David Belyavskiy talked to TeleSport after the Olympics. He discussed his career, the differences between Tokyo and the other two Games he’s been a part of, and his plans for the future.
Q: David, at the European Championships you told media a funny story – your daughter told you to bring four medals home. What goals did Alicia set for you in Tokyo?
A: There weren’t any medal goals. She didn’t set a medal plan for me. [laughs] There was only one condition – she told me to bring home a gold medal. She didn’t need anything else. I did it, so, at the family council, the Olympics were ruled successful.
Q: You said in the past that you have a new tradition – you give every new medal to Alicia.
A: Yes, it started only recently. I gave her medals from the European Championships, from the Russian Cup. It’s a fresh tradition. Actually, I gave her medals before as well, but only now she started seeing it in some way… Maturely, I guess. She thinks differently, she’s growing up.
Q: Only three years old and such a craving for awards. It’s time to sign her up for a sport.
A: Yeah, maybe. She told me yesterday, “I want to do gymnastics, like you!” I guess it’s time. But we’re still thinking about it. I take Alicia to the gym with me when I come home. She likes to run and jump, she’s very active. I don’t know, we’ll see. We tried taking her to train with a coach… She doesn’t really like to be forced to do something. I think she’ll need to get used to it, we only took her once.
Q: I often hear from athletes that they won’t sign their kids up for elite sports. Why do you think that is?
A: It’s a question… But personally, I’m not against sports, on the contrary. It’s just it doesn’t have to be gymnastics. Perhaps, some other sport that she’ll like. We tried tennis, too – Alicia really liked it but we were told she’s too young. All in all, she’ll almost definitely do sports, we just haven’t yet decided which. But we generally don’t have a goal to make a gymnast out of her.
Q: As someone who’s been through this more than once, tell people how athletes feel when such a big competition like the Olympics end.
A: I would call it inner calm. When you’re at the Olympics – in our case, the competition was from the 24th of July to the 3rd of August – it’s quite a long period during which you have to stay fit and fully focused. Because after the team final, you also have individual finals. After such an exhausting competition, you feel an emotional slowdown. You come home very calm and enjoy being with your family.
Q: So, it doesn’t happen that after such a fast pace you wake up in the morning and don’t know what to do?
A: Actually, it’s the opposite, I have a lot to do. When I came back to Yekaterinburg, I rested for a couple of days, there were days off. And then all sorts of events started – I get invited here and there.
Q: Did you have time to celebrate?
A: Of course! Right after coming home, I met with my friends to celebrate. Then I visited kids in the gym – I think there were no fewer than 200 there. I talked to them, told them about the Olympics.
Q: Your flight from Tokyo left at night right after your last final – on parallel bars. Essentially, you didn’t have time to recover or contemplate on what happened. There was probably a lot on your mind, right?
A: You could say so. It’s actually not very convenient to leave right after the competition. Your mind is occupied by other things – how to pack your bag, how not to forget anything, how you’ll travel. And you also need to go out and compete. I’d rather leave the day after so that my mind wouldn’t be preoccupied. No, I’m not saying that it prevented me from doing my routine on bars somehow. But it would have been better to organize it differently. I don’t know who booked our tickets – the Russian Olympic Committee or someone else… I guess they thought the earlier we leave the better.
Q: Have you been able to finally understand and accept what happened? We often ask this question, “Have you realized that you’re an Olympic champion”. But over the years, I haven’t gotten close to understanding what it means. Can you explain what this feeling is when you realize that you truly did something big.
A: It’s a very difficult question… Overall, nothing changed in my life. I mean, the daily life. I still do what I did before. It’s just that my status, supposedly, is a bit different now. On the other hand, others don’t care what’s your status. I guess to understand that you’re a champion is when you get internal satisfaction from your work. And that happens after every competition. European Championships, for example. You won – that means you did a good job. It means that all the time you spend at camps without seeing your family was not for nothing, did not disappear without leaving a trace.
Q: So, when the satisfaction due to the result you achieved comes – that’s how your realize you’re a champion, right?
A: I think so. It’s actually a complicated topic. I haven’t really thought about it before. We had a goal for Tokyo – to achieve the [team] Olympic gold. And we’ve accomplished that. Of course, everyone’s happy, both we and our country.
Q: For you personally, how did the Olympics in Tokyo go?
A: Olympics… I’ll start from afar. I have this thing – I have favorite cities and countries where I like to come. And I have the ones that I don’t like. Japan and Switzerland are among my most favorite countries and I usually compete well there. When I was traveling to Tokyo, I had this thought in my head, “It would be nice if my thoughts about it were right and things would go great this time as well.” So, if we’re looking at the results, everything’s great. Everyone’s happy. And, I think, we performed quite well. On the other hand, this time, the Olympics weren’t a celebration. Usually, Games mean spectators and interactions at the Olympic village. There was none of that now. We lacked this atmosphere.
Q: Was everything really so strict at the Olympic village?
A: Well, I can’t say anything about interactions on other team – perhaps, we were the only ones without them. Because, some people, let’s say, had a really good time. But I’m also talking about interactive events and entertainment in the village. At every Olympics, there are special recreation rooms, some arcade machines. Everyone’s walking there, playing something. There was nothing like that now. Obviously, that’s because of the pandemic, but still. Even in Rio, things were better in this sense. Also, you know, regarding how organized the Japanese are… There was something weird. When I’ve been to competitions in Japan before, I really liked the organization. But here… The transportation was just a mess. We would have competitions at 9 or 10 in the morning, they would schedule the bus for us at 6:30, even though the ride to the gym takes 5 minutes. There would be no other buses. Coming back was also a problem. There were difficulties.
Q: So, usually, the Japanese are ok? It’s just that also noticed that the organization at the Olympics was a complete mess – they didn’t know anything.
A: Yes. This time, there were some, let’s say, work issues at competitions. For example, I was supposed to help Nikita on some events. It’s allowed by the rules. In the end, I was allowed one day, but the next day I go and am told that on this specific event, helping is not allowed. I ask the volunteer, “Why?” She responds, “Steve Butcher said so!” I ask her to show me the document, she goes, “No, he said so and that’s it!” Overall, it felt like they kept changing the rules as they went. One day it was this way, the next day – completely different.
Q: You’ve been to Japan many times before but this time was special. What surprised you the most in Olympic Tokyo?
A: I’ll say the attitudes towards our country. We were warned that people would give us side eyes, that we could be provoked. But I didn’t notice anything like that. Even the Japanese volunteers started calling us by the country when we just landed at the airport, “Oh, Team Russia, come here!” So, our fears were not confirmed. I heard that there were some incidents in other sports but we haven’t encountered anything like that in gymnasts. And about other things… You know, it seems like nothing else surprised me. We didn’t go anywhere either. Our route was Olympic Village – gym and back. It’s my third Olympics, so I knew how it usually goes. There was nothing new in Tokyo compared to other Olympics. On the contrary, there were fewer things. But I can’t say that I was really disappointed by anything. Yes, there were issues with the transportation but we took care of them quite fast. And I didn’t pay much attention to anything else. Especially after the team gold – from that point, I only had positive emotions.
Q: If the Olympics took place in 2020, we could have worried about the team gold less. In the end, the pandemic, and injuries appeared – Denis’s legs, Artur’s Achilles, Nikita’s issues…
A: I don’t know, actually. For me, personally, the postponement of the Olympics was an advantage.
Q: Why is that?
A: For some reason, I couldn’t manage to get back in shape. Perhaps, I would have managed to peak by the time of the Olympics but the first two months – January and February, before the pandemic – it was really hard for me to get back. Now, though, I was in my best shape. Perhaps, the same as I was in back in Rio-2016.
Q: Tell me honestly, what did you feel when you were flying to Tokyo and preparing for the team final? As the team captain and strategist, did you know that the team’s odds were not so great?
A: Definitely not. After all, we didn’t see how well prepared other competitors were, what shape they were in, what issues they had. We only knew that this postponement was really advantageous for the Japanese team because they had young guys and they managed to perfect their routines in that time. And regarding our difficulties, I told the guys – sure, we have problems, but the worse the situation, the better we perform. Let’s prove it. That’s exactly what happened.
Q: But let’s be honest – at some point, you surely felt like everything was falling apart?
A: True. When Artur got injured, we just didn’t know what we would do. We had a verification, our flight to European Championships in Basel was the next day. And on the very first event, Artur’s Achilles tears. We were all in a horrible mood but we needed to move forward. We finished the verification and started discussing whether it would be possible to recover in time [for the Olympics]. There were different talks, let’s say that.
Q: Did you even believe then that Artur would be able to come back in time?
A: After he had surgery, he came to the training camp and we saw what shape he was in. I was very surprised – I don’t know how he managed to prepare so well but he wanted it a lot. From that moment, we never doubted him.
Q: When you came to Tokyo, Valery Pavlovich Alfosov said that Artur would only do four events. Was the team ready for the situation that he would come and say, “No, I’m doing all six”?
A: No one was ready. At all.
Q: Did you not even think about this option?
A: No. No one knew about it. We expected him to do four events and that was it. But Artur said he wanted to try [doing all six]. On our team, Denis doesn’t do some of the events, so Nikita and I were supposed to do the all-around. And when Artur announced his decision, we had a safety net on leg events – we thought that if, for example, someone had a bad routine, he would be able to cover it. And when he did these events in the qualification, we saw for sure that he was the one to do vault. On floor, we were choosing between Artur and me. In the end, we decided that if he can do his whole routine, he will get a higher score.
Q: How did this team meeting go? Did the team try to talk Artur out of it? Medals are great and all but he could’ve become disabled.
A: We knew that the risks could be very high. God forbid he could have landed badly and wouldn’t have been able to do the rest of the events. In that case, we wouldn’t have even made the top three, we would have placed 8th. But he was very persuasive. We believed in him and supported him. We said, “Let’s just go and do it.”
Q: I’ll explain why I’m asking. The story of your team gold – overcoming the difficulties, the suspense, your conference before floor, the victory in spite of everything – it’s a ready-made scenario for a movie, don’t you think so?
A: That would be cool, let’s make this movie! I’m definitely for this.
Q: Who will play David Belyavskiy?
A: Oh, I don’t know… I don’t really remember actors, so I can’t name someone right away. I know Adam Sandler but he probably won’t be a good fit for this role.
Q: Ok, the casting directors will have some work to do. At the same time as this gymnastics movie, another one will probably be made – about the weird situation with Simone Biles in Tokyo. How did you react when it all happened?
A: It was very weird, of course. She’s an athlete of such a high level… But, generally, it happens. Later, we all thought it wasn’t surprising that it happened on vault. Simone does a very difficult vault, a Yurchenko double pike. But in the team final, she went for a laid-out twisting vault. It’s a completely different technique, there’s one kind of pre-flight for a double pike and a different one for a twisting vault. Perhaps, she got confused, got lost in the air a bit. And the vaults themselves are extremely difficult. After all, she prepared to do a double pike but in the end, did a twisting vault. That’s why the mistake happened. After all that, we asked the US coaches what they think of the situation with Simone. They said they all supported her because it wasn’t clear how she would do on the rest of the events. It was also a big risk for them. Let’s say, she could have done a beam routine with three falls. Their team wouldn’t have even made the top three. I don’t know what state she was in and how she felt but from the outside, the decision to withdraw looks correct.
Q: Why can a person lose air awareness? How can it be explained technically?
A: The explanation is simple – incredible difficulty. This also happened to me in the past – because of that, I couldn’t do certain elements. We used to have rollout skills [on floor]. At some point, I started getting lost and decided not to do them. Because landing such a skill is extremely dangerous, you can land on your head. This actually happens to all gymnasts. Such twisties happen sometimes, nothing can be done about it. No matter how much you learn the technique, it can never be perfect.
Q: What’s the story with judging in event finals? It felt to me like you, Denis, and Nikita were a bit underscored.
A: I wouldn’t say so, actually. Judging seemed quite appropriate to me. If we look at it – in the team final, we won over the Japanese by one tenth of a point. So what, after that, we will now start saying that the judging was not fair? I saw that many wrote that but guys, we won over the host team in their arena. How could the judging be unfair? Discussing this doesn’t feel right. Regarding what happened to Abliazin in the vault final – it was all according to the rules. Whoever had the highest single-vault score won.
Q: By the way, how did it happen that on that night, almost no one in the arena knew how the winner is decided? Do you not get notified of the rules or what?
A: Well, do you think all we do is discuss the rules? [laughs] And, anyway, it’s a very rare case when the scores are the same. They both got 14.783 – it’s really hard to get the scores [of the two-vault average] match to the thousandths.
Q: There was an opinion that judges started favoring other competitors because you won two team golds. Like, let others win as well.
A: No, there was nothing like that. We all knew well what we could expect. For example, my pommel horse final. If everyone did their routines well, I would have placed sixth of seventh. But I finished fourth. That’s also a good result. So, both me and the Japanese [Kaya Kazuma] were favored in the same way.
Q: You said that gymnasts did not feel prejudice against them. What about the whole thing with the flag and the anthem?
A: There was just one moment, when we stood on the medal podium after the team final and there was an announcement, “The anthem of the Russian Olympic Committee is playing”, and I thought for a second that our, Russian anthem would play. And when Tchaikovsky’s music started playing, I felt a bit uneasy. Even though I, of course, knew that they would play Concerto #1. When we went to the practice in the morning, I told everyone that Petr Ilyich [Tchaikovsky] is also from Votkinsk, like me! And that it would be cool to hear his music with gold medals around our necks.
Q: But were there really no tricky situations? Not Chilean journalists, no American accusers of “Russian cheaters”?
A: Nope. I guess it’s also because gymnastics was generally never involved in doping scandals. There were some issues in other sports but not in our gym. Well, if people are saying something, whatever. Here’s an example for you in the context of politics. People say that America doesn’t like us or that we don’t like it. But in the team qualification, we really wanted the US team to place fourth, so that we would rotate together in the final. They’re fun and cheerful, they always support us. It was really comfortable to rotate with them.
Q: I thought that the sound wave that the US team creates would make competing not very comfortable.
A: On the contrary! They drew all the attention to themselves and we could focus in peace. And they distracted us from our own thoughts a bit. It was like they charged us with their energy.
Q: By the way, there was a rumor before the Games that our athletes got instructions on how to answer trick questions about doping, politics, etc. Did it really happen?
A: Yes.
Q: How did it look like? Did you get cards with phrases prepared for any possibility?
A: Not exactly. Before we left for Tokyo, our Olympic Committee organized a workshop and we were told there how to reply in a way that wouldn’t raise questions.
Q: Didn’t it feel like the Soviet times?
A: Not really. We weren’t given specific phrases for any occasion to memorize. The final wording could vary. But I never used it anyway. Thankfully, everyone was calm in our case.
Q: I think the most outrageous judging scandal at the Olympics was when Dina and Arina Averinas were underscored in rhythmic gymnastics. I think everyone expressed an opinion about that in Russia. Were you shocked when you learned what happened?
A: I was surprised, that’s for sure. We watched the final live and it was… well, weird. When you drop an apparatus, like the Israeli gymnast did, it’s basically the same as having a fall in artistic gymnastics.
Q: Many called for giving Dina Averina gold as well…
A: But how would it even work? Just to bring out another medal? That doesn’t happen at the Olympics. No one owes anyone anything there. If you did better, then you won.
Q: What do you mean it doesn’t happen? It happened at the 2002 Olympics in figure skating.
A: So, in this case, who was supposed to get the two gold medals?
Q: In my opinion, Dina and Linoy Ashram.
A: I don’t know… I later got comments saying that Averinas, too, won in the past despite dropping apparatuses. I don’t know enough about the details of the rules and judge it as a fan. But for me, personally, dropping an apparatus is equal to a fall. And it’s almost impossible to win with a fall in our sport.
Q: What do you plan on doing in the near future?
A: Just resting. I don’t have any serious projects planned.
Q: As I understand, you’re not going to the World Championships in Japan, right?
A: Yes, and I won’t even train for it. I won’t go to the camp either. It will start on August 22nd and we were told that those who want to go to Japan will have to attend it. There will be one camp, then another. But I need to take a short break to heal minor injuries, so that I would start training properly next year. Also, to stay home with my family. I haven’t seen them in a long time.
Q: I remember you said in Basel that your wife told you that another two Olympics would be fine. So, the first out of the two was Tokyo, right?
A: Why? Perhaps, it will be Paris. [laughs]
Q: Really?
A: Well, we’ll see how it goes. It’s hard to make predictions several years in advance. I’ll keep training but it’s a different question whether I’ll make the team or not. But I have a goal to be selected for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Q: When in Tokyo, I asked Nikita to describe you, he said that you always approach everything with a cool head and don’t do anything crazy or foolish based on emotions. And I googled what your tattoo means – “Go crazy when it’s appropriate”, right?
A: Yes, that’s right.
Q: So, tell me the craziest thing you’ve done impulsively.
A: Oh, heck… I can’t talk about such things. [laughs] If we’re begin serious, then, I guess, when I proposed to my wife at the Rio Olympics. Well, if that can be considered crazy. I bought the ring in advance, we were at the airport… I didn’t know what place we would take there. I wanted the team to win a medal and to propose, backed by that. No, I don’t think, of course, that she would have refused, had we gotten no medals. But it served as motivation for me to compete better.
Q: And what crazy thing you want to do in the future? Besides Paris-2024, of course.
A: It’s hard to say right now. I guess it should come to me. You don’t plan crazy things, it happens in the moment. You just catch a thought – oh, this is cool, I’ll do it!
Q: Some people plan them – skydiving, proposing at the Olympics…
A: Skydiving… No, no, I definitely wouldn’t want to skydive.
Q: I guess we have a unique case here. An Olympic champion who’s afraid of skydiving.
A: Well, no. Although… I don’t even know if I’m afraid. I think that I would be told, “here’s a parachute, jump, you have to”, I would go and jump. But to choose to do it – I guess, no.
Q: Enough jumps in gymnastics?
A: Definitely. We have some things scarier than skydiving here.
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