David Belyavskiy for years has been on of the top gymnasts in the World. He’s a multiple European champion, yet, in the first seven World Championships, he was never able to win gold. Yesterday, the Russian men’s team made history winning its first team medal at Worlds but it was also historic for Belyavskiy who finally became a World champion:
“I think, all of us have very different emotions because for me, for instance, this is the 8th World Championships. It’s been a very long way to this medal and I’ve finally gotten there. The whole team is happy, this is the most prestigious medal. We started celebrating even before the results were announced because we knew how much Nikita would need to get. We saw how he did and more or less understood what score he’d get.”
At his first World Championships, in 2011, the Russian team finished fourth. The team would not get on the podium at Worlds again until 2018, when they lost to China by only 0.049. Now, however, the team expects to be on the podium and even to win:
“We used to come to Worlds and know that we could only win if the rest would make mistakes and we would get really lucky. Now we’re coming in a different mindset. Last year, honestly, we came only to get the Olympic spot. The second place was a good result, still, because we had not placed second in a while.”
Belyavskiy is currently injured, dealing with Achilles pain after landing his vault at the Russia Cup last month. This prevented him from competing in the all-around at Worlds but he plans on recovering by the Olympic Games:
“I will fight in the all-around at the Olympic Games. Nagornyy and Dalaloyan aren’t the ones preventing me from doing the all-around, it’s my injuries.”
Photo: Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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