Thanks Coach! Monette Russo to Mikhail Barabach
Issue: Volume 28 Number 3
At just 17 years of age she has been called the ‘venerable elder’ of Australian women’s gymnastics, but in three short years, Monette Russo’s transition from promising junior to outstanding senior has been overseen by another ‘venerable elder’ of gymnastics — her coach, Mikhail Barabach.
The 50-year-old Russian and the then 12-year-old Russo first met in 2000 when Barabach ‘wandered into our high performance centre in Victoria to have a look around,’ Russo says. Barabach, himself a gymnast and the former National Coach for USSR Gymnastics, had previously had a hand in coaching Elena Grudneva of the USSR to a gold medal at the Barcelona Olympics. He moved to Australia in 1996 to take up a position with the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS).
Russo says she was aware of Barabach’s background as an AIS coach and found him, on their first meeting, to be ‘very nice, but quite quiet’.
Much of that may have been due to the language barrier, which Russo found difficult during their first sessions, ‘but Misha is getting a lot better,’ she says. ‘He’s going to English language school now. His favourite saying is “throw another shrimp on the barbie”, and it makes me laugh to hear it in his Russian accent.’
Nowadays, Russo says she is delighted that Barabach’s English is improving, although she does occasionally become frustrated with his constant talking while she practises her apparatus routines.
‘Sometimes you just want quiet so you can concentrate, but he’s always talking at you while you’re doing your routines, commenting on your landing or your position,’ she laughs.
For a gymnast, the move from junior to senior athlete is often a tough one. It requires athletes to learn new and often more complex skill sets, face the pressures of the Olympic Games and World Championships, and deal with the onset of puberty. It can also bring about positive changes in the relationships with those closest to the athlete.
For Russo, the transition brought about a new level of respect between herself and her coach.
She developed even more enthusiasm and excitement for the new level of competition now open to her, while Barabach harnessed her energy and helped guide her towards being a more self-reflective athlete.
The approach paid dividends.
In her first month of competition as a senior, Russo won gold on beam at the 2003 Australian titles and bronze medals on the vault and bars.
She went on to make her international debut at the World Championships in Anaheim, United States, at the age of 14 and became part of a team that made Australian gymnastics history.
The team finished in the bronze medal position and Russo became the first Australian woman to qualify for a world balance beam final. She was also the top Australian to finish in the all-around final, where she placed 12th.
Much of her success Russo attributes to her detailed preparation under Barabach. She says she relied ‘heavily on him’ in that first year of senior competition. ‘Becoming a senior and with everything going on it was difficult,’ she recalls. ‘But Misha was always saying, “you can do it, you need to believe in yourself”. He really wanted me to get more confident but also to keep enjoying it.’
Her success in 2003 meant many in the Australian gymnastics community had high hopes for Russo’s performance at the Athens Olympics the following year.
Her results in competition in the lead-up to the Olympics supported those hopes. She finished well at an Olympic Test event but injured her knee at the following Pacific Alliance Championships in Hawaii and had to withdraw.
It was the start of a rollercoaster preparation in the lead-up to the Olympics. Russo recovered sufficiently to win a place on the Australian team for Athens, but during her Olympics campaign, she suffered a stress fracture to her shin.
Injuries, she says, are something a gymnast always has to contend with. ‘Misha was very supportive. He understood what I was going through. When I hurt my knee [at the Pacific Alliance Championships] he helped modify my program. He believes in making sure your basics are good and strong as you work your way back to the top.’
Russo worked through the pain at Athens, helping the team to qualify for the final in eighth place. She also qualified for the all-around final but her injury forced her to withdraw from the competition. The team finished in eighth place.
She says after the competition, Barabach pulled her aside. ‘He said, “I’m really proud of you”, and that meant a lot.’
Russo says it is important that their relationship is one of trust and support … after all, she sees more of Barabach than she does of her own family. ‘We train 33 hours a week, every day except Sunday,’ she says. ‘We start from 7.00 am and go until 10.30 am and do strength work and flexibility and then routines on different apparatus and then we break and come back from 3.30 pm until 6.00 pm and again do apparatus.’
Since Athens, Russo has won her first Australian National Senior all-around title, several medals at an Australia v Ukraine international meet and the all-around competition and bronze on bars at the Australia versus China international in Canberra in July this year.
She will spend the rest of the year preparing for the World Championships in her hometown of Melbourne in November, followed by the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in March next year.
She hopes to upgrade her routines with Barabach’s help. ‘He’s very good with fine detail so hopefully that will help. He’s a fantastic coach.’
Barabach may also inspire Russo to go into coaching when she retires, but she says that will not be for a few years yet.
‘I probably would try coaching. It’s something that does interest me.’
She says what she has learned from Barabach, she takes with her into her ‘regular’ life.
‘Misha’s taught me a lot that helps me outside gymnastics too … things like confidence and discipline and that sort of thing.
‘I’m really glad that he’s my coach.’
