Hope Springs Eternal

"I can not believe this!!!!Today I became European champion !!!!!! And the hymn sounded today for the whole country! 🇷🇺😻 I want to thank all the coaches who worked with me !! I'm so proud that I have such people !!! ❤️ Special thanks to my choreographer @olivia_burova for such a floor routine. You said that it would be something! And so it was! 😭 thank everyone who was worried for me, for all your kind words of support! 💖 I love you very much! 💞Without you I would have nothing! 🙈 ♥ ️ And I believe in the phrase "hope springs eternal!" ✨ Thank you, thank you and thank you again! 😻

                                                                                                                  -Angelina Melnikova

The first thing Angelina did was change her IG account to list her new title as European Floor Champion! How wonderful to see these words from Gelya, after cataloging her disappointments all week and breaking our hearts with each discouraging setback. What she produced today is how she performed, not just as a junior, but all of last year before her hamstring injury returned. She's told the media that she is reinvigorated after her win but first will get some rest (woohoo) because she's completed her fifth tournament this year. I think I know the kind of girl we will likely see in August for the Russian Cup ;)

Wow, Russia ended the 2017 European Championships with a bang. Four out five athletes received a medal on Day 2 and in my opinion it should've been five. I'm so excited, let's get right into the breakdown of how this competition concluded.

I have a feeling this is a turning point in his career.

Day 2 started with men's vault final and the first competitor up would be Artur Dalaloyan. Not a very good position to be in since your routine set's the standard without knowing the magic number you need to stay in first. As it turns out, I had nothing to worry about. Artur came to this competition to break records not break down. He opened with a beautiful and stuck yurchenko triple twist for a 9.466 in execution, #nobigdeal. His second vault was a handspring dbl front pike which was also very pretty (okay, some legginess in the second rotation) and a hop on landing. He received a 9.2 in execution which tells me his first score should've been higher considering the errors. He put up the highest average we've seen on vault this year with a 14.933 and ultimately it would be enough to hold out against the other seven finalist. I was nervous because Dragulescu was last and he's been getting away with subpar routines and scoring exceptionally higher than he would had this meet been anywhere else. But everyone feels sorry for ROU b/c their gymnastics program is nonexistent, and since the UEG doesn't care about biased judging and crowd booing, let's move on. Dalaloyan was a very worthy winner and rewarded perfectly for two immaculate vaults.

The next final was P-bars. I thought I knew which of the two Russians I'd see on the podium but it wouldn't be right for realistic things to go as I predict. What happened instead was Nagorny improving by six tenths over quals to snatch the medal from David on his pet event. David struggled with bent elbows on one rail and looked slightly labored but had a great double front 1/2 out dismount. I was surprised he scored higher than quals but 'new day new judges' I guess. Nagorny had the routine of his life. Everything went straight to vertical handstand, his swing was confident and fluid, and no leg form breaks on his healy's. A hop on a super dismount sealed bronze by just a third of a tenth over Belyavskiy. Tbh, I think David should've been on the podium in bronze and Nikita in silver. I don't think Oleg deserved his score at all; everyone had at least one mistake but he had a few way over-arched handstands and a 9+ e-score means they weren't deducted properly. I know he's generally the best, but just like in Rio, I felt his reputation secured him the victory over the person who was actually best that day. It's nice to see the Russian men are so well prepared that even an All Arounder who doesn't excel on an event can still make that final and even medal. Congratulations, Nikita, I can't wait to see what crazy upgrades you tackle this summer.

Finally the moment we've been waiting for. Not the floor final per se but Melka having a terrific day on any apparatus. In fact, both she and Lena were amazing on fx so I can't comprehend Lena's score at all. She equaled her qualifications in terms of execution but her d-score dropped by two tenths, though I'm unsure what got discredited. In quals she fell out of her 1.5 y-turn and still got the full difficulty- but her dance elements looked sharp today so if anyone could just help me get over this I'd appreciate it, cuz right now I'm feeling like she wasn't scored fairly (that 2 tenths is the diff. between 8th and 4th place). Going forward I'd like to see her connect the full-in to a double stag jump or punch front out of it, something to give her CV and reduce the risk of taking steps. I'd also love it if she connected her memmel and double attitude since they're both stable elements for her. Even though a medal wasn't forthcoming, a solid routine is the way everyone wants to end their meet so good job to Lena at her first senior Euros.

Man, Angelina has been winning the imaginary medals for most stunning leo all week. Today she promised she would do her best to try to close out Euros with some good memories but who could have predicted such a stunning success? Her floor routine opened with a lovely double L turn to double spin and an even lovelier dbl arabian. She stuck her dbl layout and closing dbl pike, with the greatest form deduction coming on her third pass, the piked full-in. It was messy as usual and she had a tiny step back to keep it in check but the height was amazing. I saw the smile on her face before she even struck the end pose and I knew right then that the joy of gymnastics had returned to her. God willing, the summer break gives her the rest she needs to view these last few months in clearer perspective and realize that she was handicapped right outta the gate. If every Russian gymnast was thrown aside for her early season results we wouldn't have World or Olympic champions. As it is, I like the trio of Kapi, Melka, and Lena. They're a pretty team. In my dreams, Melka always wins floor, Elena beam, and Kapitonova bars. The sad thing about this team is how realistic the vision is yet how far the probability of them doing it. I hope each is inspired by Melka's gold medal because, girls, you have it in you to win all the events at Euros. You are that good. How wonderful for Melka to receive the three things she needed: affirmation that she can deliver a marvelous routine, a title that confirms it, and months of summer recovery before she needs to be seen again. Queen Angelina, please come back strong at Russian Cup, what you did today is your actual normal!


It was extremely hard to concentrate after the fx results sunk in but I knew David was up on HB and I couldn't just flake on the guys when they've been killing it all week. I'm glad I calmed down long enough to watch his routine because it was worth my attention. The race was extremely tight from the get go. France and Great Britain were tied for first. Then the two Swiss men rose to the top and put some distance between them and everyone else. It was an exciting final up until that point and then the gymnast from the Netherlands fell. High bar is arguably Russian MAG's worst event; even a hit routine doesn't score very high and it's so strange because WAG is known for their brilliant swing. David had the lowest SV in the field with a 5.7 and I definitely think he needs to try to get that to a 6.0 at least, because World's will have tighter scoring and at 5.7 a good e-score will barely graze the 14 mark. But one step at a time, and it was enough for today that he got through his routine without any major issues and managed to pull ahead of FRA/GB by a .0333 (the same margin Nagorny beat him by in PB).

Did our team do amazing or what? Along with the successes we had missed moments, but that must be used as incentive to reach the podium next time. And in a twisted way, it's better that we had some missed opportunities than have our very best still not good enough to compete for medals. Sometimes Russia thrived and sometimes barely survived but it was a joy for me to watch each of them give it their best. As always.