ICYMI

So besides Aliya being pregnant a few other things did happen this recently. 

Firstly, the roster for the American Cup was released and surprise surprise there is no Russian attendee. However, we will see Klimenko and Simakova in Texas for the WOGA Classic happening February 18th. Japanese, Chinese, and New Zealand juniors will be in attendance but I don't know much about their prospects so it's hard to gauge who the podium contenders are amongst those teams (not to mention any Americans flying under my radar). In any case, we've sent two very strong gymnasts. I do know that Irina Alexeeva will be there representing WOGA and she recently took the AA title at the 2016 Massilia Open Invitational with 57.100. 

Which reminds me, we have a new scoring system so numbers are going to seem really low to us for a year (maybe more). Getting a 57 will be just about the equivalent of a 59 from last quad. The e-panel is also strictest in the first year of the quad so 8.3-8.5 means you did really good and anything above that is great. 

Former Soviet and Russian head coach, Leonid Arkaev, had his coaching contract terminated at a local Mordovia gym last October. Last week, accusations surfaced in local newspapers that Leonid had sublet his state-owned apartment frequently in the past, illegally sold sports titles, and was molesting girls at his gym. Coaches and others close to the situation maintain that he was a difficult person to be around but Arkaev dismissed the accusations as vindictive fodder and says he feels he was fired for not getting any club gymnasts on the National team. The story hasn't picked up any steam since then which could indicate that a police investigation is underway or someone with influence is stonewalling further leaks of information. UPDATE: As soon as I wrote the words into existence this article appeared. Zelikson will be taking over Arkayev's gym which seems shady because going from national team coach to head of an unknown gym is quite the downgrade in status. Well, with Zelikson's appointment, I think we can take a guess at who the influential people are controlling this story!

RG: Elena Karpushenko thinks Yana should become a coach but Yana told her she doesn't want to be a coach. Karpushenko surmises that at this time in Yana's life she's not ready to contribute to RG in that specific way, but possibly in the future. Elena also says that Soldatova is the new top girl in Russia (which implies Rita has retired) and that she will not take on any new girls (she will continue to train Alina Ermolova and Karina Kuznetsova). Here is a video where Yana and Rita talk about their individual Olympic experience (turn on captions for subtitles). 

A cute video showing how Dina and Arina got started in gym. I rarely ever see them in interviews but that's probably about to change as they rise to greater prominence. 

Ivan Stretovich and girlfriend, Maria Paseka, will be returning to Germany to evaluate their respective injuries. Komova is not mentioned and Kharenkova continues to rehabilitate at her home gym, wearing a boot. Despite having a foot injury Nikita Nagorny is pushing for Russian Nationals in March and is being very foolish (in my opinion) by removing his boot during training. He shouldn't be doing either of those things if you ask me; even if he competes at Nationals he won't be able to show any upgrades so what's the point of this trivial deadline? If it's not injuries, it's burnout, and of course one often brings about the other...