Russians Can’t Get Off the Mat

After the European gymnastics championships in which Romanians won nine of 14 gold medals, it became clear that the once-powerful Russian teams were in disarray.

Russia’s two most famous and decorated gymnasts, Svetlana Khorkina and Alexei Nemov, were beaten by younger and relatively unknown Romanians and Ukraines in the all-around events.

Though there is time for the Russians to return to glory before Athens, they have a long way to go. The women’s team finished a disappointing third at the European championships last weekend in Amsterdam, while the men ended up with just one individual medal last month in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

“At this particular moment it is a little bit of a disaster,” said Nadezhda Maslennikov, one of the women’s coaches. “It’s been a very difficult year for both Russian teams. There have been too many injuries.”

And the older stars are, well, getting older.

At 25, Khorkina, who has three world and three European all-around championships, is about ten years older than many of her competitors. Nemov, the 2000 Olympic all-around gold medalist, is 28.

Both were expected to be the stars of the European championships but neither won a medal in the all-around.

The women’s champion was 16-year-old Alina Kozich of Ukraine, while 23-year-old Marian Dragulescu of Romania was the men’s winner. He took four gold medals between team and individual events.

The Russian men failing to win a medal in the team competition marked the first time Russia or the former Soviet Union didn’t score in the top three in Europe. Nikolai Kryukov, the only Russian qualifier in the all-around final, ended up 15th.

Nemov, a 12-time Olympic medalist, didn’t even compete in all six events. He made mistakes during the three of the four events he did try, including his specialties -- the high bar and the parallel bars.

Another star, Alexei Bondarenko, didn’t even make the European squad because of a poor showing at the Russian national championships in March.

Still, men’s coach Leonid Arkayev is optimistic the team will improve before the Summer Games in Athens.

“With the younger competitors everything is OK but the older ones, such as Nemov, didn’t have much luck and made mistakes,” Arkayev said.

He added: “Now we will train more and the results will be better. That’s for sure.”

Russians have finished first and second in the all-around at the last two junior European championships, usually an indication of who the next up-and-comers are. But only one of those four gymnasts, Maxim Deviatoski, has had any success at the senior level.

The women fared a little better than the men, getting six medals in all. However the only gold went to Khorkina in the uneven bars, an event in which she has won six straight European titles, five world and two Olympic golds.

Khorkina, who missed the Russian nationals because of a foot injury, was only fourth in the European all-around, a title she won the three previous times.

After leading in qualifying, she crumbled to her knees on the first vault of the final competition and never recovered from the deficit.

She has said she will end her career after the Athens Games -- further depleting a Russian women’s team already thin on talent.

“I looked around and I could not find any shining gymnasts now,” Khorkina said. “These little girls don’t have my experience, my maturity and my pleasure to the public.”

Two other stars, Natalia Ziganshiva, winner of the Russian competition, and Elena Zamolodchikova also have been plagued by injuries recently.

“It was a difficult year for me after an injury. I don’t have any pain any more and I was happy,” said Zamolodchikova, who won bronze in the all-around at the European championships. “I’m back.”

Despite dominating the men’s and women’s competition in Europe, Romanian men’s coach Octavian Belu isn’t ready to call it a changing of the guard.

“At the Europeans, it shows the best gymnasts of the moment. At the Olympic Games, it will be the best gymnasts at that moment,” Belu said. “At the Olympics Game it would be very nice to keep the same situation. But I am sure the other countries are not stopping their work.”