Denis Abliazin broke both his legs in the fall of 2019, had to have surgery to repair the fractures and install titan plates, and went through a long process of recovery. Turns out, he also had to deal with a coaching change during that time. Abliazin used to train with Sergey Starkin. Starkin also coached Aliya Mustafina and coaches some junior MAG gymnasts at the time. After the injury, Abliazin started training with Anatoly Olushev. Olushev used to coach in Uzbekistan and his most famous gymnast was Anton Fokin who won bronze on parallel bars in Beijing. Olushev later moved to Russia and started coaching in Penza. According to Olushev, Abliazin’s coaches stopped working with him when he got injured:
“It was a very difficult period of preparation. Denis broke his leg badly at the end of 2019, he had to have plates installed. At that moment, the coaches who had worked with him, left him. I guess they didn’t believe it was possible to recover after such an injury. His leg did not allow him to work at full strength. Before that, I had an Olympic medalist from Uzbekistan. So, I got an offer from Denis to work together. I have known Denis for a long time, he’s a true fighter. We’ve been moving forward gradually, without risks, and we did everything right.”
Olushev stayed at hom during the Olympics and watched Abliazin win team gold and vault silver on TV. He believes that the sixth place on rings will be a lesson for Abliazin that he has to improve further and add difficulty. He plans to keep coaching Abliazin in the next Olympic quad.
Photo: Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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