Valentina Rodionenko: Now the focus is the personal coach

Lupita translates a brand new interview with Russian head coach, Valentina Rodionenko.  This is taken from the Ministry of Sport website.

February 8^th 2013

For summer sports a new Olympic quad has started. If generally, after the Olympics, the best athletes can relax a little bit, important competitions are on the Russian gymnastics team’s agenda. Valentina Rodionenko, head coach of the Russian team, told the RTSP-Press correspondents about the changes in gymnastics and the challenges ahead for the team.

-        What is specific to this post-Olympic season?

-        The beginning of a new Olympic quad is always a slowdown time. It’s a good moment to include new athletes into the team. This is what happens in all countries and in our country. Yet, at this year’s European championships our best gymnasts will perform because the competition will be held in Russia. Mustafina, Afanasyeva and other leaders are training for the European Championships. We want young Shelgunova to join them. It’s important to test the young gymnasts at big competitions. Grishina lacked experience at the Olympics and failed to perform well. She said she didn’t know what she was doing. Still, she had won a few minor competitions and she was ready physically.

-        Is Shelgunova a strong gymnast?

-        Evgenia Shelgunova was a member of the junior team. She won the European Junior Championships. We hope that she can compete against our best gymnasts.

-        Who will compete at the Universiade in Kazan?

-        At the Universiade our best team will compete. We haven’t decided yet, but Mustafina, Afanasyeva, Nabieva, Paseka, Kramarenko, Dementieva are training for the Universiade. Our aim is to win the team competition.

-        What is the aim of our men’s team?

-        Our men’s team is very good and ambitious. But it will be very difficult for them to win at the Universiade. The Japanese and the Chinese will send strong teams. But our men will fight. They are already training as if they had to compete tomorrow. The team has very strong gymnasts.

The situation is better for the reserve team than among the girls. In men’s gymnastics there are eight strong teams. Any of them can compete for the podium at the Olympics. In women’s gymnastics there are only four elite teams.

-        Are you happy with Nikolai Kuksenkov’s arrival to the team?

-        Nikolai works very seriously. He has joined the team and is like one of the other gymnasts. For us it’s important to cover two of our weak events – high bar and pommel horse. We are waiting for the resolution of his nationality. If he gets it, we hope that he can compete for Russia at the European Championships.

-        Which conclusions did you draw after the Olympics? Which mistakes do you want to avoid in the new quad?

-          We drew the indispensable conclusions. The best Russian coaches came back from abroad and they changed the working system. We now focus on personal coaches. We want them to work as they wish to work.  Everything depends on the personal coaches and we have to help them.

-          Which novelties await gymnasts this year?

-          At the European championships they will perform with a new and more difficult programme. The CoP has changed. Now more attention will be paid to artistry and to good execution. In this aspect the Russian team is strong, but in acrobatics the new rules make things difficult for us as we lack the power the Americans have. How will we win? We’ll combine excellent execution and difficulty.

-        The Rio Olympics are still far away from now, but can we define the members of the team?

-        The core of the team will be the same. All the gymnasts are still very young. In four years they’ll have more experience. I think that only two or three new gymnasts will join the team.

-        What is more important to be successful – talent or work?

-        Work comes first, I’m fully convinced. We have had many talent girls who were not ready to work hard. And we had medium girls who thanks to their hard work reached such results that talented girls could never have dreamed of.  No talented lazy girl will ever reach good results. Mustafina is a talent. She possesses an excellent combination of talent and the capacity not to train a lot but to reach results. Тhis doesn’t happen often. She is very gifted. She has such character that she cannot train, compete and perform her routine better than if she had trained. At the Olympics Aliya proved her character and her talent. She was not better prepared than the rest, but she performed an impeccable bar routine.