Jevgēņijs Saproņenko & Igors Vihrovs

I have done Latvia a great disservice and it's time to make that country's name a little bit bigger in the word cloud.  Sadly, I cannot find much on Latvian gymnasts!  Why must it be so?  Even the scant information is worth something, so I am going to redirect you to two contemporary gymnasts of Latvia.

Albert Azarian

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Albert Azarian is a Armenian gymnast from the days of Soviet yore.  I sought an Armenian gymnast, but all I came up with was Azarian.  His heyday was in the 1950s and 60s, which was quite a different scene from the gymnastics today.  This video is about the uneven bars, but you get the gist that gymnastics has evolved a lot in 50 years.  This video below starts off with the Azarian cross, which I have personally never seen performed in a rings routine.  He was known as the "king of the rings" and he gave it some real style and panache.  Plus, I think the mustache didn't hurt one bit. 

Marius Urzică

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Romania has a legendary male gymnast named Marius Urzică.  He is an undisputed master of the pommel horse (part of the reason I like him so much).  If you don't believe me, then believe this: he has a move on the pommel horse named after him.  He even has an eponymous move on parallel bars, which this routine showcases.  Does that get confusing for gymnasts?  Marius was also in the 1996, 2000, and 2004 Olympics.  All the golds and silvers he won were on pommel horse, which should come as no surprise. 

Alexei Nemov

I've been pretty good about leaving Russia out of this blog.  I feel that information on Russia is far easier to find than countries like Macedonia, so I've tried to focus more on the smaller and less well known countries.  But today I feel like honoring Russia by having one of their own be the start of my Male Gymnasts week.

Monday Book Review!

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Monday Book Review is back!  Today's reviewed book differs from the rest: it's fiction.  Édes Anna by Kosztolányi Dezső is a famous Hungarian novel and one I read during my last few weeks in Budapest this summer.  I had a great desire to read in Hungarian, but since I could barely handle grocery shopping with ease, I had to compromise with a piece of Hungarian literature.  For those unfamiliar with Hungarian, I need to explain that names are written with the family name first and first name second.  The title of the book in English translations is Anna Édes by Desző Kosztolányi.  The one I read was published by New Directions and translated by George Szirtes