The Long Journey of McKayla Maroney

Right after her bestie Kyla...

We knew McKayla Maroney was done, but now it's official. Except that she doesn't want to use the word "retire". Gymcastic did an interview with her (requested by McKayla herself) and it's amazing, just watch it. It tells you pretty much anything and everything you need to know about McKayla.

My first impression was that she can't stop talking. There's no need for interviewer, you can just point the camera at her and she'll do the rest. It's both endearing and annoying, and it gives off the impression of a little child. It's like her mind is running 100 miles per hour, she's self obsessed with her thoughts and she's so excited about her discoveries about life and just wants to share everything she's thinking and has limited time to do so. I'm guessing it's just her personality, but there's probably some nerves involved too. Oh, and the fact that for a long time she wasn't allowed to say anything, she just had to hold everything in. As she tells in the interview, talking to other contestants was discouraged (to put it mildly), and as for the media, just keep smiling (no matter with how many broken bones). So now she says it all.

Why, Kyla, Why

So Kyla Ross, my favorite Fierce Five member, announced her retirement from elite two days ago.

Ummm, Kyla?!?! Didn't you read my last post about retirements and how they're going to happen AFTER Rio? You just had to go ahead and one-up everybody by starting early, didn't you.

This is like Ana Porgras back in 2012. Or not, since Kyla actually got to go to the Olympics at least once. But it's still devastating. She's been around for such a long time (National Team member since 2009) that it's difficult to picture USA gymnastics without her. And even after last year she's still the most reliable gymnast in my mind. I wouldn't have hesitated putting her up in team finals in Glasgow even with all the struggles she had throughout last year. I'm sure she would have delivered just like she always did when they needed her. She was never really a team leader or a star, but I feel like she was incredibly needed during the transitional years after the Olympics, so young but a pillar of strength subtly holding the team together.

And she was such a beautiful gymnast. Long lines, beautiful technique and precision with a touch of elegance, everything I love in a gymnast. And photogenic, nearly impossible to find a bad picture of her. I was trying to find a nice montage to put here, but even though there were plenty of nice montages, I couldn't find the perfect one for my Kyla.

I still wanted to pay homage to her, so I included her in my series of...different sides thingies? I don't think this series has a name, I should come up with one. But here's for Kyla, you will be missed.

Kyla's going to start college gymnastics at UCLA in the fall on the same team as former elites Danusia Francis (senior now, so she will graduate before it), Katelyn Ohashi and Peng Peng Lee. Another Fierce Five alumna, Jordyn Wieber is a team manager so I'm sure Kyla will fit right in. Not to mention that she's such a tough competitor with excellent execution. I have a feeling that there are plenty of Perfect 10s just waiting for her at college.

Go win everything Kyla.

Russian Team for Gymnix

It has been 8 years (two whole quads) since Nailya Mustafina went to Canada and had one of the best competitions of her short lived career there. It was way back when the two Mustafina sisters were just tiny Russian baby swans taking over the world together.

8 years later and it's time for new Russian babies to take that important step on their way to becoming A) a star (someone like Khorkina, Aliya, Afan) B) Russian regulation hot mess (everyone else on the senior team) or C) one of those amazing Russian juniors who never make it to seniors (Nailya). Let's hope this year's Gymnix team belongs to the category A. Or at least B. Although, there's a 99% chance that they'll end up in C...

But I love Gymnix. It's one of those really rare competitions where we can see (always plenty of videos) gymnasts from youth to junior national team level competing together and the Russians actually attend every year. This year's Gymnix will be held 3-6 March with Anastasia Ilyankova (b. 2001), Ulyana Perebinosova (b. 2001), Valeria Saifulina (b. 2002) and Varvara Zubova (b. 2002) attending. These are not their top juniors (except for Ilyankova, this is actually her 3rd Gymnix), but this is another reason why I love Gymnix, we get to see gymnasts we don't usually see so much of.

I'm going to post more when we get to see some videos, but here's quickly a few things that I'm looking forward to:

• Ilyankova's amazing bars. She's seriously amazing on this apparatus and her routine isn't the usual cookie cutter Russian style.
• Ilyankova's everything else. She's a headcase, but what else is new. I'm hoping she gets her shit at least somewhat together for this competition, she's going to be senior next year so I'd love to see some improvements.
• Perebinosova's floor. She's actually quite clean there, and charming too. So she has potential, I'm hoping she can harness that.
• Perebinosova's bars. Like Ilyankova, she has an interesting routine (Ezhova!), but unlike Ilyankova, it's really, really rough. I'm hoping she has cleaned it up. 
• Definitely not Perebinosova's beam. I don't want to die from anxiety attack.
• Saifulina's floor and beam. She really has lovely lines and presentation, especially on beam.
• Zubova's everything. I've been stanning her since forever, she has way too much charisma for such a tiny thing. I even love her name so much, she really needs to become a star. And she does gainers. And stays on the beam, with nice routine too. Go win everything girl. We can always hope for a miracle on bars, right?

Here's the list of competitors:

Olivia Cimpian, yay! Just please don't embarrass my baby Russians by being more elegant than them. And yeah, Team USA is going to crush everyone. They rarely even come to Gymnix, what's up with that...

Nellie Kim Explains Gymnastics

Nellie Kim, a former Soviet gymnast and the long-time President of the Women’s Technical Committee is one of the most important figures in women's gymnastics: she's basically HBIC, the right hand of Bruno Grandi and in charge of the judges. You can often see her at the most important meets, running from judge to judge and checking computer screens for reference when there's a problem.

She's still a Soviet Diva at heart, she's excellent and she knows it and controversy seems to follow her. She's also a bit like Svetlana Khorkina. She's a fiery and opinionated person who usually has a lot to say and it tends to be a bit controversial. And like Khorkina (and many, many other people), she seems to be at odds with the Rodionenkos and Russia's current national team management.

I posted this collection of quotes from Mrs Kim two years ago on my tumblr and it ended up being widely unpopular there, but it's still relevant and gets a lot of hits on google, so I'm going to post it here for archiving purposes.

Interview with Vika brings up the R Word

Viktoria Komova gave a tv interview in late January while training at home in Voronezh.

There's nothing new or surprising in it, but it touches the inevitable (and unthinkable): her impending retirement. Yes, the dreaded R word of gymnastics.

Former Gymnast, Current Fangirl

Maria Bondareva may have retired last year at the ripe old age of 16 (yes Valentina, she retired for real and I don't think you even noticed), but it doesn't mean that she has forgotten her teammates who are hard at work preparing for Rio. She has started uploading tribute videos on her YouTube channel and so far has one for Vika, Nastya D. and Melka and more to come.

While you check her channel for her videos, I'm going to take a moment to pay tribute to her by remembering her better days.

Look at that: beautiful, clean and confident. And not only that, but little Masha had the enviable ability to stay on the beam, no matter the situation. She was also capable of scoring in the 56-57 range in AA when she was 12. You can't say that about a lot of the current senior team and no one there can be trusted on beam, we learned confirmed that in Glasgow.

Let's light a candle for all future talented ingenues from Russia. May they make it to senior level in one piece.

The Best of Spring Festivals - Fun with Team China

It's the Chinese New Year today and the year of the Monkey is upon us. In honor of that, I'm going to swerve from my usual coverage of Team Russia (as if I need an excuse to stan for the Beijing and London quads from China) and post this collection of clips of the national team getting silly and having some fun in celebration of the Spring Festival.

The winter training is the most intense training period for the Chinese and they keep training while the rest of the country celebrates the most important event of the year. Knowing that makes watching the team have so much fun while performing their little hearts out even more precious.

Enjoy! ;) 🇨🇳🎉🐵

The Best of Spring Festivals

To honor the Chinese New Year and Spring Festival, enjoy these clips of the past and present National Team having fun and celebrating the holidays together with the coaching staff.

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2005: Cultures combined. Damn this song is catchy is every language.
2005: Cats!
2005: A romance. (Fan Ye and MAG)
2005: It’s BRITNEY bitch. And Backstreet Boys. (Fan Ye, MAG)
2005: The singing may break your ears but they’re so dang cute. (Tian Mengsi, Sui lu, Nai Ruoyu, Jiang Yuyuan, Hu Yuhong, Deng Linlin)
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2007: Xiao Sha singing a catchy song with cute choreography (王心凌 - 睫毛弯弯).  (Xiao Sha, Li Shanshan, He Kexin)
2007?: A news clip.
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2008: Okay, this is MAG but you’ll see why I posted it when you watch it. (Yang Wei, Chen Yibing, Zou Kai)
2008: Cowgirls! AKA Sui Lu hates her life and poor Yang Yilin has audio problems. (Yang Yilin, He Kexin, Sui Lu, Hu Yuhong)
2008: Britney strikes again. (Li Ya, Fan Ye, Zhou Zhuoru, Han Bing, Li Xioapeng)
2008: Astrology? (Zhou Zhuoru, Cheng Fei, He Ning, Yang Yilin, Sui Lu)
2008: Time to make fun of the coaches! (Deng Linlin and Jiang Yuyuan)
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2010: The Fancy Schmanzy Girls meet the Hoodies (Yang Yilin, He Kexin, Jiang Yuyuan, Sui lu and Zhang Yujiao, He Ning, Chen Shihua, Jiang Tong)
2010: Super nervous but cute Zhang Jing sings.
2010: He Kexin has Silivas’ hair. (He Kexin, Tan Sixin, Zeng Siqi)
2010: Something about soy sauce and broil meat? (Yang Yilin, Deng Linlin, He Kexin, He Ning, Jiang Tong)
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2011: CCTV compilation.
2011: Time for hip hop (w/ Britney)! (Jiang Yuyuan, Sui lu, Yang Yilin with Lin Chaopan)
2011: The cutest of the cutest with He Kexin singing. (He Kexin, Tan Sixin, Cui Jie, Zeng Siqi, Liu Siyuan)
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2012: Fun with lights and costume change problems w/Ke$ha. (He Kexin, Wu Liufang)
2012: Deng’s the funny one. (Deng Linlin, Zeng Siqi, Shang Chunsong, Jiang Yuyuan)
2012: The leak strikes again. (Luo Peiru, Yao Jinnan, Huang Huidan, Huang Qiushuang, Zhou Qiaohong, Zhang Qing, Zeng Siqi)
2012: A Cantonese classic (Beyond - 真的爱你). (Luo Peiru, Zhang Qing)
2012: Cuteness with MAG (Teng Haibin, Zou Kai, Feng Zhe, Guo Weiyang, Yan Mingyong, Zhang Chenglong, Chen Yibing)
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Bonus round. (Jiang Yuyuan, He Kexin, Huang Qiushuang, Tan Sixin, Zeng Siqi, Shen Yeping and Zhang Qing) From 2009.
Bonus round 2. (Cheng Fei, Jiang Yuyuan, He Kexin, Xiao Sha)

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These are only the clips on Youtube and mostly WAG, I didn’t go through the trouble of browsing Youku or Tudou that thoroughly because most of the clips I found there were the same ones.

Also, I wasn’t able to identify a lot of gymnasts and some may be misidentified. You are more than welcome to send me names and corrections.

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Originally published a year ago on my tumblr.

News and Updates from Round Lake: Valentina Might Be High but Vika Is Still Alive and Aliya Is Finally Giving up Circus

I started off my weekend by walking home from work (I didn't have money for the bus because I spent it on a pastry to get through the day), taking a shortcut across the ice (I live on an island and work in the mainland) and tripping on someone's unmarked fishing hole and breaking the screen of my iPod in the process. I guess I should be glad I didn't fall in and drown/die of hypothermia. But I wasn't because my iPod is my most important possession.

So my weekend didn't look so great at first but The Wicked Witch of Round Lake aka Valentina Rodionenko decided to cheer me with some updates. Now Valentina likes to remind everyone of her existence every now and then by giving out (un)important news or false information and I'm hoping this falls under the former category, because it means that Vika has survived the winter (so far) and Aliya is slowly starting to wake up from her hibernation.

She's also sharing some information about the competitions to come this year, team selection for the Olympics and their best medal hopes.