David Belyavskiy talked to Overtime about life in quarantine, starting an athletic apparel business, and raising a daughter.
Belyavskiy was one of the first Russian gymnasts to self-quarantine as he opted not to go back to Round Lake for the most recent camp and stay in Yekaterinburg with his wife and daughter instead.
“In March, we were at a camp at Round Lake. At the end of the month, we were told that the center was closing and everyone was being sent home. It was only possible to train in Novogorsk, but I didn’t go there. I decided that I’d rather be with my family in Yekaterinburg. I thought – what if Moscow will be closed for who knows how long? Then I’ll be along and my family will also be without me.”
As many other gymnasts, Belyavskiy is currently very active on social media. He holds live streams where he invites other gymnasts to train with him.
“In quarantine, I became active on Instagram and even downloaded TikTok. It’s important for an athlete to have active social media but when I’m at camps, I have no desire to do it. Now I just don’t have anything to do. My friends and I are entertaining the subscribers. I see other people doing challenges and try to repeat them. In the last video, I’m jumping over toilet paper rolls. I first saw a British gymnast do this challenge and decided to do it as well.”
“Livestreaming my training adds motivation because it’s boring to train alone. People motivate me. I do it for those who are staying at home, so that they and their children would have something to do. I do those training sessions with my teammates, we talk and try to stay active. The coaches said to do conditioning when we can. I do conditioning and special preparation exercises for gymnastics elements. I even ordered rings and hung them in the apartment and also got a pull-up bar. Before, I had nothing like that at home.
“I’ve been staying home for more than a month. We even started ordering grocery delivery. At first, one of us would go to the store once a week but now we don’t go out at all. My daughter started saying: “Let’s go outside, I want to go on a slide”. It’s hard, of course. How can you explain to a little kid that we’re self-isolating and can’t go out? The upsetting thing is that some don’t observe these rules. I look out the window and there are many people with children outside as if self-isolation doesn’t apply to them at all. We’re only going out on our balcony and opening windows, but that doesn’t replace proper walks, of course.”
Belyavskiy has been struggling with injuries last year and even had to miss the European Championships. An extra year of preparation might allow him to get some rest and heal. However, he acknowledges that his competitors also got an extra year to heal and improve.
“Of course, I was disappointed by the postponement of the Olympics. You’ve been waiting for it for four years and then you’re told: “Sorry, the Games are next year”. I try to see it as extra time to prepare. I need to heal some minor injuries and upgrade on some events. I need to work more on pommel horse, rings, and vault. There’s time to prepare, although other athletes won’t stand still all this time either.”
“Our main competitors at the Olympics are China and Japan. In addition, the Japanese have young gymnasts, this year can give them a lot. There are also strong young guys in America who can upgrade their routines. But I think they’re weaker than China and Japan.”
The team gold in Stuttgart was Belyavskiy’s first ever World gold medal, despite the fact that he’s been competing as a senior since 2010.
“After winning the World Championships in Stuttgart, all the emotions are already gone. There was basically one week of euphoria and happiness but then everything was over the the same work started again. We managed to win because we made fewer mistakes and our routines became stronger, our team got to the same level as China. Recently, our team has become stronger, the level of competition is clearly getting higher. At the World Championships, I wasn’t thinking just about myself, that I needed the gold medal, I was thinking about all the guys. Everyone was thinking about the gold medal. Talking about it, analyzing what was needed to be done in order for us to win. After the victory, I caught myself thinking that nothing really changed in our life. We went to the same restaurant, ordered the same food, came back to the same hotel. We won gold and it was like nothing happened. But, of course, there was a lot of happiness inside.”
Belyavskiy is branching out and preparing for life after retirement – he opened a recreational gym in Yekaterinburg and launched an apparel line together with his wife Maria.
“In the summer of 2019, my wife and I launched an athletic wear brand called Belyavskiy Wear. At first, we didn’t even think about selling things. It all started with the fact that warmup suits that are sold in stores like Nike and Adidas do not fir me. If I buy size S, the top fits but the pants are too long. So, we came up with the design and had a suit made. When we showed it on Instagram, everyone liked it, so we decided to start the production. My wife designs the clothes. We have shorts, vest tops, t-shirts, warmup suits, and leotards. It’s produced locally, in Yekaterinburg. Mostly, the clothes are ordered by artistic gymnastics teams. We make them for any age, because they are all made to order. We had teams from Karelia, Chelyabinsk, kids from CSKA, and now the St Petersburg’s men’s team as clients. It all happened accidentally and the same happened with the leotard. I made it for myself, then I put the photo on Instagram, and the guys said: “That’s so cool, let’s compete in them at Worlds”.
“My wife and daughter are with me almost at every big competition. We want our daughter to see what her dad does. If she’ll like gymnastics, I won’t protest [her doing it], but I don’t want to force her. She’ll definitely do gymnastics at first and then, perhaps, we’ll choose another sport. But for now, it’s better for her to stay at home and not go to kindergarten, we don’t want to overload her at such an early age.”
“We opened the gym in Yekaterinburg, in Shirokaya Rechka neighborhood. We live in Akademicheskiy, so we decided to find a location close to us. It’s a recreational gym for kids, there is no professional equipment there, only the auxiliary equipment. Artistic gymnastics is a very useful sport. It develops all the physical qualities – flexibility, agility, speed, and strength. After artistic gymnastics, you can put your child into any sport you want. He will be well-developed physically. It’s hard to say at which age it’s possible to see that a child is a future champion. It depends. There are guys with which I competed when we were 12 and they beat me, but at 17, I started beating them while they retired. It’s all individual.”
Belyavskiy has had a long career but he isn’t ruling out continuing competing after Tokyo.
“I’ve never had a fracture or surgery in my whole career. I’ve been doing gymnastics for 20 years. I’ve never had thoughts of leaving the sport. Where would I go? What would I do? My main goal now is the Olympic gold. Whether I will continue competing after Tokyo will depend on my health. But I’ll stay in the sport in any case.”
Support Gymnovosti on Patreon from only $1 a month and help us bring to you even more awesome gymnastics coverage!
Buy cool gymnastics-themed t-shirts, hoodies, pillows, phone cases, and more at our store on Teepublic!
