Skip to main content

Melnikova speaks about healthy eating

On her Instagram account :  


‘I have always reacted sharply to certain kinds of prohibitions, for example, food prohibitions.


Many coaches keep track of the girls, who ate what and how much, although, it seems to me, these are already relics of the past, but still there is a lot of this left now.


I was always OK. The coach even often fed me. He would bring bananas, then he would give me berries, then he would give me chocolate, knowing that I had a sweet tooth. I am always asked to this day, “Have you eaten?”


Therefore, there have never had eating disorders or other psychological problems related to weight.


I never liked prohibitions because I thought


“Damn, I’m here because I chose this, because I want to, because I’m conscientious about my work.  I want to achieve something, so I work here and try.”


Why force me into strict rules that really prevent me from reaching the top, growing as a person and as an athlete, demanding the almost impossible from me, instead of asking “what do you need in order to do this?”


In short, a paradox


And there were always just two questions in my head: “WHAT IS THIS AND WHY IS THIS?” ‘


Queen Elizabeth : This is clearly a kickback to Valentina Rodienenko’s statement yesterday.  Melnikova has been outspoken in her opinions on coach-gymnast relationships, expressing the importance of the athlete’s agency and self determination.  She is the first actively competing gymnast in Russia to challenge some of the ‘traditional’ approaches to sports coaching that gradually being overturned globally.  


It’s great to hear her speak out in such a positive way.  

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

‘My daughter likes gymnastics. For us, this is the big success’. Aliya Mustafina talks to Match TV

Via VK.com.  Google translate A big interview with Aliya Mustafina was published on MATCH!. We provide a small excerpt below, and the full version is available on the website at the link below  ❓ Aliya, you are now the head coach of the junior artistic gymnastics team. What does your typical day look like? 💜 My current life is similar to what it was when I was competing. In the morning, I have breakfast and go to work by 9:00, we train for four hours, have lunch, rest and train for another three hours. During the training camp, the athletes live at the base. They live and train on the same territory. ❓ Do you manage the gymnasts' personal trainers or do you evenly distribute the responsibilities? 💜 We work in contact with the personal trainers, I listen to their opinions. For example, if the trainer believes that their athlete needs to be given a little rest or do fewer repetitions of a particular exercise, we do so. ❓ Describe the current generation of children. Do they nee...

Alexander Alexandrov in his own words 1 - A Difficult Decision

Alexander Alexandrov with his daughter, Isa, at the statue of Christ the Redeemer, Rio.  (c) Alexander Alexandrov Russian coach Alexander Alexandrov has been prominent in the sport since 1983, when he came to the public eye as coach of the brilliant Dmitri Bilozerchev.  He has over thirty years’ experience of coaching World and Olympic Champions both in the country of his birth and in his adopted home, Houston, USA.  In his most recent position as Head Coach of the national women's artistic gymnastics (WAG) team for Russia, he quite simply resurrected his country’s gymnastics programme, re-establishing his team at the very top of the sport.  Prior to Alexandrov’s appointment, at the 2008 Olympics, Russian WAG had walked away empty handed, without medals.  At last year’s London Olympics, artistic gymnastics was one of Russia’s most successful sports.  Alexandrov’s Russia won the most gymnastics medals of any country competing, and his athlete Al...

Fact or fiction? The press, gymnastics and pregnancy doping

It was a Sunday morning.  I was drinking my coffee and contemplating the day ahead - a workout at the gym, shopping for groceries, an evening reading a book, or catching up on last night's episodes of crime thriller The Bridge .  How nice it was not to have to think about work for a day. Then I saw it - a story about the history of doping in The Observer .  Interesting reading. Of course, cheating is as old as the hills.  It is, unfortunately, human nature for some people to try to gain easy advantage in any kind of competition.  That is why we have laws, rules, ethical guidelines.  People who cheat should face justice and shouldn't complain when they are found out. But the story about pregnancy doping bothered me.  Hadn't that been found to be fictional?  The author began with Olga Kovalenko's allegations made in 1994 - but the rumours had started way back in 1991 with the documentary series More Than A Game .  The practice...

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more