Why Anastasia Grishina Is Persona Non Grata In Russia

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Anastasia Grishina has huge potential.
She is capable of difficulty and has one
of the cleanest ever execution. But
unfortunately, she has been blacklisted
and the Russians will do anything to
exclude her from the team and from any competition assignment.
Here is why.


After Aliya Mustafina tore her ACL, the
Rodionenkos declared her a gymnast of
no use and that her career had been put
to an end. Anastasia who turned senior
in the Olympic year, was considered the
next big thing and was expected to
achieve success in London.

Rodionenkos had a huge faith in her and
promoted her heavily in the media.
But Grishina failed to impress there, she
had a meltdown and disastrous
performance. First, she refused to
compete on balance beam in team final
and Mustafina had to replace her,
second she had a disastrous performance
on floor exercise when she completely
missed one of her tumbling passes
resulting in the lowest floor score in the
entire team final competition.
Although, the Russian team would have
still lost to the US team, the Russians
were angered by Anastasia's mistake
and attitude.

The Rodionenko's took it personally and
felt that Grishina made them look bad in
front of their federation and home
country. After Aliya had a very
successful Olympics, they changed 180
degrees, she became their darling while
Grishina was declared persona non
grata.
And this clearly appeared before the
2013 European championships,
Valentina Rodionenko spoke out against
her in the media. She told them that she
is in a very bad shape and should not be
considered for the European team.
She also complained about Anastasia's
attitude that she refuses to work with her
teammates and prefers to work in her
hometown while her mother interferes
in everything. She also added that the
Russian gymnast refuses to improve and
upgrade her skills.
Nonetheless, Grishina went to the
European championships and won two
medals, a bronze in the all around and
another bronze on balance beam.
Few months later, Grishina pulled out
from the Russian cup in Penza due to
back pain. Rodionenko attacked her in
the press and claimed that her
withdrawal is all about her attitude not
her back pain.
Grishina has been suffering from
injuries since 2013. The last injury was
before the Russian nationals, she re
injured her knee.

The Rodionenkos has stopped talking
about her in the media and has
stopped acknowledging her existence for
a longtime.

Recently, Grishina has been left out
of the list of gymnasts who have a
potential chance of making the Rio team.
The head coach of the team Eugene
Grebenkine said that Grishina has no
chance of being on the up coming
Olympic team due to her injuries and
will never regain her former level while
her personal coach disagrees with him.
Sadly, Grishina is facing a tough battle
in her home country.