Lupita translates a Sovietski Sport interview with newly adopted Russian MAG team member, former Ukraine Olympian, Nikolai (Mykola) Kuksenkov.
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| Nikolai Kuksenkov and his sister, journalist Irina. Courtesy of Sovietski Sport |
KUKSENKOV INTERVIEWED BY HIS SISTER JOURNALIST IRINA KUKSENKOVA
A STOLEN MEDAL
– Tell me, Kolya, when did you first ever think about going to live in
Russia?
– Irina, it was a long time ago, when we were living in Belgium, where Dad was
the national team’s coach. You entered the Journalism School in Moscow
University and I thought it would be nice to go to Russia. I was still a kid and
I went back to Kiev with our parents. Later I was seriously injured before the
Beijing Olympics, I had surgery and a long recovery. You remember, I came to
see you in Moscow, we went to different specialists. I didn't know if I would come
back to elite sport. The doctors didn’t give a very promising prognosis. At the
end, I watched the Olympics on TV. Аnd I lived for the following four years thinking of London.
– Before London, a new injury...
– I tore my foot joints when I was practising tumbling. The doctors questioned
my participation at the Olympics, at least in vault and floor. It’s difficult
to express that situation. I decided to recover and compete on pommel horse. I
couldn’t miss a second Olympics.
When we arrived to
London, Dad didn’t know if I would compete in the All Around or only on four
events. We decided to remove difficulty and to try to make the All Around.
I worked for the team on
the first day. We put on an excellent performance. Then came a scandal, that
had never happened in the history of gymnastics – we were stolen our medal was stolen.
– What did you feel when you heard that the bronze medal was going to the
Japanese team?
– You never forget this kind of thing. Injustice! I think I was in a kind of
fog. We finished the competition in third position and the bronze medal. TV
showed a table, where the Ukraine was third. Once the competition finished, the
Japanese, decided, without respecting the rules, that the Ukrainian team had to
fall off the podium.
The Japanese submitted
their protest when the delay was over. Had the protest been submitted by any
other country, it wouldn’t have been filed. A Japanese gymnast fell, hit his
head on the pommel horse, yet that dismount counted for him. It’s ridiculous. Everyone
who understands gymnastics was sincerely sorry for us. Who needs a sport where
a good performance is not necessary, where you have to ask properly?
–Whom?
– In London I understood that sport is also politics and business. I thought
that I would never compete again. Yet I overcame those feelings. And I decided
to compete again.
– Did you compete in the all around throwing in the towel?
– I was in physical pain. I concentrated and did what I could. I came fourth,
again off podium. In London I realized I had to change something. I thought
again of moving to Russia.
A NEW PASSPORT
– You always expressed your uneasiness when your father was the national
team’s head coach...
– Sometimes you don’t have the feeling he’s simply your father. By the way, Dad
said he respected my decision. It’s true that he has now problems in the
Ukraine…
– Who’s now your coach?
–Igor Kalabushkin, in Vladimir. He is an excellent specialist and a good person.
Psychologically we fit one another. I like his sense of humour. I enjoy going to
the gym to train with him. Kalabushkin was a coach to the late Yuri Riazanov. We
were very good friends...
– Аnd why precisely Vladimir?
– Vitali Ivanchuk, director of the Vladimir School, had made this proposal to me
some time ago. He invited both my father and me. I accepted, but Dad decided to
stay.
– When will you show me the Russian passport?
–The Minister of Sport Vitali Mutko has already sent a letter to Putin about my
documents. I’ve been told that I’ll get my passport in February.
– You probably know that in the Ukraine some people say you are a traitor?
– These people say so because they don’t know the situation of Ukrainian
gymnastics. I had to pay for my surgery. They didn’t allocate funds for the
national team. When you give everything, including your health, this is
unbearable!
– Is it different in Russia?
– It’s like night and day! I spent three weeks at Ozero Krugloye [Round Lake, the Russian National Training Centre] and felt the
difference. Everything is done for the athletes; you only have to train. A
beautiful gym, numerous specialists, a special coach for pommel horse or high
bar.
– How did your new teammates welcome you?
– Very well, I have known them for a long time. We spend three weeks at
Krugloye. Then everyone goes home for a week. I go to Vladimir.
- Which are your next competitions?
- The Russian championship is going to take place in Penza in March. Then in April in Moscow the European Championships. I wish I stay healthy and I can fight for a medal.
– You are being compared to Gérard Depardieu, who gave back French
citizenship and took Russian...
– Of course, it’s pleasant, but it’s not a correct comparison. I’m Russian! You
know that, contrary to Depardieu, we have roots in Russia. Dad is from the
Moscow region; Mum is from Bashkiria. In the Soviet period people worked in
different places in a huge country. After the dismantlement of the Soviet
Union, not everyone came back home. I felt Russian all my life.
– I remember that you wrote Putin a letter, when you were a kid and we were
living in Belgium. Мum has kept it. Now we laugh when we read it.
– At my Belgian school, the teacher told us about Moscow: misery, deprivation,
abandoned children. I stood up and said that it was not true. Unlike the
teacher, I had been in Russia, and had never seen this. Belgian kids humiliated us Russians constantly. I hit a boy and I had to go to the headmaster’s office.
I came back home humiliated. I wrote a letter to Vladimir Putin, who had just
become the Russian president. In my letter I explained how the Russians were
perceived in Belgium.
– Don’t you have the impression that this letter from your childhood
reached the President?
– And as an answer I’ll soon receive my Russian passport? Yes, probably. On my
passport they won’t write Mikola, but Nikolai as my parents called me. Here you
have a subject you can dwell upon!
Nikolai Kuksenkov was born in June 1989 in Kiev.
As a member of the
Ukrainian team: European Junior Champion. Third in the European Championships
(2011). Winner of the Universiade (2011). Winner of stages of the World Cup. Fourth
in the AA at the London Olympics (2012).
At the end of 2012, got
the Russian citizenship and will perform for the Russian team.
Nice interview by his sister..Love the guy he is good gymnast,his former Ukrainian team nearly got Bronze in London.I watched on TV and it was painful to watch as those minutes of uncertainty of 3rd place were being disputed by Japan,I can't imaging how painful was for em,and how on earth they didn't get that bronze I though the time to submit the protest was already too late,I remembered something similar happened in a WAG WC the judge rejected the protest because of the timing.Anyway,it is a shame that Ukraine can't keep him but I think he made the right decision
ReplyDeleteI love the DEPARDIEU part of interview.
"Once the competition finished, the Japanese, decided, without respecting the rules, that the Ukrainian team had to fall off the podium.". I am very sorry that this is how he perceives things. I don't think the Japanese team had any personal issue with the Ukraine being on the podium. They wanted to fight for a place on the podium for themselves. If they did not submit their appeal on time, it was up to the judges to refuse it. And let's not forget that this appeal also pushed the host nation's team (the UK) down from silver to bronze position. This appeal was not a move against the Ukraine. Nevertheless, I understand Nikolai's bitterness. I hope he wins a medal soon to soothe his disappointing experience in London.
ReplyDeleteYou must remember that under similar circumstances at the 2004 Olympic Games a Korean official tried to lodge an appeal against a mark that saw his gymnast relegated from Gold to Bronze medal position, with an American gymnast (Paul Hamm) erroneously placed first. On that occasion the appeal was rejected as out of time even though the official concerned had been wrongly advised by judges on the timing requirements. A powerful, monied Federation won out because of strict application of the rules - the same rule that was stretched in the favour of Japan in London 2012, says Kuksenkov. In both cases, powerful, monied federations won out over less influential countries (Korea/USA, Ukraine/Japan).
DeleteYou are right that the judges should have enforced the rules fairly, and if they did not, Kuksenkov has a legitimate gripe, regardless of how he expresses that gripe. The judges got it wrong (on two counts: timing and D score). This is cold comfort if you are the one who loses out.
I too hope that Kuksenkov, and the Russian team, can secure some gold in the coming four years. I also hope that Ukraine can rescue its floundering sports system.
And that the FIG, and its judges, can find a way to make their judgements transparent and fair, so that athletes like Kuksenkov and his colleagues do not have to feel that they have been unfairly treated.
You are right,it is sad so sad that those things continue to happen in front of everybody eyes and there you are the powerful federations continue to have this kind of influence on judge and they are powerless to do something.I guess this federations contribute a lot to the FIG as you mentioned and that explained it all.
DeleteThank you for your reply Queen Elizabeth, however I have to disagree on the powerful/weak, rich/poor federation antagonism you give as a reason for the acceptance of the appeal. The UK is a monied powerful federation and they were competing at home. So this argument doesn't hold. Well, that's just my opinion. Just as I believe that the D score was fairly granted (though outside the time delay allowed). Again, that's my opinion.
DeleteI wish to say once more that I understand how Nikolai feels. But if he chooses to turn things around to believe that it was all personal and that there was a plot against the Ukraine, I don't see how he can ever overcome his resentment.
But Britain were not the primary winners or losers in this situation, just placing was a great achievement for them.
DeleteI do agree with the gist of what you say in your original post, I just think it is rather unfortunate to emphasise that Kuksenkov lays the responsibility at the doors of the Japanese rather than the judges. To an extent that detracts from the thrust of Kuksenkov's interview, that the judges had made a serious error.
I remember that Korean incidence! Plus Nemov!! I thought I would never see that kind of injustice for a while. How wrong was I.
DeleteHopefully Nikolai doesn't become the next Pavlova. I love the Ukrainian gymnasts ' style. I wish all the best for the rest of the team, including the two Oleks.