Skip to main content

Aliya Mustafina, 'I have reached my main Olympic target'


'When we fell out of the top three, I told the girls to keep on fighting till the end'

'We are happy, silver is the most that we could do here.  We didn't expect the Chinese to make a mistake on floor, but we fought to the very last moment.'

'It was as hard here as it was in London.  That was my first Olympic Games, the victory is in the past now, and we had to try to perform no worse than we did there.  You realise at the beginning of the competition - any error can be fatal.  You are under pressure - but it's OK.'

'It wasn't hard to compete on beam [after Melnikova's fall].  I just knew that I had to do as much as possible to reduce the gap to our rivals.  I didn't feel worried about it.'

'Our success here will inspire me in the individual competitions.'


' I decided to come to the Olympics just to help the team.  I can't say anything about the next competition because I just want to relax now.  But I have achieved my Olympic goals.'   


'I am very tired now and just want to lie down and rest.  Of course, I am very happy.  We fought to the very end, and we won the silver medal, this is the best that we could do.  We knew that any mistake could cost us our medal.'

'Whatever happens in the individual competition, I will just try to do my best. But I have done my most important job.'

Sources - 

http://news.sportbox.ru/olympics/spbnews_NI650604_Alija_Mustafina_Eto_nash_maksimum

http://www.sport-express.ru/olympics/rio2016/artistic-gymnastics/reviews/aliya-mustafina-kogda-vybyli-iz-troyki-skazala-devochkam-borotsya-do-konca-1031357/

http://tass.ru/sport/3524277



Comments

  1. Happy life to a wonderful person who has endured so much and been so strong.:-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was very worried about Melnikova's fall from beam because I read that Russia had the 4th scoring potential behind Russia and GB once the difficulty scores were added but luckily the Chinese had one fall on bars and one in floor which was crucial for the Russian results.
    Paseka was such a star, to sit 3 rotations and perform a heavenly Amanar on cold body, with all that tape was a thing of beauty, I'm a big fan
    Cheers Russia!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Aliya undoubtedly did her job as the team leader again. I am not sure how they will when they will be able to find someone as capable as her.

    ReplyDelete
  4. They should make a statue of her, like they did of Khorkina. The Russian Fed owes her so much and they'll miss the hell out of her when she finally announces her well deserved retirement.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Aliya is a great gymnast and a great leader. She sounds exhausted. She should take a break for a long time. Maybe she's already decided she's done with the sport. If that is the case, then I will celebrate her legendary career. There will not be another like her.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Nope one of a kind. She sure helped the team and another bronze AA Olympic medal.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Did Aly complain about tiebreaker rules when she won the beam tiebreaker. Maybe I missed something. I enjoy all the gymnasts but that stood out for me. Aliya did so awesome especially considering her circumstances. At times she clearly was in considerable pain. She had such a short time to prepare WOW. FIGHTER for sure.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review of Russian WAG at the 2014 World Championships

The Russians during a team talk in training for the World Championships.  Courtesy RGF Bronze all the way for Russia then.  Beyond the euphoria and surprise of this morning's competition there doesn't really seem to be much to write home about. I am delighted for Aliya personally that the efforts she has made to help the team have provided her with some tangible result, but the principal feeling at the end of the competition is that of relief.  As Vaitsekhovskaya said in her article last week, there were no moments of shock and awe from the Russians, and that's what will be needed if they are to compete for gold medals in Rio (translation available here ). Let's consider a timeline of the competition : before, during and after. BEFORE The promise of a return to the Worlds stage by Viktoria Komova gave Russia a feeling of optimism pre-Russia Cup.  However, Viktoria's performance at this important competition gave little reason for celebra...

Aliya Mustafina - I competed as best I could

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). 

Sport, friendship and the Olympics - reflections on McLaren report implications for Russian gymnastics

BREAKING - President Putin on the McLaren report -  http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/52537 What is happening today, is perhaps the end of an era.  The end of an era when sport was truly playful, and international.  Will we ever see our athletes in the same way again? The findings of the McLaren report are devastating to me.  They made me think about the value and meaning of the Olympics.  People have written whole books and volumes of books about the history of the Olympics. I am not going to try to unravel all the different strands of the history of the Olympic movement from the Ancient Greeks to the present day.  I'll just reflect here on the current values of Olympism; you can see below an extract from the new Olympic Charter , which was published in 2015. I certainly am inspired by the values of Olympism; I have followed the Olympics all my life.  But unfortunately it seems that they have been under attack, not just in Russia b...

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more