In the spirit of the Olympics I am going to embed Ksenia Afanasyeva's 2008 AA prelim routines.
Afanasyeva placed 6th AA in prelims. Afanasyeva was a victim of the two per country rule. She would have been in the top group for AA finals. Afanasyeva is a pretty good all-arounder. Her gymnastics has deteriorate a bit because of age and tons of injuries. Despite all of these set backs she can still decently do AA. In 2008 she was Russia's National AA Champ. At this year's Russian Championships she should have won 1st AA over Mustafina. Even the coaches made bold statements that they made sure the judges gave Mustafina the win. I'm not the only one who questioned the placing, many other gym fans felt Mustafina was not ready yet and didn't deserve the win over Afanasyeva (note Komova did not compete). Regardless of this, Mustafina was coming back from injuries and the small victory was a good thing for her. The Russians wanted to give Mustafina back her self-confident (They were quoted saying they didn't want to crush her dreams/feelings). I'm pretty sure Afanasyeva didn't care too much, they are all friends and Afanasyeva has been quoted saying that she doesn't want any of her teammates feeling depress because she knows how it feels. Afanasyeva will not do AA in London, she will focus on beam and floor. She will still train vault and bars but not intensely.
Russia will have three all-arounders. Komova, Mustafina and Grishina. The most likely two to qualify will be Komova and Mustafina. Grishina will most likely be the victim of the two per country rule.
Please check out a great interview article on Afanasyeva at the wonderful blog rewritingrussiangymnastics
Afanasyeva placed 6th AA in prelims. Afanasyeva was a victim of the two per country rule. She would have been in the top group for AA finals. Afanasyeva is a pretty good all-arounder. Her gymnastics has deteriorate a bit because of age and tons of injuries. Despite all of these set backs she can still decently do AA. In 2008 she was Russia's National AA Champ. At this year's Russian Championships she should have won 1st AA over Mustafina. Even the coaches made bold statements that they made sure the judges gave Mustafina the win. I'm not the only one who questioned the placing, many other gym fans felt Mustafina was not ready yet and didn't deserve the win over Afanasyeva (note Komova did not compete). Regardless of this, Mustafina was coming back from injuries and the small victory was a good thing for her. The Russians wanted to give Mustafina back her self-confident (They were quoted saying they didn't want to crush her dreams/feelings). I'm pretty sure Afanasyeva didn't care too much, they are all friends and Afanasyeva has been quoted saying that she doesn't want any of her teammates feeling depress because she knows how it feels. Afanasyeva will not do AA in London, she will focus on beam and floor. She will still train vault and bars but not intensely.
Russia will have three all-arounders. Komova, Mustafina and Grishina. The most likely two to qualify will be Komova and Mustafina. Grishina will most likely be the victim of the two per country rule.
Please check out a great interview article on Afanasyeva at the wonderful blog rewritingrussiangymnastics
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