Angelina Melnikova was the biggest hope of the Russian gymnastics federation to medal at 2017 Euros. Since Mustafina is pregnant, Komova is only beginning her comeback, Seda is still unstable (and also currently injured), Eremina is a new senior and only 15 years old and other all-arounders simply don't have enough difficulty to medal in major competitions, Melnikova was the IT girl.
Melnikova returned to competitions in October despite still being injured and continued to upgrade while competing almost non-stop in the next half a year. She got a really nice new floor routine and added a second vault. The Rodionenkos' rationale for the constant competitions was that Gelya needed more experience to become solid. Well, look how it turned out for her. While at the beginning of the 2017 Melnikova looked somewhat improved a combination of Stuttgart World Cup, Jesolo, and London Wold Cup leading to Euros basically killed her.
Apparently, she injured her back during floor in qualifications - that was after her falls from bars and beam. Despite this injury the coaches allowed/made her compete in the vault final where she finished last.
Andrei Rodionenko even admitted that it was a mistake to send Gelya to all the competitions! Grebyonkin who seems to be the voice of reason on the Russian team said he's not surprised with Gelya's performance. According to him, it's normal when there's a decline after giving your best in the Olympics and Gelya just needs rest, especially since she was injured in Rio and got injured again now. He also thinks that this competition experience will make Gelya hungrier to win. I bet if Grebyonkin was in charge instead of Rods, he wouldn't send Gelya to so many competitions.
Gelya herself is just devastated. She cried in the arena after qualifications and the vault final. She also posted apologies to her fans on the instagram. She says she's not sure why she can't do her best in competition and supposes it might be psychological. She was physically ready for Euros and did everything just fine in training, but something didn't click during the actual competition. She also says that coming back after the Olympics, especially coming back from her injury, was extremely hard and at one point during the Fall she simply didn't want to train at all. However, now she is extremely motivated.
Melnikova returned to competitions in October despite still being injured and continued to upgrade while competing almost non-stop in the next half a year. She got a really nice new floor routine and added a second vault. The Rodionenkos' rationale for the constant competitions was that Gelya needed more experience to become solid. Well, look how it turned out for her. While at the beginning of the 2017 Melnikova looked somewhat improved a combination of Stuttgart World Cup, Jesolo, and London Wold Cup leading to Euros basically killed her.
Apparently, she injured her back during floor in qualifications - that was after her falls from bars and beam. Despite this injury the coaches allowed/made her compete in the vault final where she finished last.
Andrei Rodionenko even admitted that it was a mistake to send Gelya to all the competitions! Grebyonkin who seems to be the voice of reason on the Russian team said he's not surprised with Gelya's performance. According to him, it's normal when there's a decline after giving your best in the Olympics and Gelya just needs rest, especially since she was injured in Rio and got injured again now. He also thinks that this competition experience will make Gelya hungrier to win. I bet if Grebyonkin was in charge instead of Rods, he wouldn't send Gelya to so many competitions.
Gelya herself is just devastated. She cried in the arena after qualifications and the vault final. She also posted apologies to her fans on the instagram. She says she's not sure why she can't do her best in competition and supposes it might be psychological. She was physically ready for Euros and did everything just fine in training, but something didn't click during the actual competition. She also says that coming back after the Olympics, especially coming back from her injury, was extremely hard and at one point during the Fall she simply didn't want to train at all. However, now she is extremely motivated.
OMG! It's so obvious she needs a rest! We don't want a second Katrin Sokova!!
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