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.