These Olympic Games seemed to have so many more ups and downs than usual. Well, OK, nothing beats Sydney 2000 in that regard, but here’s a recap of some of the most memorable events.

The sportsmanship this time around was at a whole new level. Without the loud crowds, we could hear so many more words of encouragement from the sidelines. It was thrilling to see gymnasts from all different countries cheering for each other and taking selfies with one another. Thanks to social media, it seems like the gymnasts actually know each other. In bygone eras, even teammates who trained at different gyms in the same country didn’t even seem to know each other.

Liu Yang’s head roll to neck crack on rings had ME cracked up!

Simone Biles went through so much during these Olympics, and she showed us what a queen she really is. We learned a lot about mental health and how it can affect us physically. Simone remained brave and poised under such immense pressure.

Sunisa Lee, Grace McCallum and Jordan Chiles should be proud of the way they pulled together to earn that silver medal! Grace was steady the whole time and proved she earned that spot on the team.

Gymnastics went ahead without any positive COVID-19 cases amongst the competing athletes!

It’s so upsetting that COVID-19 caused Kara Eaker, Leanne Wong and Naomi Visser not to have the Olympic experience they had worked so hard for. I hope Kara and Leanne have a super fun time in the NCAA, and that Naomi makes the next Worlds team.

Rebeca Andrade’s Cheng vault. Just wow!!! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a block and a delayed twist quite like that. So glad it is finally her time to shine!

Similarly, it was awesome seeing Lee Chih Kai perform his amazing pommel horse routine to earn a silver medal for Chinese Taipei. (I was secretly hoping it would be gold!) Hopefully next time Rhys McClenaghan will also bring home some hardware.

What’s with Oksana Chusovitina being invited to hold the coveted position of flag bearer, only to deny her when she showed up for the Opening Ceremony?! She deserves a proper explanation at the very least. She also deserves the standing ovation she received after completing vault in her 8th Olympics! No finals this time around, but she must be very proud of all her accomplishments.

The Russian WAG athletes finally won team gold! So well deserved. Many of their skills are just utter perfection. I hope Vladislava Urazova and Viktoria Listunova win some individual medals at the upcoming Worlds. And the MAG team stood atop the podium too! Who would have thought that all their legs would hold up so well?!

The Athlete Moment cameras were like virtual hugs from family and friends at home. It must have been so hard for young athletes to be at the Olympics without family, and even harder for parents to have to stay home!

Sunisa Lee, Rebeca Andrade, Angelina Melnikova and Vladislava Urazova made the AA finals so exciting to watch! What a wonderful podium. They all looked happy and displayed wonderful sportsmanship. It’s great seeing such a diverse group of medal winners!

Finally! Danusia Francis officially becomes an Olympian with a couple of toe-ons for a 9.033 E score!

Happy for Vanessa Ferrari, who won the floor silver after finishing in 4th place two Olympics in a row. She displayed a magnificent combination of tumbling and dance. She’s the whole package! Jade Carey’s tumbling was spectacular (…that Moors: WOW!). Her dance and music did go together and I do enjoy watching her routine, but there was a notable lack of artistry. She showed how mentally strong she is by coming back strong after the vaulting disaster the day before.

Thumbs down to the people attacking Vanessa online for the racist comments of SOMEONE ELSE!

It’s always fun to watch Rayderley Zapata and his fantastic tumbling (and sky-high hurdles!). I wish ties were not broken at the Olympics as it’s really not fair. Zapata deserved to share the gold with Artem Dolgopyat. Murakami Mai and Angelina Melnikova were super lucky to have received the same E- and D-scores on floor in order to both stay in bronze.

What possessed British Gymnastics to give trainer credentials to their alternate gymnasts so they could train in the Olympic gym?! They are lucky not to have received more severe consequences.

I just wanted Larisa Iordache to have a great Olympics and maybe even win a beam medal. How sad to have to withdraw minutes before the competition, after all that she’s been through.

For a minute there, it looked like first reserve and FIG apparatus qualifier Ashikawa Urara would not quite make it into the beam final. Everyone was on tenterhooks waiting to see if Ellie Black, Flavia Saraiva, Larisa Iordache and Simone Biles would be able to compete. Side note: it was SO hard seeing Ellie just miss out on a medal after doing a stellar routine on an injured ankle.

The parallel bars medallists seemed to be the most elated of all. It’s so exciting to see the silver and bronze medallists so thrilled with their results. What a special moment when Zou Jingyuan and Ferhat Arican hugged after descending the medal podium.

Unfortunately, China’s WAG had a rough go of it. During the selection procedures it looked like they had an embarrassment of riches, but that didn’t translate into Olympic medals until the very last day when Guan Chenchen and Tang Xijing clinched the gold and silver on beam. Tang’s routine was exquisite, and I loved Guan’s disco roll!

MyKayla Skinner was on an emotional roller coaster leading up to the vault final. Imagine planning to fly home early when you are a reserve athlete and had the 4th highest score in qualifications!

Artur Dalaloyan’s recently ruptured Achilles held up and he managed 6th AA! We also found out about Nikita Nagornyy’s kidney stones once the competition was over. These two sure were tenacious!

What a nice moment seeing AA champ Hashimoto Daiki place his high bar gold around Uchimura Kohei’s neck. He had promised to do that after qualifications if he were to win the high bar title. So much respect between teammates.

Gymnastics fans missed the many gymnasts who, for a variety of reasons, were not at these Olympics…Chen Yile, Lorette Charpy, Becky & Ellie Downie, Liu Tingting, Marta Pihan-Kulesza, Morgan Hurd, Teramoto Asuka, Ana Padurariu, Shirai Kenzo, Zhang Boheng, and many, many more.

The stadium used for gymnastics was beautiful and the wooden seats made for a calming atmosphere. The organizing committees, workers and volunteers in Japan are to be commended for their amazing work in difficult times!

What were your most memorable moments?

Here are some of my favourite things from the Montreal Worlds, in no particular order:

I loved the dramatic music and the way each gymnast was introduced with a burst of dry ice (is that what that was?!) and 10 flames. Poor Weng Hao (CHN), Artur Dalaloyan (RUS) and Zou Jingyuan (CHN) didn’t get the flames because they were standing too far off to the side, and no one wants to see a gymnast get singed eyebrows.

Nadia Comaneci (ROU) was interviewed on stage each of the four days of finals (she even did her famous floor pose!), and Max Whitlock (GBR) came out on the floor on the final day to talk about winning Pommels. The organizing committee definitely kept the crowd entertained, not only with the fun intros, but also by having the “present cam” and by having the audience vote for their choice of “rotation” music.

I think I have a new favourite! Elena Eremina (RUS)! She is such a beautiful gymnast, and she looks cheerful and sweet. I never paid much attention until I saw her on YouTube looking overjoyed that teammate Angelina Melnikova had won floor at the 2017 European Championships…a final she herself was also competing in. It’s great she came away from her first Worlds with a silver and a bronze, but I would have preferred to see her win Uneven Bars!

Oksana Chusovitina (UZB) was absolutely amazing on Vault. She competed a layout front full (a bit piked) and a Tsukahara-1.5 with among the best form seen in the final. I wish she could have snuck in for a medal. Similarly, the very enthusiastic Jorge Vega Lopez was phenomenal and it would have been cool to see him bring some hardware back to Guatemala.

Zou was unbelievable on Parallel Bars. He has absolute control over his body and has mastered this event. He and Oleg Verniaiev (UKR) ended up miles ahead of a strong field of finalists. I was also thrilled to see Hidetaka Miyachi (JPN) on High Bar. His double-twisting layout Kovacs is out of this world!!! It was such a shame when he missed the tucked version….

Kenzo Shirai (JPN) was on fire!!! He is absolutely phenomenal on Floor and Vault. His twisting is indescribable; his quadruple twist looks like a triple, his triple-twisting Yurchenko looks like a double…and he does it all with immaculate form (and a smile on his face! OK, not really). He won Floor by a margin 1,100 times greater than the margin by which he won Vault.

It was fun seeing the Twitter exchange between Morgan Hurd (USA) and JK Rowling!

Surprise medallists…at least, surprises to me! Tim Srbic (CRO) nailed his full-twisting double layout to stand atop the High Bar podium. Almost, not a huge shock, but it’s always kinda cool when a newby like Hurd steps up and wins gold (in the All Around , no less!). I breathed a sigh of relief when Mai Murakami (JPN) finally got a gold medal after ending up in 4th in the All Around AND on Beam.

Brooklyn Moors (CAN) totally deserved the Longines Award for Elegance. What a gorgeous floor routine, complete with a Podkopayeva mount.

Yul Moldauer (USA) was a picture of consistency. He’s such a neat and tidy gymnast. I love Shirai, but I would have been cool with Moldauer winning the Longines Award.

Whoa – only 2 gymnasts managed to score in the 13s on Beam in the All-Around finals: Tabea Alt (GER) and Eremina. And by that, I mean that the 13s were the HIGHEST scores!

Nina Derwael: Belgium’s first medal! She’s been scooping up Uneven Bars medals at various meets for years now, so it as great to see her win bronze at her first World Championship!

Ellie Black (CAN) was a total crowd favourite. It was deafening in the stands before, during and after each of her routines. For her to finish 2nd AA (just 0.1 out of 1st!) was thrilling for the home crowd.

DISAPPOINTMENTS:

This didn’t turn into the Kohei Uchimura (JPN)-Oleg Verniaiev (UKR) showdown that I was hoping for. I can’t even describe how sad I was when I heard that Uchimura was injured and I realized I wouldn’t see him compete in Montreal. I didn’t even see him in the stadium, and he was the one I was most excited to see.

All the other injuries: Larisa Iordache (ROU), Ragan Smith (USA), Yang Hak Seon (KOR), Vanessa Ferrari (ITA)….  It’s so sad when that happens after all their hard work (not to mention the severe thinning of the field when top contenders are forced to withdraw).

Russian David Belyavsky’s heartbreak on High Bar was awful; the Men’s AA was truly a highlight – a real nail-biter! It was so sad for all the gymnasts who fell, especially Randy Leru (CUB) who looked devastated after he sat down his gorgeous double-twisting double layout off High Bar in the event final. It was also a major bummer for his teammate, Manrique Larduet, to come away from these Worlds without a medal.

I wanted to see Lieke and Sanne Wevers (NED) (I did see them in the crowd a few times!), Eythora Thorsdottir (NED) and Catalina Ponor (ROU), but unfortunately they didn’t make finals.

Weng’s Pommels was simply sublime, but a slight glitch on the dismount and a lower D-score was enough to leave him in 6th. It was kind of fun booing with everyone else when his score came up and we realized he was not in the medals.

(Oh! The video doesn’t do the routine justice. In real life, his body line was gorgeous…here, it just looks REALLY GOOD.)

So all in all, it was a great meet and I had an amazing time with my sister in Montreal. We left the city with fabulous memories. I hope another competition of this calibre come to this corner of the world in the near future.

Five gymnasts on a team is certainly not enough, especially for the men who have 6 events to cover. It will be interesting to see if there is room on teams for specialists such as Louis Smith (GBR) and Ashton Locklear (USA). Both gymnasts could win medals on their respective events, pommel horse and uneven bars, but if they are to be selected then only 4 spots remain to cover the rest of the events. Some teams, such as the U.S. men, stack their weakest event (pommel horse) the best they can. On the other hand, the Belgians chose a women’s team which bolsters their strength: the uneven bars.

Louis Smith (GBR), 2016 British Championships, PH AA

Ashton Locklear (USA), 2016 Pacific Rim Championships, UB TF/AA

I was happy to see Chris Brooks (USA) named to the Olympic team. Going 24-for-24 across nationals and trials is no mean feat, and his consistency deserved to be rewarded. I feel bad for Danell Leyva and Donnell Whittenburg, who didn’t quite show the best versions of themselves. It’s interesting that the selection committee chose to leave behind the only two guys who won medals at last year’s Worlds!

Chris Brooks (USA), 2016 P&G Championships, HB Day 2

The FIG really dropped the ball (…or should I say missed their hands on the vault?!) by not giving a nominative spot to Larisa Iordache when she won bronze AA at the 2015 Worlds. Why should apparatus medalists receive a spot but not AA medalists? Even if you don’t expect such a scenario to play out where an AA medalist comes from a team that is not in the top 12, couldn’t that provision still be part of the rules? And it wasn’t totally far-fetched anyway. It could have happened to Guilia Steingruber (SUI) and very nearly did happen to Manrique Larduet (CUB)….

Iordache and Catalina Ponor (ROM) both deserve to be in Rio and it’s heartbreaking that there is only room for one. My sentimental favourite is Iordache. She carried a declining team the entire quad, and did so with awesome gymnastics and a delightful personality. Ill-timed injuries have forced her into this predicament. I do think that at this very moment, though, Ponor is the most deserving of this spot and the most likely to win a beam and/or floor medal. And we all know how rock-solid she is in competition!

Catalina Ponor (ROU), 2016 European Championships, BB TF

I was thrilled when the Canadian ladies exceeded expectations and finished in 5th place at the London Olympics. I think they can do it again! Ellie Black and Brittany Rogers are on the team again, and they will be joined by Isabela Onyshko, Shallon Olsen and Rose-Kaying Woo this time around. Scott Morgan will represent Canada on the men’s side.

I love the way Belgium announced its Olympic team!

Kohei Uchimura (JPN) wins his 6th straight Worlds (7 years in a row counting the 2012 Olympics). If he wins in Rio next year too, he will have dominated two entire quads. Simply amazing!

I love the Dutch team! So much elegance and beauty, and they must be over the moon to have qualified directly to Rio by placing 8th. The icing on the cake was surely Sanne Wevers‘s silver medal on beam. Sanne’s twin, Lieke, and Eythora Thorsdottir were both delightful on floor.

Oksana Chusovitina (UZB) just keeps going and going. I really hope she can earn a spot to her 7th Olympics at the Test Event. Debuting a double front vault at age 40 is unfathomable, yet she managed to do it!

Simone Biles (USA) is in a league of her own. She is able to build up enormous D scores, and her E scores are fabulous too. Her tumbling is out of this world and her signature Biles (double layout half-out) never ceases to amaze me. Sae Miyakawa (JPN) also has phenomenal tumbling, but I don’t love the rest of her routine.

Manrique Larduet (CUB) earned an Olympic spot by winning bronze on the very last event, high bar. Phew! How silly is it that his silver medal in the All Around didn’t do the trick?! The FIG must be breathing a sigh of relief, because not qualifying after being second in the world to Uchimura would have been a big egg on their collective face!

I love how Ellie Black (CAN) throws every trick in the book on beam! She has now qualified to an apparatus final every year for 4 straight years now: vault at the 2012 Olympic Games, floor at the 2013 Worlds, and beam in both 2014 and 2015. She has also improved her All Around ranking each year: 13th in 2013, 9th in 2014 and 7th this year.

What were your favourite moments from the Glasgow Worlds?

Alaina Kwan, Floor Exercise, 2015 Secret Classic (9th AA)

Kylie Dickson, Vault, 2015 Secret Classic (11th AA)

Wait…what? The FIG nominative registration and it clearly lists new seniors Sviatlana Lifenka and Valeryia Tsekhmistrenka as the Belarusian gymnasts slated to perform in Glasgow. Have they suddenly been usurped by two Americans they had probably never even heard of?

Belarusian gymnasts who have trained their whole lives for the chance to represent their homeland will be replaced by random foreign gymnasts who don’t speak the language, have never even set foot in the country, probably don’t even know what the national anthem sounds like, and only recently applied for citizenship. If Kwan and Dickson want to compete at Worlds at all costs (understandably!), couldn’t they at least represent a country that doesn’t already have gymnasts? Belarus HAS gymnasts; Anastasia Ekimenka and Anastasia Miklashevich represented their nation at the 2014 Worlds.

Anastasia Ekimenka, Floor Exercise, 2012 European Championships

Anastasia Miklashevich, Balance Beam, 2012 Ostrava World Cup

Click here to read about the other Belarusian girls who have competed internationally during the past year.

I understand that it was not Dickson and Kwan’s idea to compete for Belarus in the first place, and based on the IG interview it seems that the idea was presented to them in such a way to make them feel good about helping the Belarusian program, but the adults involved (i.e. Nellie Kim, Artur Akopyan and Galina Marinova) showed no regard for the actual Belarusian gymnasts affected by this. I also wonder how the higher-ranked American gymnasts feel about this…the ones who fly so often to the ranch for the gruelling camps and team selections…the ones who will just miss out on a ticket to Glasgow.

It seems strange that the Belarusian Gymnastics Federation would allow this to happen. Yes, these two Americans will probably rank higher at the World Championships than the Belarusians could have, but not high enough that it will make any difference in terms of qualifying to finals. If the goal is to clinch an individual spot for Belarus at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, well, that’s not guaranteed either.

If a country doesn’t have elite gymnasts and is trying to build a team from the ground up, it’s a win-win situation for both parties involved. For example, Anna Pavlova (AZE) felt like she was being blacklisted in her native Russia by not being selected for teams despite pulling in the scores. She was still doing beautiful gymnastics at the time of her relocation and deserved to be competing on the world stage. Azerbaijan, known more for its rhythmic program, took in other Russian and Ukrainian athletes and was able to field full teams at the 2014 Worlds (30th in WAG, 47th in MAG).

Despite its recent struggles, Belarus has a rich gymnastics legacy. Some of the sport’s brightest stars hail from this former Soviet republic. In fact, you could argue that it was Olga Korbut who singlehandedly brought gymnastics to the forefront of Olympic competition. And in the 1990s alone, so many accolades were won by legends such as Vitaly Scherbo (who can forget the 6 gold medals he won in Barcelona?!), Svetlana Boginskaya, Ivan Ivankov and Yelena Piskun.

It’s unfortunate that so many excellent gymnasts are punished for being from strong gymnastics countries. In 2004 the USA could have assembled three fantastic teams for the Olympic Games. And what about the Soviet Union?! Just think how many teams they could have fielded in their heyday. Tatiana Groshkova never made it to a Worlds or Olympics despite having some of the best gymnastics of the 1980s.

So what do you think? Should this kind of country-hopping be allowed when you have no ancestry or family connection whatsoever?

Competition floor

My sister attended Day 1 of the apparatus finals (V and UB for the women and FX, PH and R for the men) and here are some of her thoughts:

– It was a very well organized competition. Men and women alternated, so there was always a routine to watch with very little waiting time. Scores for the previous competitor on each event was always ready before the next gymnast competed.

– A high quality competition! We didn’t always see the most difficult skills, but there were very few falls or major errors.

– The Toronto crowd was very enthusiastic and encouraging toward all gymnasts, regardless of nationality (although of course, the loudest cheers were for the Canadians).

– There was lots of support for various nations in the crowd, especially for the Brazilians (so many flags, and a whole row of matching green and yellow unitard outfits).

– There were lots of other athletes in the audience wearing their national warm-ups.

– It was really nice to hear anthems that I’ve never heard before and aren’t often heard at gymnastics competitions.

– Tommy Ramos (PUR) walked in front of us and stood talking to some Puerto Rican coaches/delegation officials for a long time during warm-ups.

Tommy Ramos (PUR)

FX finalists

– Jorge Vega Lopez (GUA) was a huge surprise. He didn’t start warming up floor until most of the other gymnasts had left, but once he started he didn’t stop! He and his coach were very, very excited when his winning score came up. There was also a lady wearing a “GUA” shirt who was celebrating with him at the barrier. I am guessing it was his mom, but it might have been a delegation official.

– Most of the male medalists looked amused at receiving the stuffed Pachi mascot and waved them in the air sheepishly.

PH finalists

– Paula Mejias (PUR) ran into the vault on her first vault and got a zero, but did a nice layout Tsukahara second vault and received generous applause from the audience.

– After Daniele Hypolito (BRA) vaulted, she crouched down in front of a miserable-looking Mejias and gave her what appeared to be a lengthy pep talk.

– Marta Karolyi was not there, but new national staff member Rhonda Faehn was.

– Madison Copiak (CAN) is much taller than most gymnasts, and it was “all hands on deck” when it was her turn on bars; about 8 coaches and gymnasts (including Canadian Isabela Onyshko and Mexican Elsa Garcia) ran onto the podium to raise the bars, chalk them, etc. Same thing after she’d finished her routine.

UB finalists

– Carol Angela Orchard was there providing in-house commentary. She was encouraging and positive, but it was a bit much at times….

– Some medal presenters of note: Nellie Kim, Steve Butcher, Denzil Minnan-Wong (deputy mayor of Toronto), and PanAm organizing committee members.

– Elsa Garcia and another Mexican gymnast (Ahtziri Sandoval?) were sitting at a table in the foyer of the arena after the competition.

– Judge Leyanet Gonzalez (CUB) was thrilled when fellow Cuban Marcia Videaux Jimenez won vault. She applauded wildly when her name appeared in first place in the official results. She continued applauding with her hands above her head even when everyone else had long stopped.

Here are some bright patches I’ve come across lately:

The mother-daughter duo of Natalia Laschenova and Sasha Tsikhanovich performed floor routines with matching choreography 26 years apart. I love it! That 1989 Soviet team is one of my all-time faves, and it’s wonderful to see Tsikhanovich’s tribute to her mother.

Natalia Laschenova (URS), 1989 World Championships, Floor Exercise, All Around

Sasha Tsikhanovich, University of Bridgeport, 2015 Floor Exercise

Kenzo Shirai, Japan’s twisting machine, was criticized in the past for winning floor titles without showing any double saltos. Well, he has been working on several new tumbling passes, including a triple twisting double layout and a whip immediate triple-double. Wow! Oh, and he also throws a front full punch front 3.5 and a whip immediate quadruple twist….

Kenzo Shirai (JPN), training

Romania looks to be back in the running for Rio with the comeback announcements of Catalina Ponor and Sandra Izbasa, and with Larisa Iordache looking great on all events. This team is more and more stylish all the time. Never count Romania out!

Larisa Iordache (ROU), 2014 Glasgow World Cup, Uneven Bars

Catalina Ponor (ROU), 2012 European Championships, Balance Beam, Qualifications

Sandra Izbasa (ROU), 2012 Olympic Games, Floor Exercise, Team Final

Diana Bulimar (ROU), 2012 Olympic Games, Floor Exercise, Team Final

Andreas Bretschneider (GER) has mastered the double twisting Kovacs on high bar! Here he is performing it in his home country. The sky’s the limit!

Andreas Bretschneider (GER), 2014 DTB Cup, High Bar

And finally, a shout out to one of the most underrated gymnasts of this era: Jessica Lopez (VEN)!

Jessica Lopez (VEN), 2014 World Championships, Uneven Bars

Jessica Lopez (VEN), 2014 Glasgow World Cup, Floor Exercise

Did anyone else think the “Aging Beauty” headline on her International GYMNAST cover was a tad bizarre? I mean, she hardly looks like she’s “aging.” She may be 29, but you’d never guess it looking at her gymnastics, and she appears more physically fit than some gymnasts half her age! Oh well…at least the cover also said she “has never looked better.”

What other cool stuff has caught your eye lately?

Catherine Lyons (GBR), 2014 Junior Europeans, Floor Exercise

Sanne Wevers (NED), 2013 Osijek World Cup, Balance Beam

Claire Martin (FRA), Match Avoine 2014, Floor Exercise

Eythora Thorsdottir (NED), 2013 Dutch Championships, Balance Beam

Claudia Fragapane (GBR), 2014 European Championships, Floor Exercise

Barbara Achondo (CHI), 2014 South American Championships, Floor Exercise

And now for a completely different kind of routine (artistic in its own way?) :

Lloimincia Hall (LSU), LSU vs Alabama, January 2014, Floor Exercise

Which routines have caught your eye this year? Let me know!

Whoa!

And then there’s the hilarious flashback to the 1980s, with a Japanese gymnast in costume flipping around to the familiar tunes of Super Mario 1…complete with the power-up star and the flagpole at the end!

When I think of gymnastics in Azerbaijan, only Valeri Belenki comes to mind (as well as a few rhythmic gymnasts that I don’t know anything about!). Belenki was a member of the CIS Team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics that totally dominated the gymnastics scene, earning the bronze medal in the All Around. Here’s his routine on parallel bars when he was forced to compete as an “Unattached” gymnast the following year since the newly formed Azerbaijan was not yet a member of the FIG.

Valeri Belenki, 1993 World Championships, Parallel Bars Finals

Anyway, from now on Pavlova will represent her adopted country internationally, which means we should see her at the World Championships once again. Woohoo! In the past few years, the powers that be in Russia weren’t even considering her for a spot on World and Olympic teams, which was a real tragedy for gymnastics purists everywhere. Now we’ll get to see her in major competitions as she displays her elegant floor routines and aims for a medal on the balance beam. Here are some of her recent routines that were only seen in minor competition:

Anna Pavlova, 2011 Vault

Anna Pavlova, 2013 Uneven Bars

Anna Pavlova, 2012 Balance Beam

Anna Pavlova, 2013 Floor Exercise

Azerbaijan also picked up a couple of other top Russians, Konstantin Pluzhnikov and Yulia Inshina. Pluzhnikov was replaced as Russia’s rings specialist by Alexander Balandin at the 2012 Olympics and 2013 Worlds, so hopefully he will be able to contend for medals under a new flag. Inshina won a silver medal with her Russian team at the 2011 World Championships, but now that she represents Azerbaijan, she will have no trouble qualifying to Worlds and other major events.

Konstantin Pluzhnikov, 2011 European Championships, Still Rings Finals

Yulia Inshina, 2011 World Championships, Balance Beam Finals

Go Azerbaijan!

UPDATE: December 4, 2013.

Anna Pavlova represented Azerbaijan for the first time at the 2013 Voronin Cup in Moscow this week, placing 2nd in the All Around behind Ukrainian Alyona Vasilyeva. Pavlova’s teammate, Marina Nekrasova, finished 3rd AA.

UPDATE: March 7, 2014.

Azerbaijan has recruited 15 more gymnasts, headlined by 2012 Olympian Oleg Stepko of Ukraine. Stepko won the gold medal on parallel bars at the 2013 European Championships and two golds and two silvers at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games. This blow to Ukraine comes on the heels of Nikolai (Mykola) Kuksenkov’s move to Russia.

Oleg Stepko, 2010 Youth Olympic Games, Parallel Bars Qualifications