Skip to main content

Interview with David Belyavski

Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion in team all-around David Belyavsky told RG about his love for artistic gymnastics, his attitude towards the Paris Olympics and his mood for the BRICS Games in Kazan.


❓How did you like the first day at the BRICS Games?

💬David Belyavsky: I immediately remember the 2013 Universiade, in which I took part (I won gold in the team, silver on the uneven bars and two bronzes - in the individual all-around and floor exercises - RG note). Kazan, the Universiade village, where we live - everything is great, you can feel the atmosphere of a sports festival. They greeted us very well - with dancing. It's a pity there was no chak-chak, I would have eaten it with pleasure.


❓And what about the regime, diet?

David Belyavsky: I never limit myself much, I don't hold back. Moreover, I don’t plan to eat a kilogram, I just want to try.


❓By the way, how did the test go?

💬David Belyavsky: The first training session went well. We came to the gym, warmed up. With new equipment, as it happens at international competitions, we had to work a little to get it in working order.


❓Russian gymnasts in neutral status decided not to go to the Olympics in Paris. Will you watch the tournament?

💬David Belyavsky: Yes, of course.


❓With what feeling? Regret?

💬David Belyavsky: You know, maybe at first there really was regret. But two years have passed. We live in these realities. Although I have had three Olympics, I stood on the podium everywhere. I am sure it is easier for me to judge than for young athletes.


❓And what is their attitude?

💬David Belyavskiy: The guys are training, trying to complicate their combinations, but still strive for international starts. For some, the BRICS Games are their first such tournament. For example, Daniil Marinov, who has already become the absolute champion of the country twice, beat absolute world champions Nagorny and Dalaloyan in the all-around.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The State of Gymnastics - 'Soviet' or 'American' style?

Lioudmilla Tourischeva, 1972 Olympic All Around champion in artistic gymnastics, was held up as an example of the ideal Soviet citizen.  Here she coaches one of the Soviet Union's leading gymnasts from the 1980 Olympics, Natalia Shaposhnikova The Soviet Union had a genius for lifting sport beyond the textbook, injecting the aesthetic where previously only goals had been in plain view.   This was not only manifest in gymnastics.  Do you remember the ‘Russian Five’, the players who elevated ice hockey to a creative sporting display, mesmerising their opponents and spectators with intricate patterns of play, so rhythmic and entertaining that they could have been set to music?   In gymnastics, a sport where the aesthetic counted as much as the outcome, it was this ability to create spectacle out of competition that resulted in the most extraordinary athletic performances.  The ‘Golden Era’, most commonly understood to cover the years from 1952-1...

Russian gymnasts return to the world stage

According to the Russian Gymnastics Federation via sports.ru.  Google translate. ‘The Russian Gymnastics Federation announces the return of the Russian gymnastics community to the world arena. 🤸Participation of athletes: 🔸Participation in the 2025 Trampoline World Cup stages in Portugal (July 5–6), Germany (September 20–21), Bulgaria (September 27–28), and France (October 3–5) has been confirmed. 🔸Participation of Russian athletes is planned in the Trampoline World Championships (Madrid, November 2–10) and the World Championships (November 10–17). 🔸A preliminary application has been submitted for the participation of Russian athletes in the 2025 Candidates' Cup in artistic gymnastics, which will be held in Paris on September 13–14. The final number of participants will be determined by July 16, 2025. ✍Participation of judges in competitions: 🔹Alina Gusarova and Irina Berek will work as neutral judges at the Tbilisi Cup in rhythmic gymnastics from June 11 to 15, 2025. 🔹RGR Vic...

Komova v Douglas 2012

I’m reading a post on Twitter that relates Komova’s second place in the AA to her botched Amanar landing.  History often rewrites such stories, forgetting the whole picture - an AA comp is the best of four apparatus, not a vault control duel.  We often see the same arguments about other close finals - was Shushu’s vault in 1988 really a ten?  People forget, or choose to ignore, or never knew in the first place, that the AA comp in those days was a composite score of Compulsory and Optional TF + the AA score.  Silivas had errors on floor in team final and on beam in AA final.  Without those errors she would have beaten Shushu by a country mile in the AA, but Shushu was on fire and didn’t give a mm.  The vault scores don’t say it all. The 2012 quad was a curious point in gymnastics history.  Russia had made their rush for world lead in 2010, but wouldn’t have got the gold in Rotterdam without the help of mistakes from the USA team.  Mustafina was ...

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more