Russian Federation wins both Gymnastic team Olympic golds in Tokyo
Kanako Mita and Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
The Russian Federation won both team gymnastic golds at the Olympics for the first time in their history. This amazing feat happened despite the amazing Japanese male team of Daiki Hashimoto, Kazuma Kaya, Takeru Kitazono, and Wataru Tanigawa. Therefore, for the Russian Federation to win both team golds is simply magnificent.
For Europe, in the female team event, it was great to see the Russian Federation first, Great Britain third, and Italy coming fourth. Indeed, this was the first gymnast female team medal ever for Great Britain. The men from Great Britain also performed amazingly to finish fourth.
In the men’s team event, the Russian Federation didn’t flinch despite the result being in doubt until the final mark was announced. The pressure from Japan was enormous. Especially with some Japanese male gymnasts celebrating too much before the last Russian Federation gymnast had to perform. However, despite the enormous pressure, the final gymnast from the Russian Federation performed with panache to seal the amazing victory.
The team of Denis Ablyazin, David Belyavsky, Artur Dalaloyan, and Nikita Nagorny won the gold medal from a very talented team from Japan. China also performed to a very high standard to claim the bronze medal. Therefore, the final winning mark of 262.500 (Russian Federation), 262.397 (Japan), and 261.894 (China) proves how close the male team competition was.
TASS News reports, “This is Russia’s first Olympic gold in men’s artistic gymnastics team event since the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta, the United States.”
In the ladies team event, the Russian Federation won comfortably. Svetlana Khorkina, a two-time Olympic champion, was over the moon with the strength and solidarity of the female team.
Khorkina said, “Despite two major mistakes on the balance beam, our girls were in it to win it, that’s very valuable. We had strong will and unity. This is the first team gold medal in Russia’s modern history, I hope that these historic events will give a new boost of popularity to gymnastics.”
The young Russian Federation female team consists of two 16 year-olds called Viktoriia Listunova and Vladislava Urazova – with the other two gymnasts being Liliia Akhaimova and Angelina Melnikova. Thus the experience of winning team gold looks set to reshape gymnastics in the Russian Federation. Especially with the men’s team also claiming gold.
The media in America is trying to distract from losing to the Russian Federation by pinning this on the demise of Simone Biles – in the female team competition. Normally, a team with two 16-year-olds would be praised to the rafters. Irrespective of Biles, if America relies on one individual so much then surely this needs addressing. After all, it is a team event!
Overall, the Olympic gymnastic team events highlight a new spring in the collective step of the Russian Federation. Similarly, with Great Britain claiming bronze in the ladies’ competition and coming fourth in the men’s competition, it bodes well for European gymnastics that misses the powerful legacy of female gymnastics from Romania.
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