Artur Dalaloyan competed on all six events in the qualification at the Tokyo Olympics despite being only 3.5 months post-Achilles surgery and even qualified to the all-around final. Valeri Alfosov, the head coach of the men’s team, said that while he and the other coaches were surprised by Dalaloyan’s willingness to compete vault and floor, they agreed with it:
“The decision to list Artur on all events was made together. After he volunteered to be listed for all events, the coaches and the staff were very surprised. We thought about his offer for a long time and decided to give the guy a chance to fully compete at the Olympics despite his recent serious injury. Yesterday, he did a good job and we’re happy with him. He still has two all-around competitions ahead of him. It’s very hard, we don’t know how Artur will manage it, but we hope for the best, of course.”
Alfosov is not yet sure how many events Dalaloyan will do tomorrow but it is possible he’ll compete on vault and floor again:
“I’m not ruling that Dalaloyan, like any other gymnast, might not compete on all the events on Monday. We need do our calculations. We’ll choose the best option that gains the most for the team and submit the start list. It’s the morning practice right now. Artur’s here and feels fine, he’s in a good mood. He works as hard as everyone else. He’s happy with his yesterday’s performance where he proved he’s ready to compete for the team.”
Russia qualified to the team final in third place, slightly behind China and Japan, but they hope to do better in the final:
“I’m happy with the team’s performance in the qualification. We competed in the first subdivision which added some anxiety for the gymnasts. It’s always hard to compete first because judges are usually stingy with the scores but the guys did their job and achieved what was planned. Our athletes made all the event finals and the team and all-around finals.”
Photo: Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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