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.