Baby Swan Graduates: Aleksandra Schekoldina

Aleksandra Schekoldina (Александра Щеколдина), also known as Schek or Sasha, is from Surgut and represents the Ural Federal Okrug. Like Sima, she was born in 2002, is a long time Junior National Team member and even has the same strengths as a gymnast, so the two have been confused for one another quite a few times. She's very talented and promising, but has struggled with inconsistency and injuries, so her junior career is a lot more modest than her close rival's. She's a 2016 National Champion on vault and won balance beam and all around silver, but got injured later that year and spent the late 2016 and early 2017 trying and failing to come back. She did compete a few times, but always with disastrous results. To be honest, I was seriously beginning to think that she would end up as a regular Russian burn-out before even making it to senior level, but luckily she proved me wrong. In late 2017 she finally returned to competition again, this time successfully and was sent straight to Massilia with Sima. There she won gold on vault. A month later at the Voronin Cup she finished her junior career victoriously by winning the all around and uneven bars gold, and floor exercise bronze.

Schek is a good all arounder with excellent floor and great beam. She's also strong on vault and decent on bars. She has plenty of character and sass, which makes her a great performer, especially on floor. It's actually a hard to find a picture of her where she isn't making a funny face. Her face is also quick to show her happiness when she's doing good and disappointment and frustration when things aren't going right for her. And things aren't really going right for her all that often. She's terribly inconsistent and one of those Russians who look amazing when they're on (just look at that position she hits in her leaps), but a complete mess when they're off. There's little middle-ground and you never know which Schek you're going to get with her. So of course I'm doomed to love her. I always fall for the ones who are bad for me. But to me she's great, whatever she does, at least she's entertaining to watch.

VAULT:

She's definitely one of the stronger vaulters of the team and has a decent DTY. It's not particularly powerful or clean, but she has it and the team needs DTYs, so we're thankful for it.

UNEVEN BARS:

Bars is a weaker event for her, but she's not bad there either. She has a nice natural swing when she's not rushing and she can be very clean when she's on, but often she's just not on and she tends to be a bit sloppy with her handstands. She has upgraded her routine this year, but she still needs more difficulty and consistency. Her routine from Massilia was a disaster and I can't embed her routine from Voronin Cup (much better, but she still had a fall), but here's a link to the routine.

BALANCE BEAM:

As most Russian juniors, she was great on beam. She has beautiful basics and great precision in her movement, I really enjoy watching her. Or at least I did. Her routines since she came back haven't been all that great, but whatever, I'll give her some more time to get comfortable competing again. She now has the same super daring mount as Sima, but hasn't yet hit it in the two competitions she's competed since her return.

FLOOR EXERCISE:

Floor is definitely her best piece, not only because her knack for performing really comes out there, but because she's a great tumbler. When she was a tiny little junior, she was already famous for training as very nice-looking double layout full. And now that she came back, she actually has a flighty double double, a first for the Russians since Anastasia Grishina in London. I included this routine in the post for The Best and Worst of 2017 because it was both the best and the worst to me. I hate how generic the routine is, but she still makes the best out of it with her performance. This is performnace at the Voronin Cup, the video cuts out the beginning of her routine, but at least there's not a terrible fall on a memmel in the middle of it.