Andrey Rodionenko: “The modern world is seething with Gymnastics”

At the press conference held in the framework of the ROC project entitled ‘Media Center of the Russian Olympic team’ Andrey Rodionenko, Head coach of the Russian national Artistic Gymnastics team, told about the situation with Olympic licenses and estimated the progress in world Artistic Gymnastics, which occurred over recent years.

“The task set before the Glasgow World Cup was to win licenses for the Rio Olympic Games. In accordance with the regulations 8 best teams on the results of the team all-round are to go to the Games. It is encouraging that both our teams – men’s and women’s won the maximum number  of Olympic quota places.

At  the test events to be held in Brazil in April next year 4 more teams will be able to qualify for the Olympics . The national team of  Romania will be the undisputed favorite of  the test events and one of our major rivals at the Olympic Games in Rio.

At first not everything went well for our team at the Glasgow World Cup. In the first days of the tournament, we faced harsh criticism from the media. That  is not conducive to psychological confidence of our athletes who strained every sinew every day. I call on the media to be kind to our athletes, since they do everything possible to defend the honor of our country at the international competitions and devote their best efforts to it. After losing the team competition, they more than made up for it in the individual championship.

The competition situation  in the women’s team has not changed starting with the Olympic Games in London. The situation with men’s teams has changed radically.   The representative of Cuba produced a great impression. It means that the modern world is with Gymnastics “- summed up Andrey Rodionenko.