MCSMaria's Artistic Gymnastics Blog

A couple of weeks ago, the legendary Aliya Mustafina gave birth to her first child, a baby girl called Alisa. On Monday, July 3rd, Aliya, the two-time Olympic Uneven Bars champion, posted a video on her Instagram account of her doing some scales while out with baby Alisa.

After two Olympics, and basically supporting the Russian gymnastics team on her back, Aliya Mustafina is going to be a mother.

The all-around final is upon us. The field is set for the competition. Aly Raisman is returning to the all-around after missing out in Glasgow at the World Championships and placing fourth in London in 2012. Also returning is bronze medalist, Aliya Mustafina. Then there is Simone Biles, three time world champion. Can she become the first world champion to win an Olympic title since Lilia Podkepaeva in 1996. Follow along with all the action in Rio, just refresh the page every 10 minutes or so for updates!

The Russian Team has had it's share of drama populating the headlines lately. The tension is palpable with the impending possible doom of an entire ban of Russia from the Olympics, retirements and the usual reality TV-show like hijinks.

The Russian team can't seem to catch a break. According to Rewriting Russian Gymnastics , just a couple of weeks after she withdrew from the world's team, Aliya Mustafina is going to need surgery on her knee.

It was the biggest will she or won't she question this year. Will Aliya Mustafina compete for the Russian team at the upcoming world championships.... or will she not? The latest news coming from the Russian Federation is that Aliya is out of worlds...again.

Over in Round Lake, there is no shortage of drama when it comes to selecting a team to go to Glasgow in October. In the past couple days, the Russian Gymnastics Federation announced their preliminary world championships team  for the Worlds in Glasgow, Great Britain and their star, Aliya Mustafina announced she would not be contending for a spot due to a chronic back injury. Now, just days after this announcement, Aliya has apparently done a 180 and decided to give the worlds team a shot.

The drama continues for the Russian team. Today, it was announced that 2015 European Games all-around Champion and stalwart of the Russian team, Aliya Mustafina will miss the World Championships in Glasgow, Great Britain.

With the Olympics in Rio fast approaching, it's hard to keep the new gymnastics stars straight. Luckily, the Gymternet is full of dedicated gym fans with excellent Photoshops skills to help you with the facts on your favorite gymnasts, past and present. I have gathered a group of infographics in the style of The Onion to help you learn all about the Gymternet's favorite athletes.

In this edition of Keeping Up With The Round Lake Gymnasts, Grishy is back and Aliya is finally taking a well deserved rest from competition for a while (doctor's orders!)

World and Olympic Medalist, Aliya Mustafina is hard at work in her new gymnastics home in Penza. She's fixing something that has plagued her fans for so long... her twisting form.

Since I had some free time post holidays, I decided to compile some gymnastics haikus.

Aliya Mustafina has withdrawn from the upcoming Glasgow World Cup this weekend due to back problems.

Eight new skills were added to the FIG's code of points. These skills were submitted from athletes from all around the world. To get the skill named for them, the athlete had to complete the skill successfully (without a fall) at a World Championship or Olympic Games (Youth Olympic Games for Juniors). The element must also have a C or higher rating in order to have her name attached to it. In this post, I have listed the skills and the athlete who submitted the skill or whom it's being named for. When available, there are videos accompanying the name of the skill for reference.

Today, the competitor field for the Stuttgart World Cup was announced.

Queen Elizabeth of Rewriting Russian Gymnastics has posted a translation of a recent interview with the glorious Aliya Mustafina. She talks about everything from her experiences at worlds, winning the beam gold medal in Antwerp to losing Alexandrov as a coach. I've posted some of the highlights here. It gives great insight into what her life is like and her thoughts on winning the gold medal. She talks about what her plans are for her post gymnastics life. She says she has the option to become a coach, but isn't sure she'd be successful because she "loves children too much" to be what they need.  Surprising, because she's a bright girl and could really do anything she wants. Read more of Aliya's thoughts after the cut.

Want to watch a rewind of Aliya Mustafina on floor? You're in luck. Mustafinesse on Tumblr posted a GIF of Aliya  performing this skill in reverse during the floor final at the World Championships in Nanning, China.

After winning a team gold and another all-around championship title,  US gymnast Simone Biles continued her dominance at the World Championships in Nanning, China winning gold medals on the beam and the floor exercise. The event finals went as expected if not better for Simone, but for some, the results were definitely a surprise, and there were some upsets. 

For the second year in a row, Simone Biles of the USA was named the World All-Around Champion, she is the first woman to win back to back world titles since Svetlana Khorkina in 2002 and 2003. Simone is the first US woman since Shannon Miller in 1993 and 1994.

Today, Kohei Uchimura  of Japan took home his fifth consecutive world all-around title. An impressive feat. He won with an admirable 1.492 points over Great Britain's Max Whitlock.  They don't call him King Kohei for nothing, he's in the Guinness Book of World Records for goodness sake. He dominated the 09-12 quad and it's looking like he'll dominate the 13-16 quad. That's Queen Simone to you! Tomorrow, Simone Biles of the USA will contend for her second all-around title.  If she does so, she will be the first US woman since Shannon Miller in 1993 and 1994.On Sunday, Simone took the top spot in qualification with 59.599, following her was Russia's Aliya Mustafina with a 58.874 and Romania's Larisa Iordache with a 58.365. She became a repeat national champion back in August, and she and team USA have already scored their  second consecutive world title and their first title of the new quad.  Could she be women's gymnastics version of Kohei? ...