Round Lake Update: Rumor has it

This is all from my wild and speculative tumblr dash, the sources range from the gymnasts' instagrams to pure fan speculation, so don't take anything too seriously. But let's go over some recent rumors. The topics include injuries, returns and the Queen's marriage.

The one and only Ksenia Afanasyeva is back at Round Lake. The source is Angelina Melnikova, so I'm pretty sure this is true, but to what extent? Is she BACK back, or just visiting for fun? I have a hard time believing that she's fully training, which she needs to be if she's at Round Lake. I don't have a hard time thinking that she's training, but usually gymnasts come back from injuries (and retirement) by training at home and after awhile and only when they're super serious, they go back to Round Lake for evaluation and begin training there if they're far enough in their recovery. Even the veterans like Afan do it like this. Aliya did it like this and Afan has done it several times in the past. If she's back, she has been super sneaky about it. There's of course the complication that Afan's coach is a part of the staff and has a personal gymnast at Round Lake, so she could be forced to return early. I don't know. But I'm excited.

Aleksandra Schekoldina might be injured. Again. Which is terrible for her, she just got back. It's also really bad for Russia, because if the old veterans aren't ready, she could have been a vital part of the team. Perhaps not the most obvious one to rise up to the occasion, but I really like her. We don't know how serious her injury is or if she's definitely injured, but I'm worried.

Daria Spiridonova apparently isn't training at Round Lake. This is again from Melka's instagram. It's a bit weird, because if she's serious about Nationals, Round Lake is the place to be. But I'm not too worried, she seems to always spend a lot of time at home in Moscow. And it's not like things have been going that well for her.

Tatiana Nabieva is apparently preparing for Nationals. I'm not surprised the least, she always competes at the Russian Championships and Russian Cup, so I don't see how this is news. I was expecting her to show up, actually, I would have been surprised if she was not. Her actually retiring would have been news. Especially since she was in decent shape at the Voronin Cup. So, a rumor I'm really willing to believe.

The last bit of rumor is pure speculation, but really juicy. Apparently Aliya Mustafina and Mr. Aliya aka Alexei Zaytsev might be on the rocks. This speculation has been caused by the Queen herself, she deleted every picture of the two of them from her instagram account. I'm old and dusty and think that things like these are meaningless, but I'm told by actual instagram users (yeah, I don't have ANY social media accounts except for this blog and my tumblr account, if they count as social media) that this is an extremely suspicious move in this day and age. She was also asked about her marriage and declined to answer. Of course this could easily be normal antics of a celebrity trying to make their private relationships more private. If there's truth to the rumors about them being separated, it's another move from Aliya that is truly and uniquely her. She wanted a baby and got herself one and now she's getting rid of the collateral. She gets what she wants, does what she wants and fully lives the life she wants while I'm here constantly apologizing my mere existence. What's wrong with me? I better not get into that.