Bright Red from CSKA, Bulgaria

Bilyana Prodanova, who I think is the the best gymnast in Bulgaria after the veteran Miteva,  presented  her fiery hoop routine at the CSKA Cup this year:

Although we can easily see many errors in this performance, I believe we can also see a lot of potential. Bilyana has all the qualities a world class gymnast needs. What she also needs, however, is for the national coach Iliana Raeva to support her effort instead of constantly berating her. After every competition, we are told Bilyana made too many errors, while Raeva's protegees, Tsvetelina Stoyanova and Maria Mateva, always receive a pat on the shoulder and a rating of "good" or "very good."

Recently, Raeva has announced that if Bilyana makes errors at one more competition, she would never again compete at the World Cup or other prestigious international competitions. Given that Prodanova has two new and very difficult routines, and especially after this ultimatum, this wonderful gymnast is now more than ever likely to make errors. So I anticipate her career to end in the next couple of months. Just like it happened with Marina Stoimenova and Filipa Siderova, although Siderova did try to compete for another country for a while, a brave effort.

Bilyana is a silver and bronze medalist from the Junior Europen Championship in Moscow in 2006, and a winner of two silver medals from a World Cup event in 2009, as a senior gymnast. I wholeheartedly support Bilyana and her coach's effort to create a powerful gymnast with her own artistic style. I hope I am very wrong about my prediction that Raeva has launched an attack on Bilyana. Either way, I love her new hoop routine and I hope you will enjoy it, fellow fans! :-)

Congratulations to the New Champion of Australia

Australia has a new rhythmic gymnastics champion, Danielle Prince. 

Danielle, who represents MBC Gymnastics, won the women's all around title at the Australian nationals, followed by Janine Murray and Jaelle Cohen. The new champion was born in 1992 in Brisbane and started training rhythmic gymnastics at age 11 years, because her dance teacher suggested she try it.

Thank you, dance teacher! We can now can enjoy watching a very flexible gymnast, with good fouettes, and a most charming smile. Danielle also stands out with her original choices of make up and leotards. She once shared she even likes to use "different nail polish for every competition."

I am lucky to have some unpublished pictures of Danielle from the Montreal World Cup event this January, so you can see for yourself how stylish she looks on the carpet. Enjoy!

Should Gymnasts Perform Free Hands Routines at Gala or Competition?

Some fans have raised the question whether the free hands routine (without apparatus) should be part of competitions or just performed at gala events.

Throughout the years, I have seen some spectacular free hands routines but I have to admit I like them better when younger gymnasts perform them. For a senior gymnast, I feel that something is missing. Here is a free hands routine from 20 years ago by a Soviet gymnast:

This is a high level routine but it looks easy compared to modern gymnastics. The difference in the body elements becomes really obvious. Here is a very expressive modern routine by Natalia Godunko:

I like Godunko's style in general; this routine is a bright example of her personality. However, even with the wonderful leaps and all, I feel like Natalia looks so much more impressive with the clubs, or ribbon, or rope!

Finally, one of my favorite free hands routines of all time comes to us from the world champion Tamara Yerofeeva, truly a queen of the free hands exercise:

This routine showcases the best qualities of the gymnast and is very pleasant to watch because of the lyrical quality to it. I don't feel like the apparatus is missing, like with Godunko.

I would still say, though, that free hands routines resemble ballet/dance and not athletics. Can you identify Tamara as a gymnast in this one? Could she be a superb dancer? For someone like me, who likes tricks with the apparatus, the essential quality of rhythmic gymnastics is lost in a free hands routine, however beautiful.

So, for senior gymnasts, I do prefer to see those at galas. Apparatus technique is a rare quality these days anyway. Why ignore it even more? I am sure some of the more "physical" gymnasts like Yussupova, Alyabieva,or Kapranova would have loved not to have to deal with the apparatus. Maybe even Lukonina, she truly does not like the clubs.  ;-) But I believe that gymnasts like these should take the time to learn a decent apparatus technique and combine it with the amazing body elements. That combination is what differentiates rhythmic gymnastics as a sport.