My blog...

pearlyriver wrote:

l-spiralmao wrote:

My next dream team http://randompersonbeingrandom.wordpress.com/2013/04/14/dream-teams-ussr/

Thanks for introducing me to amazing Soviet gymnasts. I know none of them. Oksana Omelianchik's floor is to die for, and Maria Filatova's is as close to ballet as it can get. Can't believe Omelianchik didn't get to compete at any Olympics.I feel that today the word "ballerina" is tossed around too frequently in gymnastics commentary. I heard Christine of BBC call Aliya and Afan's floors ballerina-styled. They are certainly beautiful, but they're not ballerina IMO.

Also thank you for broadening my interest in gymnastics. My most favorite apparatuses are beam and bars. I love seeing beautiful lines, extension and elegance. I also watched vault because it's straightforward and easy to understand, but it's too athletic for me. Previously, I wasn't interested in floor routine. I watched current floor routines and wondered why they bothered with music at all. It all seemed like tricks after tricks to me. I don't know floor routines can be so artistic, expressive yet still powerful. Can't imagine how many talented Soviet gymnasts were left out of important international events due to the depth of the Soviet team.

I'm only familiar with gymnasts from 2000 onwards. Are you going to do a strictly Russian dream team?

You're welcome pearlyriver!

I also used to be only a fan of modern gymnastics, until both The Couch Gymnast and the Beautiful Gymnastics blog introduced me to 1980s/1990s gymnastics, and I fell in love with it I'm happy that I was able to do the same for you!

If you're looking for more awesome Soviet routines, search: Natalia Illienko (), Olga Chudina (awesome tango dancer), Svetlana Boginskaya (more avante-grade than classical), Olga Korbut (), Tatiana Lysenko (), Elena Gurova, Olga Strazheva (also avante-garde), Olesia Dudnik (awesome on both beam and floor), Angelika Schennikova (an awesome obscure Soviet gem), or Oksana Chusovitina (more athletic than the others, but still awesome)

I will do a separate post for Russia, as 1. Not all of the soviets were Russian (of my list, Omelianchik and Dudnik are Ukranian and Priahkina is from either Tajikstan or Turkmenistan) and 2. If I did a combined team, it would basically be 5 soviet gymnasts and Aliya Mustafina, and there are a lot of Russian gymnasts I really like, so I wanted to showcase their talents too.

Ispiralmao, do you know who the guy on the right is


He's been with the Russian team since at least Olympics Athen, but I don't know who he is.
Btw, do you agree with Maria Paseka's bronze in vault final in London? I think Janine Berger was better. Paseka's landing was scary (her vault in the team final was also messy). I always like Russian gymnasts but I find Masha's bronze even more questionable than Aliya's bronze in floor.

pearlyriver wrote:

Ispiralmao, do you know who the guy on the right is


He's been with the Russian team since at least Olympics Athen, but I don't know who he is.
Btw, do you agree with Maria Paseka's bronze in vault final in London? I think Janine Berger was better. Paseka's landing was scary (her vault in the team final was also messy). I always like Russian gymnasts but I find Masha's bronze even more questionable than Aliya's bronze in floor.

I have no idea who that is I'm not nearly as knowledgeable as you think I am...

As for Janine vs Masha, my feelings can be summed up with this statement from my EC predictions

Quote :

I hope Janine Berger is there and wins over Maria Paseka's "amanar"

I also read somewhere that all of the judges credited Maria's vault as a DTY, but the reference judge overtuned it.

Dream team #4

http://randompersonbeingrandom.wordpress.com/2013/04/27/dream-teams-non-top-4-nations/

And something figure skating related

http://randompersonbeingrandom.wordpress.com/2013/04/27/top-5-mao-asada-programs/