Gymnix 2018: A party for the new Lena and Vika

My Baby Swans competed at the Junior International Cup of the 2018 International Gymnix, as always, and looked like a healthy combination of beauty and hot mess, as always. This year our team consisted of two Gymnix veterans, Irina Komnova and Elena Gerasimova, and two newbies, Olga Astafyeva and Viktoria Listunova. They won silver in the team competition and a few individual medals too. I actually watched all of their routines and was really impressed.

Ira is apparently still coming back from an injury (ankle, maybe?) and looked tired as hell. She has also grown a lot this past year and while she was once tiny, she's now the tallest of the group by far. This combined with her exhausted appearance and weird mistakes made the poor girl look like she was ready to retire. Lena was the most confident out of everyone without any hint of nerves of inexperience. Olya was extremely nervous and shaky, while Vika spent her time looking suspicious and unsure about why she was even in Canada. I was close to laughing every time they showed her face. I was actually a tiny bit surprised about her selection to the team too, but she did really well for herself and absolutely deserved to be there. Or more than deserved to be there, she had the biggest medal haul with bronze on all around, silver on bars and gold on floor. Lena was next with gold on the uneven bars and bronze on floor.

At the team competition the Russians started out on bars. Ira had a steady routine but fell on a jaeger. Lena on looked confident and pretty and hit her routine. Vika looked suspicious again, but hit her routine with some minor issues. She has less difficulty than her teammates and her execution isn't quite as good, but she isn't bad either. Olya looked a bit rough, as always, and had both major and minor mistakes, she fell on a jaeger but managed to save a pak with the pure strength of her abs. Alert, we have a conditioned Russian.

While the Russians warmed up on beam, Brittany Rogers (who was commentating) dared to suggest that FHS+front tuck is a combination they copied from Brooklyn Moors?!? No, darling, baby Russians have been doing this for years. Lena shined on beam as expected. She looked confident as ever, but had more issues than usual with some wobbles and a fall on a wolf turn (get rid of it child), but overall, gorgeous. I couldn't care less about the mistakes when the rest is so beautiful. Vika was more nervous and hesitant, but survived without any major errors. I really like her on beam, her hands and fingers have some long lost finesse missing from nearly everyone there days. After such fabulous teammates Ira looked more than a bit rough (and downgraded) with her form issues, but she was confident and it was a hit routine for her nevertheless. Olya fell on her mount (BHS stepout) and wobbled on everything else.

Ira didn't do floor, but it didn't matter because the rest of the team was on fire. These poor juniors obviously weren't told that Russians are supposed to be bad on floor. Olya looked poised and surprisingly mature for her age and hit her routine without any issues. If Lena looked confident before, she was starting to look invincible by now and her performance was just fabulous. There was nothing to complain about in her gymnastics either. Her Memmel is incredible, one of the best in the world, and the rest of her dance elements impeccable too. I feel like some of her tumbling, mainly her twisting form is the only thing less than perfect, but the smug smile she gave us when she finished made up for it. Even Vika forgot to look suspicious. Floor is her best event and she knew it, and looked like she enjoyed every bit of it. Her face just lit up. She's a great performer and her turns are perhaps even better than Lena's. She didn't do the Mustafina, but she didn't need to.

Vault was last and their weakest event, but everyone made it alive. Even Ira, who ran and touched the table without vaulting. Better that than die. Lena had to stand and wait ages before vaulting and she spent the time laughing and gesturing to someone. She was finally less than gorgeous with a barely there FTY. Olya's wasn't any better and Vika vaulted a decent front pike half. It was enough and they finished second behind Italy and ahead of Canada.

At the event finals Vika finished last on vault. Her difficulty is low and she fell on her second vault. She redeemed herself with a clean ub routine that tied for silver. Lena won the bars gold with an easy and well-executed routine, despite her sketchy inbars. Neither of them is really a great ub worker, but they're still Russian, so that's enough for gold and silver at any international junior meet. They were both at the beam final too, but let's pretend that didn't happen. Floor did exist, and Vika won with Lena as third. Both looked almost as amazing as during the team competition, but Lena downgraded her last pass from a double tuck to a layout front full and nether one's turns were quite as sharp.

Overall, a great competition for my Baby Swans. FloGymnastics is being a bitch as usual, so only three videos: Lena's UB from event finals, and Vika's BB and UB from team final.
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A picture gallery with plenty of Team Russia HERE.