WC Minsk Reveals Upstarts and Comedowns

This video was attached to a recent article on the rivalry between the top three Russians in rhythmic gymnastics. The documentary was only partially translated but I managed to find a transcript by tumblr user myau3, so I wanted to share it here. Below is her translation, and thank you for taking the time to do this.

Translation: 

Narrator: "Looking at the ease with which the gymnasts perform leaps and turns you involuntarily think about how generously they were gifted by nature. But behind the lightness and flexibility hides strong, “masculine” character, and an unbelievable desire to win. Outside our footage there are thousands of training hours that we left out. But on film, you see a beautiful show." 

Sasha: "We three try always to support each other. In training I always look and learn the best I can from Rita and Yana. From Yana — her cleanness of form and her feet positions, and from Rita, her love for hard work." 

Yana: "We have two leaders, because me and Rita switch places all the time. There’s no such thing [proof] that I am the leader. If I make a mistake she becomes first, and the other way around. I’m always very nervous at Grand Prix Moscow, because its in Russia, everybody comes to support you: your friends, family, all the children. Everybody comes especially for you. It puts a lot of responsibility on me. For me the hardest part is to start warming up, to wake up in the morning. My favorite part is when I work hard for a long time, and it comes out the way I wanted it to. That, I think, is my favorite part." 

Irina Viner (and some other coach): "Yanuchka is a very good gymnast. Shes simply a ballerina. Very strong, very elegant. The most beautiful and elegant gymnast."

Narrator (introducing Yana): "13-time world champion, multiple European champion, 4-time champion of the first European Games. The youngest absolute world champion in all RG history. Her first time to win the Russian Championships was in 2009 in Dmitrov." 

Yana: "It was like a mini Olympics for me. I was very happy. I didn't expect that. I worked a long time for it, I hoped for it, but I didn't expect that."

Narrator: "Yana was born in Moscow in the family of the 1992 Olympic champion in swimming, Alexey Kudryavtsov. She was training at first in swimming with her dad as her coach." 

Yana: "I didn't really like the idea of training with my dad, because he is a very harsh man. He had some friends that suggested that I train in RG just for the figure and posture. I'm still improving my posture (laughs)." 

Narrator: "Yana was 5 when she started training. 11 when she started performing on national events and 15 at the 2013 Worlds in Kiev where she won her title of absolute world champion (AA). Yana's trainer is Elena Karpushenko." 

Irina Viner: "Lena, Yana's trainer, trained many great kids, but she passed them to other trainers, cause it didn't work out. With Yana, it did." 

Yana: "Everybody has their phases. Maybe its puberty. Last year was terrible. If I were my trainer, I wouldn't tolerate myself, I would have kicked myself out or something. But now, no… my injury changed me. It taught me that I can't behave like that." 

Irina Viner: "They are like one whole. I'm glad it's like that. I help as much as I can, but the most important thing is to not interrupt [the natural process]."

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This unfortunately concludes the English translation but I will continue to hunt down sources and try to get a whole picture of what the documentary is about. 

In more recent news, WC Minsk concluded over the weekend; per norm, the All-Around doubled as qualification for EF's. Margarita Mamun won her first World Cup title of 2016, besting excellent competition by almost 1.5 points. Sasha won the first 2 World Cup AAs (Espoo, Lisbon), and Yana Kudryavtseva the next 2 (Pesaro, Tashkent). Belarus deservedly won the group gold over Russia and Israel with an excellent ensemble. USA & Finland continue to make historic strides in the sport (Finland won the award for 'Most Promising Team'). Unfortunately- and rather bizarrely- Italy continues to struggle...

As you may recollect, Viner plans to take Yana, Rita, Sasha, and maybe even a fourth girl to Rio, and only there decide who will be the two to represent Russia. In 2012 she took YOG champion Alexandra Merkulova to London, and Alexandra found out through a post on the internet that Dmitrieva was picked over her! Clearly, this latest batch of girls realize just how unrelenting the selection process is. 

OK. Real talk time. Sasha is performing hella nervous now that people have expectations, huh. I mean, c'mon girl, get it together. Rita isn't known for consistency either but they're struggling with two different types of instability. Rita is prone to buckling under intense pressure, but her vast experience has mellowed out the worst of her nervousness, and in general she's dependable. Sasha on the other hand effs up randomly and one can't factor out a pattern or discernible cause of her mistakes. Worse still, she's not a quick thinker so if something unplanned is happening, expect it's about to become a total disaster. She does NOT know damage control! Her AA competition in Minsk went the way of Tashkent- she imploded on one of her events, but otherwise kept pace with Mamun's scores. When she's determined, one can see the potential underneath layers of scruffy execution. Still, it's the second time Soldatova has found herself losing to one of the girls because of multiple errors on 1 apparatus. Consequently, Rita and Yana are still my picks for the Games despite Sasha being majorly improved. Girls like Son, Staniouta, Pashava, and Rizatdinova can take Sasha out if she's not perfect and I doubt Viner wants to tempt that plausible scenario.

WC Minsk / EF Results for Individuals and Groups:

Hoop :
1. Margarita Mamun — 19.000
2. Melita Staniouta — 18.700
3. Laura Zeng - 18.050
4. Katsyarina Halkina - 17.900
5. Victoria Filanosky - 17.800
6. Neviana Vladinova - 650 17.
7. Aleksandra Soldatova - 17.450
8. Carolina Rodriguez - 16,500

Ball:
1. Margarita Mamun - 19.150
2. Aleksandra Soldatova - 18.850
3. Melita Staniouta - 18.700
4. Laura Zeng - 18.000
5. Neviana Vladinova - 17.800
6. Victoria Filanosky - 17.750
7. Ekaterina Volkova - 17.450
8. Katsyarina Halkina - 16.750

Clubs:
1. Margarita Mamun - 19.100
2. Aleksandra Soldatova - 19.000
3. Melita Staniouta - 18.6
4.Katsyarina Halkina - 18.150
5. Neviana Vladinova - 17.800
6. Ekaterina Volkova - 17.450
7. Katrin Taseva - 17.450
8. Camilla Feeley - 16,800

Ribbon:
1. Margarita Mamun - 18.950
2. Aleksandra Soldatova - 18.850
3. Laura Zeng - 18.050
4. Katsyarina Halkina - 18.000
5. Melita Staniouta -17.850
6. Victoria Filanosky -17.800
7. Neviana Vladinova - 17.550
8. Leticia Cicconcelli - 17,300

5 ribbons:

1. Russia — 18.150
2. Belarus — 17.900
3. Israel — 17.750
4. Italy — 17.500
5. Finland — 16.850
6. Brazil —16.700
7. USA — 16.250
8. Hungary — 15.900

3/2 :

1. Belarus — 18.550
2. Italy — 18.050
3. Israel — 18.000
4. Russia — 17.800 
5. Finland — 17.000
6. Brazil — 16.850
7. Hungary — 16.400
8. USA — 16.000

The other big winner of the day was upstart Laura Zeng, who will bring home 2 bronze medals, the first World Cup medals in USA history. Her country also qualified a second individual into EF's in the form of Camilla Freely, and had a good group AA competition finishing 5th (their highest placement ever). The group didn't do so well in EF's in terms of matching their previous day showings, but along with Team Finland, they were inspiring to watch. They're doing better work than only two years previous, and all because their program is inspired by Zeng's accomplishments. I love to see when a country skyrockets on positive momentum.

Scores for Rita are still lower than what Yana is receiving but then again Yana is cashing in on the status bonus and I think right now she's dull and overscored (forgive me, Queen!). I would say Yana and Rita probably won the 2 berths to Euros which would be a huge downer for Sasha (though she'd likely still travel with them as alternate), but despite all of that, I wouldn't discount Sasha, who's used to having to fight for everything. She's scrappy, but oh so capable. And the circumstances surrounding Yana's health isn't over so it's good to have her on standby.

UPDATE: Yana and Rita are named as the Euros members. I hope to see Rita as 2016 All Around champion. Good luck girlies!