While usually Russian gymnasts get on the national team radar when they are still juniors, Lilia Akhaimova only earned a spot on the national team at 18. She was supposed to be one of the alternates for the Rio Olympics but ended up staying home because she did not yet have an FIG license. Last year, she was finally able to represent Russia at the European and World Championships where she won team gold and silver respectively. This year, at Worlds, Akhaimova also earned a spot in the all-around final in addition to floor and vault finals. Bars has been a tough event for her for a while but she has improved on it enough to become a really strong all-arounder this year.
Akhaimova talked to a local St Petersburg newspaper Vecherka about her success at the World Championships and her hopes for the future.
Q: This is your second World team silver. Which of them was harder to get?
A: This time was harder, first of all, because two new gymnasts got on the team. How would they perform at a big competition? But the girls managed. Generally, before the competition, we were very nervous, the atmosphere was heated. But, of course, our team medal is the most emotional moment of the whole World Championships for me. I’m incredibly happy.
Q: The all-around final was not so great for you – 22nd place. Why?
A: Perhaps, I made a mistake when I decided to watch the men’s team final the night before my competition. You could say I burned out – I was too worried about our athletes. This prevented me from performing well the next day. But we couldn’t miss our men’s competition, it was unbelievable! Our men’s team is really awesome now. They’ve won gold for the first time in so many years.
Q: How hard it is to compete with Simone Biles? Are her routines really “out of this world”?
A: Currently, we can’t compete with her because she has a really high difficulty.
Q: Artistic gymnastics is not the most popular sport in St Petersburg. Neither it is the case in Vladivostok where you’re originally from. How did you start doing it?
A: My parents first signed me up for rhythmic gymnastics, they hadn’t even heard about artistic. But I didn’t stay there for a long time. My coach advised me to go to trials and I chose artistic gymnastics – I liked it more. When I turned 15, my family moved to St Petersburg. Obviously, I planned on continuing my gymnastics career at a higher level here.
Q: Specialists note your great tumbling ability. Are vault and floor your favorite events?
A: Floor – I guess so. In difficulty, I only lose to Simone Biles and have the same difficulty as another American. I have one of the highest difficulty scores in the world on that event. You can compare floor routines in artistic gymnastics to figure skating – we combine choreography with doing difficult tumbling to music. By the way, the choreographers came up with a story for me which I always think about when I’m doing my floor routine. I’m not telling anyone about it, though, it’s a secret.
Q: On which events you need to improve in order to compete with the best gymnasts in the world?
A: On three out of four events, the difficulty of my routines is pretty high. Although it’s hard not to fall off the beam. I have some sort of a mental block. in training, beam is one of the easiest events for me but in competition, the stress overcomes me. I need to add on bars – both in difficulty and in execution. I’m working really hard on bars right now.
Q: Gymnasts from St Petersburg have won medals at three World Championships in a row. Does that mean that gymnastics in our city is on the rise?
A: I don’t know about the rise of women’s artistic gymnastics here in general because I’ve been living here for only six years. Generally, gymnasts often represent the city at World Championships. If there was better gymnastics infrastructure here, many more gymnasts would represent the city at international competitions. I know that at the gym on Kovenskiy Lane, apparatuses are located on different floors. The Pushkin gym still hasn’t been renovated. The gym at Expocenter where I train when I come home doesn’t have foam pits, for example. And there aren’t enough coaches, especially in men’s gymnastics. I generally train in Moscow, at the national team training center.
Q: The national team coaches emphasized that you and your teammates significantly increased your chances to go to the Tokyo Olympics.
A: I hope so. In Stuttgart, we couldn’t place higher than the second place. But I’m not sure the team stays the same for the next year. In our sport, things change fast, any second. Young talented gymnasts are growing up. But if I’ll make it to Tokyo, I’ll be able to fight both in the all-around and on individual events.
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