Ksenia Afanasyeva Has Retired

It's official. Or as official as Valentina Rodionenko's sudden announcements can be, but Ksenia Afanasyeva has retired, and is now a coach at Round Lake. The World Champion and 2-time European Champion on floor exercise is giving the National Team her expertise in choreography. So I guess we found out what the rumor about Afan being at Round Lake was all about.

This is obviously a huge loss for the Russian team and fans, Afan has been the longest serving member of the team for years now and pretty much single-handedly kept the team afloat on floor during the last quadrennium. She has struggled with injuries throughout her entire career and according to V-Rod, her body can't take full training anymore.

Afan had a baby last year and I've been expecting her retirement, but it's still sad. She has made a comeback after comeback and it seemed like she would always be there to surprise us. There would always be a new Afanar, a new floor exercise with her particular brand of choreography and music. I'm going to really miss her.

Source.

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.

Best and Worst of This Quadrennium

Someone asked me to pick my "superficial favorites" and "podiums of shame" on tumblr and I originally meant to add those posts to the series about my favorite routines from this quadrennium, but forgot. But good thing this a blog, not a newspaper so I can just forget stuff and then post it whenever I like. So here we go. The categories were a part of the request, not picked by me.

SUPERFICIAL FAVORITES

BEST LEOTARD

1. Aliya's "lucky blue leo". This leo had some great moments (its Worlds medals include 2013 BB gold, 2014 BB & FX bronze), and it' pretty too. It was definitely one of the favorites among the team too, worn by many.

2. Euros 2016 Team QF. I first wasn’t quite sure about this leo because the rhinestones that go right across the chest looked a bit awkward, but now I actually love the design. Very simple, but still something different. And the color is amazing. The "antlers" on the neck line also good because of the coloring, I'm not a fan of the design when they stick out too much.

3. Baku TF day 2. I just love simple, sporty leos and this one is great. A+.  The patriotic colors are nice and don't seem "forced", and the leo looked good on anyone who wore it, a rarity. I guess this is technically from last quad (they wore it in Jesolo 2012), but I’m just going to ignore that.

A special mention for these two throwback leos:

Vika’s leo gives me those good 2010 vibes, but with a new color. And it must be even luckier than Aliya’s lucky blue one, because Glasgow was the only major competition Vika competed in all quad and this leo got her through alive with a gold medal to top it off. And it looks beautiful on her.

Seda’s vintage leo has survived 3 quads (baby Aliya included), and it actually looks great on her. I love it. 

My Favorite Routines from This Quadrennium (IV)

So this one should be probably named "My Favorite(ish) Routines", because Russia and floor was kind of a disaster this quad. It was a real shame too considering that they were AMAZING last quad, Aliya, Vika, Grishy, Afan, Belo, Myzdrikova, Semy, Demy...how I miss Russia's 2009-2012 floor. Oh well, since I have to stick with this quad, we might suffer from a bit of an Aliya-overdose. If that's even possible.

It actually took me days to assemble nice routines, and after spending more days looking at them and grinding my teeth over naming this mediocre mess "my favorite", I ended up dividing them into two groups. The first group is dedicated to my actual favorite routines, and the second group are the routines that were highlights in the middle of everything terrible, but not really that memorable. Enjoy. Or not. I don't blame you if you fall asleep after the first group.

FLOOR EXERCISE

My actual favorite routines:

Aliya Mustafina immediately brought on her A-game starting in 2013 with TWO new floor routines. I absolutely love her routine from 2013 European Championships. It's very different from her later routines, it almost reminds me of 2010 Aliya. There's just something understated but captivating about it, and that beautiful pose during her "down to the floor" choreography gave us some great pictures. And look at her execution too, the first tumbling line is pretty much perfect, the other tumbles are very well landed too, and powerful. The spins have control, even the almost "Mustafina". We just haven't often seen the perfectionist side of Aliya on floor this quad, but this performance definitely stands out to me. And the extensive amount of time she spends in the corner breathing and uhm... "dancing" before her last tumbling line, it just makes me nostalgic, such classic Aliya.

Mr. and Mrs. Ksenia Afanasyeva

I'm going to post about the gymnastics galore Russia had yesterday night when we get better footage (I hope the event was televised...), but while the rest of Russia's gymnastic elite was partying it up with Aleksei Nemov, Afan was busy getting married. She looked beautiful and...very Afan.

Her new husband, Roman Suetin, is a former gymnast and national team member and a current coach working in Moscow. So far it looks like Maria Paseka (the grooms ex-girlfriend?) and Ekaterina Kurbatova were the only WAG gymnasts in attendance.

I wish them many happy years together and a life filled with love and joy!

My Favorite Routines from This Quadrennium (I)

I've been meaning to do a compilation post about my favorite Russian routines from this quad (2013-2016) ever since I recovered from the Olympics, but procrastination got in the way. I'll do this one apparatus at a time, so the first part is going to be a bit boring. There's only so much you can get out of vault, especially with Russia.

VAULT

Obviously this moment had to be included, Maria Paseka winning gold on vault at the 2015 World Championships. Look how far she's come after London, her amanar was basically a gymternet joke back then, but now it's solid. And to think that she was out with injuries for almost two years prior to 2015, but came back with a cheng. Not to mention winning silver at the 2016 Olympics, and vaulting the amanar that clinched Russia the Olympic silver during the last rotation of the team final.

But what did he MEAN?

Andrei Rodionenko, the head of Russian artistic gymnastics gave an interview and made sure to remind us that the current team isn't final. They're still waiting to see what Afan has to show. 

So my question is... Why is it that poor Princess Tut never actually makes the team? She is always on the verge of making a team, either waiting for someone else to magically heal or being an alternate/team member/alternate again with 3 other girls. I can't imagine this helping her already questionable mental game at the competition.

I swear this post was supposed to be a semi-legitimate translation of this interview with Andrei Rodionenko. But it was just more fun translating what he meant to say, instead of what he said. So here you go.

How difficult was it for you to choose the composition of the Olympic team and what role did the Russian Cup play in it? 

What Andrei said: This team composition is only nominative and there may be changes. There are gymnasts who are not yet ready after an injury, so it's premature to talk about the final composition of the team.

What Andrei meant: lol. Why would you think that we even have a team. Everyone is injured. Aliya is our Queen and she will make the team if she can walk (with crutches) but no one else is in the team until we announce it 2 seconds before the competition begins. It is the Russian way. Don't question it.

Weekend with Grebs, Doctor Kitty and the Goddess of Gymnastics

A lot going on these past few weeks. There was Bern, two Princess Tuts, and Classics with Bogi. Afan went to see the German Miracle Doctors and Nastia and Chuso were having fun of their own... Oh, and the Rio medals were announced. I didn't like them.
-----
Grebs and his gang of girls went out to have some fun in Bern after the competition.

Queen Aliya and Afan were missing. Maybe napping? That's what Aly and I would have done. Let the youngsters who still have energy enjoy it. Or maybe they took the first flight back to Russia to see their boyfriends and have some nice down time home before the next camp. Or in Afan's case, surgery.

Euros 2016: The Aftermath

I was really exhausted after the European Championships, but now that I've taken some time to relax and rewind, why not have a recap of sorts.

The European Championships was obviously a big success for Russia. They won the most important title, team gold, which is very encouraging considering it's the Olympic year. 4 individual medals is not bad either, especially with the beam gold for Aliya. Russia has been hit hard this year with the doping scandal that just won't go away, so good news like this got a decent amount of media attention. The Russian Minister of Sports Vitaly Mutko didn't actually have anything to say about gymnastics itself, but managed to mention the Euros and how the Russians topped the medal standings with everyone passing their drug tests. Congrats team, the most important thing in the competition was that your pee was clear. Well, he did also say that he wanted to congratulate them and would stop by for a visit. I don't know if he dares though, remember when he visited Round Lake and this happened?

I'd be scared. That's what you get for trying to limit the Queen's reign to two Olympics.

Euros 2016: TOO MANY FEELS

I'm writing this while watching the US Secret Classic live, so sorry in advance for any incoherence. I'm always incoherent (English is not my first (or even second) language and I resent proof reading), but today I might be even more so than usual. It has nothing to do with the bottle of wine I drank in order to get through balance beam and floor. NOTHING!

But let me tell you about that wine. I thought the competition was going to begin later like yesterday, but it didn't. So I noticed 13 minutes before the competition was about to begin that I had 13 minutes to go and find some alcohol. I was in my comfy unitard pajamas, because Saturday, ya know, so I threw on some clothes, put my hair in a tight bun, no time for brushing, searched for my keys and stormed out with ten minutes to the start of the competition. And I made it back in 8 minutes! That must be a record or something. There were 2 people in the line in front of me at the liquor store but I was patient and I waited and the cashier had trouble with my ID (a passport from when I was 16 lol) and I still made it! Amazing.

So I basically gave the European Championships team title to GB earlier, but that was incredibly stupid of me. Because as I've been telling you, for Mother Russia, bad qualification equals good results. I also posted this on my tumblr before the competition even began:

I have strong evidence that the Russians are going to be European Champions. Today I decided to treat myself to some terribly over-priced non-coffee and walked into a Starbucks. They took my order and asked me to repeat my name twice, like usual. What was unusual, was that when I picked up my coffee, I noticed that THEY GOT MY NAME RIGHT. Yes. Do you know the last time that happened? In 2010. Do you know something else that last time happened in 2010? The Russians winning European Championships. Strong. Evidence.

That is inductive logic at its finest and it held up. IT HELD UP! Russia won with a lot of points to spare. Sorry for yelling "I told you so" again, I'm obnoxious, I know. And there's even something that I didn't mention in that post: in 2010 when Starbucks got my name right, I was in Switzerland! It wasn't in Bern, though, it was in Zurich. They actually asked me how to spell my name and got it right. Amazing. When I was in New York in 2014, they also asked me how to spell my name and still got it wrong! So no gold for Russia in 2014.

But let's begin.

Meanwhile in Bern...

Let's just say there was a lot going on during the qualification. Aliya certainly didn't come back from the dead for the hundredth time just to end up in second place.

Euros 2016: Senior Qualification

I was going through the pictures from the qualifying and THIS. It's just unfair. She's just warming up in the hassle of the arena and manages to look like a perfect add for bottled water or something. "Take in the pure feeling! Find your inner peace in the small moments of life! Take a break out of the everyday life and enjoy the moment!" Whatever.

Not that I've established The Queen's superiority in looking good, whatever the situation, let's move onto the actual competition.

Euros 2016: Senior Podium Training with Team Hot Mess

Today was the senior podium training. Italian Gymnastics Federation (Federazione Ginnastica d'Italia
who have provided excellent coverage of pretty much every meet this year, thank you very much) streamed some of it on Periscope. UEG had a slightly better stream on their Facebook page. The top teams were all in the last session of the day and it looked like Marta's wonderland with at least 3 teams (including Russia and Romania) wearing the same obnoxious shade of pink.

Russia is never the one to put much effort into podium training, but don't worry, bad podium training and qualification promise good results (just remember Glasgow when the qualification went without falls). Aliya was the MVP on beam with 4 falls, round off single back tuck as a dismount, and she even managed to land it crooked and bounce right off the mats to the hard surface of the podium, like Vika in London. Amazing. Spiridoz was surprisingly the one to stay on with Seda and Melka falling too.

Where things got weird was floor. Melka put her hands down on a double pike, Seda was great and Spiridoz did a dance through with layouts. Afan was a no show and it was Aliya, who anchored on floor, with downgraded tumbling, but otherwise okay routine (for a podium training). The style reminded me of her routine last year. I don't know what the fuck was going on with Afan, she was standing on the sidelines with her clothes on. Aliya also managed to take a bad fall on a mustafina-turn (ironically) and seemed to hurt her ankle a bit, but she walked off afterwards without issues. Meanwhile Melka and Seda were trying to get their wolf turns in order.

I didn't get to see much of vault, the camera was focusing on beam and floor, only a bunch of timers and some blurry DTYs from Melka, Aliya and Seda. No falls. Spiridoz vaulted too, still no Afan.

No one did a full bar routine, only parts. Aliya had her inbars back, but battled with her pak (maybe on purpose, maybe not), Melka face-planted a jaeger and Spiridoz just looked sloppy. You'd never guess how brilliant they are on this apparatus based on their training.

Romania looked solid, especially Catalina Ponor. They actually take podium training seriously. The home team also looked good on floor with Giulia Steingruber as their star and Ilaria Kaeslin having a weird mistake with finishing her routine out of bonds (her ending pose).

Valentina Rodionenko announced on R-sport that Aliya is testing her readiness in AA. Seda and Melka will also most likely do AA. I'll update this post when I know more about what's going on with Afan.

UPDATE:

Afan will only do vault, a minor injury apparently. That means Aliya will have to do floor, I'm not really happy about this. They really should have taken Kapi or Masha K. as a traveling alternate to avoid a situation like this...

Here are the startlists for tomorrow:

For Russia it's

• BB: Melnikova, Tutkhalyan, Mustafina 
• FX: Melnikova, Tutkhalyan, Mustafina
• VT: Melnikova, Tutkhalyan, Afanaseyva
• UB: Melnikova, Spiridonova, Mustafina

I don't really agree with this but who cares what I think. I'll tell you anyway... I think Melka should anchor balance beam. Aliya will set the right tone at the start and hopefully not fall, Seda is good in the middle (less nerves) and Melka should make a nice finish. They should also let Spiridoz anchor bars, milk that score to the lasts tenths, they are going to need everything they can get because of floor. Yeah, floor... Aliya probably needs all the time she can get to tape herself together, so let her go last. It's going to get scary no matter what.

say 'hi' to the bear!

The girls are finally in Bern, all in one piece. Bless the tape that holds those fragile ankles together. We should be especially grateful to have Afan there, because apparently she thought that this was a good idea:

Video, jonka Ксю Афанасьева (@ksenia3333) julkaisi 25. 05ta 2016 klo 2.26 PDT

I need to have a serious conversation with you, Ksyu. It's about the Olympics and my poor little fangirl heart that can't take a Russian disaster which you might cause with this sort of behavior. Stop it.

From Russia to Rio: Floor Exercise

4th and final installment of this series, unless I suddenly get super inspired and do a separate one just for individual AA.

FLOOR EXERCISE:

Floor is where Russia loses most against their main rivals. They are lacking in difficulty and creativity (and conditioning) and most of the team struggles to break 14. It's been like this the entire quad and they've done little to fix it, while other teams have made the gap even larger year by year. We can only hope for better results next quad, but if the team administration doesn't change (they currently focus on complaining instead of working), I don't see any major improvements coming. It's starting to look like the situation with Romania and I really don't want Russia to end up like that next quad.

From Russia to Rio: Balance Beam

Third part part of the series, it's time for the terror of women's gymnastics (be scared, be very scared)...

BALANCE BEAM:

This is where things get really unpredictable. The best gymnasts Russia has on balance beam are currently nowhere near actually making the team, so the lineup is not going to be ideal, no matter how things work out. But when you can only take 5 gymnasts, you can't have the best everywhere. Not to mention that if things go wrong on balance beam, they go really wrong, even if they can put the best gymnasts up.

I really don't think Russia should have any problems putting up a good beam rotation. But they shouldn't have had problems in Glasgow either but somehow managed to screw it up. So we won't know until it's over.

Russian team for European Championships is not surprising, but HAPPY MAY DAY anyway

The Russian team for European Championships was announced and there were no changes from earlier, except for Vika, who is still suffering from back pain (more about it later).

It's going to be:

• Aliya Mustafina
• Angelina Melnikova
• Ksenia Afanasyeva
• Maria Paseka
• Daria Spiridonova
• Seda Tutkhalyan (reserve(ish))

The first two have clearly earned their spot. Aliya for just being Aliya, and Melka for having performance of a lifetime at nationals. If I have to actually come up with an actual reason for Aliya having earned her spot, it's her persona. She's the team leader, the girls respect her, love her, listen to her and she can hopefully keep everybody calm with her own calm no bullshit presence. Clearly Afan wasn't up for that role last year. Aliya can also medal on bars, stay on the damn beam (albeit shakily) and most likely come up with a good double twisting yurchenko. As far as I know, she's been training with full loads since nationals, so I trust her to be ready.

Melka is a no-brainer. She can do all around at team finals: passable DTY, good bars, good beam, decent floor. She should also be able to contend for individual medals on beam and bars. Maybe even floor if she gets her connections and the competition has some mistakes.

So those two I'm fine with, but as for the rest...no.

Russian Nationals 2016 - Event Finals (Welcome back Seda and Afan)

I really have nothing to say. Most gymnasts performed just as well or bad as before, except for my dear Seda, of course. And Afan who returned from the dead to show everyone that she still has it when she bothers to care.

From Russia to Rio: VAULT

With the Olympics approaching fast, I thought I'd take a look at what Team Russia has to offer for Rio. This is the first part (1/4) in the series.

News and Updates from Round Lake: Valentina Might Be High but Vika Is Still Alive and Aliya Is Finally Giving up Circus

I started off my weekend by walking home from work (I didn't have money for the bus because I spent it on a pastry to get through the day), taking a shortcut across the ice (I live on an island and work in the mainland) and tripping on someone's unmarked fishing hole and breaking the screen of my iPod in the process. I guess I should be glad I didn't fall in and drown/die of hypothermia. But I wasn't because my iPod is my most important possession.

So my weekend didn't look so great at first but The Wicked Witch of Round Lake aka Valentina Rodionenko decided to cheer me with some updates. Now Valentina likes to remind everyone of her existence every now and then by giving out (un)important news or false information and I'm hoping this falls under the former category, because it means that Vika has survived the winter (so far) and Aliya is slowly starting to wake up from her hibernation.

She's also sharing some information about the competitions to come this year, team selection for the Olympics and their best medal hopes.