Skip to main content

Alexandrov : Champions are never accommodating

By
The Russian Gymnastics Federation has kindly provided an English translation of a brief interview with Alexander Alexandrov, taken from the latest issue of Gymnastika.  He discusses the character of Aliya Mustafina in particular.

I'll copy what he says here :


'All six of our winners are very individual athletes. They are still children really and have their own difficult personalities. Aliya is a bit sly, she already knows everything about herself…she is a difficult girl. She is very talented in some thing, but she has her problems. And that's normal – champions are never accommodating.
The path hasn't been smooth. Yes, she was the leader among the juniors, but then things started getting complicated. When we met, we had to do a lot of talking. Not convincing, but real talking. Openly talking and laying it all out. I had to explain: you had results and you have good routines, but you are being easy on yourself – and you've put so much work in…
And bit by bit she began to understand that she had to go forward and trust us. Then we went to Russian championships in Bryansk and when she won, she got excited. I can't say everything has been easy after that; no, its been hard. And there have been tears and arguments…But we found common ground and began talking to each other like adults.
And it won't be smooth going forward, either. A week off in Italy and then holiday…It's hard to get back into it. So, we have to talk again. Well, what can you do?
Aliya's most important trait is her reliability. She knows how to pull herself together in meets. She can even cry the day before over not having any strength, and everything going wrong. But she goes out to compete and she really knows how to give it everything! Well, you've already seen that.

From the official magazine of the Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation GIMNASTIKA
2010 issue 4, page 21.'

Thanks very much to the Russian Gymnastics Federation for bothering to do these translations - it is very much appreciated by us fans!
Labels:

Comments

  1. Lyudmilla Shanzhen26 February 2011 at 10:04

    I thought the gymnastics coaching blog's "Train your dragon" post would link to this article (it doesn't actually).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Queen Elizabeth26 February 2011 at 10:20

    Thanks Lyudmilla ;-))
    In case anyone wonders what this is about, here is the link : http://gymnasticscoaching.com/new/2011/02/train-your-dragon/

    Enjoy!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Aliya Mustafina - 'I'm just trying to stay healthy'

By
A brief interview with the World and Olympic Champion from All Sport is summarised below. Russian national gymnastics continues to prepare for the World Championships, which will be held October 3-12 in Nanning (China). Olympic champion Aliya Mustafina told Mary Staroverova about her health and about preparations for the competition. - In June, I went to Germany to solve the problem with my ankle.  I had a small operation to clean the joints of a build-up of bone particles.  Nothing serious was evident, and the operation went well.  Now I have to tumble.  But there is still some discomfort, a slight pain at full load, and I can not tumble at full force.  For the time being, I try to go easy on my legs.  After the Russia Cup I will have to fully prepare for Worlds. That is just one month.   Even if I'm not tumbling, I will keep myself in good shape, and that should suffice (smiles). - I can't say if it is a different pain to before Europeans, because at...
48 comments
Read more

Viktoria Komova - back pain has forced me to step down

By
I awoke this morning to a very simple statement from Viktoria Komova, on her vk.com site, which Papa Liukin has translated (via the IG forum): 'Dear friends, fans, and gymnastics lovers. Unfortunately back pain isn't allowing me to train to my full potential and get ready for competitions. I've made the very difficult decision to stop training and take care of my health. I want to thank everyone for their support! Without your love and warmth it would've been more difficult to go all the way. Thanks everyone and see you soon! Love and kisses.' Well, first of all, good wishes and best of luck to Viktoria, who has struggled since 2012 to re-establish herself fully as a competitive gymnast, whose talent was so great that she secured gold on bars at two different World Championships, four years apart, whose career was littered with controversy, who must be allowed to live her life as she wishes.   I know that the 'gymternet' will now be overflowing...
43 comments
Read more

Nelli Kim - 'Russian gymnastics has closed in on itself' - Lupita translates

By
Lupita has translated this ITAR-TASS interview with Nelli Kim.  It's controversial, to say the least. Ed's note : much of the initial response to this interview - both here and in the wider gymternet -  has focussed on the detail of Kim's words and especially her comments about Viktoria Komova, and smiling.  But I think these have to be taken in context, and not too literally. Don't forget that just a day ago Andrei Rodionenko complained bitterly about the judging in Antwerp, calling Kim's behaviour 'aggressive'. Kim is responding to this here, and to the wider current context of Russian gymnastics.  What she is essentially saying to the Russian coach is 'get your own house in order, produce confident, disciplined, well trained gymnasts - stop complaining, do your job, and I will do mine.'   She goes about saying this in a somewhat long winded way and says some things along the way that seem contradictory, unfair, inappropriate even for th...
30 comments
Read more

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more