Vornin Cup Report Soon To Come

A lengthy post on Voronin should be up over the weekend but for now I wanted to give attention to two things:

Firstly, Aliya has confirmed that she will take two years off and then train for Tokyo. 

This is exciting news although I accept how much can change over that length of time. Only two vets made it to Rio so I'm not celebrating preemptively, I'm just happy because she still has enough love for the sport to try for a third Olympics. I wonder how rest and health will affect her return in 2019 ;)

Speaking of Aliya, she was very classy when a journalist at the Olympians ball tried to bait her into speaking ill of the American team regarding the drug history of Biles and Hernandez, revealed in the "fancy bears" leak. Aliya responded that she does not get pulled into those conversations because she doesn't think about things that are not her business, her job as a sportswoman is to perform her routines well. 

And this is the "diva'' that certain American broadcasters try to cut down with their pseudo cold war commentary? 

I'm baffled how can anyone not love and respect her when she's shown ample signs of her diplomacy and great sportsmanship over many years! 

Thanks to one of my anon's for bringing this to my attention, I had forgotten to review the press clips in more detail, and you're right anon, it is cute how shy Aliya is when she's complimented. 

Just a few months after the Rio Games, things are not looking so well for Maria Paseka or Emin Garibov, career wise. Both had stated shortly after the Games ended that they planned to continue with gymnastics. But Emin now admits he hasn’t been in the gym for months and is at an impasse in his life. Paseka is struggling with reoccurring back pain; didn't she have nerve damage to her back in late spring of 2014? If she has the surgery she will no longer be able to do gymnastics (x). This makes me extremely sad because Paseka is the one of the most improved gymnast of the 2013-16 quad, so to see her career possibly ended before she feels ready is maddeningly disappointing, but of course health and quality of life comes first. She's not officially announced her retirement, and  I doubt we'll ever get one from her, but I can't reasonably see a way out of this situation? Perhaps the doctors will find a way to heal her and she'll come back to shock people, but no matter what we'll always have 2015… the year a  Russian was European and World vault champion!

I'm writing the Voronin article and should have something up soon; alas, the last elite competition of the Rio CoP has ended. A long recap of Russia's best (and worst?) moment's this quad is due.