The Russian Gymnastics Federation has kindly provided an English translation of a brief interview with Alexander Alexandrov, taken from the latest issue of Gymnastika. He discusses the character of Aliya Mustafina in particular.
I'll copy what he says here :
I'll copy what he says here :
'All six of our winners are very individual athletes. They are still children really and have their own difficult personalities. Aliya is a bit sly, she already knows everything about herself…she is a difficult girl. She is very talented in some thing, but she has her problems. And that's normal – champions are never accommodating.
The path hasn't been smooth. Yes, she was the leader among the juniors, but then things started getting complicated. When we met, we had to do a lot of talking. Not convincing, but real talking. Openly talking and laying it all out. I had to explain: you had results and you have good routines, but you are being easy on yourself – and you've put so much work in…
And bit by bit she began to understand that she had to go forward and trust us. Then we went to Russian championships in Bryansk and when she won, she got excited. I can't say everything has been easy after that; no, its been hard. And there have been tears and arguments…But we found common ground and began talking to each other like adults.
And it won't be smooth going forward, either. A week off in Italy and then holiday…It's hard to get back into it. So, we have to talk again. Well, what can you do?
Aliya's most important trait is her reliability. She knows how to pull herself together in meets. She can even cry the day before over not having any strength, and everything going wrong. But she goes out to compete and she really knows how to give it everything! Well, you've already seen that.
From the official magazine of the Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation GIMNASTIKA
2010 issue 4, page 21.'
Thanks very much to the Russian Gymnastics Federation for bothering to do these translations - it is very much appreciated by us fans!
I thought the gymnastics coaching blog's "Train your dragon" post would link to this article (it doesn't actually).
ReplyDeleteThanks Lyudmilla ;-))
ReplyDeleteIn case anyone wonders what this is about, here is the link : http://gymnasticscoaching.com/new/2011/02/train-your-dragon/
Enjoy!