January 28, 2009

And for Those of You Who Still Don't Believe the Chusovitina Coaching Story...

... here's a little story from Financial Times Deutschland, a German newspaper which is usually very well informed on the goings-on in the German team (we have posted several of their articles before). Aside from some interesting news on the rest of the German team, the article contains a mention of Chusovitina's involvement with the Uzbek team.

Olympic Gymnast Joeline Moebius Must Call Off Training Camp

Around eight weeks before the European Championships in Milan, from 2nd to 5th April, Olympian Joeline Moebius from Chemnitz has had to call off her participation in a training camp with the German national team in the USA. This was confirmed by head coach Ulla Koch. "She has back problems, which it is better to keep treating here," said the 53-year-old coach. The national team will be training in Plano, Texas, from 2nd to 10th February, together with the American Olympic champion, Nastia Liukin.

This means that Anja Brinker from Herkenrath will be the only gymnast from the Beijing Olympic team who is making the trip. Katja Abel from Berlin and Daria Bijak from Salt Lake City have ended their careers. Marie Sophie Hindermann from Tübingen and Olympic silver medalist Oksana Chusovitina from Cologne will both be missing as a result of operations to the Achilles tendon. Chusovitina, originally from Uzbekistan, is currently taking care of the national women's team of the Central Asian country. Six gymnasts from that team are currently spending time at the training center in Bergisch Gladbach.

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Joeline Moebius (photo: Jasmin Schneebeli-Wochner/Gymbox)

So there you have it. Abel and Bijak, retired (from FIG gymnastics anyway). Hindermann and Moebius, injured. And Chusovitina, injured and looking after the Uzbek girls.

We think we have enough evidence now that the Chusovitina story is true. Now if someone will please fill us in on the Kozich situation...

6 comments:

  1. I thought the only weird rumor was when a newspaper published that Alina Kabaeva was going to marry Vladamir Putin. It wasn't true. Now Uzbekistan is hogging the weird rumor spotlight.

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  2. Cidlover, we're increasingly inclined to believe the Chusovitina story is true. Kozich though... not so sure about that.

    The Putin-Kabayeva rumor had us giggling like little girls at the time. It was fabulous. It should have been true!

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  3. Maybe this will interest you: http://i29.tinypic.com/i1f9jk.jpg

    Maybe a rumor will appear saying that Alina Kozich is going to marry Viktor Yuschenko.

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  4. It almost sounds like she's only stepping in for the time being. Like its a temporary arrangement - which would make sense. When she's recovered from injury etc maybe she will hand the job to a new head coach who perhaps is being looked for at the moment. Just thought I'd add another theory to an already very interesting story

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  5. We suppose it's possible, Anonymous. However, that doesn't explain why Svetlana Kuznetsova, a perfectly fine coach as far as we know, was told that Chusovitina was taking over. Somehow it doesn't sound like a temporary arrangement to us, but we really don't know anything about it, so we guess we shouldn't speculate too much.

    We trust more news will be released soon enough.

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