Angelina Melnikova cried happy tears in Rio

The Russian Olympic Committee made a short video about Angelina Melnikova’s experience in Rio.

Angelina says that after the Olympics people recognize her on the streets sometimes and she finds it really cool. When shown a shot of her crying after the Rio team final she said that she doesn’t normally cry at competitions but she cried in Rio.
She tells about her experience at the Games:

We had a very close team, we really supported each other
I got injured before the Olympics. I was doing a split jump and pulled a hamstring. Then I couldn’t bend, couldn’t raise my leg higher than 90 degrees. I was going there thinking: will I be able to compete or not? I was told, “You’re definitely going [to Rio] but we’ll see [about competing] once there”. So, I worked through the pain until the end.
I was really afraid that I would pull the muscle even harder and wouldn’t be able to continue.
I knew I couldn’t make mistakes because of the team. At the end, I somehow managed to get myself together and do everything.

She then tells about the vault rotation:

Masha Paseka was going last on vault, so Dasha Spiridonova told her “Masha, come on, do a 15.7 vault”. Masha told her “what are you talking about, I won’t be able to”. And then Masha almost sticks her vault and her score is 15.7.

When the scores were up and they realized the team took the second place (and not the third, as they were afraid), she started crying:

We were so happy. My tears were happy tears because I managed to go on and not give up despite my leg injury, and now it was finally over and I didn’t have to suffer anymore.

About her parents:
My father usually watches my competitions, but my mom can’t, she usually goes somewhere during the competitions. But during the team final in Rio, I asked her to watch and she watched. I just wanted my mom to see me on TV.

Angelina says that she loves to compete and this love for competitions prevented her from quitting gymnastics a while ago:
My parents always gave me a choice. When I was around 12, there was this time, when I wanted to quit gymnastics. Then there was a competition, I took, I think, 5 first places there, and that [thought about quitting] immediately went away.
I like to compete so much, even though sometimes I’m quite afraid and there’s a lot of stress. I still like to feel this all the time.

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