Russian Championships 2017: Your regularly scheduled "everyone is injured or dying" -pre-competition update

Russian sports journalist Natalia Kalugina wrote a facebook post about the Russian team ahead of the National Championships, taking place in just a few days, and as usual with Team Russia, the situation is nothing short of dystopian.

That's it. The cycle has ended. Another began. On Tuesday the team will leave for Russian Championships in Kazan. Almost none the Olympians will compete at the start of the new season. Head coach Andrei Rodionenko softly says: "And what did you expect? Olympic Games - that's the way it is, right?"

Finally some wise words from A-Rod.

Kalugina only mentioned the men's team in her original post, but in the comments someone asked about the women and she didn't have much good to say. To her it seems that the burden of leadership has fallen upon Angelina Melnikova. Seda Tutkhalyan is somewhere up there with her, but Daria Spiridonova has not yet recovered from the Olympics. Natalia Kapitonova is in the middle of a growth spurt, and [her coach] Starkin is currently trying to figure out how to adjust her routines and technique accordingly. Elena Eremina has some very bad (but unspecified) health issues. In any case, she'll miss the first half of the season. This is a bit surprising, since we just saw Lena training as usual, and she also posted a picture of herself on her way to Kazan. We have no official word on any health issues, where did this come from??? I really don't know whether or not to believe Kalugina on this one, we will see on Wednesday. If it's true, it's going to be very bad news for the team this year.

The only ones still alive.

Viktoria Komova definitely isn't fighting for a spot on the Euros team, she doesn't have the health. But we knew (or guessed) that already. And I bet that this particular morsel of "alternative facts" is coming from V-Rod, but apparently Aliya Mustafina is going to come back during the second half of the season and prepare for Worlds. Right. Kalugina herself however still has her wits intact, so she personally notes that she finds this unlikely. According to her, there's a change in mindset after a woman becomes a mother. But there are of course exceptions. See, it seems that even Kalugina can't let go of the hope when it comes to Aliya. Anyway, this is all she knows about the girls, but she does note that she didn't actually get to see their training, so the real situation might be a bit different.

So... Melka and Seda at least seem to be okay. Nothing about Lilia Akhaimova or Anastasia Ilyankova, so they're probably fine too. I'd be okay with a team of Melka, Seda and Nastia, but I'm still not sure about Akhaimova. Why take someone who has one event that isn't even medal worthy to Euros? There's just no point.

It's going to be really interesting to see what the team has to offer at Nationals, I don't think I've ever been this out of the loop about the shape everyone is in. At this point I'd be equally surprised at terrible, sluggish B-grade gymnastics from everyone and major upgrades. Fine, slightly less surprised at the former...
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The livestream for Nationals is usually here, but I can't make any promises.