Happy Birthday Vera Efremovna!

Happy happy birthday to one of the most successful and most beloved RG trainers of all time, Vera Efremovna Shtelbaums from Omsk!

Most notably (to me), she trained Zhenya!

Aww, so sweet!

In fact, she and her daughter Elena Arais trained Zhenya from the very beginning.

Vera Efremovna, Zhenya, Elena Arais

Vera Efremovna has also trained several other Olympic medal-winning gymnasts from Omsk, including:

Irina Tchachina, 2004 Olympic Silver Medalist in individual RG...

...Margarita Aliychuk, 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist in Group RG...

Margarita, Vera Efremovna, Zhenya

...and our darling Ksyu, 2012 Olympic Gold Medalist in Group RG

Elena Arais, Vera Efremovna, Ksyu

Ksyu, Vera Efremovna & Zhenya

But to me, she'll always be associated with Zhenya, and in honor of their wonderful partnership, here are my favorite photos of the two of them.

Of course, as you would expect, she always took care of Zhenya...

...helping her train...

...listening to her concerns..

...fixing her costume...

...always massaging her ears before her routines...

...and giving her lots of congratulations and kisses afterwards

But, since Zhenya is Mother Theresa, she also took good care of her trainer too!

Look at the two of them, just so happy together!  How sweet!

You can just hear her saying, "My darling baby~!"

To many more~!!