After Afanasyeva's disappointing performance in the 2010 floor event finals many gym fans were already anticipating her retirement. We later found out that she was injured during '10 worlds and required knee surgery. She eventually got her knee surgery.
In 2011 Mustafina had a frightening ACL injury at European Championships. Mustafina was not able to compete for the rest of the year. Many people questioned if Mustafina could comeback after an ACL. I personally knew she could come back because she has a tenacious fighting spirit. It never surprised me how well she did at the Olympics. Mustafina was not the only gymnast to comeback after an ACL injury, many fans seems to think this though. I think Aliya is quite something special and has something that most gymnasts don't have (I can't really explain it).
While many other Russian gymnasts had injuries and were dropping like flies Afan seemed to be slowly coming back. She was very much needed for the Russian 2011 worlds team because their star Mustafina was seriously injured. So Afan was given another chance to prove to team Russia that she was worthy of going to '11 worlds. The first step was to show decent routines at the FIG world cup event Moscow Cup. The Moscow Cup took place in May and was her first competition in 2011. I'm glad she was able to come back in 2011 and win floor in Tokyo.
Here are her 2011 Moscow Cup prelim comeback routines with big hair...just because.
In 2011 Mustafina had a frightening ACL injury at European Championships. Mustafina was not able to compete for the rest of the year. Many people questioned if Mustafina could comeback after an ACL. I personally knew she could come back because she has a tenacious fighting spirit. It never surprised me how well she did at the Olympics. Mustafina was not the only gymnast to comeback after an ACL injury, many fans seems to think this though. I think Aliya is quite something special and has something that most gymnasts don't have (I can't really explain it).
While many other Russian gymnasts had injuries and were dropping like flies Afan seemed to be slowly coming back. She was very much needed for the Russian 2011 worlds team because their star Mustafina was seriously injured. So Afan was given another chance to prove to team Russia that she was worthy of going to '11 worlds. The first step was to show decent routines at the FIG world cup event Moscow Cup. The Moscow Cup took place in May and was her first competition in 2011. I'm glad she was able to come back in 2011 and win floor in Tokyo.
Here are her 2011 Moscow Cup prelim comeback routines with big hair...just because.
Who else has come back from ACL?
ReplyDeleteProbably so many gymnasts that we don't even know about. The truth is not a lot of gymnasts are as popular as Mustafina. Mustafina does deserved to be a well known gymnast though. She has something special that no one can deny. She's almost like a natural born leader.
DeleteI believe Annia Hatch (USA) came back from a serious ACL and recovered in 5 months. She won silver in vault finals at 2004 Olympics. Usually it takes a year to recover and Mustafina took a year off.