Igor Radivilov has started his journey to the Olympic qualification in November, at the first competition of the World Cup series in Cottbus. He won gold on vault and took fourth place on rings, his two best events. Since Radivilov only trains three events (he occasionally competes on floor to help the team), he is not in contention for a team spot for the Tokyo Olympics and the 2019 Worlds. He will have to try winning an individual spot trough the World Cup series and, as he said in the latest interview, he want to finish the qualification already this year by winning three golds on one event and getting the maximum amount of qualification points.
In a long interview with xSport.ua, Radivilov talked about the 2018 season, his career goals and family life.
Q: Igor Radivilov before the 2016 Olympics and Igor Radivilov now – are they two different people?
A: I think
Q: How did the Olympics change you?
A: It made me stronger. Over time, I started to believe that it’s not the end of the world, that I can keep working and developing. I think I only got stronger. There are no rises without falls, only a few people never lose.
Q: Were the Rio Olympics a turning point for you?
A: After the Olympics, I had trouble with setting myself in the right mood again and starting to recover in order to work towards results again. After all, I wasn’t able to achieve what I had expected. Everything went not the way we had thought. All in all, I left without a medal, but, as time shows, it’s not the end of the world. It’s history now. There will be new Olympics soon and I’m working on getting there.
Q: How did you manage to have such a great year in 2017 after such a disappointment in 2016?
A: I was just able to let go of all the thoughts and believe that it was history, it was all in the past. I started everything from scratch. I guess that was the push for me to develop further, to move forward and to enjoy life. Sports and the Olympics are all good, but there’s life outside the sport which is no less beautiful. After the Games, I had a month to live like a regular person. So, I’d thought about everything, reassessed everything and started working with new thoughts in 2017.
Q: Was that season the best in your career?
A: I guess, not the very best, but one of my best ones, really great ones.
Q: And after such a great 2017 season, the 2018 season followed. What can you tell about it?
A: This year was really promising in terms of getting a new vault, with a new difficulty, which became consistent. I took second place at the European Championships, I lost to the first place by only a little bit. I failed at the World Championships, as people have already said and written. That’s the truth, you have to recognize the failures, but that’s part of the sport. I was about 96% prepared out of 100%. But it didn’t happen, something went wrong. Also, in the last season, there was a World Cup in Cottbus, the qualification for the Olympics Games has begun. I managed to win vault and it’s good for the rankings, for getting to Tokyo.
Q: You started the season with a World Cup in Doha where you won two golds. How did you react to winning not just two medals but specifically two golds?
A: You have to be happy with any medals, but, of course, when they’re yellow, it’s much cooler. I came, I did my job, and I was rewarded for my efforts. There’s always a high level of competition at such World Cups but some perform better and some do worse. I wasn’t shaking, I did everything I was supposed to. Perhaps, in the beginning of the season, my mind was a bit clearer, and, at the end of the year, the fact that I really wanted to win a medal at Worlds interfered. My task was just to do my routines but, I guess, I wasn’t able to manage my nerves somehow. It happens.
Q: There are different levels of competition at World Cups. So, what’s better – to win a medal with a moderate score or to get a high school but be left out of medals?
A: In any case, a medal is always better than no medal, no matter the competition. You got a medal and no one is questioning you. But you always have to think about the status of the competition. There’s no reason right now to go to World Cups with some crazy difficulty but get a 4th or a5th place if you can come with weaker routines and win. There’s no point in doing this. In 2019-2020, I will only work towards the results, I won’t show any crazy tricks, I will be simply trying to win medals.
Q: In 2017, you won a medal on rings at the European Championships. What happened in 2018?
A: Actually, I was really well prepared on both rings and vault. I felt that I could win and, I guess, this affected me. I was prepared well, everything went smoothly during the routine and then suddenly I was thrown back and everything ended. But I managed to get myself together for the vault. I knew that if something also went wrong there… Silver is also great, but I wanted another medal on rings. Now I have great potential, we drew conclusions and will keep working. I had a break for 10 days
Q: You’re one of the most experienced gymnasts on the national team and you still have mental issues when competing?
A: Yes, it happens, we’re all human, not robots. Sometimes you come to a competition and everything is going smoothly, but sometimes it’s like someone or something is interfering, however silly it sounds. Like, some sort of paranormal stuff it bothering you. Sometimes, the mental state is more important than the physical state. Generally, I’m physically ready at most competitions, but it’s not always enough. But mentally, sometimes, I’m not able to manage, even though I’ve been to two Olympics already. Sometimes, I make mistakes because I start having some doubts. It’s a sport, that’s how gymnastics is. When you spend 8 years at the highest level, and people expecting something from you (people come up to me and start telling that they expect a medal from me, that I have to win, even people from other countries), it starts pressuring and even depressing you a bit. But when I’m in a shadow, it’s easier for me to compete, there are fewer expectations.
Q: It seems that you’re not the kind of person that likes a lot of attention.
A: Yes. At competitions, I like when there are a lot of spectators, I like to show the results of my work. But when people are snooping around me, asking me questions, filming my every move, how I wash my hands, how I enter and exit the arena – perhaps, I’m not accustomed to it. When we were younger and were preparing for London, it was the opposite, there were no journalists, they were all removed, in order to protect us from everyone, not to let some extra information out, not to let some words of other people get into our heads. But it’s all a bit different now. Sometimes, I’m asked why I’m so closed off. But I’m just not a fan of waking up in the morning and doing a live stream on Instagram, I’m not a fan of that.
Q: You finished the last European Championships with a medal. It was seventh in your career. Was your excitement sincere or you got used to this already?
A: No, there’s no getting used to it, because you come to the European Championships every time and hope that you will make the final and win a medal there. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a 7th medal or 27th one. Of course, the more medals you win the better but there’s the same goal every competition. If you win, every medal is like your first. You invest a lot of nerves and hard work into it. Any medal is a big accomplishment because many give up after winning a lot of awards, they think they’ve achieved everything. I’ve always dreamed about becoming a world champion, and, perhaps, this will happen one day. We’ll see, we are working on it, even though not everything goes our way, as the statistics show.
Q: Do you feel pressure because you’re one of the best gymnasts in the world and if you go to a competition, you have to win a medal, because when you come home without a medal it’s basically a failure?
A: Actually, no. When you’re here, preparing for the competition, you can have great prospects, people can put hopes on you, but you go to a competition and, at a rings final, all eight people are equal. There, no one can say anything like that because we know that I can win but also can the others. We’re all in the same conditions and under the same pressure because anyone can win in the final. So, I don’t think about it. I always perform well not when I think about winning a medal but when I just do my job well. When you start thinking about rewards, things can go awry.
Q: Your next competition after the European Championships was the Paris World Cup. How does your wife, Angelina, feel about you taking her to Paris for the second time in a row? Are you even allowed to do some sightseeing?
A: We are but the competition schedule is so tight that we can only walk around after the finals and they end at 7 p.m., so we don’t have any time. This year, I visited Paris for the fifth time and only this time I got near the Eiffel Tower. Really, there isn’t any time and we always just want to go to competitions, not to see some towers. But this year we managed walk around, to sightsee, it was very nice.
Q: What is your favorite city or country?
A: I’ve always liked Japan. Asia always impresses me. I guess, I even like it more than Europe, more than anywhere. I’ve been to Tokyo, to South Korea, to China, a few times. I just like Asia. In Europe, I was impressed by Switzerland. Germany is always nice.
Q: After you and Angelina got married, do you get any concessions, like you get to stay in a hotel together or your schedule is matched?
A: I always make my own schedule outside the gym, I decide when to go to sleep, when to wake up, when to eat. We’ve been living together for about five years. It’s only beneficial for me, there are no disadvantages. After so many years of living together, I can’t even imagine how I would live with the guys at camps, I’m just not used to it anymore. I’m used to my routine, to doing things together, there are no problems. When you live with the guys, one wants to do something, the other wants to sleep etc. But Angelina and I have the same routine, so we do everything together.
Q: What were your expectations going to the World Championships? After all, you’ve been to Doha at the beginning of the season and won two gold medals there.
A: It’s all rubbish, of course, but when I was flying there, I thought that since I’d been there two times and won three medals, I was supposed to get lucky the third time as well. Mostly, I thought that sometimes there are undershoots, sometimes there are overshoots, but sometimes you hit the bull’s eye. Well, I hit it two times and completely missed it the third time. It was stuck in my head for a bit, but it’s all nonsense, just thinking aloud. Of course, I had good prospects of winning two medals at Worlds this year. That’s because even though I didn’t do my best routine on rings, I still was fourth in qualification and made the final. And the vault was just an accident. A month later, at the World Cup in Cottbus, I proved to everyone and to myself what I deserve and how hard I can work and the fact that what happened in Doha was just an accident. Unfortunately, some people and the media see it as a failure. It’s all a bit wrong, you need to understand and support the athletes a bit. Yes, some win, they’re great today and tomorrow but can’t do anything afterward. In any case, the world knows how I vault, who I am. There are no problems with that, I know my work, I know my goals. That’s why I’ll keep working and I hope the next season will be more successful for me.
Q: Can you explain what happened in the vault qualification?
A: My hand slipped, it was just an accident. I haven’t had such problems in training for 2 or 3 years. It happened, in a split second, and there is no explanation: your hand slipped and you’re landing on your back or neck. Perhaps, I wasn’t able to recover after rings, even though I was prepared physically. I also hit my elbow a bit and I was really lucky that nothing worse than
Q: What was your first thought when you fell onto the mat?
A: I thought that I lost a medal.
Q: Here are your results on vault this year: first place in Doha, sixth place in Osijek, second place at European Championships, didn’t qualify to the final at Worlds, first place in Cottbus. Why such disparities?
A: My whole life is like a wave. My wife told me after Worlds: “Don’t worry, you’ll definitely win a medal next year”. It’s always this way for me: one year, things go well, the next year, they don’t. There’s something like that deep inside my soul. In 2013, after the Olympics, I got injured and didn’t compete at Worlds. In 2014, I won silver. In 2015, I was 4th or 5th, in 2016, the Olympics happened; in 2017, I won a medal again. I hope this wave will come again and we’ll be on top of it the next season. But it doesn’t really matter, I need to keep working and preparing, looking forward and, the most important, not to obsess about it and not to go crazy. When I obsess about something, I think about what I can do, what I need, I start having mental issues. I become a different person, but the sport is just the sport and there are people who love you outside of it, there’s life outside of it. When you start realizing it and focus on it a bit, you do better in the gym. You automatically feel the same love for the sport you feel for your family and it becomes not just your job, not just winning a medal and earning money, but you get passionate about it.
Q: Did the unsuccessful qualification on vault affect your performance in the rings final?
A: The thing was that I got injured on
Q: Did you have a real chance to win a medal on rings?
A: Unfortunately, I made a mistake at the end of the routine. Everything
Q: Your last competition of the year was in Cottbus. Did you go to World Cup in order to prove that what happened in Doha was an accident?
A: First of all, I wanted to show and prove not just to myself but also to everyone around that it was really an accident. And I did just that. Many said that it was truly an accident and they know who I am and what I can do. I was full of emotions at this World Cup, I really wanted to prove it to myself as well. To this day, when I run to the vault, I know where to place my hands in order not to make the same mistake as at Worlds. In any case, it was an experience, a big lesson for me. Perhaps, I did something wrong, said something wrong to someone, it all comes back to you like a boomerang. Perhaps, I felt like I was winning, that everything was fine. And with such thoughts, you always forget about something. And when you forget about something, it punishes you. So, the World Championships punished me, it let me know that not everything is going the way I want it to. All sorts of things happen in sports.
Q: How is your health after this season?
A: It’s all fine, I was just tired. I’ve rested already and I’m recovering now.
Q: The World Cup in Cottbus was the first stage of qualifying to the Olympics. Can you explain how are you going to qualify to Tokyo?
A: I recently learned that there’s no way for me to make the team. There were rumors going around but no one said anything to me. I recently read that I won’t be on the team. Well, if they say so, then, I’ll try to qualify on my own, I’ll compete at World Cups and, perhaps, I’ll qualify. I don’t know, no one knows.
Q: Oleg Verniaiev said that it seems like you will have to miss the World Championships in order to qualify to the Games. Is it true?
A: I don’t even know how it will all work. What I do know right now is that I have to prepare for the World Cups. But what will happen later, in October, no one can say. The only thing I learned recently is that I won’t be on the team because I’m not an all-arounder.
Q: You won a medal at your first Olympics. Are you not afraid that you won’t be able to repeat this achievement?
A: I’m not afraid at all. First of all, I need to qualify, then I need to compete there, do my job, and it’s not my decision whether I’ll win a medal there. I’ll be preparing and doing my job and we’ll see. And if I don’t qualify, it’s not the end of the world. I’m still young, I’ll go to the next Games.
Q: You’ll have to go to the 2024 Olympics because Angelina will tell you to take her to Paris again. And, in addition to that, you want to compete your named element well at the Olympics, right?
A: I don’t know, it’s hard to say now. After Rio, I realized one thing – if I am healthy enough, if I have the opportunity, I need to focus on winning medals, not on surprising the world. Right now I have a specific goal – to work towards the result. No one will surprise anyone, everything was done before us, as they say. We will work towards a specific result.
Q: There will be European Games in 2019, is this a top competition?
A: Well, not really, but it would be nice to win, for the statistics.
Q: How many countries send top athletes to the Universiade and not just students?
A: Honestly, few countries send top athletes. There are always strong and interesting guys, the last two times there were a couple of Chinese gymnasts, a couple of Japanese, but not more than that. I’m definitely not going to the next Universiade because of my age. I think the cut-off is being born in 1994, so it will definitely be without me. I’ve had my rides, I went to three of them, that’s enough.
Q: You were supposed to receive an apartment in Kiev, did you get it?
A: Yes, we got it, everything’s fine, thanks to everyone, we decorated it, everything’s ok. At the moment, my parents live in that apartment, I gave it to them. They moved from Mariupol. I lived on my own for 14 years and saw that no more than 15 times in those years. So, we discussed it and decided that my parents needed to move here. When everyone’s together, it’s easier than to be on your own.
Q: You said in the past that Angelina would retire as soon as you got the apartment. Did she change her decision with all the changes that happened on the women’s team?
A: Right now, our women’s team has really improved, they have good prospects and many young and gymnasts with great potential. I guess they changed the system, you can even tell from the outside that the women look much more interesting, they really improved. For a long time, they couldn’t make the team final at the European Championships and this year they took fifth place. There are results now and it’s a push for the future. It means, they’re moving in the right direction. Angelina decided that she wants to keep going, for now, to compete this year and, perhaps, the next one. It will all depend on her health, it doesn’t get better year after year but she has lots of desire. I’m not against her continuing to compete, how can you forbid someone from doing what they love?
Q: Can you describe your coach, Vyacheslav Lavrukhin? What role does he play in your life?
A: He’s like a father to me, we’ve been together for many years. This person did so much for me, showed me and taught me so much. We’ve walked a long way together and, nowadays, we are more like friends in the gym. We both are friends and train together.
Q: 26 – what kind of age it is for a gymnast?
A: I think it’s still a young age. Now, a person can become a World champion on vault at 34, an Olympic champion at 32. So, as long as I have the desire and health…
Q: What is your dream for 2019?
A: In the sport – to qualify to the Olympic Games, of course, to close this issue already this year. I need two more gold medals for that, which is not easy. There are four World Cups this year and another three in 2020. This is my main goal – to qualify
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