Well, I should really post something about the World Champs, but I've been busy so I have to get caught up on that. ^_^;;; In the meantime, I thought I would continue my series of
"essays" about the girls. Here's another one about the all-time queen, Zhenya Kanaeva. I've written about
her family and
her life "on the carpet," so now I think I'll write a bit about her relationships with the other girls.
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| Clockwise from top: Karolina, Nazar, Ul, Makar, Zhenya, Ksyu, Blizia |
Since I knew pretty much nothing about RG before the 2012 Olympics, I initially (mistakenly) thought that Dasha Dmitrieva and Zhenya were besties since I knew that they were roommates at Novogorsk, and they seemed to always be posting cute photos of themselves together.
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| Dasha D & Zhenya |
Soon after, however, I realized that Dasha D is best friends with Ulyana Trofimova (well, mostly), while Zhenya is much closer to the group girls and especially
Natasha Pichuzhkina, her bestie.
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| Natasha & Zhenya |
See, for example,
this interview:
- Is the friendship between competing gymnasts possible?
- I think it may be unlikely for a very close soul to soul friendship. However, although my best friend Natalia Pichuzhkina (we started together in individual competitions) is competing in groups, we always support each other. And I know that all our “group”-girls are sincerely happy for me if I succeed; and they are upset if I fail.
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| Zhenya (with Karolina, Makar & Olga watching in back) |
At that time, it made sense to me that Zhenya was closer to the group girls than to the other girls in the individual competition, since the individual girls were her direct competitors. I could definitely imagine the other girls either being slightly intimidated by Zhenya, or maybe even jealous of her success. (Though clearly they are very close, even if they’re not best friends.)
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| Zhenya, Dasha Kondakova, Dasha D |
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| Zhenya, Dasha K, Dasha D |
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| Dasha D, Zhenya, Dasha K |
However, the more I learned about the group girls, the more I realized that Zhenya and the group girls are actually more similar in terms of PERSONALITY than Zhenya and the other individual girls. Simply put, with the exception of Karolina, the group girls are a bunch of clever and crazy weirdos who don’t mind making fools out of themselves, and Zhenya definitely seems to be like that. No wonder they get along so well! Likey so:
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| Ul, Nazar, Larisa Ilchenko, Zhenya |
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| Ul, Larisa, Nazar, Natasha, Zhenya |
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| Zhenya & Larisa |
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| Roman Lyubimov, Blizia, Zhenya, Makar making inappropriate gestures? :P |
And here are a bunch of photos of Zhenya and the group girls goofing off in Korea in 2011.
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| Zhenya, Ul, Makar, Olga |
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| Ksyu, Zhenya, Makar |
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| Olga, Ksyu, Zhenya, Makar |
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| Zhenya & Ksyu jumping; Ul & Makar in back |
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| Ksyu, Ul, Zhenya, Makar |
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| Olga, Nazar, Natasha, Makar, Ul, Ksyu & Zhenya |
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| Ul, Makar, Ksyu, Zhenya |
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| Ul & Zhenya "shooting" Makar while Ksyu jumps in the background |
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| Zhenya, Ul, Ksyu, Makar |
...to be continued...
