#vitrichenko

[backscale-pivot-queen]

Elena Vitrychenko, Ukraine 🇺🇦

1997

[dozydawn]

[kateua]

Olena Vitrychenko from Pinceladas de Rítmica

[i-love-rg]

Elena Vitrichenko, ball, 1999-2000

[yianniswcr]

Thank you Olena #vitrichenko for your invitation to participate at your annual RG sales event!! What a great time! See you all very soon🥇🥇🥇🏆🏆🏆 #westcoastrhythmics #rhythmic #ribbon #gymnastics #rhythmics #rgballs #dance #usagym #region1 #chacott #rhythmic.mom # #rhythmicglobal #worldrhytmiicgymnsdtic #rhythmics101 #rhythmic_reconstructed #gymnasticrhythmics #rhythmic_for_.life (at Energy Volleyball Club)

[titaviner]

Actually and if recall correctly, Serebriasnka and Vitrichenko were mainly trained by their mothers and didn’t get on too well with the Derus.

I can’t source this, but if I recall reading in Inforitmica that even she started training with the Derus at some point, they hated each other because she was trained in her mother’s gym (aka not by them) and stopped training her at some point (?)

And Vitrichenko was definitely not a Deriugina girl, she was trained by her mother Nina, and even if they had a brief period of alliance with the Deriuginas after Serebriasnka retired, they also hated each other. Let’s remember the Zaragoza EC when Vitri received such ridiculously low scores she quit the competition. It was investigated and for the first time a group of judges were seriously sanctioned by the FIG. Irina Deriugina was one of those judges, she was guilty of PURPOSEFULLY UNDERSCORING a gymnast of her own country just because she didn’t want to train with them.

did you know that every prominent ukranian gymnast comes from the Deriugina School? Irina Deriugina (duh), Timoshenko, Skaldina, Serebranskaya, Vitrichenko, Bessonova, Rizatdinova… i cant wait for Pohrachnyna to turn senior and end the Deriugina monopoly tbh, but maybe we will have to wait for the next cycle bc idek if Diachenko (Deriugina) and whatever the second ukranian gymnast will be next year (Deriugina most likely, everybody but Yarosh is from that the club) can make it and take 2 spots, or even 1

[lightandconcrete]

NATALIA GODUNKO: "I hope Yana can survive her silver medal"

LINK FB

cr: rg.sport.ua

"How can I say that Ukraine is the best when there is such a downfall - hopefully only temporary - and we end up in the 17th place?!"

+++

Natalia Godunko is an iconic gymnast for a reason. She was always someone who looked very different in Ukrainian RG yet carved out a very successful career. She's something of a "wild child", always expressing her thoughts freely, even if that causes displeasure to the local fans. One thing is sure: she is well-worth listening to. Sport.ua had a huge, 2-part question and answer session with her, these are some topics they skimmed in approximate translation. Very interesting thoughts on medals not being worth if your mental or physical health suffers, how very difficult is to start independent life after living in a very strict and controlled environment, what she thinks about the star gymnasts and Ukraine's place now in RG.

+++

On the difficulties of switching to "real" life after being in such a strictly controlled environment for a long time:

"I don't know if I want to be in elite sports at all, following in the footsteps of my great coaches. I have a task to make children happy, so they know what sport is, they learn how to work, they have a healthy psyche, they are not broken, they learn how to win, how to lose, how to fight. I try to convey my experience."

"Why do coaches allow themselves to raise their voice on children who are 10-12 years old? This is already manipulation. It cannot be done. You have to help a young athlete to reveal herself, be confident in herself, and if the kid does not have amazing natural gifts, then there is no need to humiliate her."

"I was taught to be a gymnast. But we were never taught how to be a coach. We practically did not go to school, there was no education. Until I was 26, there was nothing [outside rhythmic gymnastics]. And it was a very difficult period after the sport. I did not how to learn. To think. That's the problem."

"It occurs to me that if everything is forbidden to you, all your life, and then you are out, and everything is suddenly possible for you - it is both scary and dangerous. You do not have friends. You do not have normal education. You do not know why you cannot do certain things. I'm really grateful to the guy who was in my life then, because on our first date he understood my psychology type and never forbade me anything. He was like a mentor to me, because in my life before there was only sport."

"Sometimes I have communication barriers with my mother because of sports (...) She says I turned from an angel to an angry child when I got to elite sports. And now, as we're discussing some things, she is surprised. 'Why did you never tell me that?' I cleanly remember how the coach used to say that 'only the weakest tell everything to her parents'. And I always wanted to be the strongest."

On freedom:

"They say that you always have a choice. When I was in rhythmic gymnastics, I did not have this right. You cannot leave trainings or skip competitions (...) For 13 years in my career I did not have a choice. Let's take an example: what kind of music do you want? I want something. The coaches say to me - no, this will not work for you. And everything is like that. After the sport I could not decide on anything. I consider myself to some extent to be someone like Mowgli: a human who lived amongst animals and then got to human society."

About her relationship to the Deriuginas:

"I've recently had a conversation with them. I had to meet them to discuss some misunderstandings. I am grateful to all the people who helped me during my sports career. But the coaching part is independent of that. The Deriuginas did not teach to me how to be a coach, how to behave with the small kids, how to do masterclasses, what should they be, how a workout should be conducted. I came to this alone. I met them, I was greeted with hugs and open doors to the national team. We came to some shared opinions, in some things I had to give way. This meeting was recent, though I was offered to work with the national team before - but I never wanted to."

On her very freely expressed views, which are criticised often in Ukraine:

"Many people were scolding me, because I dare to have an opinion and express it in social media, say, like about the World Championships. Many people became very angry. But how can I say that Ukraine is the best when there is such a downfall - hopefully only temporary - and we end up in the 17th place?! I was criticised that I praised Russia. Well, there are the Averina twins, who perform brilliantly, have unreal ability with the apparatus. What they don't have, and I can also say this, is emotional channeling in their routines. We have Viktoria Mazur. She has gorgeous abilities, turns, but she does not know how to perform. Irina Deriugina should tell why the girl is dropping the apparatus for like 10 years. This is not antipathy towards Mazur. I am a free woman, I live in a free country, I can freely express my opinion. And she got better with apparatus, now she caught it at least.

I would never say something like Anna Rizatdinova had no growth in 10 years, it would not be true. Rizatdinova had an unreal growth as a gymnast. At first she was not such a good leaper, but she always had excellent pivots. At the Olympics in Rio she had everything on a high level. Another such gymnast with huge growth is Margarita Mamun. She constantly dropped the apparatus like Viktoria Mazur, but at the Olympics she made a clean competition and her improvement was fantastic: in body work, in apparatus work, in emotionality. I've only seen such huge improvements in Mamun and Rizatdinova."

On whether the Olympic results are fair:

"As for Mamun, she performed brilliantly. She was ready, that was her deserved place. For Kudryavtseva... let's go back a little! She appeared in 2013 and what she showed was just completely unreal. No-one had seen anything like it! But on the other hand, Yana remained on the same level during her career. Mamun and Rizatdinova raised their game. And of course Yana had a huge mistake in Rio, loss of apparatus - the rest she could do without mistakes. But she had a very serious surgery before, she was out for half a year, yet she was able to recover and perform - that is a very strong testimony [to her will]. I hope she can survive her silver medal. Because she always won everything, she always got the gold. I hope life after sports will not break her. She's 20 years old, she had set such a standard that it will be very difficult for her to lead a normal life. Rizatdinova had a worthy medal and the third place seemed correct. In my opinion her routines were not as difficult as her rivals' ones. Kudryavtseva had a serious mistake but had way more complicated routines, and Rizatdinova performed superbly, but for me her routines were a little light in difficulty. I felt very sorry for Salome Pazhava with her injury. I was rooting for her and thought she'd be in the medals.

On whether the Deriuginas' complete control over Ukrainian RG is good or she prefers more competition:

"[Serebryanskaya, Vitrichenko] came from very strong schools, they provided competition. I believe in that competition is needed. I can say that many talented coaches are either leaving Ukraine or have already left."

On the current Code of Points:

"I generally like it. During my career there were so many elements, up to 40. Now 10-12. Sometimes I think, oh, if I was performing now! I like these rules more. Plus there are no technical sheets, like we used to have. That means if something is going wrong, the gymnast can correct the mistake, repeat the element, and for us that was impossible to do."

On whether she's satisfied with her career:

"I'm very happy with it, because even if I was a second gymnast [behind Anna Bessonova] I was in the top five. I did not have huge mistakes, I did not let down my country, my coaches. I could even win sometimes, as a second gymnast, against Kabaeva and Tchachina. I can put a tick next to my career. Now our number one is not even in the top ten. As a second gymnast I was considered to be a star, because I could compete with the very best. And what happened during this difficult journey - maybe one day I'll write a book and tell you how everything was, what I went through in the sport and after.

On her relationship with Anna Bessonova

"We are not communicating with Anya, so I do not know much about her. There was a turning point in our relationship. I even had to go through what happened with a psychologist, because the situation was bugging me, I was questioning myself, what did I do wrong? Eventually what helped me is that I let go of the situation. I cannot say any bad things to Anya, but she ceased to exist in my life as a friend."

On the happy moments, doing things for yourself and training sensibly

"I won't say moments like eating a chocolate or drinking cola - I do not this any more, because they are harmful, and in our time we had to secretly do things like that. I always tell everyone: do it for yourself! No medal is worth your psyche, your health."

"I'll give you an example. We had a training camp in Alushta, and at 12 o'clock, when it was so hot, we had a strength circuit on a Swedish ladder made of metal. It was on the street. It was so hot, we wore caps. Now, strength circuit is useful. Physically weaker girls might tear the skin on their palms, but that's okay, you care for it and keep on working. The coach wrote on Facebook: if it was not for this, you wouldn't have become champions. And I asked, why was it impossible to do that workout at 6 PM, when the sun was down, it would not burn, and half of the children would not have problems with the hot metal ladders? It is just incomprehensible to me. Perhaps there was no other option, perhaps the site was occupied in the evening..."

© Sport.ua. Наталья Годунко

PART 1

PART 2

SHE SAID IT!

[titaviner]

If you have to make a podium of Olympic gold medallits, which gymnasts would you include? And for silver and bronze medallits?

I have a couple problems with this 1) Do you want me to make a ranking based on what my favorite gymnasts are or “objectively” in their gymnastics? 2) If you prefer the second option, do you want me to judge their Olympic performances or their careers overall?

Using the logic I have guessed it is imposible to judge “objectively” gymnasts coming from such different eras, it is very difficult to compare them even from a subjective perspective, so I’m taking that interpretation. So yes, I know I am being shamelessly subjective and I will need the use of ties.

Ranking of gold Olympic champions:

1) Marina Lobatch

2) Alexandra Timoshenko

3) Margarita Mamun - JuliaBarsukova.

Ranking of Silver medalists:

1) Yana Batyrchina

2) Yana Yudryavtseva

3) Carolina Pascual - Irina Tchachina.

Ranking of bronce medalists:

1) Elena Vitrichenko - Ganna Rizatdinova

3) Anna Bessonova - Oksana Skaldina.

Disclaimer 1: Both Alina Kabaeva and Alexandra Timoshenko have two different medals (gold and bronce), so I am considering both only in the the Gold medal category. 

Disclaimer 2:  I will be forever bitter that gymnasts such as Dilyana Georgieva, Aneila Ralenkova, Galina Beloglazova or Lilia Ignatova never had the chance of competing in LA 1984 and becoming the first ever RG Olympic champion.

Disclaimer 3: Seriously, LA 1984 was rigged, can we just pretend it didn’t happen?

Disclaimer 4: Having said all that, there are also plenty of gymnasts who are among the best in history and do not have a single Olympic medal. Gymnasts as Bianka Panova, Oksana Kostina, Larissa Lukyanenko, Maria Petrova, Olga Gontar or Natalia Lipkovskaia deserved better than 75% of the medalists in my rankings, to be honest.

Disclaimer 5: Yes, I despise mostly everything that took place in between 2001 and 2010 RG-wise.

[backscale-pivot-queen]

Elena Vitrychenko, Ukraine 🇺🇦

Osaka 1999

[dozydawn]

Elena Vitrichenko Ribbon, 1998.

One Man’s Dream by Yanni.

[aliciaherreromatia]

#Repost @team_ukraine_rg ・・・ Today is the birthday of a wonderful coach, member of FIG Academy Nina Vitrichenko. Unfortunately her life has ended in 2010, but the whole worldwide community will always remember her and her work. Сегодня день рождения блистательного тренера, члена академии ФИЖ Нины Витриченко. К сожалению, ее жизнь оборвалас�� в 2010 году, но всемирная общественность будет всегда помнить ее и ее труд. #RG #teamUkraineRG #Vitry #Vitrichenko

[i-love-rg]

Elena Vitrichenko, clubs, 1997-1998

[dozydawn]

Rhythmic gymnast Elena Vitrichenko, 1996. Photographed by Frank Seguin.

[dozydawn]

[dozydawn]

[dozydawn]