A Day For Melancholy & Merriness

I don't think any team is capable of giving more alarm to their fans than Russia. When they're not getting injured through gymnastics they're tempting fate with too many daredevil antics on the road. This morning, an airplane tragedy put their mortality into sharper perspective:

A Tu-154 plane from Russia’s Defense Ministry crashed in the early morning hours of Dec. 25 shortly after taking off from the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

There were 92 people on board the aircraft, including eight crew members and 84 passengers, that lost their lives in the plane disaster. Among those on the fatal flight was the Executive Director of the Spravedlivaya Pomoshch (Fair Aid) charity fund, Elizaveta Glinka, better known to the Russian public as Dr. Liza, as well as military servicemen and nine reporters from Russia's Channel One, Zvezda and NTV televition channels. The plane was also carrying nearly three dozen members of the world-renowned Alexandrov Ensemble, an official army choir of the Russian Armed Forces. The ensemble was on its way to celebrate New Year’s Eve with Russia’s Aerospace Forces at the Hmeymim air base in Syria.

So I learned of the crash and was mourning the loss of these brilliant lives when I found out that David Belyavskiy and a contingent of his teammates might have been on that very plane if they had not each declined for personal reasons. I would like to extend my condolences to the families and friends who are left to grieve in the wake of so many lives cut short. May their memories give you comfort and ease the pain in your hearts. Rest In Peace Tu-154 victims. As for the gymnastics team, I breath a sigh of relief.

"All My Training Was Not In Vain"

In substantially happier news, Aliya has given a new interview in which she reiterates her desire to compete at the Tokyo Olympics. But for now she's back in university dealing with exams. English is the hardest subject for her because she never had the time or desire to learn it after gym workouts, but now her break gives her the opportunity. As for her new role as wife to bobsledder, Alexei Zaitsev, she is very happy although she cannot receive the full bliss of matrimonial life since Alexei is often away to competitions (as he prepares for his Olympics in 2018). For instance, he will be gone for 3 months starting in January so things like that can be difficult. Bobsleigh is a new sport for her so she doesn't understand the rules but has the basics of what the sport is about. She often worries for him, but always supports him. She herself knows how daunting the Olympics can be, therefore she wants to be there (is this regarding Pyeongchang or Tokyo?). And if she should get pregnant in the space of four years, what then? Aliya [gives that smile we all know so well and] says her universal answer to such questions (the only answer anyone could give, honestly): "we'll see...time will tell." If the road to Tokyo should get tougher than she predicted, we might depend on the geography of the Games to spur her towards a third Olympics..."I've always liked Japan."