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Wednesday 23 January 2013

Soviets Chomping Caviar. Komova injured?!

For reals, yo. This one contains an interview with Lena Degteva, a Soviet Junior gymnast who went on to emigrate to Canada and compete for the Bruins. Lena was at Round Lake circa 1989, in the same training group as Oksana Chusovitina and Tatiana Gutsu. The whole interview is fascinating, and extremely frank. No holds barred on how she got her start in the sport, the Soviet attitude to things like education and America, the dance training and diet. Yes, caviar! I'm sure I'm not the only one who did a double take at that. The interview starts roughly a third of the way through, if you want to skip NCAA recaps etc.

Also MCKAYLA MARONEY IS BACK IN THE GYM. 
This was posted on Jade Barbosa's twitter, who seems ready to go for Rio. Great news on both counts! As for McKayla, she's in a leo with her comp hair sorted, that's good enough for me even if she's just conditioning..I wouldn't expect much more than that at this stage. I'm all for pale, but wow what a milk bottle! It must be the Irish in her :P

I just saw this a second ago. What a MASSIVE blow to Viktoria Komova's entire 2013 if true, quite possibly resulting in her 2011 experience...barely getting back in time for Worlds. Let's hope there will be a much more positive outlook on this soon. Get healed quickly Vika! Update: Vika has said on her own VK (Russian social network) that she is out of both competitions. However she will be undergoing further testing on the 27th and 28th, and maybe there will be more hopeful news then. Crushing and all as it is to see THE most fantastic gymnast of the quad down with another injury, it may well be the best thing for her- enforced rest. If she has to take a year off and heal fully from everything and really grow into her new frame, she would probably be in a much better place for Rio, rather than run the risk of pushing herself too hard and coming down with more injuries closer to 2016.

More bad news, Ebee and Larisa Iordache are both out of SCAM. Ebee is citing a hip strain, no reason is given for Larisa. I would not immediately cry 'injury!', it may well be that they want more time to develop for Worlds. Koko Tsurumi and Victoria Moors have been named. The fact that a replacement Romanian has not makes me think that it's not neccessarily Larisa, but moreso the structuring of their programme. Koko is an odd one, seeing as the general idea was that she was winding down to retirement after London. Maybe a last hurrah? Will always welcome a chance to see her and Victoria. Victoria has a new floor routine, and I love it. The replacement American for Ebee will be named at the February camp. It is most likely to be Lexie Priessman facing Kyla, which will be just as interesting I think. There are still more spots, and of course, room for an exhibition. Confirmed are Seitz, Ferrari, Moors, Tsurumi, Teramoto and Ross. I expect a Brit, Priessman and Katelyn Ohashi to exhibit 2 or 3 routines.

14 comments:

  1. I remember reading Ekaterina Gordeeva's autobiography, and she said she used to bring her jars of caviar to worlds and trade them for Levis from the US team, and then she was all sad because at the Olympics they actually opened the jars so they had to eat it instead

    -EliteFan

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    1. Lol, it is supposed to be extremely nutritious..they must have had a contact in the fishing industry to get it for everyday for each girl though. I'm going to go on a gymnastics book binge soon, I read like crazy and there are NO books on gymnastics available here, so amazon it is. I haven't even read Little Girls in Pretty Boxes! So I will add Gordeeva's to the list, thanks for that!

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    2. Gordeeva is a figure skater, but her book gives a pretty good picture of the Soviet sports scene in general. It's partly a love story to her husband/pairs skating partner Sergei Grinkov, who died really young (it's called My Sergei), but a lot of it is about growing up under the Soviet system. I picked it up at a library booksale, you'd probably be able to find it used.

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    3. Ahhh. I should not type comments at 1AM. I was thinking I hadn't heard of her, but then I hadn't heard of Degteva. And then I eventually copped, she wouldn't have an autobiography if she was a nobody. Sigh. Unfortunately there is just no market for any books like that here, I spend my life in bookshops and second hand ones and libraries...it just ain't happening in this country anytime soon.

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  2. yay for mckayla being back in the gym! just can't shake my hopes on her competing a TTY.

    terrible blow for vika :( but maybe a blessing in disguise perhaps? gives her body a bit of a physical break and it might toughen her up a bit. she's still got rio in her sights so maybe better to be injured now that closer to 2016.

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    1. Kind of what I'm thinking, taking the year off could help her in the long run to really recover from everything and settle into puberty.

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  3. Is it me or does Mckayla look taller?

    I said over on GTT that it looks like the puberty fairy has hit Mckayla and she looks a fee inches taller. Glad to see shes back in the gym training though.

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    1. Lol hard to tell, Jade is not really tall. McKayla is what, 5'3? She should be okay.

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    2. Too bad about Vika's injury. It would have been fantastic to see an emotionally & physically healthy Komova this year.

      I can't see Mckayla continuing on much longer. I keep thinking I will see her linked with the Kylie & Kendall Jenner on some Huffington Post article!

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  4. I think Iordache has too much comps in March. (Bercy,American,and European!!), so maybe it's not a bad news that she withdrew from American Cup.
    GOOD news that Moors will compete, but I'm a bit worried about if she is in good competitive form.

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    1. Euros is the end of April, though it's still not much time. Sad not to see her at SCAM, though I'd agree it looks like the best option to pace properly for worlds.

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  5. Maroney gains a lot of weight since the Olympic. I dont think she could twist like she used to

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    1. I don't think so. She still has no hips, good news for twisting. And the picture in the leo shows her to be in good shape. If anything she has probably lost weight, muscle definition through injury. She's still very slight and boyish and I don't see an issue.

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    2. Maroney GAINS WEIGHT. She's gonna have trouble twisting.

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