Skip to main content

Natalia Kapitonova - personal travelogue to Rio

By

Natalia, seen left here in this personal picture with team mates Angelina Melnikova and Maria Paseka, is a relative newcomer to the senior national team, but not its youngest member - having turned 16 in May (Angelina only celebrated her 16th birthday a few days ago).  She is Russian Cup champion on the uneven bars - and strong enough in the all around to provide a good back up, as first reserve, if back up is needed.

The famous gym club in Penza - home to 2014 World floor champion Denis Ablyazin - is where Natalia has trained since childhood under the direction of the Starkin family - who also direct the training of Russian team captain, Aliya Mustafina.  Despite her relative lack of experience internationally, Natalia has shown herself to be a steady and optimistic team mate.  

The flight to Brazil - over 12 hours - was the longest of her life.  At first she slept, but she also read, watched movies and listened to music.  She says that the team weren't too worried about whether they would be allowed to compete; they felt reasonably confident about the IOC decision.

'I can hardly believe that I am in Rio!' said Natalia to local newspaper Penza Sight.  Everything has happened very quickly.


Natalia is sharing a room with Evgenia Shelgunova, and the two reserves are housed in a separate accommodation bloc to the main team.  They haven't had a chance yet to see much of Rio - just the gym, the supermarket and their hotel.  The main thing now is to stay in good form for the Games - no time for much rest.


Source - http://penzavzglyad.ru/news/11419/natalya-kapitonova-do-sih-kazhetsya-chto-ya-ne-v-rio-de-zhaneyro

Please visit RRG's Facebook page for more pictures of the team in Rio, and follow my Twitter feed (RussianGymnast) for quick updates.  With thanks to the Gymnastics group page on vk.com.

Labels:

Comments

  1. Anonymous27 July 2016 at 09:54

    Valentina says that FIG has questions about Kapitonova, coz she doesn't suits IOC criterium and they may disqualify her from Rio Olympics :/ Also Paseka has now a back injury and only on 3 august doctors will decide will she compete in Rio at all ;( Rodionenko says that they also need to lose some dif for Melnikova coz her injury((( PS Russia why!?( http://tass.ru/sport/3489095

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Svetlana Boginskaya: I was always a bitch* in gymnastics

By
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,...
14 comments
Read more

‘I was worried about how I would be received’ - Angelina Melnikova

By
Highlights of an interview with Angelina Melnikova, three days after her appearance in Paris, via Vk.com.  She departs for the Russian Championships in ten days.   Sport24 correspondent Anastasia Loginova contacted Angelina and asked her about everything that happened in Paris.  ❓When did you find out you were going to Paris? 💬Just before my vacation in China, around July 25th. I was told there was a stage and I should go. At first, I was very hesitant, because I wanted to focus on the Russian Championships and the World Championships qualifiers. It turned out that I was selected for the Paris trip. Initially, we wanted to focus on a few apparatuses, but then we decided we needed to do the all-around as one of the stages of preparation for the Russian Championships. ❓At what point did you realize what was happening wasn't a dream, but reality? When did this realization dawn on you? 💬Probably when I went to the airport. I realized that everything had finally come togethe...
Post a Comment
Read more

Does Russia need Mustafina in Glasgow? Vaitsekhovskaya adds her voice

By
'Should Mustafina compete in Glasgow, considering her fragile state of health? - aren't the Olympics more important?' are the key themes of this brief news piece by Elena Vaitsekhovskaya, a top sports journalist who has interviewed Alexandrov, Arkayev, Starkin, Mustafina and Rodionenko in the last five years since Aliya won the World Championships. Elena stresses that this year nothing unusual has happened.  Aliya has worked hard with her new coach Sergei Starkin.  She did a 'great job', demonstrating her work at the European Games in Baku where she won the all around, bars and team events as well as silver in the floor exercise. But, says Vaitsekhovskaya, more important than the medals was the fact that Aliya showed a new technical level, began work on upgrades for the Rio Olympics.  Just competing in one event - the Baku games - could be enough for a veteran athlete of Mustafina's experience.  The body ages in both time - and injuries.  Athletes always respond...
26 comments
Read more

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more