From Russia to Rio: VAULT

With the Olympics approaching fast, I thought I'd take a look at what Team Russia has to offer for Rio. This is the first part (1/4) in the series.

VAULT

As long as everyone stays healthy (let's face it, not going to happen), Russia has a strong lineup for vault.

Amanar (DV: 6.3):

• Maria Paseka: The current world champion on vault. She's still a bit messy, but has improved her execution a lot  this year. She's also consistent and has 2 vaults which makes her a candidate for individual medal. Unfortunately she's also injury prone.
• Ksenia Afanasyeva: Didn't perform an amanar at Worlds (she was ill with kidney infection leading up to the competition), but has competed it several times, last time at Euros this year winning a bronze medal at event finals. Her execution is messy too. She has 2 vaults, but is unlikely to contend for an individual medal at the Olympics. She has also struggled with injuries the past few years.

Cheng (DV: 6.4):

• Maria Paseka: Her Cheng has worse execution than her Amanar, but it's consistent.
• (Alla Sosnitskaya: She has struggled with injuries this year and has not performed this vault since Russian Nationals in March, but likely to get it back if she can train normally. Messy execution, a solid DTY from Aliya or Vika can score better than her Cheng. Has two vaults, made event finals in 2014 Worlds, unlikely to medal without upgrades)

DTY (DV: 5.8):

• Aliya Mustafina: Extremely consistent with high execution score. Has struggled with injuries this year, but should get her vault back if there aren't further complications.
• Viktoria Komova: Consistent and high execution score, she improved a lot between European Games and Worlds. Injury prone.
• Seda Tutkhalyan: Consistent and powerful, but loses in landing deductions, needs more control. Has a second vault, but without upgrades unlikely for event finals. Has stayed fairly healthy *knocks on wood*.
• Angelina Melnikova: Consistent, but struggles with execution, has improved it a lot this year.
• Alla Sosnitskaya: Consistent with okay execution.
• Evgeniya Shelgunova: Inconsistent
• Daria Skrypnik: Inconsistent
• Anastasia Dmitrieva: Inconsistent
• (Ekaterina Kramarenko: Struggles with the vault and very unlikely to be on the team but can't count her out)
• (Tatiana Nabieva: Technically retired and messy execution, but let's not leave her out either.)

Possible upgrades:

• Seda Tutkhalyan: Has been training an Amanar, no training footage but did do it in Baku during podium training (sat it down). Has the same coach as Sosnitskaya and Paseka, so an upgrade from Lopez to Cheng is also very possible.
• Viktoria Komova: Hasn't competed an Amanar since 2012, unlikely to get it back but never say never.
• Aliya Mustafina: Hasn't competed an Amanar since 2011, unlikely to get it back but never say never.
• Angelina Melnikova: Messy as hell on vault, but the team has extremely high hopes for her, so I wouldn't be surprised at her training an Amanar.
• Alla Sosnitskaya: Is a bit of a vault specialist, so training an Amanar is likely, but having it ready for competition is another thing.
• (Maria Kharenkova, Daria Spiridonova, Ekaterina Sokova, Natalia Kapitonova (basically everyone who could make the team): Possible upgrades from FTY to DTY? Maybe.)

Highest scoring TF lineup without any upgrades: Mustafina, Afanasyeva, Paseka