A collection of interviews with Valentina Rodionenko

Valentina Rodionenko gave several interviews concerning the Russian Championships and the team selection for European Championships and the Olympics. She actually made more sense than usual. Here's a recap of what she said:

Valentina was particularly impressed with their young gymnasts. She was very happy with Angelina Melnikova and thinks she's their strongest all arounder at the moment. Together with Aliya Mustafina they have the most secure spots on the Olympic team.
She was also very happy with Aliya, who did well and medaled at the event finals despite having downgraded routines. Competing again was good for her motivation, and she is slowly returning to her competitive form and should be at her best by the start of the Olympics. At Euros they expect her to compete with her full difficulty.

Daria Spiridonova performed perfectly on bars and is still one of the best in the world. However, she has problems with floor exercise and vault, which affects her AA scores. They are aware of this issue and are working on it with Dasha. She is hardworking and persistent and knows how to reach her goals. She (and her coach) was awarded with Honored Master of Sports title during nationals for their success. 

Valentina had a lot to say about Seda Tutkhalyan... She thought that the silver medal on all around was psychologically an important win for her. Valentina also praised her gold on vault and good performance on uneven bars during event finals and said that this proved that her silver on AA wasn't just a fluke. She thought Seda was just brilliant. After the second day of finals, she obviously had a different opinion. She said that Seda is very inconsistent, one day great and the other terrible. She's talented and hardworking, but they need to work on her mental strength in competition. She goes on to add that they never know how she'll perform on any given day and they took a chance on her last year in Baku and Glasgow, but she seriously let them down. She's still on their main team, but sometimes it's better to choose stability over difficulty.  

Maria Paseka wasn't feeling well, but it's nothing serious and like Aliya, she is preparing for Euros according to her own training plan and performed as well as she was expected to at this stage. Again, after second day of finals Valentina wasn't so happy anymore. She said that Masha didn't perform so well in Penza, but her difficulty is still the best in the world and they hope that this was all the mistakes she's going to do for the rest of the year and that she'll perform to her full medal-winning ability at international competitions.  

Ksenia Afanasyeva was not at her best and needs to add a lot of difficulty for the Euros. She has a small injury on her foot but nothing serious. 

Daria Skrypnik and Maria Kharenkova performed well. Masha is a confident young athlete with international experience and Dasha was particularly well prepared for the competition. Dasha was added to the "A-team" based on her performance in Penza. 

Natalia Kapitonova is a very nice girl with good technique, but doesn't have the most difficult programs. Valentina doesn't think she has enough time to gain the needed difficulty before the Olympics and has low chances of making it. They expect her to shine during the next quad though. 

Viktoria Komova received treatment for her back and has already begun training again at Round Lake. They think that she'll most likely go to Euros (Valentina gives 99% chance, lol).  

And about the meldonium scandal: They are not worried. The girls were tested three weeks ago and they haven't heard anything back about the results, so they're clean. She also adds, that while the men's team took the drug until August 2015, it hasn't been prescribed to anyone in the women's team in three years, so there's no worry, nothing to find. 

The gymnasts they are considering for Rio are Aliya Mustafina, Angelina Melnikova, Viktoria Komova, Maria Paseka, Ksenia Afanasyeva, Daria Skrypnik, Daria Spiridonova, Maria Kharenkova, Seda Tutkhalyan, Natalia Kapitonova and Evgenia Shelgunova.

I don't have quite as much confidence in Masha and Ksenia as she has. It's not that they don't come through when it's needed, but they have so many persistent injuries and it's extremely unlikely that they'll be able to peak for both Euros and Olympics. Vika is also a question mark. Even if she's healthy, she's just as inconsistent as the others. So I wouldn't give that much weight to her experience and "veteran status" above the younger gymnasts. I agree with her about Seda, but because I love Seda, I will put her on a team anyway. I also think that in a team situation with a strong leader (*cough, Aliya, cough*) she'd perform better. The Dashas still can't be trusted on anything except bars, no matter how this competition went... And Maria Kharenkova is good, but she usually scores quite low internationally.

Sources: x, x, x, x

After I made this post, an anon on tumblr informed me about another interview published today. According to Valentina:

Valentina was surprised by Beefarm's bad performance. But she has been nursing some old injuries since last year and could't train at full strength for two months. Her vaults are also so difficult, that they can't expect her to always succeed (imo a dangerous way of thinking). Vika is needed for the European team, but if there are further problems, she'll have to miss it.

This was Gelya's first senior competition, but she already performs on the same level as many of worlds best gymnasts. She also has the right character. She's a lot like Mustafina, confident and a fighter. They wish they had more girls like her.

 Aliya performed well on two apparatus, but this wasn't any indication on how her routines are going to be at the big competitions, since she's still recovering from her knee surgery. But she has the right character: She came in and performed confidently and didn't let any problems show.

Afan had many difficulties last year, but overcame them and still managed to win a medal on floor exercise at Worlds. However, she is going to need a good vault (amanar) to get selected for the Oympics, since it's too risky to take a gymnast with only one event.

Afan and Spiridoz clearly have the same problems, but on opposite apparatus. At the beginning of this quad I never expected Russia to have such depth that there would be so many good gymnasts left behind. I'm really starting to worry about who will be left home come Rio. Ugh. I just need everyone there.