ICYMI

The 2017 Alina Gala (a.k.a. Alina's Children's Festival) has come and gone, with this year's theme representing "Russian Fairytales." Over 500 participants arrived in Moscow to  recreate whimsical scenes from ancient Slavic mythology and Russian folklore including The Death of Koschei the Deathless and The Frog Princess. What makes the Alina Gala so special is that Alina Kabaeva gives preference to children who would not otherwise be handed the limelight in Russia's competitive rhythmic terrain. Traditionally timed for International Children's Day, many of the young performers have disabilities or come from impoverished backgrounds (doing RG in Russia is pretty cheap up to a certain age and skill level); according to the press release, many come from local orphanages. The theatricality (and money) invested in this event is always a joy to behold, so Alina's not lying when she said, Russian gymnasts "were born to make fairy tales come true." A full photo gallery can be found here.


Life continues to be sweet for Yana Kudryatesva as she thrives in the lap of luxury. The three time World AA champion modeled for Alena Dementeva Atelier, an expensive fashion brand in Russia, and Yana recently returned from a vacation in Cyprus. In August (2-6), she will return to the sport for the first time since Rio by giving a training session in Merida, Mexico at the clubs of Gimnasia Ritmica Heymo and INPODE de Puebla.

Arina Averina finally picked up a World Cup title in Baku, where she bested Soldatova despite both of them committing mistakes. I think it's a good thing that the Averina's and Soldatova are getting scored realistically when they're abroad (remember those scores from GP Moscow?). There was minor grumbling over their routines scoring in the 17's range but I think that's a reasonable score for gymnasts who have 9+ difficulty and yet make an error. Consider that most gymnasts are scoring in the 17's for perfect routines so to still reach that mark indicates a clean routine would be in the 18's- still lower than what domestic judges would give them. Arina in particular has great energy and recovers well from mistakes (she even hides them well) but the judges know what the routines are supposed to look like and if she can't figure out how to add difficulty impromptu- something she can do in this CoP- then the D and E-score most drop. To see the score breakdown between her and Sasha click here. A summary of the competition highlights can be found here.

It's a new fiery clubs routine for Polina Shmatko, and she's upgraded to boot (she'll need to find consistency if she ever wants to beat Lala Kramarenko). I love the new elements but not really feeling the music (although I'll take this over Ukraine's pop monstrosities). She's best with somethings fun and fierce and this routine does suit her better than the previous one. Polina has also changed her ball routine to a track by Michael Jackson. Her penche pivots... 😵😵😵

On the artistic side of things, Daria Elizarova won the All-Around at the 2017 Svetlana Khorkina tournament where she showed upgrades on beam and bars. She'll likely make the Universiade team.

The federation posted this clip of Komova's second World title on bars captioned, "Komova is back!!!" and when someone asked ''for real?'' they replied "for sure!" Am I reading too much into this or is it the evidence we need that she's at Round Lake? Valentina did have this to say during Euros: "I’ve heard that Komova claimed she’s back again. I can tell her one thing: we’ll be happy to take her if she’s really back. But I don’t believe she’s going to work hard enough to produce the results we want from her. We’ve been waiting for her a long time, so let’s not put our hopes up. Let’s wait and see." (translation taken from Luba of israeligymnerd.blogspot.com, I did not view the source myself but have seen a similar statement- although not so critical- elsewhere.) UPDATE: Komova is indeed at Round Lake. A picture of her majesty (and Tut!) at RL surfaced.




Emin Garibov officially announced his retirement. He's transitioned well into a media role, working on public relations, social media, and news journalism for the team. His broadened responsibilities seem akin to something like a young team manager which is super cool because he's doing it for MAG and WAG, so he's learning a lot about how technical the women's CoP can be, execution wise. We will surely miss Emin but at least he's found a new role in which his efforts will be just as appreciated as his gymnastics contributions. (x)

Some prominent gymnasts will be competing at WC Osijek Cup (is it just me or does this minor comp get well attended every year?). From Euros we have Dmitrii Lankin and Kirill Prokopyev. Joining them will be Vladislav Poliashov and Kirill Potapov. The latter I recognize from 2013 EYOF (vault champion) and as the junior team member who took silver in the 2014 European team final. I'm uncertain about Vladislav, but hey, this'll be a good time to review his potential. On the women's side, we'll see Lilia Akhaimova, Anastasia Ilyankova, and Elizaveta Kochetkova. I'm thrilled that Nastia's recovered and I hope Lillia can start to get higher placements on floor internationally. She improves non-stop so hopefully the additional time has seen her execution balance out the difficulty enough to get some results in Osijek. The full roster is equally exciting and can be found here.

Even on vacation, our gymnasts think of World's. The federation took some quotes from prominent players even thought they only have up to 10 days off before being expected to return to Round Lake. All quotes were taken from the federation website. A summary:

• David Belyavskiy and his wife are in the UAE where they're enjoying sunbathing, swimming and simple relaxation. "At the next training I will need to completely recover the last three apparatus- vault, floor, and rings, although they're mostly ready, but I need to work on my endurance, and also get consistent on a few elements for the parallel bars and pommel horse."
• Poor Angelina Melnikova says that rest was not forthcoming despite that being her main concern after Euros: "I did not quite have a rest, I had to take exams." A lot of time has been spent studying, but for her the best rest is to spend time with family and friends. "At the next training I will basically learn something new, work on new skills, amp up the program.'' #PRAY
• Artur Dalaloyan had some downtime to visit his club (Dynamo-Moscow) and personal coach to discuss his Euros results, but most of his time has been spent romancing his girlfriend. He values this vacation because its's necessary to recharge the mind and body (talk to the Rod's on Melka's behalf, pls) but when he returns it's full steam ahead on the upgrades and he sounds serious about wanting them in the program by year's end. 
• Elena Eremina didn't have a full rest either but she takes her conditioning seriously; in addition to studying for her exams, she still went to a gym every day to stay fit. She summed up her week thusly: "Basically I study and continue to prepare for school exams with different tutors everyday." For the next training camp she wants to add complexity (difficulty) and gain stability, the latter being a huge deal for her at Euros and resulting in a self grade of C minus after her performance in the All-Around.
• NIkita Nagorny is in super high spirits and knows that to fight for a World medal he will have to refine his vaulting and add difficulty. 
• Dmitrii Lankin urges fans to "love gymnastics, watch us, support us...because our victory- it's your victory!" He spent some time at home and had to renew his passport because he turned 20. Lankin is like most of us, he doesn't need a glitzy vacation destination to relax he just needs to sleep. He sets his goals as getting back his AA program, adding complexity, and working towards quality execution. 

Denis Ablyazin advises fellow athletes to take up biking as a great way to condition the legs without the pounding of gymnastics conditioning. Insights into Ablyazin's personal life since becoming a father can be found here in a translated interview. I completely forgot he was a daddy! Congrats, belatedly, Dennis.

Russia's VTB Bank renewed it's contract with the FIG. (x)

Here's a cute photoset of Paseka and Melnikova in Cluj.