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.

Nellie Kim Explains Gymnastics

Nellie introduces herself:“Yes, for the next four years I will be the President of the Women’s Technical Committee. I’ll be responsible for the Olympic competitions, the World Championships, the Code of Points , the judging, the assessment of the judges’ scores at tournaments, sanctioning judges.”
“My function is to supervise the scores of a gymnast’s routine.”
Nellie explains the state of modern gymnastics:“Lots of people criticize women’s gymnastics because athletes have all become toy soldiers. Femininity has been lost.”
“Current gymnastics has become very dynamic and strength-based.”
“Frankly speaking, I feel uneasy when gymnasts with an athletic, not gymnastic body, become world champions. Their performances lack elegance, finesse. But they perform like catapults, jump so high.”
Nellie explains why the state of modern gymnastics is in no way her fault:“The new Code of Points encourages coaches and gymnasts to create original routines enhancing the competitor’s individuality. People have to perform and create.”
“In a gymnast’s performance the technical component plays an important part, but it’s not the only one. Still more important is artistry. Currently the judges have to pay more attention in their work to artistry; coaches, at the same time, have to teach and enhance their gymnasts’ artistry. The gymnast is very strong technically, but he performs statically from the artistic standpoint.”
Nellie explains floor exercise and her love for Canada:“Soviet schooling was always well known for the beauty of floor routines. The whole world learned from us how to create a routine, how to combine music and sport. Unfortunately, this doesn’t exist anymore. Now the Canadians from Cirque du Soleil teach the whole world.”
“We invited representatives from Cirque du Soleil, who trained our specialists how to understand and assess artistry.”
Nellie explains the complicated judging system:“The judges like polite, smiling gymnasts.”
Nellie judges the judges:
“At the end of any championship, we gather and, after a computer assessment, we score the judging of every judge. If someone has not worked well, we sanction her with a red card and we suspend her from the next championships.”
Nellie explains the similarities between WAG and MAG:“It is difficult for media to memorize many deductions and different rules, so therefore, for the media it’s better if there are similar deductions.”
Nellie explains why judging in figure skating is wrong:“We have the same system as skating, yet I think that their approach is not good. They drop scores that help assess the situation. We rule out the lowest and the highest scores and we take into account the average scores. They can rule out these scores and keep the highest and the lowest.”
Nellie explains Russian gymnastics:“The coaches’ team is such a mess.”
“The Russians girls almost never smile.”
“A modern gymnast who wishes to fight for the leading positions, should be strong, enduring. On the Russian team there are practically no such gymnasts.”
“Another problem with Russian gymnastics is that for 22 years after the dismantling of the USSR, it has not changed at all."
Nellie explains American gymnastics:"Сurrently the Americans dominate gymnastics.”
“Why are the Americans well ahead of the rest of the world?  Essentially thanks to Soviet specialists who went to work in the US at the beginning of the 90s.  Americans gymnasts’ success is also due to Bulgarian, Romanian and Chinese coaches.”
“I think that the American girls often beat the Russians thanks to their positive vitality.”
Nellie explains the difference between Komova and Maroney:“Compare Komova to the American Maroney . They are the same age. Vika’s gymnastics is more beautiful and cleaner. But her rival enters the arena and flies, smiles.”
Nellie explains Komova’s gymnastics:“Komova does beautiful movements on the floor; she is elegant on the podium. But she performs apathetically, with stooped shoulders and dull eyes. She doesn’t perform, she works . The judges don’t give her high scores.”
“Vika Komova was near the ideal. But she lacked charm, smile, ardour …”
“I don’t know what happened to the girl. Perhaps she burnt out before the Olympics."
Nellie explains Mustafina’s gymnastics:"In Antwerp I saw Mustafina smile for the first time.”

I don't know about you, but I find her interesting, despite disagreeing with her on a lot. She has a lot to do with how judging works so reading about what goes on in her head is rather insightful.
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~And just to clarify: these are actual quotes from her (taken from several different interviews), but rearranged by me around different themes and thus out of the original context. I thought it would be obvious but for many people it was not.~