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“In China they say: if you are Russian, you are our friend.” Gymnast Paseka trained the top team for a year, but returned
Maria Paseka is the face of our gymnastics of the last decade. In 2012 and 2016, she won a total of 4 Olympic medals (two each in the team and in the vault).
She performed the most difficult jumps and was an important element of the team medal.
Paseka’s last start at the World Championships was in 2019, when she was already 24. She could have continued to compete, but the pandemic hit. But it was no longer possible to return after a long break.
Last year, Paseka surprised me: she left to work as a coach for the Chinese national team. In the talk show they called her a traitor, but a year later Maria returned.
“The Chinese didn’t accept us at first.” How did Paseka make Chinese coaches believe in her methodology?
“A year ago, an acquaintance called me,” Paseka said. “I was at a time in my life when I really needed money. He said that there is a job in China, a contract for a year, they pay very well.
- How good?
– According to the contract, I cannot name the amount for five years. But I will say that a gymnastics coach in Moscow will never earn so much in his life.
– Did you even understand what kind of work it would be?
- At first, no. Then they explained to me that we were talking about the Chinese national team. I was a little freaked out, because in Russia at that time I was working in a commercial club with kids. I didn’t even practice sports with them, but developmental gymnastics. The children came to me for an hour, jumped up, as we say, and left. Initially, I just wanted to try: can I even work as a coach or not?
But I quickly realized that working in commerce for a professional athlete is thankless. Nobody was particularly interested in the result there; it’s difficult to come to terms with this. Several times, if I saw a talented child, I advised parents to send him to real sports, but then it’s still their decision.
And then they offer me the Chinese national team! There was an urgent need to leave; there was no time to think. But this is for the better: after the divorce, I needed to find my feet again. And I thought that going so far, getting out of my comfort zone was what I needed
- Was it scary?
- Rather interesting. I used to look at people who moved to other countries and didn’t understand: how do they do it? And then I had a unique chance to try it. Moreover, with a guaranteed job and a return ticket home in a year. This is a colossal life experience, why not?
– Your former teammate Tatyana Nabieva went with you. How did this happen?
– The Chinese needed a second coach. Tanya and I are friends, and I thought about her. She finished her career before me, managed to work as a coach in Dagestan, and already had quite strong children. I understood that I needed someone who would support me. And I was very glad when she agreed.
– And so you came to China. Where did you live?
– At a sports base very similar to our Krugloe Lake. The room, three meals a day, the hall - everything is absolutely the same.
– What was the name of your position?
– Specialist coach of the women's team. Above us was the senior coach of the women's team, the head coach, and so on. We communicated through a translator; almost everyone there had problems with English.
At first, the Chinese did not perceive us at all. I understand them: two young girls, Masha and Tanya, arrived and began to teach them, adults who had been working for 20 years, something.
I remember the Russian team had the same situation: foreign coaches came to us before the Olympics in London, and our mentors also did not understand what they wanted from them. I think this is a normal human reaction.
At first it seemed to the Chinese that we were almost causing harm. Although I explained: “You remember us, you saw us on the platform, you understand who we are... And we show you the exercises that we ourselves did. If we succeeded, then your girls will succeed too.”
The Chinese have a hard time accepting new things. And here the element doesn’t work out the first time, well, because no one can do it the first time. You need to take 10-15 minutes a day out of your schedule, and so on for two weeks. Then the child will understand and do it!
Things took off as soon as my girl learned a two-twist jump with a rear rotor in a week. The Chinese were delighted! Then there was already a turn for me: the coaches themselves came up and asked me to work out with their athletes.
– Did you just consult? You didn’t have your own students?
– We worked in groups: I had two of my own, Tanya had her own. There were girls aged 12-21. Naturally, they had their own coaches and the head coach of the national team. But we oversaw all the preparation.
What immediately shocked me was the number of repetitions. They make them endlessly. Due to my contract, I can’t give specific examples, but believe me: in terms of endurance, they are simply crazy.
But the fact is that modern gymnastics has changed. Now working on the level without paying special attention to quality makes no sense.
– The Chinese are incredibly hard-working and obedient. Looks like it's not a myth?
- Pure truth! If the training ends conventionally at 9 pm, then no one will leave at 8:57. Or, for example, training usually lasts three hours, but Chinese women manage to do much more in these three hours than we do in Russia.
He jumped off the projectile, went to the next one without further ado, and so on. On the one hand, this is good. But on the other hand, it seems to me that time to chat or discuss something with the coach is also necessary. It’s impossible to perform insane volumes like a robot every day.
– Do they have days off?
- One day, Sunday. But this does not mean that they will lie on their beds and die from muscle pain, as we did. They still go to the gym, flex, and stretch.
– Can they leave the base on a day off? For example, take a walk, see your parents, friends?
– We could travel without restrictions. But in order for the girls to leave, they had to write a special paper, something like a vacation application. Or parents can come to their base on certain days. For example, on Chinese New Year they have no training for a week. This is probably the only such case of the year.
I also heard that during the pandemic they sat at the sports center for three years and did not see any of their relatives. I can't even imagine how hard it was.
“They gave me medicine that smelled like earth.” Apiary tried Chinese medicine
– Did you quickly begin to distinguish the Chinese from each other?
– At first I couldn’t tell the difference. You look at Chinese tourists in Moscow, and it really seems that they are all the same. Or you come to training, and all the girls are so tiny, you can’t believe that someone here is 20 years old and someone is 12.
But very quickly I felt the difference. For example, there was a girl whom Tanya and I called French among ourselves. Absolutely European appearance, she doesn’t look like a Chinese woman at all. Just as we have many nationalities in our country, the Chinese also have divisions. And then it’s even surprising: how could I confuse them, they are so different!
In general, the Chinese are amazing people. For example, I only learned there what communism is. Even the translator could not explain some moments to us, but I, for example, saw them reading together something like a communist prayer. Or take a family: no matter how bad it is, they may even separate, but they will not divorce.
– Do you think this is right?
– In our European opinion, this is strange. We just say “goodbye, we’re getting a divorce!” And there they are trying to save the family, especially if there are children. I believe that children should live in a complete family, this is right.
Social inequality in China, of course, is also present. Like us, there are very rich people, middle-income people and poor people. But the good thing is that there is a job for everyone. I have never met a homeless person in Beijing. It's even shameful to do nothing in life there. Probably like in the USSR, when there was an article for parasitism.
– Have you gotten used to Chinese cuisine in a year?
– Basically, I have always liked Asian food. But in China it is completely different, not like in Moscow cafes. At first I suffered terribly: my face was inflamed from fatty foods, my stomach hurt... And then they explained to us how to eat correctly.
Let's say they serve boiled rice with almost any dish. It is not seasoned with anything, not even salted. You need to mix the pork with this rice and do not add any additional salt. It absorbs all the heat and excess fat.
I also really liked the steamed lettuce leaves. I don’t understand how it’s done, but it’s tasty and healthy.
– Did you eat with everyone else at the sports center?
- Yes, there was a buffet there. We went to restaurants several more times with local trainers. One day we found a restaurant serving Russian cuisine in Beijing and invited them to try it. Borsch, Olivier and all that. They liked it, but said: what heavy food you have!
I realized this myself when I returned from China. Their diet is much more harmonious than in Russia.
– Apparently, Chinese gymnasts don’t have problems with excess weight?
– It’s not true, it happens to everyone. In professional sports, even 300 extra grams matter.
– Have you seen anything from Chinese medicine? Surely they have tricks for recovery from stress.
- At first glance, everything is the same as ours. There is a doctor, physiotherapists, standard rehabilitation procedures... But, of course, there are secrets. For example, when I had a rash on my face, I was given a strange liquid medicine. The smell is as if you are drinking earth. But super effective, the problem was solved very quickly.
How the girls were recovering and being treated there - Tanya and I didn’t bother at all. This was not our area of responsibility.
“I get out of the subway, look in my purse and realize that I don’t have a passport.”
– What did you manage to see in China, besides the gym?
– Mostly, we went to the mountains. There is a place there, I called it a tent: an amazing view, the mouth of a river, where the water is ankle-deep. There was something like a festival going on there, anyone could come up and sing a song. It’s cool that they don’t have complexes: it doesn’t matter what kind of voice they have or whether they have an ear for music, if they want to sing, they sing.
I liked Beijing too. Huge, diverse, in many ways similar to Moscow. You drive, for example, and realize that the street is exactly the same as Michurinsky Avenue, only everything is written in hieroglyphs.
I rode the subway there only once, with a translator. I go out, look in my purse and realize that I don’t have a passport. Well, that’s it, it’s over... And only then I remembered that I deliberately left it in the room with the thought “I’ll lose it again, it’s better to let it lie here.” I didn’t go down the subway anymore, I took a taxi.
– Do they like Russians in China?
- Crazy! That’s what they say: if you are Russian, you are our friend. They also have a fetish about blond hair and blue eyes, so on the streets everyone rushed to take pictures with me. I almost felt like Buddha.
– Have you tried learning Chinese?
- I know two hieroglyphs - “tree” and “forest”.
– Are these words somehow used in gymnastics?
– Ha ha, no, these are the simplest hieroglyphs. And so, I communicated through a translator on the phone. It was scary to try to speak on your own: they have four tones, and if you mix them up, you might end up with a swear word or even the opposite meaning.
– Were the Chinese somehow interested in the political situation? Were you and Nabieva asked questions on this topic?
– They only said that it was a pity that Russian athletes could not compete. Other friends from abroad supported me and wrote that it was boring without us. In the team with the USA, few people can fight; the Americans have Simone Biles alone...
- How do you feel about her, by the way? Senior coach Valentina Rodionenko believes that she is “scary to look at.”
“We performed together, and for me she was a huge incentive. For a long time I dreamed of winning against her, and this was only possible if she made a mistake. And according to the law of meanness, she made mistakes only when I was not at the competition!
The only time I managed to win was at the 2015 World Championships in Glasgow. And that’s because she didn’t jump her most difficult jump, but I jumped it. I won then, the girl from the DPRK was second, and Simone was third.
Personally, I have always liked Simone. Off the platform she is very cheerful and friendly. In Rio 2016, after the jump, she came up to me to congratulate me, but I’m taller than her, I didn’t even immediately notice who was poking me in the back.
Biles is a gymnast of unique talent. I don't even understand how she manages to do some things. I would like to ask: is this really a person from our planet?
Why didn't the Chinese renew the contract with the Russians?
– Were there moments throughout the year when you wanted to return home?
- Not once. On the contrary, I didn’t want to leave China. But when I got off the plane in Moscow, I realized how much I missed her. My parents, whom I hadn’t seen for a year, my girl friends... And I also sat behind the wheel and was happy, like a little child, about chocolate. I love the car very much, I almost live in it. This was lacking in China.
– What have you learned from the Chinese this year?
- Probably peace of mind. I’m emotional, and they raise their voices in the gym only if the athlete literally doesn’t hear them: for example, the coach is on the uneven bars, and she is on the vault. To yell at a child - I’ve never seen anything like this.
Although, probably, an amendment must be made here that we are still strangers to them. And many things probably took place behind closed doors, we did not see them.
– Were there options to stay and continue working in China?
– Not in the national team. Unfortunately, the management there did not understand that children are not robots, and they need time to digest changes in technology. The Chinese needed quick results. And we explained to them that it won’t work out like that, it doesn’t happen like that at all.
At the same time, we parted with the local coaches as best friends. They said that they would miss us and did not understand why the contract with us was not renewed. And in the end we were offered to stay, but in one of the provinces. In our opinion, this is the regional team.
I haven't answered anything yet, I think. In any case, you first need to get a new passport, and in Moscow now this is not easy. I have already filled out the online application several times and received a refusal. Maybe this is a sign from above that there is no need to go?
– Which option are you leaning towards?
- Hard to tell. There are different ideas, but what I’m definitely not ready for is returning to “Krugloe Lake.” I often come there to visit the girls and our doctor. But I won’t be able to live or work there again. To go back, you need to miss the sports days, but I don’t miss them at all yet.
Too little time has passed since the end of my career. Now I definitely want something new.
Link to original article, in Russian:
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