Nellie Kim Explains Gymnastics

Nellie Kim, a former Soviet gymnast and the long-time President of the Women’s Technical Committee is one of the most important figures in women's gymnastics: she's basically HBIC, the right hand of Bruno Grandi and in charge of the judges. You can often see her at the most important meets, running from judge to judge and checking computer screens for reference when there's a problem.

She's still a Soviet Diva at heart, she's excellent and she knows it and controversy seems to follow her. She's also a bit like Svetlana Khorkina. She's a fiery and opinionated person who usually has a lot to say and it tends to be a bit controversial. And like Khorkina (and many, many other people), she seems to be at odds with the Rodionenkos and Russia's current national team management.

I posted this collection of quotes from Mrs Kim two years ago on my tumblr and it ended up being widely unpopular there, but it's still relevant and gets a lot of hits on google, so I'm going to post it here for archiving purposes.