Denis Abliazin sustained fractures in both legs this Fall and had to have surgery. He gave an interview to Echo Penza in which he recalled the day of the injury.
The injuries were ongoing since the Rio Olympics. He was warned that the stress fractures had the potential to become more serious but hoped that the treatment worked:
“My legs would heal and then something else would happen but they haven’t stopped hurting for the past three years. When we went to do a scan in May of 2019, after the European Championships, we saw clear fractures in left and right tibiae. We were told that a complicated fracture could happen but it was treatable, the legs would heal and the pain would subside. We did the leg treatment but there wasn’t enough time to do a check-up and we started to prepare for the World Championships. After Worlds, during the preparation for a World Cup, these fractures happened on the landing.”
Abliazin originally planned to qualify to the Tokyo Olympics as a specialists via World Cups, as he only trains three events – floor, rings, and vault – and lately have been doing only vault and rings. He missed the 2019 European Championships because Russia wanted to test the Worlds team and he was left off the Worlds team to stay eligible for the World Cups. He has 30 points from a World Cup for winning gold on vault in Baku last year but he would need two more wins or at least medals to compete for a nominative Olympic spot. Considering that his training is still severely restricted, it is extremely unlikely he will be ready by the time of Baku and Doha World Cups. However, Russian men have a great chance to win a non-nominative place via All-Around World Cups and this could potentially go to Abliazin:
“Most likely, we’ll be preparing for the European Championships at first. I’ll do my two events and try to win medals. In addition to nominative Olympics spots, there’s an individual one that’s given to the country. If we win it, there will be competition for it among the national team members. So, the European Championships are an important competition for me where I have to win medals.”
Abliazin said he expected the big injury to happen eventually but hoped he had a bit more time:
“I was ready [for this to happen]. Such predictions usually turn true. I haven’t expected it to happen so early. Perhaps, after the Cottbus World Cup, perhaps, after the Olympics. Unfortunately, everything has a limit. The limit of my leg was reached at that moment. The doctors said that a fibrocartilage callus started growing inside the fracture and it wouldn’t even try to close up. And what happened happened.”
By that point, Abliazin was so used to constant pain, he reacted to the injury quite casually:
“I guess I’m just used to being always in pain, so I reacted to the fracture calmly. When the coaches came to look at why I wasn’t standing up, I just turned to them and said: “Call me an ambulance, my leg snapped in two”. The doctor came and said they called an ambulance, they carried me to the couch and put ice [on the leg].”
“The staff got disheartened at first, like, it was over. And I told them nothing was over, don’t worry, I’ll come back. I’m not giving up, I’ll work. Just the other day, I talked to Andrey Fyodorovich Rodionenko, they are waiting for me at the training center.”
Abliazin hopes to be cleared to do leg conditioning in the coming weeks and go back to attending the national team training camps:
“I’m not even putting the thought that I might not be cleared into my head. In any case, I’ll get some conditional clearance – for example, just to train but not to compete. And I can get the second clearance later, it’s not so hard. But I have to do a complete medical check-up – if someone learns I came to the camp without the clearance, there can be a punishment. It will all depend just on me – how ready I will be, how I will do my routines, on my mental state. Some people develop a fear of running and tumbling after serious injuries. Fortunately, I don’t have that. Yes, I got broken. But it’s ok, I’ll recover. And I don’t have a mental block. Quite the opposite – after the surgery, my legs were fixed with metal rods, my bones were reinforced, so now it’s even less scary.”
Abliazin was also asked to comment on the hot new topic of the past two months – the potential ban of Russia as a country from the Tokyo Olympics and whether he would agree to compete under the neutral flag:
“If I’ll be told to go without the flag, I’ll go. I’m a professional athlete. Perhaps, I’ve been going towards my Olympic medal, my first and, maybe, my last Olympic Games. Yes, to go to the Olympic Games without the flag and the anthem is an insult. But, excuse me, do you want to compete at the Games or do you only want the flag? When our athletes went to the Winter Games under the neutral flag, did they perform badly? No. They proved to everyone they can win even without the flag and the anthem. Gymansts are like soldier: we’re told to go – we go, we’re told not to go – we won’t go. In any case, even if you come without the flag, you represent your own country. I think we need to go, compete, take our medals, what’s ours by right. And show them: you can take everything from us, you can prohibit us to wear Russian uniforms, but we will still come and prove everything.”
Abliazin said that he is currently in the testing pool of ADAMS testing system and has to update his location so that the doping officers could have a surprise visit:
“I gave them an hour-long interval when they can come – from 6 am to 7 am. They will come without calling, they’ll just knock on the door. If they come at 7:05 am, I’m allowed not to let them in because they were late and can’t flag me [as non-compliant]. Three flags lead to a ban. Those who are in that system are under control.But you can check every day – if people are clean, there’s nothing to do. You can’t spike the sample with something, it’s in a sealed container that cannot be opened without a special device.”
Photo: Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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