Valentina Rodionenko talked to RG.ru about the Russian team’s plan for the European Championships and why Mustafina and Belyavskiy are missing the competition. Being true to herself, Valentina Rodionenko could not praise Mustafina’s progress without expressing unhappiness with the gymnast’s weight. In addition, it seems that she is not aware of how Olympic qualification works exactly, as she claimed in the interview that the top all-arounder in Szczecin will win an individual spot at the Tokyo Olympics. The two individual spots will only be up for grabs at the 2020 European Championships and not this year.
Q: At the European Championships, there will only be an individual competition. Who will we see on which events?
A: The verifications are over. Both the men’s and the women’s teams have already trained as if actually competing. For the girls, Melnikova and Simakova will compete in the all-around. Paseka will do vault, Iliankova – bars. Four events, so, four people can compete. For men, it’s six events – six people. Abliazin, Stretovich, Lankin, and Poliashov will compete on individual events, while Nagornyy and Dalaloyan – in the all-around. God willing, there won’t be any injuries, this is something no one is protected from.
Q: Why aren’t Belyavskiy and Mustafina on the team?
A: David and Aliya asked to be withdrawn from the European Championships. They are on the roster for the European Games in Minsk. Olympic champion Aliya Mustafina asked to withdraw her, she’s preparing for the European Games in Minsk and the World Championships.
Q: What shape is Aliya in now and is she making any progress?
A: There’s progress, and very serious, too. Mustafina earned herself a right to go to Szczecin. She won the all-around at the Birmingham World Cup. But we gave her an opportunity to get to Minsk in good shape. Generally, our goal is to prepare her well for the World Championships. Although, we’d like Aliya to lose weight. If she gets back to her weight class, in which she can compete amazingly, then everything will be fine. The weight not only interferes with her competing
Q: In terms of the preparation for the World Championships and of the Olympic qualification, what significant these European Championships have?
A: We qualified to the Games by winning a team medal at the 2018 World Championships. But the person that will win all-around in Szczecin will get an individual spot. Let’s say, if Melnikova wins, she has already proven that she deserves to compete in Tokyo, she’s on our team and there is no one equal to her. But we can give her spot to someone else. The coaching staff is thinking about it. Will we have a gymnast who will be capable of doing all-around? We hope so. But the competition will show what happens. First, we need to win the all-around and only then think about the additional spot. Because it’s all very hard, especially regarding the women’s team. The other day I was watching Posner’s interview with the coach of an Olympic champion in figure skating, Eteri Tutberidze. She said that it’s easy for female athletes to train until they turn 15. It’s the same in gymnastics. But when the girls start going through body changes, add in height and weight, try saving them for the adult sport. Especially with the current requirements and the level of difficulty of elements and routines. So, we’re protecting them like diamonds. It’s hard. But we’ll keep trying.
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At this point, I think that we should all just accept that Aliya knows what she is doing. She’s competed at the highest levels for like ten years now, and she has a kid. She knows what her body needs. And, objectively, she’s not overweight. She’s healthy, and performing wonderfully. I think that it’s good that we are moving away from the stick-thin 14 year old ideal body type in gymnastics. Careers will last longer and there will be less psychological and physical damage.
Aliya is over weight. I do not understand why you wish to bring this up in all your articles as if Valentina is being unfair. She is not.
I totally agree. Other statements by Valentina are wrong, but not this one. She doesn’t call her fat. She just says she is overweight for gymnastics. If you have seen her floor, you can notice it all the time.
She’s very overweight for what she wishes to do- coaches are worried about how the judges are going to react. It make her gymnastics look more laboured but also the judges will notice when she make a mistake. They will say because she is overweight, she is not serious about this sport. Russia has never had this problem until now.
« We’re protecting them like diamonds », hahahahaha.