For those who were worried about Irina Alexeeva’s future as an international elite gymnast, you can breathe now, this month she was officially put on the Russian national team roster. The national team for the year is usually formed in December of the previous year but changes can be made throughout the year. There are two rosters – main and reserve – and the gymnasts on the main roster are normally the ones that get international assignments and get participate in every camp while gymnasts on the reserve roster might get camp invites less frequently and sometimes don’t receive any international assignments. In addition, sometimes promising gymnasts that are not yet on the national team can be invited to the camp, so when it was announced that Irina Alexeeva would participate in the next national team camp, it didn’t automatically mean that she was included on the team. However, turns out, she was. The latest amendment to the national team roster adds Alexeeva on the main senior team, bumping Natalia Kapitonova down to the reserve team. Kapitonova has been dealing with injuries and a coaching change (she moved from Penza to Saransk to train with Sergei Zelikson (Anastasia Grishina’s ex-coach) and is still struggling to get back to her former level. Kapitonova’s addition to the reserve team, in turn, lead to Evgeniia Shelgunova taken off the roster. Shelgunova’s also been dealing with multiple injuries lately and it looks like she won’t be able to start competing soon.
The training camp will start tomorrow.
Photo: Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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Is Ksenia Afanasyeva still on the reserve team? I saw her name there at the beginning of the year but it seems weird that they’d bump Shelgunova rather than her if she’s not currently competing.
Afanasyeva is likely still on maternity leave. The national team spots also mean funding and athletes who had babies are still entitled to their salary while on maternity leave
Ksenia works as trainer on Round Lake. She finished her carrier as elite gymnast.