And the anticipation builds...

By Alastair Grant, AP for USA Today

The gymnastic fans are just pumping with excitement for the return to competition of 2010 All Around Champion Aliya Mustafina. There is something about Mustafina that just mesmerizes us fans. It is not that she is the most beautiful, clean, original gymnast ever. It is her persona, her determined look, her trademark Russian fierce and emotional personality. Mustafina stands in for the Khorkinas, Prudonovas... for the tradition of gymnastics, and even for something in the sport that is slowly being lost.

I am not in love with her form on twisting elements and never will accept that sloppy Amanar, but I love her elegance, her mental toughness, her great swing on bars, and her fabulous turns. I die for that double turn on beam. I am a sucker for well performed turns and Mustafina has them.

Mustafina is scheduled to perform this weekend at the Stuttgart World Cup and I cannot wait to see it. Together with Alyona Polyan and Maria Paseka she is competing in the team portion of the competition and appears she will be performing bars and beam. I am looking forward to seeing what she can do after the injury. I am hoping with time Aliya will return to the all around, and I believe it is possible for her, but we never really know with these injuries. She has recovered very well if after 7 months the coaches believe she is ready to go back out there. Also, I think this might be a bit of a strategy in the part of the Russian coaches: everyone knows Aliya is an emotional gymnast and putting her back out there might fire her up to train harder and recover her skills faster. Rodionenko said she wanted to go to worlds, so that means she was capable of aiming for that and they were conservative--rightly so! I am hoping for a clean, stylish outing that will increase her confidence.

I love her 2010 floor routine, I thought it was whimsical and elegant. She has always had difficulty on her connections on beam, they need to figure out a way to give her a routine that she is a 100% comfortable with. I have the same concern about Komova, she does not seem very sure of her connections on beam and it has cost her once already. When the Olympics hits next year, the Russians need to be very confident about their routines... and they need Mustafina's blind determination: that is my opinion. I just don't see them winning without her!

Some of her best work:

That triple twist dismount needs to go! Double pike, 2.5 twist, I don't care, just this under rotated cross legged triple is not going to work.

This is my all time favorite routine by Mustafina, you can see the killer instinct. This HB/LB transition and the combination of skills is outrageous.

Dear Jordyn Weiber, see this thing here in the beginning? It's called a clean triple turn, you should really try it someday!


Let's hope for a great competition for Musty.