MCSMaria's Artistic Gymnastics Blog

It's been awhile since we checked in with the Russian gymnasts, so it's about time we take a scroll through the 24-hour gymternet news cycle and see what we find! University Games

Elena Prudunova was fierce. Whether it was the red hair (I'm voting for that option) or her incredible power, she was just awesome.

The 2013 Gymnastics Universiade is behind us. Russia was unstoppable of course scoring medals on what it seems like every event final. Just another day in the life of the Russian Gymnastics program. I would like to start out with the positives as always. Russia was amazing and it was nice to see some old familiar faces like Anna Dementeyva and Tatiana Nabieva. It's nice to see them because it's just nice. Tatiana is fantastic on bars and I really enjoyed her bar routine. Anna was beautiful on beam, at least in the qualifying. I haven't seen an individual video of her on the beam (I'm sorry! I have a full-time job!) during event finals.

The event finals marked  the last day of gymnastics at the Universiade in Kazan. It also meant more medals for the Russian team and a few upstarts who snuck onto the podium. Miss Ksenia Afanasyeva was Miss Bad Ass vaulter.

Aliya Mustfina took home another gold medal in the all around earlier today at the Universiade/University Summer Games in Kazan. I'm ready to join the X-Men, Professor X! Aliya won the gold ahead of teammate, Ksenia Afanasyeva who took silver in the all-around. Kim Bui of Germany took home the bronze.  As per usual, Aliya was beautiful on bars and had a kerfluffle on the beam when she fell coming out of her double turn. She looked great on floor. She opened with a pretty impressive  double arabian and finished with a nicely landed double back tuck. A nice change from the sea of double pikes we usually see at the end of a floor routine.

Did you miss the University Games team finals and individual qualifications? Were you away from the internet or overslept and totally missed out? Don't fret! Gabrielmcdonough on YouTube has posted the repeat on his page . Watch it now, watch it later, watch it again, and again and again. What is Tatiana Nabieva staring at? I have posted them all here for you. You can choose to watch them here, or you can watch them on YouTube. Regardless of what you do, enjoy them to your heart's content, gym fans!

Day One of the Gymnastics competition at the Universiade Games was yet another success for the Russian team. Coming out with a gold medal in the team competition and putting gymnasts in all four event finals for the women's gymnastics. After a competition of clean routines and high difficulty, Russia took the gold with 175.5, ahead of Japan who scored a total of 165. Japan's girls had beautiful, clean routines but they were nowhere near enough to match the difficulty of Russia. Coming in third was Germany who finished with a 162.05 total. Impressive since they were not billed among the top four teams who competed in the final subdivision. Princess of the Russian Gymnastics team, Aliya Mustafina came out qualifying in the top spot for the all-around final and the uneven bars final. Aliya had the highest score on the uneven bars with a 15 even. Not bad for a girl who's just gotten over the flu. additionally, she qualified for the beam final with 15.2 and floor finals ...

Summer University Games (or Universiade Games) are here! They're going on as we speak. Tomorrow, the gymnastics competition starts (although since I'm 10 hours behind Kazan presently, it's closer to tomorrow there than I am here). Elizabeth of Rewriting Russian Gymnastics posted podium training pictures on her Facebook page of the Russian team training on the podium. The girls are training with new head coach, Evgeny Grebyonkin and newly transplanted coach, Anton Stolyar, the former Italian junior national team coach. Nice shorts, Stolyar. He looks like he's ready for a dip in the pool. Aliya Mustafina looks like she could use one too. Although I think she looks so wiped because she's getting over the flu . Ick. No fun. Here is Tatiana Nabieva, whom we haven't seen in a couple of years. Ksenia Afanasyeva listing to Evgeny Grobyonkin.