"American gymnastics is not interesting”

Even though the results of the London Olympic Games cannot be called inspiring for Russia, nobody speaks about a failure. There are some breakthroughs, for example in artistic gymnastics which brought to Russia first gold medal for 12 years. Victoria Komova who won silver medal in individual all-round competitions, Alia Mustafina who became the Olympic champion in unequal bars, and their coach commented on the Games.

“At first, when we had a bad start in floor exercises, girls made mistakes, I thought we didn’t get into top three even because competition was great. I thought that’s the end. I almost began to cry. But when we saw all results, we began to cry of happiness. These were tears of happiness,” Viktoria Komova says.

“Unlike girls we were sure that they won’t leave second place because the gap between us and China and Romania was too huge,” the coach of the women artistic gymnastics national team, Valentina Rodionenko, says. “We had to do something incredible to lose 4 points. Of course, it was very difficult to undergo all these things, especially when we saw the girls had no chances to reach first place, we understood it. But it happened. Romania and China could catch up with us, but our girls were stronger, despite all their mistakes. They had stronger programs and more difficult combinations…

The Olympic Games is a special start, and it is well-known. Everybody waits for them for four years. It means special excitement – the rush, the audience who support athletes, unfortunately, British fans supported Americans as enthusiastically as their own gymnasts… If Americans only knew what injuries and pains our girls suffered, they would appreciate their willing skills. The whole top three was injured. The girls trained despite pain.”

In individual all-round Komova took silver medal, Mustafina – bronze one, the winner was Gabriel Douglas from the US. Commenting on rumors that calmness and self-assurance are reached by American athletes by demulcents, Valentina Rodionenko said: “Demulcents are a double edged sword. They cannot function permanently. Even though we have a short-term work, but it means they have to take the medicines between events, and it is forbidden. I don’t think so. Now we will reconsider preparation of our main team because we managed to see things which we hadn’t seen before. From the functional point of view, Americans were twice better prepared than we, as our girls had too many injuries. Have you noted that Pr. Arkhipov accompanied our girls? He is the best traumatologist of the country. He was near our team all the time because he knew everything about girls’ injuries and pains. We worried that they would have been forbidden to make anesthetic injections there. Everything is forbidden, but they need it. That is why today the most important objective is to recover from injuries. We give them such an opportunity. They will go to Spain at health-improving camp. And then we will start with new energy because now we cannot press on them like Americans press on their athletes. They will break. That is why Americans looked healthy and strong. But their gymnastics is not interesting. We promote classic, beautiful gymnastics, while they promote athleticism. But our discipline is called artistic gymnastics. It should be artistic.”

Speaking about independence of juries, Valentina Rodionenko reminded: “Russia hasn’t won anything significant since 2000 in gymnastics. It was 12 years ago. It is a long period. It has lost positions. Return to top positions is a difficult thing. Juries get used to the fact that Americans dominate, and they are favorites. We always say our boys and girls: you should be much better to achieve success. Alia took gold medal not accidentally. Her performance was absolutely perfect. If she had even a tiny mistake, she wouldn’t have this medal. And she realized it. Alia has a very strong spirit. As for juries’ behavior, we got used to it. But we have only one way: to be much stronger than rivals. And when we appear to be leaders, nobody will insult us. It is a sporting law, a law of artistic gymnastics. I think the same laws function in rhythmic gymnastics and figure skating.”