Anna Pavlova and Yulia Lozhechko have returned!

Many gymnastics fans were heartbroken when Anna Pavlova, one of the most beautiful, beloved, and underscored gymnasts of the last decade, tore her ACL on a beam dismount at the 2008 DTB Cup.  Most fans – including myself – assumed she was done with gymnastics.  This seemed all but confirmed when Anna herself acknowledged how difficult it was going to be.

I was excited to read on www.anna-pavlova.net that not only is she back in competition, but she has competed at least TWICE, and supposedly is scheduled to compete at the Russian Championships (which this particular website states is this week).  Here are some videos of Anna from the Khorkina Cup back in November!

Anna Pavlova Bars 2009 Khorkina Cup

Anna Pavlova Beam 2009 Khorkina Cup

Not bad! That bar routine looks as good as ever, and beam was obviously still on its way back at that point. But so cool to see her up there doing those skills again! The website also reports some recent results from the Central Region Championships in February. Note Yulia Lozhechko’s name in the results as well!

2010 Central Region Championships

All Around

1. Viktoria Komova 61.500 (15.350/16.150/14.500/15.500)

2. Kristina Pravdina 56.050

3. Yulia Lozhechko 55.700

4. Yulia Inshina 55.550

5. Anna Pavlova 55.400

Vault

1. Victoria Komova 95 Voronezh 14.750

2. Anna Pavlova 87 MO-Orekhovo-14.450

3. Sakha Yana 94 Vladimir 13.600

4. Tsvetkova Maria 90 Kostroma 13.450

5. Lozhechkos Yulia 89 Bryansk 13.225

6. Toporova Zhanna 93 Obninsk 12.975

7. Tsvetkova Ekaterina 92 Kostroma 12.950

8. Varvara Efimova 94 Vladimir 12.775

Uneven Bars

1. Victoria Komova 95 Voronezh 16.200

2. Anna Pavlova 87 MO-Orekhovo-13.700

3. Inshina Yulia 95 Voronezh 13.250

4. Elizarova Daria 91 Tula 12.800

5. Kakhadze Tamara 94 Vladimir 12.100

6. Lebedeva Olesya 93 Voronezh 11.750

7. Daria Goncharova 94 Voronezh 10.450

8. Kristina Pravdina 90 Voronezh 10.300

Balance Beam

1 Komova Victoria 95 Voronezh 15.550

2 Lozhechko Yulia 89 Bryansk 14.400

3 Elizarova Daria 91 Tula 14.200

4 Lebedeva Olesya 93 Voronezh 13.950

5 Daria Goncharova 94 Voronezh 13.250

6 Yulia Inshina 95 Voronezh 12.800

7 Sakha Yana 94 Vladimir 12.250

8 Nesterenko Elena 91 Vladimir 10.500

FX

1. Victoria Komova 95 Voronezh 16.400

2. Lozhechko Yulia 89 Bryansk 14.500

3. Inshina Yulia 95 Voronezh 13.800

4. Kristina Pravdina 90 Voronezh 13.550

5. Tcherepnin Anastasia 94 Voronezh 13,350

6. Daria Goncharova 94 Voronezh 12.650

7. Sakha Yana 94 Vladimir 12.550

8. Toporova Zhanna 93 Obninsk 12.550

I’ve also read that both Semenova and Afanasyeva are both on the senior national team, which means they are still training at Round Lake. In fact, here is a list of the recently announced “Main Senior Team” for Russia, along with their “Reserve Team,” which often includes gymnasts still recovering from injury, like Pavlova:

Main Senior Team

Ksenia Afanasyeva 1991

Anna Dementyeva 1994

Svetlana Klyukina 1989

Viktoria Komova 1995

Ekaterina Kurbatova 1992

Violetta Malikova 1995

Ramilya Musina 1993

Aliya Mustafina 1994

Anna Myzdrikova 1992

Tatiana Nabieva 1994

Diana Sapronova 1994

Valeria Sviridova 1994

Ksenia Semenova 1992

Tatyana Solovyova 1994

Main Team Reserves

Anzhela Golovina 1993

Ekaterina Kramarenko 1991

Ekaterina Krylova 1985

Anastasia Novikova 1994

Anna Pavlova 1987

Maria Paseka 1996

Elena Zamolodchikova 1982

I’m not sure why Yulia Lozhechko is not on this list…perhaps she wasn’t back in competition yet when the team was announced. Note that not all gymnasts on the main “senior” team will actually be eligible for worlds this year (i.e., the ones born in 1995). Notice also that Kramarenko is still listed on their Reserve List, as is Zamolodchikova! I thought she had retired for sure, so I’m not sure what to make of that.

Very exciting news for not only Pavlova and Lozhechko fans, but really gymnastics fans in general. This means we are going to see an incredible clash of generations this year, next year, and possibly in 2012 for spots on the Russian world and Olympic teams, which could become unstoppable!

I’ll post more information as soon as I know more details.