David Belyavskiy has resumed training at the Round Lake in the end of 2021 and talked to Sport24 after his first national team camp.
Q: When are you going to go back to your regular training routine?
A: I’m slowly coming back. I had a 10-day-long training camp and have another one of the same length now. It’s not hard for me to come back after a break. I was happy to come back. My muscles and joints hurt, but I’m trying not to do the maximum yet.
Q: Were you able to rest after the Olympics, considering how many events you attended?
A: I can’t say I got tired. I’d be happy if there were more events. I rested mentally and physically.
Q: You also take part in master classes for young gymnasts. Do you like sharing your experience?
A: I understand what it means for the kids. If an Olympic champion visited my gym when I was 8 years old, it would have been amazing, it’s gives great motivation to train. In our gym, a guy came from the Russian Championships and told us about it. I remember us listening to him in such admiration. It was a big accomplishment.
Q: Are you not ruling out that you will train champions in the future? Many athletes claim they won’t do it [become coaches].
A: We’ll see how it goes. I don’t make predictions. I think I have a lot of experience, I got a thing or two to teach kids. I like give advice to the guys. Even at the training camps, I might give some advice, because I see mistakes. I think that people who say they won’t coach are the ones who end up being coaches.
Q: So, we shouldn’t expect you to go into politics?
A: No. That’s not for me at all. I’ve never strived towards it.
Q: There were articles saying that after your victory, there are discussions of building a regional gymnastics academy in Yekaterinburg. Did you think that your success can help so much in the development of the sport in your city?
A: It’s just words for now, but it’s good that people started thinking about it. We’ll celebrate when the academy will be built. But it will happen after 2023, not now. Generally, it feels like our [local] government doesn’t care about gymnastics. The Summer Universiade will be in Yekaterinburg in 2023. There are many facilities being built or renovated, but there won’t be anything new for gymnastics, while I really hoped there would be.
Q: You said in the past that people started to recognize you after Rio-2016. People must be swarming you after Tokyo-2020.
A: Surprisingly, it feels like fewer people recognize me now. When I came back from Rio, there was more hype. I don’t even understand what the reason is. The Olympics were, supposedly, well-covered on TV.
Q: How many times have you rewatched the team final?
A: Honestly, I haven’t watched it once. I’ve only seen the videos with moments of our happiness. Another problem is that you can’t watch the final anywhere. I only watched the 2019 World Championships. I sometimes also rewatch specific routines.
Q: After the World Championships when the team won gold, you said that your best season was still the 2016 Olympic season. Can you say now that Rio is not in the first place anymore?
A: Of course.
Q: How did David Belyavskiy change compared to the London and Rio Olympics?
A: After London, when I came to Rio, I was more confident, I knew what I was supposed to do. In London, we had almost the youngest team in the team competition. Now you come and already know everything. You also prepare for the competitions mentally in a completely different way.
Q: Valery Lomaev [Belyavskiy’s personal coach] said that there was a time when you wanted to retire, but he explained to you that after becoming an established gymnast, it wouldn’t be you who depends on the coaches, but they would depend on you. Did his words turn out to be true?
A: Actually, I don’t remember anything like that. But I’ll answer your question. No, I don’t feel like anyone depends on me. Everyone brings something important and needed to the table, both athletes and coaches.
Q: You named the team gold as the goal for Tokyo a ling time ago. And you’re not holding back the fact that you want to go to Paris-2024. Will the goal be the same?
A: The goal will be to win gold. And then we’ll see. We’ll try to have the same result.
Q: You’ve been focused on the team gold for many years. Is that the reason you weren’t able to prove yourself on individual events [in Tokyo]?
A: Yes, something like that. The guys and I discussed it in advance that we had to give our all in the team final. The rest would be played by ear.
Q: If you want to repeat the result in Paris, what about winning event medals?
A: I hope that we’ll win by 10 points and won’t get so emotional. Actually, I don’t know how not to give your all in the team final. There’s no other way. You compete for everyone, for the whole country.
Q: How much does it bother you that there isn’t a new generation of gymnasts coming to the team?
A: I would like strong guys to join the team. We now have good guys, 3-4 guys from the junior team moved [to the main team]. No matter what, there will be a new generation on the team one day.
Q: Do you take it well when you’re called a team veteran?
A: I am the veteran among them. I’m older than some by 5 years, or even by 12 years. It doesn’t bother me at all. The age affects the physical part, not the mental one. I need more time to get in shape. There’s less sharpness. But there’s experience I’ve gained over the years.
Q: Did you know that you’d stay for another Olympic quad even before Tokyo?
A: Yes, I decided it a long time ago. I am doing something I love and will keep doing it for as long as my health allows it. Why not keep competing while I’m still competitive? When I’ll stop making the team and winning medals, then I’ll retire.
Q: If your wife told you she wants to see you more often, would you retire?
A: Sometimes it seems like she wants me to do gymnastics even more than I want it.
Q: When did you first start believing the power of the red thread she tied around your wrist before the European Championships?
A: After the European Championships. I competed very successfully there. The thread is a lucky charm. It’s not necessarily the thing that helped me win the medals. It could’ve been anything. Athletes believe in all sorts of things and I’m no exception. I won’t talk about it, though.
Q: Your daughter chose tennis and not gymnastics after all. How is she doing?
A: The main achievement is that she likes it. Tennis is more like a game, it really suits her because she can’t sit still. She starts running around in training event before the coach gives her assignments.
Q: Your daughter often appears in your Instagram videos. Does she like it?
A: She really likes it. Recently, we attended an award ceremony. She was invited to come up to the stage. She was a bit shy but still came, and then she was so happy on her way back.
Q: How is the family leotard business doing? Did you get an increase in orders after the Games?
A: We competed in our leotards designed by Masha [Belyavskaya] at the Olympics, but we didn’t promote this fact much. Generally, we have enough orders, especially when parents order presents for their kids for the New Year. It’s really nice that boys from all over the country choose our uniforms for training and competing.
Q: Do you have plans to grow the business and compete with big leotard companies?
A: We would like to do it in the future. We’ll need a big team for that. For now, Masha manages to do everything on her own, that’s why we don’t see the point of changing anything.
Q: After the Olympics, the nature of your Instagram page changed a bit. Now you share interesting stories and film videos in which you answer questions about gymnastics. When did you decide to create the new type of content?
A: It’s important for athletes. I knew a long time ago that I need to be present on social media. I kept promising to myself that I would work on that but I never managed, never had the time to get to it.
Q: Are you doing it happily or you have to force yourself every time?
A: Sometimes it’s fun, sometimes you don’t really want to do it but you know that you need it.
Q: Is it more like a personal blog or an additional income stream?
A: If it will bring me additional income, I’m all for it. But for now I share some parts of my life and write my opinions about some events.
Q: Talking about an expert opinion, you made comments about the performance of the men’s team at the World Championships. Does it mean that if there will be a need for a gymnastics expert on TV, you’ll jump into it?
A: Oh, if gymnastics will grow to the level when analysts will be invited on TV, I’m ready. They are constantly analyzing something in football. Let’s discuss the Russian Artistic Gymnastics Championships, too. I’m ready!
Q: The New Year is very soon. How did you like to celebrate it when you were a kid?
A: During my childhood, we always celebrated at hime. It’s a home holiday for me, it has to be celebrated surrounded by family. Masha and I celebrate it only at home.
Q: Which presents you would get [as a child]?
A: There was the most memorable present for me which made me absolutely stunned. My uncle and I went shopping in Votkinsk on December 30th. We were walking around and I said, “Oh, look at this cool darts game. I wish Ded Moroz brought me one like that”. On December 31st, after the clock stroke midnight, I looked under the tree and saw the darts game there. I was looking at it and thinking, “How did it happen? I was only recently thinking about it. How is this possible?”
Q: When did you learn that Ded Moroz is a fictional character?
A: I think I’d keep believing in it even now but someone at my gym told me he doesn’t exist. I argued a lot, got sad. I liked believing that he exists.
Q: How do you protect your daughter from this reality?
A: For the second year in a row, we write a letter “from Ded Moroz” for her and put it into the freezer. We say that he delivered the letter and ask her to write a reply and put it in the freezer. Then it’s as if he takes the letter and brings a gift. She learned it very well. She’s already asking now, “Where’s my letter?”
Q: Did the wish you had made on the last New Year’s Eve come true?
A: Yes. The guys and me had the same wish.
Q: There’s a challenge on Instagram in which people share their six most important moments of 2021. Which were yours?
A: I can’t recall so quickly. I’ll name three. The victory at the Olympic Games. I started being active on social media which is important for my future. I’ve visited Turkey for the first time. Although, the place seemed weird to me. If you don’t leave the hotel, everything will be fine. We traveled between cities and looked at how people live there. Well, they don’t live too well.
