Viktoria Listunova has been training with Olga and Gennady Petrovichev since she was 8 years old. Gennady Petrovichev passed away in 2020 from COVID-19. Olga Petrovicheva was interviewed by a local newspaper about working with Listunova.
Q: Olga Gennadyevna, how did you meet Viktoria?
A: We first met in Moscow, in the Olympiyskiy sports center. Vika’s first coach Elena Shmelyova called me and said that she had a good girl and I should have a look. At the time, Viktoria and her parents just moved to Moscow from Podolsk. I remember, it was on August 1st, she was supposed to start the second grade at school. She and her mom came to Olympiyskiy together. At the time, I was working with my husband Gennady Petrovichev and Raisa Ganina. Vika’s mom really liked the relationships on our team and the only question she asked was: “Will Vika be able to handle artistic gymnastics?” I replied with a smile that if she can’t handle it then I don’t know who can. Viktoria has great natural abilities – flexibility, strength, and ability to jump – she has everything. Since childhood, she’s been very slender with a specific body type. In the end, Viktoria stayed with us and we started training.
Q: That is, you saw potential in her right away?
A: Yes, it was obvious right away that the girl takes work very seriously. Her mom told us that Vika liked competing and be the first in everything since when she was a child. When Viktoria came to the gym and saw some elements she didn’t know how to do, she immediately wanted to learn them. The qualities of a true fighter were always apparent in her.
Q: How much energy should the parents contribute to the training of a champion?
A: Parents do a lot. I always say that there’s a triangle – parents-coach-athlete. If one angle is suffering, the whole shape falls apart and it’s hard to work. Everyone needs to contribute to the training. All injuries are, of course, treated with the parents’ active participation. I have a good relationship with Vika’s parents and we have the same vision of how to prepare her for competitions. Viktoria and I almost never had conflicts either in the sense of behaviour issues. It’s clear that the child is well-raised. Of course, this can be credited entirely to her parents. You have to be able to endure it when training gets hard. After all, it’s not always easy – a kid might bump into something, things might not be working out, but they need to repeat it thousands and millions of times. Good upbringing by the family is important so that the kid won’t sulk.
Q: Can you say that Viktoria became part of your family over these years?
A: I could say that practically 2-3 months after she started training with me. When you love a kid, they become your family almost right away. If you don’t love them, don’t feel internal affection for them, it’s pointless to train them. My husband Gennady Petrovichev with whom we coached Viktoria together just adored her. Because of Vika, he didn’t retire, only the presence of this girl kept him in the gym. A coach always wants to show what they’re capable of when they have such pupils.
Q: I know that your husband passed away from covid last year. Was his passing hard on Viktoria?
A: You know, when our team won the Olympic gold, Viktoria, while passing in front of a camera, took his photo out and said, “I’m grateful to my coach who recently passed away, I really miss him, it’s hard without him.” She, of course, held it together after Gennady Nikolaevich’s death. I tried not to bother her about it, even though it wasn’t easy for me either. Everyone on the team understood what we were going through and supported us. For a while after my husband’s passing, Viktoria was very closed off, a child feels everything in her heart. Only three months later I was able to remind her at a practice, “Vikulya, do you remember how Gennady Nikolayevich told you to do it?” And she already took it calmly. Vika, of course, saw how hard it was for me but we went through this together. Gennady Nikolayevich made a big contribution to our team’s victory. It’s much harder for me to work without him now, of course.
Q: What are Viktoria’s strengths in gymnastics?
A: Viktoria is notable for her perfect execution, and she’s extremely powerful and beautiful on floor. Vika has a God-given gymnastics talent, of course. She does great on bars and beam, she vaults beautifully. I think that at the Tokyo Olympics, she saved the team with her beam, she just went out and did her routine great. Viktoria gave not just her 100% but 150%. And if we’re scoring her work on 5-point scale, her score is 10+. She’s just a gem for this team.
Q: Does Viktoria get really upset if something doesn’t work out?
A: She knows how to lose but, of course, doesn’t like it. Obviously, she got upset when something didn’t work out at the Olympics. But people learn from their mistakes. We get beaten and become stronger.
Q: What were the difficulties on the journey towards the Olympic victory?
A: I can say that Viktoria never got arrogant because of her success. Thanks to her parents for that. I also read good articles by Irina Viner about it. Her main difficulty was that she had ischium pain. These bones are zones of growth in kids and they start hurting when there are high training loads. But our great doctors helped to overcome this. She first felt the pain before the World Championships. It was really painful for her to do splits, she had to gather all her courage in order to endure a month of training, compete, and win the competition. I’m just amazed by such will to win.
Q: How do you put an athlete into the right mindset before the competition?
A: I wasn’t at the Olympics because only two national team coaches go there. Of course, I rooted for her and we messaged each other. Viktoria knows well how to get into the right mindset, it’s just important not to interfere. Believe me, this girl has the right head on her shoulders. Before the team left, I told them, “Girls, we love you very much no matter what happens at the competition. God sees everything and he will surely reward you for the hard work you’ve done”.
Q: Athletes often believe in various superstitions, like not cutting hair before competitions. Does Viktoria have anything like that?
A: You know, she doesn’t. She can easily get a haircut before a competition or wear a new leotards even though superstitious people say you shouldn’t do that. We’ve always told Vika that it doesn’t matter what you wear, it only matters how you do your routines. She even got baptized only when she was 14 years old upon my husband Gennady Nikolayevich’s request. Her parents did it secretly in order to give us this surprise gift.
Q: What are Viktoria’s and your plans for the competitions in the near future?
A: We’re not thinking about it yet. We only had a year to prepare for these Olympics. Our goal for the two years before the next Olympics to prepare more difficult, interesting, and strong routines. We need to combine her great natural abilities with competitiveness. Especially, since Vika likes to learn new things. The routines she has now will get old in a few years. Soon, there will be the team European Championships, and in a year – the team Worlds. There are many competitions and Viktoria will have opportunities to prove herself.
Q: When will Viktoria resume training after the Olympics?
A: She’s recovering now. After the competition, Vika’s elbow hurts, she’s healing it. But it’s not a big injury. She will come to the training camp at Round Lake already on August 22nd. Besides that, the team has many official meetings and events planned. Let her enjoy the fame a bit.
Q: Tell me how the team was greeted when they arrived home?
A: There was an orchestra at the airport, many fans. Sambo-70 club’s head of Olympia Department Sergey Sushinsky came with flowers, our pupils came, too. It was very nice and joyful. Unfortunately, I couldn’t come to greet them. Because of the pandemics, we are not allowed to leave Round Lake where Paralympic athletes are now training. But Viktoria came to me, we saw each other. She gave me flowers, showed me hew medal, we hugged and kissed, it was a very warm and touching meeting.
Q: By the way, do the athletes get vaccinated against COVID-19?
A: On our team, all the coaches and athletes that are older than 18 are vaccinated.* Viktoria can’t yet get vaccinated because of her age. I recently talked to a Belgian athlete I know. Turns out, they didn’t even ask how old the kids are, they just took the whole team and got them vaccinated. This, of course, cannot be legally done in our country. Vika had the coronavirus in January. She had to stop training for almost 1.5 months. After that, she came to the training camp, trained for 2.5 months and found strength to win the European Championships. She’s just an incredible kid.
*Only Russian-made vaccines are legal in Russia and none of them are approved for people under the age of 18. Russian athletes do not have access to Pfizer.
Photo: Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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Good writeup. Very interesting.