Aleksei Morozov, a former hockey player and a current high-ranked official at the Russian Ministry of Sports, during the discussions about coaches’ preparation in Russia, claimed that some of the current coaches on the artistic gymnastics national team are outdated:
“We have some coaches (especially in artistic gymnastics), which are 83-84 years old. These are the coaches of the national team. And many of these coaches, they (no offense to them) use the methods of those old methodological developments of the Soviet period, which are based on slightly different principles, and, as follows, on different means and technologies, including a different pharmacological support”.
According to the website of the Russian national team, there are actually no coaches of that age on the stuff, but, assuming some slight exaggeration, it is not hard to guess who Morozov meant. Valentina Rodionenko is turning 81 this year, while Andrei is 75. The rest of the coaches are all younger than 70 (although there are quite a bit of staff members in the 60-70 years old range).
Yes!! Finally someone within Russia supporting the end of the Rodionenko era. 🙌🏻