Liliia Akhaimova only made the Russian national team at 18 years old. She grew up in Vladivostok, the city on the Pacific coast of Russia and moved to St Petersburg as a teenager. While Vladivostok is a big city, their gymnastics program is not at a very high level and Akhaimova had some issues with the basics despite great natural talent. She kept competing at the Russian Championships and Russian Cups for quite a few years and kept placing high on vault and floor but only made the national team in 2016. She was originally named an alternate for the Rio Olympics but did not have an FIG license yet and could not travel to Rio along with two other alternates. This year things are finally coming together for her. First, she made the European Championships team despite just recovering from a serious ankle injury. Now she is a European champion and a silver World medalist and will compete in the floor final on Saturday.
Today, Akhaimova had a rough landing on her vault in the team final but managed to hit floor. She told R-Sport that the team really supported her after the vault:
“Honestly, I got too nervous on vault and was not able to handle my nerves. My task was to go out there and hit. And my mistake was only my fault. I’m glad the team supported me and they really helped me, so I was able to manage the final event, floor. It was very important. We need to improve in difficulty and quality in order to catch up with the U.S. Generally, we need to work really hard”.
Photo: Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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