For years, Aliya has been on the gymnastics radar, she has been ever since she debuted as a senior in 2010 and dominated on the scene. Aliya has already became an Olympian, and has had mass success in London, winning two bronzes, a silver, and a gold. In London, many gym fans thought she would be a lock, and she still is. However, we have seen some noticeable change in Mustafina. The girl we thought was so indestructible, sort of self destructed in Antwerp. Only a few saw it, but we noticed Mustafina wasn't really herself, she would probably have taken the gold on the bars in Antwerp, but had some uncharacteristic mistakes. But she did win the title on beam, voiding those thoughts. But n Nanning a year later, it was definitely noticeable, when she barely got her team into the bronze medal slot, and individually, didn't medal in the all-around, or bars competitions, and managed to get bronze on beam, but missed an element, and was overjoyed when she got the floor bronze. But as we all know, bronze isn't classic Mustafina. She was undergoing some stress: She was going through coaching changes, losing her long time coach, Alexander Alexandrov, she also was carrying the whole Russian team on her back because her teammates from London, and some other veterans, were all injured, and finally, she was not feeling well.
What Aliya needs to do for the Olympics is she needs to learn not to let all the crap get to her. She has been doing that for a long time, I know, but because she is going through this triad of problems, its become a little overwhelming. Everything that's going on, Mustafina can't do much about it. She can't convince the Russian Delegation to bring Alexandrov back, she can't magically heal her teammates' injuries, and she can't snap her fingers and rid the sicknesses. I know Mustafina is the strong athlete we saw 4-5 years ago, and if she is like that, she can make the team. She just needs to learn how to manage this better, not to let all the crap get to her.
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