2016 Voronin Cup Report

Voronin marked the completion of the 2013-16 elite quad and boy did those gymnasts look like they were ready for it to end. There were some rather proud moments to be had but on the whole, no one was trying for perfect here, and the few who managed to appear presentable couldn’t shake the laid back ethos permeating the competition. Except Daria Elizarova. Always excepting her.

The 2016 Mikhail Voronin Cup concluded with Russia’s oldest active gymnast winning the senior all-around with a score of 56.767, an easy margin of victory to separate her from Polina Federova (55.634) and Lilia Akhaimova (53.500). She also had a pretty successful outing in the event finals, winning beam gold and floor bronze and was fourth on bars, albeit with a 12.733. While beam has traditionally been her strongest and favorite event, scores in the upper 14’s on both days of competition managed to raise some eyebrows. I mean, it’s Voronin, and competent work will always score super high so I’m not taking it seriously, but for what it's worth I thought she looked terrific and worked with an old school type of proficiency across the beam. We’ve perhaps passed the point where Daria can be a game changer- individually or in a team capacity- but regardless, I’m never quite prepared for just how good she looks: her form, her skills, the ease of execution... it’s still there. I think I’ve reached a point with her where I no longer feel it’s necessary to say she looks good for her age, she looks good period! And with added difficulty and more favoritism thrown her way who knows what might be in store for her? As it is, she’s aiming for the Universiade team and I think that deserves a lot of respect, when someone continues to push themselves and be ambitious despite having their peak years far behind.  

Evgenia Shelgunova, on the other hand, just can’t catch a break. On the heel of numerous training videos she managed to once again take the wind out of her own sails before too many victims jumped on that ship. Seriously, what will it take for people to understand she can’t be trusted lol? She fell multiple times off the bars (10.700) and then dismounted a deadly double pike off beam for a 13.367, counting a fall on her first acro series. Despite this, she pulled herself together without any major errors on vault or floor and finished the competition with a 51.700-  her demeanor fluctuated between disappointment and resignation. Alas, she wasn’t the only one who imploded. Anastasia Dmitrieva had the most lackluster competition of any person in 2016, can we agree? It’s always heartbreaking for me to watch her struggle (comparative to Shelgunova) because there was a time when she could produce world class gymnastics. I recall the 2015 Torino 4- Nations tournament where everyone thought of her as a mini Afan. Back then the ease of her tumbling and delightful artistry had us all spellbound. I can’t conceive of what’s changed to rob her of that vitality but all the signs of a lost cause are here with us now. She ended her AA with a 47.634.

As Shelgunova and Dmitrieva faltered, Elena Eremina stepped into the spotlight with a stronger showing than Elite Masillia, winning the junior AA with 56.433. Looking especially nice on beam, I loved her new mount and some of the choreographic changes she made. I notice this beam routine is markedly different from anything she’s done before; she took out the punch front, the side aerial is connected, the L-turn is gone, and there’s no longer a leap after the front aerial (this was a training upgrade so perhaps it’ll be back). There's a lightness about her that I'm infatuated with. Beautiful though it was, errors cannot be disregarded; there were slightly soft knees on her bhs+loso+loso, not enough extension on a leap or two, and little to no accuracy when planting her feet. She is going through puberty and can battle out the worst of it at the beginning of the quad when those years are least important, but in light of these growth related errors, I’m glad the triple twist dismount is not being thrown in competition. I swear, I can watch girls like Elena or Aliya all day, their gymnastics is so pretty even bad routines have merit:

Lena surprised us all by throwing the nabieva twice in competition, the first time bringing in a score of a 14.8 on UB. Neither time was fully laid out, and obviously needs work in both amplitude and power- still, it was exciting to see a junior attempting upgrades that can only help her as she matures as a senior. Emphasis on ‘matures’ because I think she’ll continue to get heavily deducted in her first year. But she’s Russian and this is their event so Grebs will get it to a good place or die trying. There’s this double standard on how the gymternet reacts to sloppy gymnastics: if a Russian is sloppy in attempting upgrades, many people focus on how terrible it looks, or how it’s likely to kill her, while for every other country the same people are capable of separating their anxiety over the execution from their awe of the skill. I sort of understand why this hypocrisy might exist. The Russians pride themselves on retaining an aesthetic sensibility (and make a big hoopla about it too) so when they’re sloppy it does stand out more if only because, by principle, we expect them to only do things that look beautiful. I get that, but I’ve spent a lot of time this quad witnessing gymnasts reach finals because they landed the difficulty yet barely grazed an 8 in execution. I’m not justifying sloppy upgrades, but Russia cannot afford to live in the world of ‘perfection or nothing’ when gymnasts like Fragapane* are scoring 14.4 on beam with a 7.8 e-score. While balancing their lofty ideals they have to start performing massive difficulty earlier because that's whats working in our competitors' favor. The traditional wisdom of easing into upgrades is gone and in its place we'll see more examples like Paseka & her infamous cheng- universally loathed in its surprise debut at Euros, it nonetheless clinched gold and improved enough by Worlds to win again. Paseka gained real confidence from that first controversial win and it worked as the best catalyst for improvement I've ever seen. I still dislike her cheng and hate even more that she gambled so big at a European championships, but apparently she understood back then what I know better of now. This is the new way and it's not of Russia's making but since we want to see our girls become successful we better roll with the changes or get rolled over. I’m pleased to see even a wonky nabieva because, you know what, sooner or later she’ll need it to get ahead! It’s the hardest bar skill in WAG but she’s clearly serious about it and there’s no reason it can’t improve with four years in front of her. Ahem, maybe it's time for Nabs to reinvent herself as Lena's bars coach?

Elizaveta Kochetkova won the UB final over Eremina (who counted a .5 deduction for an extra swing). Liza’s routines always start off really well and then get dodgier as her stamina wanes. We rarely think of endurance when it comes to bars but I’m reminded of how important conditioning is when I see Kochetkova struggle to the finish. In writing it sounds much worse than it appeared- and indeed she scored a 14.6- so no point pressing the issue. Her best moment came on floor in the EF's, where she danced beautifully and opened with a whip to triple for the gold. She showed tremendous potential at this  meet, picking up 1 silver (aa), 1 bronze (vt), and two golds (fx,ub). Voronin isn't a competition people usually use to build on, but a boost of confidence before the domestic season is never unwelcome.

The beam final went brilliantly for Varvara Zubova, who snatched gold with a 14.06. Known for choosing gutsy combinations, she has struggled in the past to make her skill set consistent, but it worked out for her today. Mostly. The "onodi" was balked, she almost came off on the illusion turn, and the usual leg form errors added up for a mountain of deductions. But the D-score reigned supreme and she edged Lastovskaya of Belarus by less than a tenth. 

We will see some of these girls in February so as they enjoy the New Year & orthodox Christmas holiday, I hope they rest up, have fun, eat well and be merry, and then return to the gym with a vengeance. It'll be a new year and a little progress each day adds up to big results. 



*Please don't take this as a personal attack on her. She is not the only one. I'm using her name because she's well known but I could have just as well used someone like Mykayla Skinner. There are others, too, who are throwing their difficulty soon after training because with a high enough D almost any e-score will keep them in contention. If they can stand it up, it's competition ready. What used to be a gamble for some is turning into a method for the majority.