Skip to main content

Ksenia Afanasyeva - confidence, errors and support



Lupita translates this Kirov.net interview with the Russian women's team captain Ksenia Afanasyeva.  The twice Olympian discusses here the mistakes made in the team final, and how she has supported her young and talented team through all the excitement - and challenge - of an Olympic Games.








Ksenia, as the most experienced gymnast in our team did you give support to the other girls? 
Yes, I tried to help all the girls and I think I achieved that. But I won’t tell you how I did it (it’s a secret). [Laughs] In fact, I gave them support. If I saw that someone was becoming very emotional, I calmed her down.
Landing on your knees was an accident?
It’s lack of work and a mistake from my part.
"I think, I speeded up and didn’t do what was planned.  It’s not even a technical error.  I didn’t wait and breathe out; I decided to start without a pause."
You’re the only one who didn’t cry. Is your nervous system stronger?
No, you didn’t see me. I’m also a human being and I suffer. I may be more experienced than the other girls. In Beijing I went through a much more difficult situation. I came back home with no medal. Now we won a medal, though not the one we wanted to win.
Do you think that today it was possible to beat the Americans?
Of course, it was. We could have fought till the end. We surrendered too early. Nastia made mistakes; I made mistakes, and all this accumulated.
Were you very nervous during the competition?
It may sound strange, but I felt less nervous than in the rest of the competition. I feel nervous in general.  Now, I felt less nervous, perhaps because we were performing as a team, all together. The coaches gave us support and there we a huge delegation to support us. This made things easier.
Who needed more support: Мustafina or Komova?
Both are strong, psychologically and physically.  Perhaps, after her injury, Aliya is now less strong physically than Vika. 
Did you have the impression that Mustafina fell off the beam because she was scared?
I don’t think she was scared. Anything is possible! She may have felt that something was not OK and decided to make a pause, to think. It’s very difficult to explain.
How are you going to celebrate the silver medal in the Olympic Village?
"We’ll arrive there, we’ll laugh together, call our parents, our friends and go to bed."
Do you pay attention to the venue or are you so concentrated on the result that you don’t see anything around?
When I was not going to perform, of course I paid attention to the audience. We got good support. But later, when I was ready to perform on an event, I was left with the apparatus.
We thank Megaphone for their help in the organisation of the interview.

Comments

  1. I really felt for, I have no understanding of the scores yet but I thought it was a really great floor performance, perfect, then at the very end that fall. It looked so painful on the feet and knees but she got up. I luv how these Russians all console each other too, they look like the best of friends.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Really nice interview. Thanks for the translation Lupita.

    I felt for them. They made some mistakes but it's nice that they won a medal. They can recharge and whoever is staying in gymnastics can prepare for the next big event.

    For now, they can celebrate their accomplishments.

    Still 3 more individual finals to go. Good luck to them.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I really felt sorry for her, her performance was so GOOD right at the very end with that fall.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Svetlana Boginskaya: I was always a bitch* in gymnastics

Svetlana Boginskaya, 15 years old, with her medals from the Seoul Olympics Nico translates the latest interview with gymnastics legend Svetlana Boginskaya, during a recent visit to her home country of Belarus. Svetlana Boginskaya: I was always a bitch* in gymnastics, so now I ask for forgiveness from everyone who came in contact with me. The National Olympic Committee of Belarus held a press conference with three-time Olympic Champion in artistic gymnastics, Svetlana Boginskaya. The meeting was devoted to the 25th anniversary of the Olympic Games in Seoul. In South Korea the Belarussian won two gold medals in the team competition and vault. As a gift to the Olympic Hall of fame, the famous gymnast, now living in the United States, donated one of her trophies that she won at the 1990 European Championships and a pennant for Best Female Athlete of the USSR in 1989. How happy we were when we could share with such stars as Boginskaya, Scherbo, and Ivankov,...

Mustafina Interview 2 of 2 : 'I will only perform under the Russian flag'

Argumentyi i Fakti interview with Aliya Mustafina Translated by Marina Vulis ‘I have no fear’, says Aliya Mustafina.   ‘My father [Farhat Mustafin, the bronze medallist in Greco-Roman wrestling at the 1976 Olympics] took me to my first gymnastics class.   In his opinion children need to do sports, and he saw gymnastics as useful for my general development.   He had no goals – just to let us practice.’ It did not end with ‘just practice’ – she became the World Champion at 16, but then had an ACL injury the next year (2011) at the Europeans.   Even just returning to gymnastics is a feat; then she came back to win four medals at the 2012 Olympics. Aliya Mustafina – That injury.   I do not know why I was ashamed – so many people were watching me and I could not even walk.   My parents!   They saw everything on TV (the coach had to carry her from the podium).   Of course I was aware that anything could happen in gymnastics, but I di...

Marinov planning a partial comeback at the Russian champs

 🎤 "Plans for August: work, work, and work some more!" — Daniil Marinov on the training camp in Sirius, summer, and preparation for the Russian Championship ❓ How productive was your time at the training camp in Sirius? "Personally, I viewed this training camp not only as a recovery camp, but also as a preparatory one. My teammates had just recently returned from competitions, and yes, they needed a rest. But I, on the contrary, needed to start working hard, because there wasn't much time left before the Russian Championship. At the training camp in Sirius, I was able to work hard, and at the same time swim in the sea, change the scenery. I'm glad I went with the whole team!" ❓ Did you manage to regain your physical fitness after shoulder surgery? "More or less, yes. I remembered many elements from my routine. But I still continue to treat and pump up my shoulder, in parallel with getting into shape." ❓ Are you already working on all the apparatus...

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more