Viner will go with the traditional girls instead of taking a chance on Sasha. Unless Sasha continues her winning spree and forces Viner's hand...

No one has the power to shatter your dreams unless you give it to them.
Alexandra (Sasha) Soldatova