A Look into the Near Future of Russian Gymnastics with Andrei Rodionenko

An anon sent me this interview, and someone asked if I could translate it. It was actually conducted a few weeks before the Russian Championships and mostly focuses on the controversial replacement of Leonid Arkayev with Sergei Zelikson, but there are a few questions about the national team. I'll go over the Mordovia part rather quickly paraphrasing the interview and concentrate on what he says about the Russian and European Championships. 

I'll also add some other interviews that he did recently to the end of this post. Spoiler: He disagrees with Valentina about the European team. According to him, it isn't even named yet and won't be for another month.

First, if you don't know what happened with Sergei Zelikson and Leonid Arkayev, here's a quick recap: Leonid Arkayev, basically a legendary coach of the women's national team, retired from the national team staff after Beijing (he was followed by Aleksandr Aleksandrov) and made the move to Mordovia to head their regional gym in Saransk. There weren't that many news (or gymnasts) from there during the years that followed, but last fall his contract was terminated. There were reports about his incompetence in training the youth, subletting an apartment given to his use and alleged sexual abuse. It was basically a big mess. Then rather surprisingly, Sergei Zelikson was appointed to his old job. Zelikson is a good friend of the Rodionenkos, a personal coach to Anastasia Grishina (they famously had a messy split, after which the Rods shunned Grishina) and during the last year, women's national team staff coach responsible of acrobatics and tumbling.

If you want more details, Rewriting Russian Gymnastics covered the scandal really well.

For the fist part of the interview, Andrei Rodionenko shamelessly gloats about Zelikson's abilities. He's such a versatile specialist, he can coach, but he's a successful businessman and overall a nice, sociable person, perfect for heading a gym and exactly what Mordovia needs at this time. He even mentions, that Zelikson coached Aliya Mustafina for a short while and then he falsely lists Grishy's European and Olympic medals. Obviously he doesn't remember them correctly (I don't even blame him for that) and nobody bothered to fact check this interview.

He is asked about Arkayev, but he outright refuses to comment on his dismissal, saying he can't judge what he wasn't involved in and expresses his support for Zelikson again.

He has some nice words about Mordovia and their local gymnastic federation, and they chat about Olga Bikmurzina, a Mordovian gymnast who visited Round Lake in preparation for 2013 Universiade, but was never really considered for the national team. (She's still active btw, and did a beautiful floor routine at the Nationals) He thinks she'll make a great coach under Zelikson.

They quickly discuss the team's success in Rio, both think that they performed to their best ability. The interviewer questions A-Rod about the men's team and why there hasn't been a gymnast like Aleksei Nemov since... well, Nemov. A-Rod sounds pretty offended for his gymnasts. He says that the depth of the international field has gotten so deep these days that the current gymnasts can't be judged based on the amount of medals Nemov won.

Now for the part about the women's national team:

-Which competitions is the Russian national team preparing for?
The National Championships, which will take place in two weeks in Kazan. And in April they will go to the European Championships in Romania. At the end of the National Championships, the coaching committee will meet and announce the team. 

-Will the strongest gymnasts of the country perform in Kazan?
These days the concept of "strong" has changed significantly. Firstly, not all of the Olympians are preparing for competition. We don't know if they are training at all, it's a transitional year and the athletes are recovering from the hard and difficult Olympic season. In general, the team will be built from scratch. These are interesting and very unpredictable times. 

-And Aliya Mustafina has decided to take a break in her career...
This year we will see Aliya in a different role, she will become a mother. 

-In her absence, is there an athlete in the women's team who will take on the burden of leadership?
That's a very good question. I am constantly asking the same question myself, but the answer is no. We will learn it only after the girls' participation in the Russian and European Championships. In the men's team everything is more or less clear, but with the women, nothing but questions. 

-How great is the competition within the national team?
It's not enough, that's why problems arise in the international arena. Good gymnasts we have enough of, but highly skilled, not that many. 

-Will there be medal demands in place for the team at the European Championships?
I hope not. We would even like to appeal to the leaders of the federation, that they treat us most graciously at this point. 2017 is firstly a year of searching, forming the program we lack. In this situation it's wrong to place global goals. We need to create the base in order to achieve results in the coming years, including the Olympic Games of 2020.

Sorry if none of that made sense, I had the most difficult time trying to figure out what he was saying and you should definitely be even more apprehensive than usually reading this "translation".

But he's pretty realistic, isn't he? They have basically zero expectations this year and they are really scrambling to put together a team. Aliya's absence leaves a huge hole to the women's team and so far none of the girls have stepped up to be the leader. Nothing but questions.

He also addresses their lack of depth. They have plenty of good gymnasts, but the truly skilled are far and few in between. And he really hit the point with the lack of competition among the team too. This is where USA excels. Those girls fight tooth and nail to make the international teams so when they actually make them, they are ready and tested. Obviously Russia doesn't have enough gymnasts or the required training system for that level of competition, but a bit more wouldn't hurt. Remember when we were arguing over whether Aliya or Vika would rule the World in 2011? They were friends and teammates, but also rivals and I'm sure seeing each other in training gave some much needed extra push and motivation.

There was another interview with A-Rod in R-sport and so far I've only found bits and pieces of it, not an actual interview. Maybe they have only published it in bits and pieces? Or maybe I just suck searching. I admit, I didn't give it much of an effort.

But he commented on Aliya's comeback and said that it will be difficult and they have no current precedent for a gymnast coming back from childbirth. But Aliya is very strong-willed and persistent and he's sure she can do it if she really wants to. He said that she'll be back by December, but Aliya isn't so keen on actual dates and I'm going to take Aliya's word for this any day before the Rods'. So just ignore everything Valentina or Andrei say about Aliya's comeback, now and in the future.

But I found this next part the most interesting, mainly because he flat out contradicts his wife. Actually, it's not interesting, just hilarious. Clearly in addition to being on a different plane of existence with her gymnasts, V-Rod is no longer in touch with the team administration either. Or maybe she just lies for the attention, we've seen that before. But about the European team, this is what Andrei had to say:

[...] The composition of the European team has not yet been determined. There is a whole month of training and more competitions to come. After that it's possible to say who is ready to go to Romania.

Sorry V-Rod. A-Rod also said, that they were very happy with Kazan and wish to negotiate with the local leaders for more competitions there. It sounds like he wants to permanently replace their home base of Penza with Kazan. Most importantly, he said that there weren't any big surprises. They are still putting everything together and the gymnasts weren't technically ready yet.

Thanks Andrei, that much was obvious.