The Munich Munchkins. That's my nickname for the half-German Russians, who spend more time in Munich than in Round Lake. Queen Aliya, the leader of the Munchkins, seems to have stayed in one piece since the Olympics and doesn't have any broken parts that need either replacements or regular maintenance at the moment, but Viktoria Komova and Maria Paseka are in Germany.Vika was diagnosed with some fractured vertebrae before the Olympics and is probably just getting a routine follow-up. I don't think she can return to full training before 2017, but we'll see. Masha has been suffering from back pain for months and was in and out of training because of it all year, but I think this is her first time visiting the German Miracle Doctors, hopefully they'll figure out what's wrong. Vika spent a long time in Russia with a wrong diagnosis and treatment, so Masha should be better off in Munich too. It's October and they're in Bavaria, so my mind immediately went to Oktoberfest, but unfortunately (or fortunately) for the girls, it ended a week ago. No beer and lederhosen treatment for back pain then.
As for the rest of the team, they have been back in training at Round Lake like normal after their return from Mallorca. So far there seems to be no retirements, everyone (except for Afan, Vika, Aliya and Beefarm who are taking a well-earned break) is there and we even have one surprise possible returner: Ekaterina Sokova. Katya was presumed dead after going missing during 2015 and then spending her first year as a senior (2016) home in Vladimir, but it looks like she's finally back, or at least might be back. She attended the Nemov Show with the other girls on the team, posed with Dasha's Olympic medal and posted a video of herself and the other girls playing spin the bottle at the Round Lake. Her return to the training base is a very good sign, it means she's still in shape and they expect her to join the main team next year.
Tatiana Nabieva is home in St. Petersburg as usual and she's still very much non-retired and as bad-ass as ever. Just look at her training a round-off LOSO as a beam mount. Only Nabs...
The Baby Swans are currently competing at their local Federal Okrug Championships and will get a separate post for themselves, but look who were judging at the Southern Federal District Championships:
It's Yulia Belokobyslkaya and Anastasia Sidorova! Nastia is still very much an active gymnast after suffering from a bout of injuries and has been competing at the Russian Championships and Russian Cup these past few years, but Belo was one of those incredible beauties that didn't reach their potential and we lost way too soon. The last I heard of her, she went to university and quit gymnastics for ballet, and then moved on to.........cheerleading.... Yeah. That's quite a wild ride.
Seeing Belo again made me nostalgic, I had to revisit her career and now the pain of her retirement is fresh again. Ugh.
Sokova! I want to believe. I'm still in that delusional optimistic stage where I think Russia will have lots of options for the euros and worlds teams next year, Sokova will return at the same level, Kapi will keep up the progress she's had in the last year (it is kinda incredible how much she upgraded everything in one year, now she just needs to get comfortable with the upgrades), the 3 new babies will all transition to senior level successfully, maybe Skrypnik will even pick things up a bit (I know she's young but I'm very surprised she's continuing tbh, she has looked physically and mentally over gymnastics this year). Watch it turn out to be another repeat of 2013 lol.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy about your optimism, I basically have no hope whatsoever. I'll be in full stan more if any of the new seniors comes through, but my expectations are low af.
DeleteI was a bit surprised about Skrypnik returning too, like you said, she has looked like she is over it on so many levels for a while now. I was perhaps expecting a slow and quiet retirement for her, first a return to her home gym in Krasnodar, competing at Nationals with her local team, then looking bad at small, local competitions and then fading away completely.
Haha the key word is "delusional", I really should know better by now but I can't help it. Also I broke the rule about not falling for juniors over the entire junior euros team this year, I think knowing Aliya won't be around and there's a big opening for new stars made me more invested in them. Oops.
DeleteAlso that's 100% accuracy on the quiet Russian retirement process haha