A Love Letter to Viktoria Komova's Uneven Bars Routine

Author's note: I swear I was trying really hard to not sound corny, but it just didn't work out, okay?!? So this post is filled with some sugary drooling after Vika's bars, starting with an extra sugary foreword, forgive me.
-----
It has been four years since Viktoria Komova last competed at World Championships. Four long years. The last time was in 2011 and the Worlds were in Tokyo. It was a different time and a different Code of Points, but it was also the exciting pre-Olympic year.

I began this post with this reminder, because I feel like a lot of people don't remember what happened then. They remember her two silvers, one of them tainted with tears of disappointment, but they forgot what came afterwards, and that was a gold medal.

She was the uneven bars World Champion then and she regained her title this year, in perhaps the most bizarre final in ages, but still. And she may look a completely different gymnast, but the way she swings bars is still as breathtakingly beautiful as it was then.
-----

Late night movie -post with the young Liz Lemon

So I had never actually seen the old '80s movie Nadia (what an oversight, I know) and had nothing to do tonight so I decided to watch it. I didn't know what to expect, except some dramatic scenes and music and terrible haircuts ('80s, you know). But I must say it was better than I expected, mostly because it was quite hilarious. Unintentionally of course.

So, Svetlana Khorkina. Should I yell at her, yell with her, or just cry a little bit?

It was expected that Svetlana Khorkina would have something (controversial) to say about Russia's 4th place finish at the World Championships and she did not disappoint. You can read the original Russian interview (published by Sport Mail) here and a great English translation/summary by tumblr user papaliukin here. I recommend you read it, Khorkina is brutally honest which makes for an interesting interview. You can disagree with her on a lot, but she still makes you think.

The first part of the interview is Khorkina just saying aloud what everyone else is thinking: Russia didn't look ready at all, their routines still lack the difficulty needed to challenge USA in Rio and the time is running short. They can fight for the podium if they hit, but since hitting is a big problem for them, they have the work cut out for them. Sure. They also have amazing gymnasts, capable of being champions. She mentions Mustafina, Komova and Tutkhalyan in particular, but makes a point saying that they look like they're lacking the necessary motivation to reach that potential and actually become champions. 

But it's after the obvious is said when the interview really gets interesting and starts revealing more about Khorkina herself and the changing society and its effects on gymnastics than the Russian situation itself. For the most of the interview she expresses her frustration over gymnasts' work ethics and the increasing publicity over the team inner workings and then she compares them to herself and how things were done back then. While most of us seem to be happy that the gymnasts aren't isolated from the rest of the word anymore and have freedom to decide for themselves, she longs for the old days when the Round Lake camp and gold medals were the only things that mattered to gymnasts, and the coaching staff was there to make sure that everyone worked as hard as they could and more.

First post.

You may already know me as tsarinamustafina or Mr Heckles from tumblr, but this is the first time that I'm emerging from the vast depths of that side of the gymternet and posting on another platform.

I made this blog because I want to archive some of my...stuff... and turn my tumblr into a more readable form, so don't expect any in depth analysis of different teams or some insider knowledge of gymnastics. I'm just not that good and there are plenty of excellent blogs for that. This will be just... I don't know. A mix of my silly thoughts as they occur to me and weird editing. We'll see later, I may just end up shutting this page down in two weeks, or it will hang here without any posts for years. My main focus will still be tumblr, because it's the easiest way of keeping up with the gymnastics world and "blogging" about it and I'm just that lazy.

Oh, and I have a huge test at school tomorrow so creating a blog was the perfect way to avoid studying for it.