Denis Abliazin and David Belyavskiy both recently became fathers. Abliazin had a son, Yaroslav, with the world champion Ksenia Semenova. Belyavskiy and his wife had a daughter, Alyssia. They both talked to MatchTV about how the birth of their children changed (or didn’t change) their lives.
Both gymnasts spend most of their time at the Round Lake, near Moscow. For Abliazin it means he can only visit his family on days off and half-days, while Belyavskiy’s family lives in his native Yekaterinburg, 2000 km away, so he’s not able to visit frequently.
Belyavskiy: “For now, there weren’t any big changes, of course, because I only had time to go home for a couple of days, to see her. In fact, I have this great joy inside of me now and I want to work, want to earn medals for my daughter. I’m trying to focus on work completely because this is my main goal for now. My wife is home with the baby while I’m working. That’s how it should be, I guess”.
Abliazin: “I can’t say yet whether fatherhood changed me because I still consider myself a young athlete and I’m still training a lot, still having fun. To focus on the family completely would simply mean I’d have to retire. I have to choose – either I continue to train as I was and visit my family when I can, or I quit [gymnastics].”
Photo: Russian Federation of Artistic Gymnastics
