My Favorite Routines from This Quadrennium (III)

BALANCE BEAM

The day of the 2013 World Championships balance beam final I was visiting my grandmother with my mother and missed it live, but when I came back, I immediately went to my computer (I wanted to watch the actual competition before looking at the results), but before it was even on, my mother had turned on the TV and yelled at me that they were showing highlights. I ran to the living room and looked at Aliya with her gold and my mother was like "isn't she your favorite gymnast, she won, how nice" and I was like "NO YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND this is BALANCE BEAM, it's her worst apparatus, SHE'S A WORLD CHAMPION on BALANCE BEAM!!!!". And that was Antwerp summed up for me. Of all the great beam workers in that final, it was Aliya who somehow took the gold. This routine is fucking legendary and it kills me that people who didn't follow gymnastics back then are like my mother and will never understand those feelings. Those two years when Aliya's beam was a complete disaster and she scored 11 at an international major competition are lost from memory and there's nothing shocking about her being a World Champion on beam anymore.

The next year, 2014, marked the year when Aliya found her ability to just make up her beam connections on the go. Because why settle for one routine, the Queen should have at least 100. Just look at her not really knowing what she's doing, just going with the flow. 2014 was also the year when Aliya brought back her arabian and consequently made her sting mat basically a gymternet meme. The gymternet is a weird place sometimes.

There's just something magical about Seda Tutkhalyan on beam when she's on, like here during the Russian Championships 2016. She's fast, light, confident and precise without looking like she's even trying, and truly makes everything look easy. There's no hesitation and even when she's a bit off, she brushes it off without a pause so you need to watch the routine several times to even see it. She hit the dismount much better in another routine, but I think this is her best routine when it comes to her work on the beam.

We are all aware about her struggles with consistency (she's actually pretty consistent, consistently bad that is), and nothing better reflects that than her coaches reaction to tiny junior Seda hitting beam for once during the 2014 Youth Olympic Games all around final, in which she went on to win gold. Just look at how emotional Ulyankina got, so precious. And this reaction wasn't for a win, it was just for hitting beam. Definitely the most memorable moment from YOG, I still remember watching it live, I couldn't stop smiling. Seda won my heart during this competition and hasn't given it back to me since. And to think that she went to the Olympics and hit during qualifications and team final, amazing.

And Angelina Melnikova, the promised child. Balance beam is, where I enjoy her the most, so of course she had to completely headcase on it. She's not the traditional Russian gymnast reborn, but there's certainly echoes of the style in her gymnastics, on balance beam especially. She has a very calm and fluid way of moving and beautiful extension and some quiet power in her jumps and leaps. And the dismount is amazing. Beautiful work, and she too has come so far from the messy junior that she was.

It wouldn't be a post about Russian beam routines, unless Maria Kharenkova was in it. Except that when it comes to Russian beam workers, Masha is an exceptional one. Not only because her hit rate and average scores are far above anyone else on the team (except for Aliya perhaps), but also because her style reminds me more of a Romanian than Russian. Her routines are very fast-paced and no-nonsense with skills after skills, every second of the 90 seconds she's allowed counts. She is sure-footed and confident, and looks like she's at the same time in a hurry to get her routine over with, but also really enjoying every moment her feet hit the beam perfectly. She has very high difficulty, but it is built on connections, not difficult skills.

That said, she has the Russian luck. She has these long stretches when her scores never get below 15, but then when the moment that counts arrives, she has the weirdest mistakes, like missing her foot on a dismount at the 2014 Worlds and losing a spot in the event finals, where she could have easily won gold. Actually, Larisa Iordache is the same. Maybe Masha also has Romanian luck... She still managed to be the 2014 European Champion on beam, her first year as a senior with this routine. I'm still laughing about how she completely left Aliya hanging when she tried to high five. Next year she was far better than anyone else in the final and the gold was hers to lose, and she lost it like only a Russian could.

If Masha has a bit of Romanian in her, Evgenia Shelgunova has the aggressiveness of an American gymnast on beam, just look at the determination to hit her skills and stay on. I only she had the consistency too. Shelgie is probably the hardest worker on the team, she constantly has upgrades and keeps improving, but it's never quite enough. She has the difficulty only a few in the Russian team can even dream of, but lacks the polish required for high scores. She's also incredibly inconsistent, even by Russian standards. Maybe next quad.

Then there's Viktoria Komova, who has nearly everything required for success and world domination, but still keeps struggling. I couldn't find the hit version of her 2014 routine, but here's a shaky version from the Russian Nationals and even a shaky routine from her is special. Just look at the height on, well, everything. The amazing arabian flight series, those jumps and leaps, the front tuck, the back tuck. Oh how I love her back tuck, and let's face it, it's a boring skill. So how come does she make it look so good?

If you want a bit less shaky routine, just look at this one from the 2015 Nationals. I much preferred her routine composition from 2014, but you can't have everything. And the absolutely perfect standing arabian is definitely worth having, even if it's not as exciting as the series.

One of the lost Russian juniors, Maria Bondareva. She achieved a lot very young, started to struggle towards the end of her junior career and retired her first year as a senior (2015), balance beam was where she shined and I love this routine. She never had a lot of difficulty, but look at her lines and how beautifully she moves. Her choreography is minimalist, but flows without pauses and her arm movements are controlled and detailed and her legs extended and perfectly positioned to emphasize her lines, such polish for someone so young. Sigh. If you want better quality footage, she performed really well during EYOF event finals, but I think this camera angle from her performance at the 2013 Gymnix (starts at 0:50) really shows her best.

Also lost into the Russian junior oblivion, Ekaterina Sokova. Excellent on balance beam, excellent on floor, she was one of the most prominent Russian juniors this quad and everything Russia needed for Rio and she's going to turn 16 this December so she was eligible by a few weeks. She disappeared soon after this 2015 friendly meet and hasn't been seen at Round Lake since, apparently she has had back to back injuries and hasn't been able to recover. At least we still have her junior routines to watch.

Elena Eremina reminds me so much of young Aliya sometimes. Here she is at the 2015 Russian Junior Nationals, looking absolutely beautiful and well-choreographed, all poised and polished and ready break everyone's hearts in 2017 when she becomes a senior. Don't do it Lena, I need you to survive the transition.

The international judges seem to hate Varvara Zubova, my little ZubZub, but her messy moments aside, you just can't find this kind of beam work from the kids these days. She is special, a charming little performer who can hit her routine like no one else, except when she doesn't... But this routine is absolutely spectacular, just look at that opening series that goes on forever and her low to beam choreography reminiscent of the older days. And the way the routine is constructed, I love every purposeful tap of her leg and the pace changes she has don't even seem forced. And just the huge variety of skills she has. The general consensus seems to be that she's going to disappear into the Russian junior oblivion before or very soon after she turns senior in 2017, but I'm trying to have some hope.

I swear the way Daria Spiridonova saluted after that dismount was acting at is finest. You'd seriously think that it was just another one of the 100 routines she has done in training with absolutely nothing wrong in it. I was battling on whether or not include Dasha in my beam round-up, but why not, as you can see, she's a decent beam worker once or twice every quad, very aggressive, in a good way. Just close your eyes during the ring leap.

Let's end this with Anastasia Grishina. I don't even have words for how beautiful she is on balance beam. You just can't describe the precision, lightness and finesse she has, it's something out of this world. We lost her way too soon and I will forever miss her, what a gymnast. *cries*
-----
edit: one more...

Aliya Mustafina, the 2016 European Champion on balance beam, Conqueror of the Podium and Sugar Plum Fairy extraordinaire, showing you what a masterful beam worker she is.