Rumors and Headaches and Smoke & Ugh

This weekend, as we drew nearer to the competition in Georgia, Russian fans could not contain themselves from throwing around a number of speculated upgrades that the WAG team were training. Whether they are training those upgrades or not, I want to be clear that there's been found to be NO LEGITIMATE SOURCE behind these rumors. 

I can only sadly surmise that the engine behind all of this mania is the US Nationals that just ended. The strong showing there, and the typical gymternet hype that ensues, must have had many Russian fans feeling a wee bit too threatened... and its causing some desperate behavior within the fandom. From overreacting because some gymnasts aren't at Round Lake (I guess they're not training at all, then!) to chengs being trained by just about everyone apparently...yep, this weekend had it all. 

It's gotten so bad that many of the Russian team members have taken a [new] hostile tone towards those who are clogging their inboxes on ask.fm and sprashivai, demanding to know the timeline for unveiling these upgrades. Seda in particular has let us all know that if we have a question about Aliya Mustafina, ASK HER FOR YOURSELF. Lol, poor girl. But seriously, she also let us know that she has no idea where our info is coming from (her exact response to one particular question about a supposed BB upgrade). She doesn't sound upset in the "hey, you found out!" sort of way. She sounds confounded and frustrated because there's so much falsity in our assumptions. 

Melnikova, Sokova, Sosnitskaya. Tutkhalyan. Please leave these girls alone and stop harassing them. We will soon see their programs in Georgia and then two weeks later at the Russian Cup. Just remember, if the worst has happened (like injury) we will soon hear about it from official sources. If the best is true and they are doing all these purported upgrades, we will soon see it. But at Round Lake, where there's smoke there's not always fire. 

US Nationals broke the record for online gymnastics viewing this weekend. More than 8,000 viewers tuned in for one country's national championships. The European Games, hosting 40 nations, and with global broadcast rights, peaked at 5,000 but most days averaged just above 3,000 online viewers.

The Baku stadium held 5,000 maximum. Day 2 of the US Nationals saw 15,730 fans pack into a 17,000 person arena. All this success is putting not just the Russian fandom on edge. The Chinese gymternet were quick to brag of upgrades too!