SUPERFICIAL FAVORITES
BEST LEOTARD
1. Aliya's "lucky blue leo". This leo had some great moments (its Worlds medals include 2013 BB gold, 2014 BB & FX bronze), and it' pretty too. It was definitely one of the favorites among the team too, worn by many.
2. Euros 2016 Team QF. I first wasn’t quite sure about this leo because the rhinestones that go right across the chest looked a bit awkward, but now I actually love the design. Very simple, but still something different. And the color is amazing. The "antlers" on the neck line also good because of the coloring, I'm not a fan of the design when they stick out too much.
3. Baku TF day 2. I just love simple, sporty leos and this one is great. A+. The patriotic colors are nice and don't seem "forced", and the leo looked good on anyone who wore it, a rarity. I guess this is technically from last quad (they wore it in Jesolo 2012), but I’m just going to ignore that.
A special mention for these two throwback leos:
Vika’s leo gives me those good 2010 vibes, but with a new color. And it must be even luckier than Aliya’s lucky blue one, because Glasgow was the only major competition Vika competed in all quad and this leo got her through alive with a gold medal to top it off. And it looks beautiful on her.
BEST MAKEUP
1. The Queen always gets the gold for makeup. I’m not going to even bother to pick her best look, every competition was good.
2. Aliya’s adopted child Seda has clearly learned something from her. She went from good in 2015 to flawless in 2016, gorgeous.
3. Melka pretty much looks like a perfect Russian porcelain doll. She had that awkward Russian junior "no eyebrows" phase (I also went through that phase so I can relate), but once she got through it, she's been nothing but perfect.
BEST FLOOR MUSIC
1. Aliya ties with herself for gold, and wins the tiebreak! Congrats my Queen. 2013 (both pieces from that year) was my favorite.
2. Seda 2016. Fits her style perfectly. A bit of drama and flare, and it honors her Armenian roots.
3. The collective Russian B-team wins bronze. Nabs 2013 and 2016, Kramarenko 2015, Dmitrieva 2015 and 2016. I guess I could throw in part-time A-teamer Masha K. too.
Alla eliminated herself from the B-team bronze based on the mess from 2014, which is too bad because 2015 was fine. Grishy gets a special mention for beating the rest of the team with her leftover music from last quad.
BEST ATHLETE/COACH PAIRING
1. Vika and Gennady Yelfimov. Pure stylistic beauty laced with lots of personal drama. This pair has been so interesting to watch in competition through the years, the way they take success and failure is so uncensored and similar to each other. I can only imagine what an emotional roller coaster their training sessions are.
2. Marina Ulyankina with Seda, Masha, Alla and Ulya. A huge and very messy bunch of gymnasts for one coach, but all consistently upgrading, surprising and trying out “non-Russian” skills and routines. Ulyankina is definitely a controversial figure, but seeing her on the floor with Seda during Youth Olympic Games was nice to see, it showed how much she cared.
3. Aliya and Sergey Starkin. High five for Aliya actually getting a coach, bonus points for keeping her alive and reducing her twisting to a minimum.
BEST REACTION
1. Aliya 2014 floor bronze. She was so happy after a difficult and disappointing competition, and it was such a surprising reaction from her. Before that, she was known for her subdued poise in all situations.
2. Vika 2015 Worlds UB final. Happiness for first place and pouting for getting tied. Such a classic unfiltered moment from Vika.
3. Team Olympic silver. Just a really happy moment, and such a contrast to the super dramatic and teary silver winning moment in London.
A special junior mention goes to Seda’s (and Ulyankina's) reaction after hitting beam at the 2014 YOG AA final. Their reactions to the AA gold were amazing too, especially with the disaster of a floor rotation.
BEST FRIENDSHIP
1. Aliya and Nabs. You just can’t beat this pairing.
2. Aliya and Semy. This friendship won silver just for that magical award ceremony moment at the 2014 Russian Cup. The joint vacations didn’t hurt either.
3. Aliya and Seda. Just for picking the right houses at the Harry Potter -escape thingy.
Oh look, a clean sweep for Aliya for this category. Oh, and the Longines Prize for Elegance in Russian gymnastic friendships goes to Vika and Dasha.
PODIUMS OF SHAME
WORST LEOTARD
Let’s just say that they didn’t have that many bad leos. There were some leos that I didn’t particularly like, but they weren’t bad per se. So the first two are the only ones I really hated.
1. Afan at the 2016 Euros VT final. No. Just no. Burn it.
2. Vika at the Worlds 2016 BB final. I just didn’t like it, the nude design on the shoulders looks awkward and is unflattering on Vika, which is a very hard feat to accomplish considering that Vika is gorgeous. I liked the short-sleeved version on her though.
3. Rio 2016 QF. I guess this is a tiny bit better than the red version they wore in training, but I still don’t like it. Especially for the Olympics, it would have been okay for a small meet.
WORST FLOOR MUSIC
The competition was fierce for this podium, FIERCE. It’s like everyone wanted to win. I don’t even know where to start…
1. Beefarm 2015. This is such a campy and classic old song turned into a campy and classic eurotrash techno remix that it’s almost so bad it’s good. I also have personal bad memories of this song, so it only amplified the effect. Amazing, definitely deserving of a gold medal.
2. Skrypnik 2016. More eurotrash weirdness, this time with an identity crisis. Very standard Russian junior music, I guess Dasha hasn’t realized that she’s a senior yet.
3. Alla 2014. This one gives me a headache. It would have been fine if they just stuck to the Pretty Woman, but the forcefully inserted slow part to fill some ridiculous artistry requirement for a pace change always made me cringe.
Aaaand, because there was a lot more bad floor music to reward, special awards for floor music that couldn’t decide what it wanted to be: Kramarenko 2014, Kharenkova 2014, Spiridonova 2014 and 2015. Congrats.
Aliya & Grebs win athlete/coach for me. I love that she was with fine having the bars coach the rest of the team uses spot her in all the 2014 team events, but for the Olympics Grebs switched in just for her. :) It's also ironic that Starkin has gone on record saying that they decided to have Grebs handle the last few months of her training before Rio (not just bars). Reading in between the lines it sounds like trying to prepare both Russia's main female and male star/medal-winners for the Olympics, adding in the fact that both were also struggling to even get there in one piece, was biting off a little more than Starkin could chew. A very smart plan that paid off, but ironic considering all the 2012 drama. Grebs is technically the head coach!
ReplyDeleteAlso giving a shout-out to Nabs' 2014 music because nobody is ever going to be able to use anything similar to that again without reminding me of the best floor routine of the decade.
I didn't even think of them! They are definitely deserving of a podium spot. I think they have developed a really close relationship over the years and Aliya probably trusts Grebs more than anyone else on the team. But yeah, goes to show that The Rods' problem with Aleksandrov was personal, which we knew, but still...
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