Tag Archives: tatiana nabieva

Maria Paseka…Russia’s 5th Olympic Team Member?

Maria Paseka

Russian head coach Alexander Alexandrov recently stated that Aliya Mustafina, Viktoria Komova, and Anastasia Grishina were essentially locks for the Olympic team.  Based on the way things have played out this year, that’s certainly the way it was looking to all of us too.   The other two spots have appeared to be up for grabs amongst ...

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Russians Unveil New Skills At Moscow Championships

Grishina pose

  A while back I posted a blog entitled “Russia’s Ten Little Indians,” highlighting the ten female gymnasts I consider to be in contention for this summer’s Olympic team:     Aliya Mustafina: 2010 world all-around champion   Viktoria Komova: 2011 world all-around silver medalist   Ksenia Afanasyeva: 2010 world floor champion and 2008 Olympian   Anna Dementieva: 2011 European all-around champion   Anastasia Grishina: 2011 Russian ...

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Russia’s “Ten Little Indians”

Ten Little Indians

With the Games in London set to begin in less than seven months, the Olympic selection season is essentially here for all participating countries in London - the final four of which will be determined at the Olympic Test Event in just a couple of days.   Russia has already solidified Olympic team berths on both the ...

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Olympic Tickets and Redemption Highlight Event Finals Day 1

maroney vault

Men’s Floor Highlights Kohei Uchimura’s unveiling of the extremely rare triple twisting double back – a skill competed by only a very small handful of gymnasts EVER - appeared so effortless that the judges somehow completely missed it!  Flavius Kozci’s 3 ½ twist to punch front full is an unprecedented pass that he’s been nailing throughout ...

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USA Wins It!!!

s team 2011

The team final that most expected would be a tight race between the USA, China, and Russia ended up being a landslide, with the USA easily regaining the world team title it last won in 2007.  The Americans were absolutely rock solid and delivered perhaps their best team performance ever under the pressure-filled, three-up-three-count format.   The ...

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Remembering Rotterdam…The 2010 Women’s World Team Final

dementieva 2010

Anna Dementieva Floor 2010 World Team Finals     Ksenia Afansyeva Floor 2010 World Team Finals     Since the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991 and began competing as separate individual nations after the 1992 Olympics, many fans have yearned for some form of the gymnastics that dominated world and Olympic competition in the 1980’s and 1990’s.  When many fans envision ...

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Komova Wins Final Russian Tune-Up Before Worlds

viktoria komova

Viktoria Komova’s all-around victory at this weekend’s Dinamo International certainly isn’t a surprise, but it’s a good indication that she will likely be competing all four events at the worlds in Tokyo.  Komova’s status has been somewhat questionable all year after two separate injuries to her ankle kept her out of the European Championships in ...

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Surprises and Opportunities: The Chinese and Russian Women’s World Teams

china russia flags

As announcements of the six-member squads for the world championships from various teams around the world continue to trickle in, we get a better and better sense of how the competition in Tokyo might shape up.  The “Big Four” in women’s gymnastics over the past 30 years have been Russia, China, Romania, and the USA.  ...

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Gabrielle Douglas…America’s Answer to the Bars Dilemma?

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It’s been no secret that the U.S. women have been searching for a bars specialist for at least the last three years.  Nastia Liukin was able to fill much of the U.S. void on this event back in 2008, but even with her world class routine the U.S. was still in a different league than ...

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Day 1 at Women’s Euros…Random Thoughts!

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I haven't seen all the videos from the competition, but I've seen quite a few.  Here are some of my random observations based on videos and results from Day 1 in Berlin: Mustafina’s floor was incredible – essentially stuck every single pass (just a tiny hop on the double Arabian).  She didn’t throw the 3 ½ ...

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