Let's Talk About Lena. And A Strategy.
So. It's time to talk about Elena Eremina. Finally.
With the end of each Olympics, a number of retirements generally commence, allowing the next generation of gymnasts to make an impact on their national teams. Innately talented, with a petite well-toned physique, Lena possesses several of the qualities that it takes to make an impact at the senior level. She's artistic, ambitious, a fast learner, and holds steadfast under pressure situations. Any country would be lucky to have her type of potential to foster over the coming years. Like many other up-and-coming gymnasts from the European Championships, Eremina's big break will happen in a post-Olympic year. Unlike many of those gymnasts, she'll have to contend with her country's dismal track record of successfully navigating first year seniors through a post-Olympic transition.
Eremina's reputation has been on the rise since her strong showing at 2015 Nationals, an appearance that launched her into greater international spotlight and tournaments. She was part of the gold medal team at EYOF and is the bronze medalist from the Japan Junior International, where she competed against two U.S national champions. In March, the Saint Petersburg Championships were held and her upgrades on every event crushed the competition with a 57.8 in the All-Around. Not fully consistent with the new program, she tried her upgrades again at Nationals, and averaged a 111.633 over two days (55.0 and 56.633) counting falls on floor and issues on bars. Sent to 2016 Euros, she put up AA scores of 56.732 and 54.550 with a more conservative- yet not error free- performance and still won the All Around. As you can see, she's quickly risen through the ranks, and I see in her the signature of a future leader on the Russian team.
There is a steadiness about her that I think we all can appreciate, even when she suffers the same blunders and falls as everyone else. Her mistakes are not of the headcasey kind, but mostly come from more precise issues like being tired, or lack of focus due to overconfidence. Subsequently, I accept and forgive these faults, because the junior division is ideally where you should be learning about yourself and the patterns of your errors, and I have faith Lena is learning from every setback- she's an intelligent competitor. I can see how much she really wants to make an impression when she turns senior by the type of upgrades she is training and how she's attempting to add new skills everywhere in order to advance her AA future. Does she come with the kind of awe inspiring gymnastics as Nabieva, Grishina, or Komova had when they were juniors? No. Her level of difficulty and her execution is lower than theirs was... and yet...judging by the senior careers of the aforementioned, it's probably a good thing that her foundation allows her to mature into the type of gymnast she hopes to become, over a more beneficial period of time.
The 2020 CoP will be a huge shift for the seniors entering or sticking around next quad. Compositional requirements have been reduced, vaults are significantly downgraded, beam artistry has come under a more refined definition, and the qualification process has been overhauled. These are just a few of the changes Elena will have to deal with as she tries to hit the ground running at the start of 2017. To advance those ends she's training some new skills. On floor she is working a double layout, which she successfully tried at the St. Petersburg Championships. On beam she's adding a second loso, a sissone after her aerial cartwheel, a split jump after her front aerial, and a triple twist dismount. Her bars will be improved by a toe-on 1/2 and connecting a toe-on full to her full twisting double tuck dismount (and she teased us with this video of her attacking the G-rated Nabieva!). On vault, she has adapted the DTY as her AA vault of choice.
As exciting as these upgrades are, Elena's coaches have taken steps to ensure that she is being paced better than juniors of the past. For instance, we have public videos of her training the DTY on a soft mat as early as 2014. The challenge in preparing Russia's juniors for their senior debut, especially when it happens in a post-Olympic year, are not to be underestimated. By 2014, only one member of the 2012 European team was actively competing. In the span of two years, a golden team had lost 4 of it's highest prospects. Eventually, Evgenia Shelgunova came back but her entire senior career, which should've been a major benefit to Russia in 2013, was marred by injuries. Her injuries conspired to keep her from having the time to fix the technical aspects of her gymnastics & prevented her from more international experience, which is doubtless why she competes better domestically. I don't want that for Lena. It's why I suggest she not upgrade her program any further in 2017, and instead work on mastering her 2016 upgrades and perform consistently next year. My reasoning is thus: 1) competing through an entire quad should be treated as a marathon not a race 2) the first year of a quad is the least important 3) it would be difficult for all Russian coaches to navigate through any political fallout if the Rio Olympics should turn out unsuccessful for RUS 4) a change in the CoP (which will continue to revise itself up until 2018) and a possible changing of the guard after Rio is enough reason to set moderate goals to see how things play out and adjust accordingly, and most importantly, number 5) Burnout. Is. Lethal. Often I think about how easy Aliya Mustafina's second quad should have been. She won four medals in London at 80% health and I assumed that this quad was hers to rule. I was wrong in every way possible. Yes she remains relevant, but I could never have foreseen the amount of setbacks that happened to her so quickly after the Games, namely the firing of her personal coach and sending her off to dubious competitions just months after London [with a sore back]. Sometimes I didn't even think she would make it to this point because she seemed so burdened with responsibility and weary of her powerful reputation. One of her main regrets is that she did not ever take a break and that 2013 should've been the year to prioritize her health, her happiness, and her long term goals in the sport. Obviously Elena will be approaching her post-Olympic year under different circumstances, but the lesson of the tale rings true: take it easy the first year and set a pace that can be build on each year after. Respect your bodily limits and acknowledge that time is on your side.
There are a lot of people who have misgivings about Elena because she is not scoring extraordinary numbers in the AA (say 57+). They don't factor in how much she's improved since her breakout last year, or how much she's continuing to improve by the depth of her upgrades. But for me, the numbers are not what made me grow attached to this gymnast. When I first saw her on beam at 2015 Nationals, I was mesmerized with the way she moved. No stone was left unturned relative to artistry and execution, she seemed constantly in conversation with the apparatus. The people who doubt her talent should know that in Bern, Eremina averaged 8.65 in BB execution over three days, and averaged 8.1 on FX, WITH A FALL. C'mon people, these are events that Russia needs to revitalize with new blood and I think she could be a key player in turning them into strengths once more. I spoke about the
nature of victories, after the junior team final, and Elena's All Around victory was definitely a triumph of will. After her disastrous vault she was in 7th, after the
bars she was 4th, after the beam she was 2nd, and ending on floor she secured the title. To endure, to persist, makes a victory worthy even when it is not confidently earned. I can't think of a better
representative of Russian gymnastics so I'm happy that it all worked out for
her in the end. Junior AA champion!
We are coming to the end of a cycle and it is never easy for Russia to start again. With the odds stacked against her, it will take everything Elena has to dodge or overcome the drama, bullshit, politics, mismanagement, and medical predicaments, that grace this team in full force the year after an Olympics. Let us pray that her focus and determination to achieve more will take Elena Eremina far.
With the end of each Olympics, a number of retirements generally commence, allowing the next generation of gymnasts to make an impact on their national teams. Innately talented, with a petite well-toned physique, Lena possesses several of the qualities that it takes to make an impact at the senior level. She's artistic, ambitious, a fast learner, and holds steadfast under pressure situations. Any country would be lucky to have her type of potential to foster over the coming years. Like many other up-and-coming gymnasts from the European Championships, Eremina's big break will happen in a post-Olympic year. Unlike many of those gymnasts, she'll have to contend with her country's dismal track record of successfully navigating first year seniors through a post-Olympic transition.
Eremina's reputation has been on the rise since her strong showing at 2015 Nationals, an appearance that launched her into greater international spotlight and tournaments. She was part of the gold medal team at EYOF and is the bronze medalist from the Japan Junior International, where she competed against two U.S national champions. In March, the Saint Petersburg Championships were held and her upgrades on every event crushed the competition with a 57.8 in the All-Around. Not fully consistent with the new program, she tried her upgrades again at Nationals, and averaged a 111.633 over two days (55.0 and 56.633) counting falls on floor and issues on bars. Sent to 2016 Euros, she put up AA scores of 56.732 and 54.550 with a more conservative- yet not error free- performance and still won the All Around. As you can see, she's quickly risen through the ranks, and I see in her the signature of a future leader on the Russian team.
There is a steadiness about her that I think we all can appreciate, even when she suffers the same blunders and falls as everyone else. Her mistakes are not of the headcasey kind, but mostly come from more precise issues like being tired, or lack of focus due to overconfidence. Subsequently, I accept and forgive these faults, because the junior division is ideally where you should be learning about yourself and the patterns of your errors, and I have faith Lena is learning from every setback- she's an intelligent competitor. I can see how much she really wants to make an impression when she turns senior by the type of upgrades she is training and how she's attempting to add new skills everywhere in order to advance her AA future. Does she come with the kind of awe inspiring gymnastics as Nabieva, Grishina, or Komova had when they were juniors? No. Her level of difficulty and her execution is lower than theirs was... and yet...judging by the senior careers of the aforementioned, it's probably a good thing that her foundation allows her to mature into the type of gymnast she hopes to become, over a more beneficial period of time. The 2020 CoP will be a huge shift for the seniors entering or sticking around next quad. Compositional requirements have been reduced, vaults are significantly downgraded, beam artistry has come under a more refined definition, and the qualification process has been overhauled. These are just a few of the changes Elena will have to deal with as she tries to hit the ground running at the start of 2017. To advance those ends she's training some new skills. On floor she is working a double layout, which she successfully tried at the St. Petersburg Championships. On beam she's adding a second loso, a sissone after her aerial cartwheel, a split jump after her front aerial, and a triple twist dismount. Her bars will be improved by a toe-on 1/2 and connecting a toe-on full to her full twisting double tuck dismount (and she teased us with this video of her attacking the G-rated Nabieva!). On vault, she has adapted the DTY as her AA vault of choice.
As exciting as these upgrades are, Elena's coaches have taken steps to ensure that she is being paced better than juniors of the past. For instance, we have public videos of her training the DTY on a soft mat as early as 2014. The challenge in preparing Russia's juniors for their senior debut, especially when it happens in a post-Olympic year, are not to be underestimated. By 2014, only one member of the 2012 European team was actively competing. In the span of two years, a golden team had lost 4 of it's highest prospects. Eventually, Evgenia Shelgunova came back but her entire senior career, which should've been a major benefit to Russia in 2013, was marred by injuries. Her injuries conspired to keep her from having the time to fix the technical aspects of her gymnastics & prevented her from more international experience, which is doubtless why she competes better domestically. I don't want that for Lena. It's why I suggest she not upgrade her program any further in 2017, and instead work on mastering her 2016 upgrades and perform consistently next year. My reasoning is thus: 1) competing through an entire quad should be treated as a marathon not a race 2) the first year of a quad is the least important 3) it would be difficult for all Russian coaches to navigate through any political fallout if the Rio Olympics should turn out unsuccessful for RUS 4) a change in the CoP (which will continue to revise itself up until 2018) and a possible changing of the guard after Rio is enough reason to set moderate goals to see how things play out and adjust accordingly, and most importantly, number 5) Burnout. Is. Lethal. Often I think about how easy Aliya Mustafina's second quad should have been. She won four medals in London at 80% health and I assumed that this quad was hers to rule. I was wrong in every way possible. Yes she remains relevant, but I could never have foreseen the amount of setbacks that happened to her so quickly after the Games, namely the firing of her personal coach and sending her off to dubious competitions just months after London [with a sore back]. Sometimes I didn't even think she would make it to this point because she seemed so burdened with responsibility and weary of her powerful reputation. One of her main regrets is that she did not ever take a break and that 2013 should've been the year to prioritize her health, her happiness, and her long term goals in the sport. Obviously Elena will be approaching her post-Olympic year under different circumstances, but the lesson of the tale rings true: take it easy the first year and set a pace that can be build on each year after. Respect your bodily limits and acknowledge that time is on your side.
We are coming to the end of a cycle and it is never easy for Russia to start again. With the odds stacked against her, it will take everything Elena has to dodge or overcome the drama, bullshit, politics, mismanagement, and medical predicaments, that grace this team in full force the year after an Olympics. Let us pray that her focus and determination to achieve more will take Elena Eremina far.
Image 1 comes from an unknown source. Image 2 & 3 comes from ira-zhuravlova.tumblr.com
lovely article ☺
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