Russia’s girls’s gymnastics program is understood for producing very proficient gymnasts who obtain outstanding fanfare amongst gymnastics followers, however it’s also a program dominated by children. Of the 14 gymnasts on Russia’s principal nationwide crew, 11 of them haven’t but celebrated their nineteenth birthday.
Even when this system produces examples of older gymnasts sustaining their locations within the Russian program, it’s often gymnasts like Angelina Melnikova and Anastasia Ilyankova. Olympic veterans who’ve previous success in main, worldwide competitors and are sturdy candidates for future crew assignments.
Yulia Biryulya is a serious exception to all of this. She has develop into an interesting gymnast to observe not as a result of she is among the leaders of the Russian program, however her reluctance to be pushed out it. Biryulya is the gymnast who continues to compete even whereas many of the gymnasts from her technology have left the game. It’s not Yulia’s age which makes her story so compelling, however that for many gymnasts who’ve had a profession like Biryulya’s, they might have thrown within the towel a very long time in the past.
Gymnasts retire for all kinds of causes. A lot of the time it’s harm, fatigue and bodily exhaustion. However usually occasions it’s as a result of they notice their profession has flatlined. That main crew assignments just like the World Championships or Olympics at the moment are out of attain, and the one future they’ve within the sport is spending their days watching youthful gymnasts benefit from the highlight. For a lot of gymnasts, they’re dealing with these prospects whereas they’re of their early 20s and timing is correct for them to enterprise into one thing new. Not cling to life in an athletic profession that’s going within the incorrect course.
But greater than anybody, Yulia Biryulya has defied that.
When Yulia Biryulya made her first look as a Junior on the Russian Nationwide Championships, Anna Pavlova was nonetheless competing for the Russian program. When Biryulya joined the Russian ranks as a senior-eligible gymnast a number of years later, Ksenia Afanasyeva was nonetheless competing for Russia on the World Championships.
For 12 years Yulia has been an everyday attendee on the main Russian home competitions. In that point she has by no means competed in an Olympic Video games, World Championships, European Championships or World Cup. Biryulya was despatched to compete in a notable competitors outdoors of Russia on only one event, a contest in Tbilisi, Georgia that was solely attended by international locations that had been former members of the Soviet Union.
However even then, Biryulya was not allowed to characterize Russia at this competitors. Russia had already reached the utmost variety of gymnasts per program, so Yulia competed underneath the title of her metropolis and didn’t put on Russian warmups throughout her medal ceremony. On solely a handful of events have Russian coaches thought-about her for a spot on the Nationwide Workforce. And lastly, within the particular person occasions Yulia Biryulya has by no means gained gold or perhaps a silver medal on the nationwide stage competitions that Russian gymnasts compete in.
Regardless of all of that, Yulia has confirmed one factor. That nothing will cease her from making an attempt. Ever since her first look on the Junior Russian Championships again in 2012, Biryulya has competed in almost each Russian Cup and Russian Championships since then.
It must be famous that Biryulya was not the oldest gymnast competing on the 2023 Russian Championships. For the second yr in a row she gained a bronze medal on vault whereas the silver medalist was the identical gymnast who occurs to be even older than her. The gymnast in query was Eleonora Afanasyeva-Goryunova, who’s three years older, but in addition has two kids. Eleonora gave beginning to her second baby in 2021 solely to win medals on the Nationwide Championships in 2022 and 2023.
Eleonora Afanasyeva-Goryunova and Yulia Biryulya are spectacular examples of longevity, however showcase it in very alternative ways. Eleonora is the current really feel good story who has achieved sudden success previously two years. Yulia Biryulya is the gymnast who yr after yr, I anticipate her to fade away as a result of that’s what gymnasts in her scenario often do. Then yr after yr Yulia comes again.
Despite the fact that Eleonora is older than Yulia, it’s Yulia who has considerably extra appearances in Russian home competitors. As a result of Yulia Biryulya is as persistent as they arrive and barely misses a contest, and he or she has maintained that consistency for the whole thing of her profession. From her senior debut in 2015 to 2023, Yulia Biryulya has participated in each Russian Championships and Russian Cup except 2017. Attending 14 of 16 doable competitions within the course of.
Though it must be famous that 2017 was hardly a nasty yr for Biryulya. As an alternative, she dominated the regional Russian Championships and it was in 2017 that she was capable of compete in Georgia. The closest competitors she has ever earned to a world project. Yulia was additionally extremely energetic as a junior, often attending the junior division of those prime competitions from 2012 to 2014.
For the Olympic Video games the presence of Oksana Chusovitina is as sure as dying and taxes. However for main Russian home occasions, it’s dying, taxes, and Yulia Biryulya.
What Biryulya has achieved is outstanding. Her capacity to persistently seem in each junior and senior competitors eluded her up to date Eleonora Afanasyeva-Goryunova. And contemplating the sheer variety of gymnasts who earned prestigious worldwide assignments however determined sufficient was sufficient and so they couldn’t go on, Yulia Biryulya by no means earned such an project and for 12 years she has by no means allowed that to discourage her.
Yulia Biryulya may be very a lot not like that of Eleonora Afanasyeva-Goryunova. Eleonora is comparable in nature to Oksana Chusovitina, a gymnast who deliberately made the choice that her time had come to retire, however after spending time on the sideline determined she wished to come back again. Yulia Biryulya in distinction by no means went that route. Biryulya is the instance of a gymnast who has the truest Olympic spirt and such the center of a competitor, she refuses to stroll away from the game. Not even for a quick second.
None of that is to make Yulia Biryulya come off as a glorified participant. Beforehand I mentioned that Yulia by no means gained a silver or gold within the particular person occasions. However she has gained a bronze medal on 5 completely different events. She is a standout on vault and is so good on this equipment that Biryulya has not missed a vault finals of any sort since 2016. However the craziest a part of this story is that Biryulya seems to be getting higher with age.
In her final 5 appearances in vault finals she has gained a bronze medal on 4 completely different events in a streak that goes all the way in which again to the start of 2021. From 2019 to 2023 she has eight appearances in vault finals and completed 4th or higher 75% of the time. At a time when Yulia Biryulya’s profession was purported to be fading, she is beginning to hit her stride. Which makes her profession harking back to one other Russian gymnast.
Lilia Akhaimova spent 5 years as a decrease rating member of the Russian program earlier than all of a sudden exploding onto the scene with two appearances on the World Championships and later grew to become an Olympic gold medalist. There’s additionally the profession of Tatiana Tuzhikova, a Russian gymnast from the Nineteen Eighties who competed for what was then the Soviet Union.
Tuzhikova recorded 15 whole appearances on the USSR Championships, USSR Cup, and the Russian Championships. The occasions that had been the predecessor to the modern-day Russian Cup and Russian Championships. Tuzhikova competed at these competitions extra usually than some other Soviet gymnast of the Nineteen Eighties. Tatiana did so whereas by no means incomes any sort of worldwide project, and in contrast to even Yulia Biryulya, Tatiana Tuzhikova by no means gained a person medal in national-level home competitors.
Tuzhikova was the low rating Soviet gymnast till she all of a sudden wasn’t. Tatiana went on a shock run in 1987 the place she made the Soviet World Championships crew. Her placement within the Soviet beginning lineup earned her a silver medal within the crew competitors, however the actual success was Tuzhikova efficiently entered her title into the Code of Factors. As we speak Tuzhikova’s legacy lives on by being the namesake of one of the vital troublesome abilities on ground.
Whereas I don’t really feel it’s honest to say Yulia Biryulya goes to be the subsequent Lilia Akhaimova or Tatiana Tuzhikova, their tales are maybe a solution as to what presumably motivates Biryulya. That regardless of how small their probability could also be, there’s all the time a chance a gymnast can obtain her dream if she by no means stops making an attempt.
However in the end, what makes Yulia Biryulya so commendable and makes me respect her a lot is her willingness to stay at this stage in spite of everything these years. To be an Olympian a gymnast should really love the game. However then you definitely get examples like Yulia Biryulya who’s clearly so keen about competing and giving the game every part she has, that her coronary heart embodies the Olympic spirit greater than even the Olympians themselves.
Yulia Biryulya is an uncommon gymnast caught up within the midst of an period that’s something however regular. The present time interval is outlined by the tragedy of Russia’s unlawful invasion of Ukraine and ensuing battle. It’s an period the place Russian gymnasts are “struggling” underneath the load of a ban from worldwide sporting occasions, their “struggling” is trivial in comparison with what Ukrainians are experiencing who can inform their Russian counterparts what “actual” struggling is.
The battle has introduced an uncomfortable reality to the forefront. That Russia’s Olympic sports activities are used as propaganda instruments by Vladimir Putin, and each medal Russia wins plus the extra standard Russian gymnasts develop into to non-Russian audiences, it solely empowers the propaganda worth related to this system.
Even with out making the connection between Putin, propaganda, and the Olympic sports activities, there’s nonetheless an uneasy feeling available when one watches Russian gymnasts compete. It means watching gymnasts carry out understanding they’re engaged on routines and upgrades that will by no means be scored in a world setting. Or as people, some are in the very best years of their careers in what is going to in the end be handled as “misplaced” years. This all casts a darkish cloud round each Russian gymnast when she competes in home competitors.
However Yulia Biryulya is completely different. As a result of her success and affect has been restricted to home competitors, she is the one gymnast in the whole program who is ready to proceed on as if her profession is unaffected. Yulia was on the pinnacle of her success earlier than the ban went into impact, and is continuous to expertise it even after the ban was carried out. In contrast to different main Russian gymnasts, Yulia competes with out that darkish cloud following her round.
With Yulia Biryulya, she’s one of many final remaining Russian gymnasts the place it’s nonetheless gratifying to observe her carry out. It doesn’t include the thought that her profession is at present being ruined by a (nicely justified) ban on Russian athletes. As a perennial one-event bronze medalist on the Russian Championships, she hardly registers as a number one sports activities determine that invokes questions as as to whether her success is a propaganda win for Putin. And regardless of her being one of the vital energetic Russian gymnasts on social media, I’ve by no means seen Yulia publicly hyperlink herself to pro-war symbolism which has been a problem for a lot of of Russia’s prime gymnasts.
Yulia Biryulya is such a low profile gymnast that when she competes on the main Russian home championships, at one level she went 5 consecutive years whereas utilizing the identical two leotards for her appearances in non-team occasions.
However most significantly, she’s a type of athletes who seems to like the game greater than anybody, which makes me admire her as an athlete. How else do you clarify a gymnast who continues to stay round regardless of being relegated to the bottom tier of the Russian nationwide program? The athletes with true coronary heart are those I really like following probably the most and Yulia Biryulya actually qualifies.
Throughout the 2023 Russian Championships a video of Yulia Biryulya’s medal profitable vault achieved 6K views on Twitter. Whereas that hardly registers as going viral, for a gymnast like Yulia she hadn’t actually seen such consideration like that earlier than. The commentary was overwhelmingly constructive with followers arguing she had been underscored. For as soon as, followers had been beginning to take discover of her even when it was only a tiny little bit of recognition. After giving the game her full dedication for 12 years, this type of consideration was lengthy overdue.
