In the national team of rhythmic gymnastics, there is an inconsolable situation. In the double match of the European Championships in May, the team finished sixteenth, which was below expectations. Even more disappointing was the fact that four of the team’s gymnasts announced their retirement after the Games, just a couple of months before the World Championships. They are one way to next year’s Summer Olympics in Paris.
Ilta-Sanomat reported earlier this week about the problems of the team and the coach Larisa Gryadunova between. The story tells about the coach’s motivational problems and excesses.
reported the previous coach in November Laura Ahonen for inappropriate behavior towards gymnasts. After the incident, the Executive Director of the Gymnastics Association Maria Laakso said that the entire gymnastics community, together with clubs and coaches, bears the responsibility that the coaching cultural change goes all the way. Operating methods had to change with the change of coach, but not all problems have been solved. Why hasn’t the direction changed?
Hard training and mental pressure
A new era began in the rhythmic gymnastics national team at the beginning of 2022, when Laura Ahonen, who had coached the team for a long time, was moved aside. The Finnish Sports Ethics Center had conducted an investigation into Ahonen’s activities, and in December 2021, the Finnish Gymnastics Federation transferred the case to its disciplinary committee. Ahonen later received a mild disciplinary sanction from the disciplinary committee.
At the end of January 2022, the team was taken over by Larisa Gryadunova, who is known as a successful individual coach at Olari Gymnasts, OVO. This spring, his coaches won the three brightest medals in the women’s quadruple at the World Championships. His most merit is Ekaterina Volkova coaching for Rio’s Olympic representative in 2016. Gryadunova’s own competitive career dates back to Ukraine and Russia, i.e. the Soviet Union at the time.
For this article, Urheilu interviewed four athletes who were on the national team between February 2022 and May 2023, as well as several people familiar with the team’s operations.
In February 2022, a new national team was put together, which included a few more gymnasts from Ahonen’s time. There were a total of nine gymnasts in the team. The gymnasts say that the exercises changed completely compared to before. The number of training sessions did not increase, but the power of the training increased significantly. Some liked the demanding workouts and were satisfied. The training seemed professional. The atmosphere was hopeful and motivated. For some, the hardness of the exercises was a surprise. One of the gymnasts talks about a strict training month, during which only flight days were days off.
– Expectations were high when the national team got a new coach. The mental pressure was immediately hard, says one of the gymnasts.
– The national team was a professional sport. Nice, but tough. Exactly what I thought. I myself was always able to discuss things with the coach, commented another gymnast.
Coach Larisa Gryadunova says she is abroad and answers questions by email. According to Gryadunova, the national rhythmic gymnastics team started to be built in close cooperation with the Finnish Gymnastics Federation, the Olympic Committee and the capital region’s sports academy Urhea a little over a year ago. The goal was to build a new kind of national team culture, where athletes are supported both physically and mentally.
– It was not intended to achieve results quickly, but the main thing has been to build a Finnish model and grow into athletes and create strong foundations and thereby train with quality so that the team can aim for success in the future, Gryadunova writes in her email reply.
Gryadunova admits that the change in the operating culture is at the beginning.
– I have discussed my coaching methods with the federation several times, it is part of this change in operating culture. I have also received feedback on my coaching and developed my activities based on them.
Thinness is idealized
Weight control is part of rhythmic gymnastics at the top level, but it has also resulted in problems. In the story published by in November 2022, many former gymnasts talked about their eating problems, control and health problems caused by weight control. According to the interviewed gymnasts, the idealization of thinness in Gryadunova’s team was obvious. They felt that alongside emphasizing health, it was important to eat lightly.
– Some were told directly about the weight. After one competition, it was told how, according to the jury, there were two large gymnasts in the team, one gymnast recalls.
– Last year there was a dieting epidemic in the team. Although only a couple of girls were pressured, others were afraid of being ordered to lose weight. We just withered away, another gymnast says.
Larisa Gryadunova denies that she emphasized the importance of being slim or pressured gymnasts to lose weight.
– I haven’t pressed. The expert team has discussed how we together support athletes to change the way they learn to relate to their bodies. Performance is important, not appearance, Gryadunova writes in her email reply.
Mass escape after the value games
The team competed in the European Championships in the summer of 2022, finishing eleventh. At the World Championships in September, the ranking was 17th. Like this year, there were retirements between the prestigious competitions, and in both competitions the team’s common competition experience was limited. After the World Championships, no less than five gymnasts had made their decisions and ended their careers in the national team. According to the gymnasts, the reasons were health problems, various injuries and the oppressive atmosphere of the team.
– For the rest of the season, I hung in the team more because of others than myself. I wanted to move forward in life and finally I realized that I don’t have to stay, commented one of the athletes.
– I quit of my own accord, for health reasons, another gymnast says.
The new team built programs and trained hard. Gymnasts were tormented by injuries of varying degrees, and constant changes to the lineup ate away at motivation and team spirit. As the competition season approached, the pressure grew from the beginning of winter. The atmosphere started to become oppressive when the atmosphere in the training became tense. They felt that they were accused of bad behavior for nothing.
– Larisa sent a letter to the parents, in which it was said that the team behaved badly in training. The truth was different. One of the judges was watching practice and we had our backs to him while he was talking. Before the situation, Larisa had shouted at us and barked and most of us were crying with mascara on her cheeks. That’s why we turned our eyes away. The judge came to comfort us, another gymnast says.
Gryadunova does not remember the situation, but admits that she made mistakes and learned from them.
– I don’t remember such a situation. We have discussed the athletes’ behavior with the athletes and their guardians, this is normal activity. I myself have also made mistakes along the way. They have also been dealt with and I have apologized for them.
– I am really sorry if I have caused mental pressure. The operating culture change is in progress and we are developing everyone’s interaction and cooperation. I have improved my language habits. We have also discussed the behavior of the gymnasts and the issues between them, Gryadunova says.
– There has been a lot of discussion there about the training, the motivation, when there are teenage girls and whether we can think beyond an hour, Laakso opens his view on the challenges of interaction.
Where is the goal?
According to the gymnasts, the coach and the team lacked a clear plan of what they were aiming for and what they were aiming for. In the spring of 2023, Gryadunova was seen less and less in the team’s training. When making the team was not pleasing, some of the gymnasts and parents felt that the coach’s faith ended and the motivation disappeared. According to the gymnasts, the coach said nasty things about other teammates behind their backs, which ate away at the team spirit.
The rest of the team ran exercises and the parents asked about the goals. The parents and some of the gymnasts were also in contact with the Gymnastics Federation, which organized discussion sessions. The parents felt that there were no answers to the questions. Transparency and plans were missing.
In addition to the coaching team, the national team is supported by Urhea’s experts, who help with psychological training and nutritional matters, among other things. According to Gryadunova, it is to the advantage of the athletes that there are several professionals in the coaching, although she emphasizes her great motivation to act as the head coach. Teamwork in the gymnastics association is believed to bring different personalities and versatile skills to practice, although the change has not been to everyone’s liking.
– We have been discussing this with the guardians right up until now after the EC competitions. Others would have hoped that the same culture that has existed in Finland for a long time, that one person coaches from a child to an adult. We see that different people bring their own different personalities and areas of expertise, the head coach leads that work and that way we get a better result, commented Maria Laakso, Executive Director of the Gymnastics Association.
In the spring of 2023, questions were raised whether the team is still seriously aiming for the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024 or not. The dream no longer seemed realistic, because the important event for qualifying, the World Championships in August 2023, was already close. Absences of the coach, injuries of important gymnasts and constant changes destabilized the whole.
The future of the team is at stake
In May 2023, the national gymnastics team won the SM gold, but especially the ball and ribbon program was still unfinished. At the European Championships in June, the program in question went completely wrong due to numerous mistakes, the bowling program went better. The 16th place in the doubles was far from the goal of the gymnasts and the coach. After the Games, four gymnasts said they would quit the national team. At the same time, they buried their dream of the Olympics.
There are currently four gymnasts in the national team. Five are needed for the race mat, and due to injuries and illnesses, there should be at least one in reserve. The goal of the gymnastics association is to build a team of 10-12 gymnasts. Gryadunova has recycled her own individuals in training to make team programs, but no permanent solution has been communicated to the team or outsiders. No one knows if the team will be assembled for the World Cup.
In the gymnastics federation, the target is much further than the next value competitions and the question of the World Championships in August is not considered important.
– In my opinion, it is not even an essential question. For me, it is much more important that we get 25-year-old successful elite athletes who are doing well.
– Now we need to find a Finnish model and way to do these things and find motivated athletes who we can support together, says executive director Laakso.
The national team of rhythmic gymnastics was only half a point away from an Olympic place and was the first team to be eliminated from the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016. The next team flashed good results, but it did not get an Olympic place for the Tokyo Games. Now Finland no longer has a whole team. What will happen in the future for the demanding and supported, but small Olympic sport in Finland?