Ksenia Afanasyeva Retirement

I haven't been blogging here for awhile so I'm a bit rusty. According to Russian media the Rodionenko's has said Afanasyeva retired due to health issues. To my knowledge Afanasyeva has not said anything about her retirement yet. I wish she would say something or the media would at least have a quote from her. But for sure she will not be in Rio 2016.

Afanasyeva has been a huge part of the reason why I am a gymnastics fan. Without Afanasyeva not competing I will still find joy in watching gymnastics. I have so many reasons why I adore Afanasyeva but I don't know where to begin and explain. Sometimes you don't have to explain so much. I just know that I had a lot of fun watching Afanasyeva compete. She is definitely my favourite gymnast. And I am glad that I have gotten to know this gymnast existence. I wouldn't know what I would have been doing all these years if I have never known about Afanasyeva. But I have no regrets that I have became a huge fan of hers. I wish her all the best.

One of my favourite moment was when she debuted her Amanar at age 21! I never thought it would be possible. It was definitely one of my favourite highlight of this quad too. In a lot of ways she kept gymnastics pretty entertaining and exciting when she did this.

She's mostly known for floor and beam but she was truly an All-Around gymnast. She doesn't get much credit for her bar routines but she was pretty good on this event. I still always remember her as the first Russian gymnast to do the Van Leeuwen or toe shap 1/2 on bars. In many ways her bar routine composition started all the craze for the standard Russian bar routines we see today.

And now for the floor routine that is widely known and respected for being the best floor routine of the 2012 quad. It's not so much about the tumbling. It's about the artistry and style. There's not much to explain but many fans from this quad will understand why this floor routine was named the best floor routine of 2012. She had lots of history and so did that quad. When I saw her perform this routine for the first time I knew I would love it forever. So badass with the Kill Bill sirens. So badass.

Thank you Ksenia Afanasyeva.

Ksenia Afanasyeva Russian Championships 2016 New Floor Routine

This was from event finals where she tied with Angelina Melnikova for 14.567.

What can I say? Well for starters my judgement will be clouded since I'm an Afanasyeva fan. I can say I really like the music even if the folky parts are not my favourite. I especially like the beginning parts with the beat boxing sounds. I do feel a bit tired of her routines having the same dance through passages. It's become predictable where she will dance. In pictures she looks gorgeous with her movements but here she does seem to be doing less dancing. But still, there seems to be something professional about how Afan moves when she is fully committed to her routines. Here she was not fully well prepared for this competition. It makes me wonder why she even competed.

From what I hear she will compete at Europeans. This routine can improve more as she prepares better. For now it just seems sluggish but has time for refinements. It reminded me of her 2015 routine where I was not so sure but when she performed in Glasgow FX EF I actually liked her routine. We'll see how this new routine unfolds.

  

Quick Thoughts on Glasgow 2015

Oh man I don't know where to start. I'm a lazy blogger :P.

Overall I liked this world's championships. I liked how they introduced the gymnasts into the competition arena. I was able to watch almost all the competition live. There were many intense moments in MAG team finals and AA. I was thrilled for Japan finally winning team gold and it was nice to see team Great Britain celebrate history winnings for both MAG and WAG.

I loved Kohei Uchumura and Simone Biles showing that they are the bosses. Sometimes I wish the winners didn't make visible errors because sometimes it's anti climatic but it doesn't really matter because it also shows how dominant a team or individual is.

I think this might be the first time that I agree and is happy about all the medal rankings. There were many great gymnastics. I don't even know where to begin with. Check out my tumblr to see the things I liked agymnasticsfan.

One thing that did bother me about this championships was the 4 way tie. I know, I know it's nice to see people tie and it's positive but I honestly think the judges could have tweaked this final a lot better. I mean it's nice and all and it was Halloween but 4 way tie, argh. I know there are possibilities for ties but I suspect tweaking going on. That's just my opinion. I would have place Viktoria Komova the true winner above them all. I know she has her flaws but I prefer hers out of all the other three girls. If anything Fan Yilin was my other favourite except for the dead hang. I really like her elegant bar work.

And of course I was nervous for all my favourites but they all pulled through :). I'm happy Afanasyeva was able to keep her nerves calm and perform her routine to clinch 2nd after the amazing Biles. I just really like Afan. She has this presence like no other that night. She gets away with movements and style. She just has it. Her routine has really grown on me. I like how she moves.

Afanasyeva's FX QF || Glasgow 2015

I see no gogean leap. I'm happy she will make event finals.

Afanasyeva's BB & FX || Glasgow 2015 Podium Training

Oh Afan. She is my favourite to watch on the Russian team. Her beam is lacking in difficulty but it's nice to see her helping the team on this event. I had to giggle a bit at her mount sequence. I blame it on her kidney situation :P. I wish she could keep a consistent stable routine. Her composition is always changing and I can see she is doing a 180 leg split turn now. We'll see what she does in qualification.

On floor nothing unusual to report except for the weird music that I only like because I'm bias :P. I still like the way she moves and I can see she was trying to be creative and playful in this routine but somehow it didn't work. I like the short low floor choreo though and she has one of the best double L-turns in the world. Sadly I think she'll get lots of corner deductions and she'll have to hit the hell out of this routine to accomplish something amazing at this championships. I'm not expecting much from her this competition. It's just nice to see her competing at worlds again. I'm wishing her good luck.

Ksenia Afanasyeva 2015 Russian Cup BB EF

Not the highest difficulty. I hope she can keep working up to her older connections to get her difficulty up again. I say this is a good start for her since she recently started training beam again. Her past injuries prevented her from training it till now. She looked confident enough. What's new is the 5/2 twists dismount. That was a good idea since her double tuck and pike dismounts looked like they always gave her issues. Oh and not that it matters but she does a split jump mount now. She has a variety of mounts to choose from. I guess doing the same mount can be boring for her so she changes it up. I feel she can do more with her routine so here's to hoping she can keep improving.

Happy 24th Birthday Ksenia Afanasyeva

Just Because...Flashback Friday || 2013 Universiade Routines

Here is Afanasyeva's wonderful routine if you can overlook the awkwardness of the gogean leap :P.

And Yang's Gold winning vaults. Hopefully we get to see the Yang (FHS 3/1) as he's not been doing his namesake vault for awhile since he's been battling injuries. I hope he can compete his vault again one day. Also he might plan to compete the Kas 5/2. He's been the first known gymnast to successfully compete it. He's been trying to get it named after himself for awhile now.

Rare Ksenia Afanasyeva UB @ 2010 Japan Cup

In 2010 Afanasyeva won the 2010 AA Japan Cup. I've seen her beam and floor routine but not her vault and bars. Here is her bar routine:

 

Team Russia - Montpellier 2015 Montage

By: RUSGymnastics

Ksenia Afanasyeva Gold FX @ 2015 European Championships

6.3 + 8.433 = 14.733 I'm very happy she won. I find that her best floor routines are always underscored. Yes she won and I'm no expert but her floor e-scores are always confusing.

Overall I enjoyed this European Championships. I liked that the live stream worked for everyone and no vpn extensions :).

 

Just Because...

Afanasyeva's 2015 European Amanar gif. I'm always surprised she can do it. Good for her.

(Source: flippyflippynutella)

Ksenia Afanasyeva FX @ 2015 European Championships Prelims

I like the new split jump 1/1 ring. She is second behind Steingruber.

Ksenia Afanasyeva // Frozen Silence Montage

By: SuperGymmie

CoP - Tip of The Month

Lately on floor I've been noticing many gymnasts quickly doing an extra dance jump out of another turning leap. This new trend really helps the gymnast to get her difficult leaps credited.

The November 2014 code update states: "When there is a jump/hop, or leap with turn directly connected to another element from the COP and in the first element the turn is not completed exactly (but the gymnast is able to continue into the next element), the first element will NOT be devalued or recognized as another DV from the COP."

An Example would be split leap with 3/2 (1.5) turn + split jump 1/2. Basically if the split leap 3/2 was not fully rotated but the gymnast was able to directly link it to another jump/hop or leap then the split leap 3/2 will be recognized as D element.

Video Example:

Ksenia Afanasyeva - split leap 3/2 + split jump 1/2 split leap 3/2 is credited

MyKayla Skinner - switch leap 1/1 + sissone switch leap 1/1 is credited

*My personal opinion is that I dislike this new rule. A lot of leaps has become so unrecognizable and unattractive. But difficulty is the name of the game.

Ksenia Afanasyeva 2015 Russian Championships FX EF

I like the music and the way she moves. Arm waving queen. Simple movements and still artistic.

In team finals she successfully competed 5/2 twists + 1/1 twist. That pass was last seen in Beijing 2008. It's not an easy pass for her so that's why I'm excited. Also she is doing a new split jump 3/2 (D) at the beginning of her routine. She's trying really hard to upgrade. With what she has been showing at this national, if she adds back the Y-turn after her 2/1 L-turn she can go up to 6.6D-score!

It's a far stretch but if she can do 1/1 DLO she can be at 6.8. This girl really needs a skill named after her. Maybe a 3/1 Attitude turn or even 3/1 L-turn :P? She has a good balance of difficult acro + beautiful dance elements. Not many can achieve this.

 

Afanasyeva's New 2015 Russian Championships FX QF

Looking good. First pass most likely DLO. Damn corner rules are weird.

6.1 D + 8.6 E = 14.7

 

Ksenia Afanasyeva's Oscar Win :P

Well not really but recently at Round Lake some of the gymnasts played a guessing game. Afanasyeva was the winner and her prize was an Oscar statuette :p. Video of the gymnasts playing the guessing game.

Afanasyeva's 2014 Voronin Cup Prelim Floor Routine || Double Layout is Back

Afanasyeva's 2014 Team QF DTB Pokal FX & More

All video credit link goes to whiptotriple from tumblr. Her youtube page illusionturns.

My thoughts. Well its nice to see Afan back but she still has a lot of work to do if she ever wants to be competitive in elite again. That being said I'm happy to see her in a international competition again. I hope the double layout will come back. It's good she can still do a DTY. Her floor routine music is a no no. I hope its just something random she decided to use for this year. I hope her next music choice will be better. In terms of artistry and style she is not putting her all into it. It's really lifeless but there is still something distinct and unique about the way she moves. Perhaps better floor music will help. I wonder how long she has been training for this competition? This was only qualification too. I feel we put so much pressure on gymnasts, oops. I hope everything works out for her and that her ankle gets stronger and fully recovered.

By the way Ekaterina Kramarenko's is still kicking ass on bars. It's nice to see.