My Top 10 Ex-Soviet republic gymnasts to watch.. Russian Nationals Results

10- Daria Zgoba – Ukraine. She had some unique interesting routines and liked to fall on them but I appreciate the effort 🙂 Floor Beam

9- Elena Produnova on vault- To be honest I didn’t learn to appreciate her and this vault until all the half ass attempts we have seen people attempting to do it in 2016 and beyond. The funny thing is, I didn’t even realize she was the Olympic medalist on beam til watching videos on youtube one night. I always referred to her and the other one as the bitter, whiny, silver and bronze medalists on beam that actually thought they should have beaten Liu Xuan (Dreamers:)

8- Aleftina Pryakhina- The original trickster . Double double on floor. (BEFORE SILIVAS) A, DTY. Full on beam and a full in off… She never made an Olympic team. Sure she had questionable form but this has to be the best gymnast to never make an Olympic team (I don’t think she ever made a world team either) [1987 Beam]

7- Elena Mukhina- Russia. What could have been. Her routines at the 78 Worlds were unique.

6- Anna Kovaleva- Russia… I call her Anna Pavlova’s older sister. They remind me so much of each other. She was a pretty gymnast that just could never seem to get it together. She made the 99 World event finals on beam but placed 6th. Totally lowballed compared to everyone else.

5- Viktoria Komova- Russia. Viktoria was a beautiful gymnast to watch. I pretty much say that for every gymnast in this top 10. It’s pretty ironic that the silver medalists in these Olympic AA’s are almost always more watchable than the gold medalist. 88-92-2004-2008-2012 . I can’t bring myself to put up her floor so here is her World gold medal at Worlds

4- Olga Teslenko- Ukraine Olga was a surprise qualifier to the 1996 Beam event finals and that was her best success as a gymnast for an event but I found all her routines beautiful. I loved watching her lines and form on bars as well as Floor. She was a 2 time Olympian. She was also the 1998 silver medalist at Europeans on beam. Starting at 8.22

3- Anna Pavlova- Russia. Clean gymnastics bored some. Anna’s never bored me.

2- Daria Spiridonova- Russia. My favorite UB worker who occasionally hits beam when you least expect it. You know, on the biggest stage. 🙂 My favorite Russians are always head cases 🙂

1- Natalia Bobrova- Russia. I loved her from the first moment I saw her. She should have had the silver at this worlds but this is pretty much the only routine she has shown on Television during her career. She also had an interesting beam routine.RIP Natalia

Reminder. These are my favorite gymnasts to watch. Honorable mention- Natalia Lashenova.. Maria Filatova…