In 2016, Angelina Melnikova was the youngest gymnast on the Russian team and dealing with an injury that severely limited her ability to compete. As a result, she was not able to qualify to the all-around final. In 2021, she came to Tokyo as the leader of the team, both in terms of her experience and her gymnastics. Melnikova and Vladislava Urazova qualified to the all-around final over their teammate Viktoria Listunova and finished 3rd and 4th respectively in the final. For Melnikova, this bronze medal completes the collection – she already has a silver medal from Rio and a gold from Tokyo.
Melnikova talked to MatchTV about competing in the all-around final.
A: I’m really happy. I competed for fun today, except, perhaps, for the last event – I knew before floor that I could win a medal if I got a good score. I’m happy that all my work wasn’t for nothing. It was a long and hard road here but it was my road.
Q: You were fourth after three events. What were you thinking at that moment?
A: I was in a good mood. I saw that I was fourth but I knew that my floor is competitive and if I do it well, my score will also be good.
Q: Were you feeling the intra-team competition with Vladislava Urazova before floor?
A: I guess not. I went out and knew that I needed to do my routine. I’d have been very happy if Vlada had also gotten a medal. She’s a hard worker and a hero, she did all her routines perfectly today. Unfortunately, she loses in difficulty a lot specifically on floor, same as I lose in difficulty on beam, for example.
Q: Didn’t you think that she was a bit underscored on floor?
A: No, the score was appropriate because she didn’t do her first turn well and her landings were not as clean as in the qualification.
Q: About beam. It was similar to Euros in Basel where you wobbled after your mount.
A: Yes, the beginning wasn’t so good. I can’t explain it, I just need to mount it in the right place and I was off for some reason. I wasn’t really nervous before beam, I was practically confident that I’d be able to do my routine but the question was how well I’d be able to do it. Of course, I expected to do it better, to get a score of 14.000 because I know that I can but the beginning didn’t go well.
Q: What were you thinking about when you were looking at the screen after floor?
A: I wasn’t praying. I was thinking about what score I’d get, whether I’d be underscored or get an appropriate score that would be enough to get into medals. And when I saw the numbers on the screen, I knew that I got a very good score.
Q: Yesterday, Nikita Nagorny won bronze in the all-around after winning gold in the team final, now you did the same. Did you notice this similarity?
A: Yes. It’s interesting and when I saw myself in the bronze position, I thought: “Perhaps, it’s some sort of a tradition?” But there was a fight today, the whole top six could’ve ended on the medal podium, we just had to go without mistakes.
Q: How was it to compete without Simone today?
A: It was interesting, and there was intrigue – would would become the all-around Olympic champion. Of course, it’s more interesting to compete for gold and not know in advance that you’re deciding the fate of only silver and bronze. I’m really happy for Sunisa Lee who won, I really like her. Very happy for Rebeca Andrade because I think it’s the very first medal for Brazil in women’s artistic gymnastics. I lose out to both of them in difficulty, so everything was completely fair today.
Q: If Biles had competed today, would you have been more nervous?
A: I think I wouldn’t because I had such strong emotions after the team gold, that today I just went out to do gymnastics. And, by the way, I heard Simone cheer on me before my bars routine and it was really nice because I admire her.
Q: Was it weird to see her in the stands?
A: Anything can happen, it’s an elite sport. It wasn’t weird.
Q: Simone explained her withdrawal by mental issues. Have you ever experienced something similar?
A: I had it as a kid, it’s a major problem and it’s hard to fix. Only time helps. I saw that she got lost in the air on vault in the team final and I know that when you get lost, you might not understand what you’re doing [in the air]. But I think that I never experienced exactly what Simone is going through right now because I’m not like Simone and I’m not as famous as her. I can imagine how hard it is to handle all that fame. I even wrote a supportive message to her. It’s a real pity it’s happening. I hope she’ll recover fast because the whole world admires her gymnastics and everyone is waiting for her to come back to the competition floor.
Q: Was it hard for you to spend 1.5 years at Round Lake under the lockdown?
A: Yes, but it was worth it. We trained a lot. Perhaps, we even focused more on our training simply because we had nothing else to do. [laughs]
Q: You have two days of rest before event finals. What will you do and how will you recover after the marathon of qualifications-team final-all-around final?
A: I’ll try to recover as much as I can. Our doctors and masseuses help us a lot. It’s also important to take my mind off gymnastics – to watch movies, to just hang out with the girls, to discuss some other topics, to take walks, to watch other athletes at the Olympic village, this also works as a distraction – you start thinking about other sports.
Photo: Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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This is such a fantastic interview – she is so gracious, thoughtful and articulate, a fabulous ambassador.
I really love the new generation of Russian gymnasts – it seems like the increasing culture of positivity has helped them as well.