Let's hope that during these Olympics we can turn as many 4-year-fans to gymternet regulars and Russian stans as we can.
Angelina Melnikova (Cyrillic: Ангелина Мельникова, affectionately called Gelya or Melka) is the youngest member and the newbie of this team. She just turned 16 (born in 2000), and made the senior ranks this year right in time for the Olympics. Only it doesn't really feel like it. When she turned senior, it was more like "about time!" than "already? But she's just a baby". She had a long and successful junior career, so it feels like she's been around forever. As the leader of the Russian junior team for years, she has plenty of international experience and the titles to match it. She's a junior European all around, team and balance beam champion, and uneven bars silver medalist, and she spent her last junior year competing against her senior teammates (something that the most promising Russian juniors get to do) and proved herself to be better than most of them. In the senior level, she's the Russian national all around, balance beam and floor exercise champion and European team champion.
Her youth can be both an advantage and disadvantage at the Olympics. On one hand, she's in good physical shape, not too many nagging injuries and years of fatigue, but on the other hand, she lacks the maturity that the years of senior competition bring to one's gymnastics. When it comes to one of the most important, if not the most important aspects of the competition, handling the pressure, she's yet relatively untested. Some new seniors do extremely well with the pressure just because they don't think about it like the older contestants do, but those who think about it, often crumble under it. We'll see which category she belongs to in Rio. If European Championships are any indication, the nerves certainly have their effect on her, but not too much.
Gelya's strength in gymnastics is all around, she's good on every event with no big weaknesses. She's currently the best or second best Russian all arounder (depending on Aliya Mustafina's current condition) and should make the all around finals at the Olympics. There she's even capable of contending for a medal. Her gymnastics has moments of the old Russian style, and she's the most elegant Russian gymnast of the current generation (gymnasts born between 1997-2000). She has grace in her movements and her leaps and jumps are beautiful and light, toe point gorgeous, but her acrobatic ability and routine difficulty is enough to be competitive internationally, something the Russians have struggled with this quadrennium. She hails from the same Voronezh gym as Viktoria Komova, but has a different coach. She's one of the most consistent gymnasts among the Russians, which makes her an important asset to the team. The coaches often describe her as a calm, level-headed girl who works hard, manages to control her nerves and is very reliable. Her demeanor in competitions reflects this well, she looks calm and focused and doesn't have many smiles to spare. In interviews she has said that she admired Viktoria Komova greatly when she was young, but now she has no idols. She considers herself an all arounder and doesn't have a favorite apparatus. In competition she likes to go first on every apparatus, because then she doesn't have time to get nervous. She's still surprised that she made it this far, and is anxiously waiting for the Olympics. The most important thing for her there is the team and she doesn't want to disappoint.
Angelina's difficulty scores for Rio:
- VT: 5.8
- UB: 6.5
- BB: 6.4
- FX: 6.3
- AA: 25
Vault: She has a DTY (double twisting yurchenko), a very common elite vault. It's consistent and she executes it pretty well, but has some form errors (leg separation/crossed legs, occasionally piked landing, many steps or a big hop on landing) lowering her score. For an all arounder, it's enough to keep her competitive and she will most likely vault during team final. She should get a score in the high 14s for a hit vault. 15, if she has improved or the judges are feeling generous.
Uneven Bars: She has a typical Russian UB routine filled with difficult stalder pirouettes and transitions. She has that natural calm, but purposeful swing the Russians are known for and the great form of most of her teammates. She's also extremely consistent, and hardly ever misses a routine. For most of the other teams, she would be a go-to bar worker, but among the Russians, famous for their work on this apparatus, she is out shined by her better teammates and will likely get disqualified from the finals because of the 2-gymnasts-in-a-final-per-country rule. While her routine is relatively difficult and well executed, for Russian standards, she's still a bit immature. She has the makings of a great bar worker and I'm sure she will upgrade her difficulty and fix her minor errors (mainly short handstands and occasionally loose legs) in the future. Like on vault, she should be the first gymnast up during team finals and score around 15 for a hit routine.
Balance Beam: This is her best piece and she's an individual medal contender. Her leaps and jumps are light and airy and she has a calm, fluid rhythm in her movements. She has a good difficulty score and her double pike dismount of one of the best out there, high and powerful. She has her occasional mistakes, both big and small, but she's one of the more consistent Russians out there. Her execution is amazing when she's on, and she should get above 15 for a hit routine. She definitely going to be up on beam during team finals. Hopefully she has shaken her nerves during qualification, because she is capable of a huge score and her team needs it in the finals.
Floor Exercise: This is the lowest scoring apparatus for the Russian team and sadly, Melka is no exception. She has one of the better routines on the team though, and is going to perform it during the team final. She dances to the "Kalinka" and has a traditional dance influenced choreography. She has youthful charm and well-trained precision in her movements, but the routine is not terribly memorable. Her tumbling is not very difficult, but it's quite clean with only minor form issues and occasionally uncontrolled landings. She's pretty consistent, but her difficulty score is built on difficult and risky turn connections, so even a minor mistake or wobble can lower her score significantly. She should get low 14s for a hit routine.
I tried to find the routines I liked the best, but you can search the YouTube for her routines from the European Championships, if you want better quality.
Medal Prospects: TF, AA, BB
On balance beam she has two teammates capable of taking her out of the final, but if she stays consistent, she should make it. And if she makes the final, she's capable of a medal of any color, depending on who is in the final and who hits. The balance beam finals tend to be quite unpredictable. She should easily get the second all around spot of her team, and in the final she could fight for bronze on a good day.
No comments:
Post a Comment