Plans for the Olympics, the family cat, how Aliya managed her nerves in 2012 and much more - translation on Liubov's blog
Picture credit RGF Aliya speaks in Sports Express http://news.sport-express.ru/2014-05-18/699607 I am very pleased with my performance today, I don't know what the judges didn't like about my bars, but I didn't ask them ... I did my routine fairly well without serious error. On beam I didn't have the start value but I received the highest execution score. We will try to fix that before the World Championships. Considering the problems I had with my ankle, I think I performed to the optimum at the moment. I did everything I could. I'm not the least bit sorry that I performed here - Very glad that I could help the team. I think my presence made things easier for the girls. It is very difficult to compete at such serious senior competitions for the first time. Of course they were very worried. But I'm sure that with time they will learn to cope easily with their nerves (smiles).
Aliya handles it graciously, but I wish Russian sport journalists would stop going on about Simone and the ADHD medication all the time. It's mean-spirited and unsportsmanlike, like when American sport journalists used to constantly prod about Chinese gymnasts possibly being underage.
ReplyDeleteI feel like the the mental state that helps Aliya compete so well comes across in interviews. She talks about gymnastics in a similar way to Kohei Uchimura, interestingly.