Whereas Teams USA, Romania, and China are all looking pretty set for London (with China announcing an almost complete WAG team today) the last member of the big 4, Russia, is still delightfully uncertain.
The Russian Cup event did little to illuminate who will eventually make it to the big dance, and the 8 member training squad got most attention for excluding Anna Dementyeva and Anna Pavlova. However, I wasn't shocked by either of these. Demy, God bless her, has gorgeous toepoint and delightful presence, but hasn't been healthy since last year's Euros. She's also not exactly known for her consistency. The Russian Federation has been done with Pavlova since Beijing 2008, and unless she pulled out an Amanar vault or a high scoring floor, she was never going to going to make it to the next stage.
Yulia Inshina has got the alternate slot locked down after a solid but unspectacular AA performance- she's a steady performer but doesn't quite have the difficulty to make her an Olympic team contender.
This leaves us with Mustafina, Grishina, Afanasyeva, Komova, Sidorova, Paseka and Nabieva to choose a team from. I was rather surprised Sidorova even made it to the training squad- she was the hottest of hot messes on every event at the Cup, but she is known as a beam/floor gymnast, and with Afanasyeva still recovering from an ankle injury, I suspect the coaches wanted to have a backup in case GOD FORBID Ksenia isn't healthy in time for London.
Grishina only competed bars since she has some kind of leg injury, which had better not be serious if the Russians have any medal aspirations whatsoever, as she is desperately needed on floor and beam. Paseka unveiled an Amanar with serious consistency issues (with Russia, is there any other kind?)- if she can get it nailed down in the next month, however, she's going to London. Nabieva looks in shape, but isn't needed on bars and has the same horrific execution as ever on vault.
However, it's not all doom and gloom for Russia. There is no one performing bars right now like Komova and Mustafina- Mustafina in particular is hitting her full difficulty set, complete with Mustafina dismount, and making it look like an absolute cakewalk. Komova is not hitting her double double dismount with as much consistency, but that stupid half turn before it is looking better than it did at Worlds. In a perfect world, they will go 1-2 in the Olympic EF.
Mustafina is looking stronger on beam and floor than she did at Euros, and Komova hit a Patterson dismount in EF. It would be a mistake to count either of these girls out of taking an AA medal home, including the gold, especially if they get their Amanars back (which you just know they will).
My prediction for Team Russia, assuming injuries don't get in the way:
V: Komova, Mustafina, Paseka
UB: Grishina, Mustafina, Komova
BB: Grishina, Komova, Afanayseva/Mustafina
F: Grishina, Afanasyeva, Komova/Mustafina
Alternate: Inshina
The Russian Cup event did little to illuminate who will eventually make it to the big dance, and the 8 member training squad got most attention for excluding Anna Dementyeva and Anna Pavlova. However, I wasn't shocked by either of these. Demy, God bless her, has gorgeous toepoint and delightful presence, but hasn't been healthy since last year's Euros. She's also not exactly known for her consistency. The Russian Federation has been done with Pavlova since Beijing 2008, and unless she pulled out an Amanar vault or a high scoring floor, she was never going to going to make it to the next stage.
Yulia Inshina has got the alternate slot locked down after a solid but unspectacular AA performance- she's a steady performer but doesn't quite have the difficulty to make her an Olympic team contender.
This leaves us with Mustafina, Grishina, Afanasyeva, Komova, Sidorova, Paseka and Nabieva to choose a team from. I was rather surprised Sidorova even made it to the training squad- she was the hottest of hot messes on every event at the Cup, but she is known as a beam/floor gymnast, and with Afanasyeva still recovering from an ankle injury, I suspect the coaches wanted to have a backup in case GOD FORBID Ksenia isn't healthy in time for London.
Grishina only competed bars since she has some kind of leg injury, which had better not be serious if the Russians have any medal aspirations whatsoever, as she is desperately needed on floor and beam. Paseka unveiled an Amanar with serious consistency issues (with Russia, is there any other kind?)- if she can get it nailed down in the next month, however, she's going to London. Nabieva looks in shape, but isn't needed on bars and has the same horrific execution as ever on vault.
However, it's not all doom and gloom for Russia. There is no one performing bars right now like Komova and Mustafina- Mustafina in particular is hitting her full difficulty set, complete with Mustafina dismount, and making it look like an absolute cakewalk. Komova is not hitting her double double dismount with as much consistency, but that stupid half turn before it is looking better than it did at Worlds. In a perfect world, they will go 1-2 in the Olympic EF.
Mustafina is looking stronger on beam and floor than she did at Euros, and Komova hit a Patterson dismount in EF. It would be a mistake to count either of these girls out of taking an AA medal home, including the gold, especially if they get their Amanars back (which you just know they will).
My prediction for Team Russia, assuming injuries don't get in the way:
V: Komova, Mustafina, Paseka
UB: Grishina, Mustafina, Komova
BB: Grishina, Komova, Afanayseva/Mustafina
F: Grishina, Afanasyeva, Komova/Mustafina
Alternate: Inshina
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