Oksana Chusovitina is currently trying to qualify for her 8th Olympic Games. Despite being best known for her vaults, she is training on all four events and hopes to qualify through the all-around at the World Championships in Stuttgart.
She talked to Denis Kosinov of R-Sport about her training and competition plans and her work as an athlete representative at the FIG.
Q: The biggest question: are you preparing for the Olympics?
A: Of course! I’m preparing the all-around for the World Championships – I think this is the best option for me to qualify to the Olympics.
Q: What vault will you be training for the Olympics? The usual ones or something different?
A: Right now, the most important thing is to prepare my two vaults for Worlds – that’s a handspring rudi [Chusovitina] and Tsukahara double full [zamolodchikova]. In order to qualify to the Olympics, I need to do them consistently. And if I’ll qualify, we’ll see. I’m still training the double front and I’m also learning a vault that some girls are already doing but for me, it’s a completely new vault.
Q: Which vault?
A: I won’t say. [smiles] What if I won’t be able to do it, then what’s the point in saying what it is now? I’m trying it, we’ll see what happens.
Q: Sorry for this question, but do you see your first vault in the final in Rio in your dreams?
A: No, I don’t. I’ve forgotten all about Rio already. Life goes on, everything gets forgotten. And I don’t even have an aftertaste because I wasn’t able to achieve my goal. I’m looking at things realistically. I knew that I had started training that vault too late. I’d never done a double front before in my life, even on floor. I tried doing it in the final and I don’t regret doing it.
Q: What responsibilities do you have now besides being an athletes?
A: I’m a mom and a wife. [laughs]
Q: And where do you train? In Tashkent, or in Germany, or somewhere else?
A: Right now, I’m mostly training in Tashkent. I’m not traveling much this year. I removed more than half of the competitions from my schedule because I need to prepare for the World Championships. The competitions prevent me from preparing all four events. So, I am focusing more on training in order to prepare for the all-around.
Q: How hard is being an athlete representative on the Athlete Commission and the WAG Technical Committee?
A: It’s not hard at all. I missed one meeting because of a competition but generally they accommodate me. In Gyor, I wasn’t competing and I had a look at the young gymnasts as well. I’m really happy that I went to the Junior World Championships and saw the young girls, what generation is growing up.
Q: But you’re not just attending the technical committee meetings, right? You’re kind of a fighter for the athletes’ rights. Do you actually have to fight sometimes?
A: Sometimes – yes, I have to protect [the athletes]. When there are some doubts, they [the technical committee members] ask me: “should this be counted or not?” And I always try to be on the gymnast’s side so that children won’t be suffering. I just know it from my own experience how upsetting it is to lose a tenth or two tenths over nothing. At this competition, a girl from I don’t remember which country was on floor and stepped on the white line. But she didn’t go out of bounds. However, the line judge raised the flag. I came over and said that the girl didn’t go out of bounds, she was on the line. They watched the replay and confirmed that I was right. Those are the kind of details that I notice and tell the judges about them. Also, gymnasts often send me some questions by email. I forward them to the technical committee, check with them and only then answer the athlete. Many gymnasts have such questions that only the technical committee can answer them. And when a girl is performing some new element, my opinion is also taken into account. I’m very happy about it because I’m still an active athlete and I can say which elements are easier to do and which are harder.
Q: With girls, they have one body at 14-15 and at 16-17, it’s a different body. Did anyone competing in Gyor impress you so much that you thought they were capable of winning a medal at the Olympics?
A: One did. But she isn’t eligible for the Tokyo Olympics because of her year of birth. It’s Viktoriia Listunova who became the junior all-around champion. Unfortunately, she was born in 2005. There are other good girls but they lack experience for now. And I don’t know if they’ll get to the Olympics. Listunova could’ve competed with the seniors but she also lacks experience for now. They’re still kids, after all.
Q: You said that you were happy to see those who can win something in the future. But they’re not so little – they’re 15 years old. At this age, you were on the USSR national team. How strong as gymnasts do they seem now?
A: I really liked the British and the Russian gymnasts and individual gymnasts from other countries. You know, gymnastics has become so difficult! You need to do so many elements, there are so many special requirements. In our time, when I was competing at 15-16 years old, there weren’t as many requirements. It’s really hard for the gymnasts, especially on beam. Deductions are given for every single thing! I was amazed when I saw how they were being judged. I even said to the ladies from the technical committee: “I think a gymnast is better off just standing near the beam, she will get a higher score this way, or at least won’t get a negative score”.
Q: And what about the myth of the great Soviet gymnastics where every single national team gymnast did all the elements perfectly? Perhaps, that’s normal when gymnasts are faced with such a number of requirements? So that they would look like goddesses, don’t you agree?
A: We were judged out of 10 points. You got your difficulty and that’s it, then you have to work on the execution. According to the new rules, you can keep upgrading the difficulty. I think that many coaches are making a big mistake when they are chasing difficulty and add a lot of elements to the kids’ routines, on which they lose execution points. And then a girl comes out who has a less difficult routine but does it cleanly and gets a higher score. And it gets confusing. That one kept tumbling but got a lower score, while this one didn’t do much but got a higher score because her execution was better. And I like this gymnastics when a routine is easier but better executed more.
Q: But we have to live in the modern time when the difficulty, theoretically, has no limits. So, the coaches are trying to come up with as many “expensive” elements as possible and connect them to other elements. Perhaps, this is the inevitable direction of gymnastics?
A: I don’t know. But I’d still only put in competition routines what the kid knows how to do with 100% confidence, consistently and beautifully.
Q: I agree with you. Yes, I was happy when Viktoriia Listunova became the first ever junior all-around world champion. But she won gold despite a fall on beam. I think this is unnatural. How can someone who fell on an event be the all-around champion? Aren’t the rules that allow this ridiculous?
A: Well, those are the rules. It used to be that if you made two steps on your dismount, you won’t be among the leaders. And I like this approach better because it’s necessary for the spectators to see that the one who competed without falls, the one with better execution is the winner. But those are the rules. And, unfortunately, I can’t change anything. For example, at the last World Championships, Simone Biles made three mistakes but still won.
Q: Well, why can’t you change anything? After all, you’re talking to the technical committee, can’t you tell them your opinion?
A: That’s true but I’m not a judge. Although they do listen to my opinions and I think that the next code will be better than this one.
Q: So, it won’t happen that a gymnast can become a champion with a fall? Is this being discussed at the technical committee meetings?
A: We’ll hope that this is what will happen. It’s being discussed. Also, the kids now have to stick their landings. I explained that stuck landings lead to back injuries. Those are girls! They have low weight and the floor rebounds on the landing. For example, guys are allowed to bend their knees after landing tumbling passes on floor. But there’s no such thing for the girls, they get a 0.3 deduction for bending their knees. So, there’s a plan to bring back controlled lunges on the landings. A qualified judge will be able to see whether a gymnast tumbled properly and did a controlled lunge or her shoulders were too low and she couldn’t stay in place. You can see it all! And it will be easier for the kids on floor and beam.
Q: Don’t you have an ambition to head the WAG technical committee some day and instils proper “humane” rules?
A: I don’t, you know.
Q: Why not?
A: Maybe, I’ll have such ambitions later but I know that for now, it’s not for me. I can’t be a judge because I’m still competing and I just want to give the kids credit for everything! After all, they’re doing it! And anyway, you have to be born a judge. Like, people say: “He was born to be a doctor”. That’s the same for gymnastics judges.
Q: Why did you stop working as a coach?
A: Now, I’m an athlete preparing for the Olympic Games.
Q: Some time ago you were doing perfectly well combining this job with being a head coach of the Uzbekistan’s national team.
A: And that’s why I didn’t win an Olympic medal.
Q: But you just said it was because you started learning the new vault too late.
A: And also because I was distracted by unnecessary things too much. Now I’m focused just on the training and I have more spare time. I’m resting, I’m not anxious, I’m calmly preparing and I feel comfortable.
Q: Were you too anxious as a coach?
A: Yes, you worry about every kid, you always want to know how they feel, what they are doing, and what you can do to improve things. And you spread your attention to all these unnecessary things.
Q: And how is Tashkent gymnastics looking now? It used to be one of the big gymnastics centers, there were many strong gymnasts from your republic in addition to you. What is happening to gymnastics in Uzbekistan now?
A: There was a decline but now we have juniors who represented the country in Gyor and there are younger girls, too. I hope that with time, strong gymnastics will re-emerge here because we have good juniors.
Q: By the way, about juniors: lately, there are often discussions in Russia that our kids start seriously competing too early. That’s the way the system is set up – a coach needs results right here and now, they’re not raising an athlete but want an immediate result. And by the time the athlete turns senior, it’s a completely drained person. So, we watched the Junior World Championships where 14-15-year-old girls competed with eyes wide open because it was the Worlds. Is it necessary to organize such a grand competition for such ages?
A: I can say that at 14-15, they’re almost adult and capable of going to the Olympic Games. And without competing at such competitions… Imagine them going out with those wide eyes to compete at the Olympics? They’ll break down or make lots of mistakes. At the Olympics, especially with the rules for the Tokyo Games, everyone will have to do all-around and there’s no room for mistakes. So, I think this is exactly the age when such competitions are needed – so that they would get some experience. They’re being judges like seniors! I remember myself at the age of 15, we competed with the seniors just like that. At 15, I competed at the senior Soviet national championships and at the Goodwill Games where my eyes were sooooo big and where I made a mistake on floor, just put my hands down. I’d never fallen on a double pike before! I lost the gold medal on floor because of it. So, I think that kids really need the Junior World Championships.
Q: Going back to being a mom. Alisher is a grown-up already, what is he doing now?
A: He’s preparing to apply to a university. He decided to become a Math and Physical Education teacher. They can have two majors. He really loves sports, especially basketball, and he’s already coaching little kids. I’m happy with my son’s choice, I never force him to do anything. Alisher is independent, he always has his own opinion which I’m trying to listen to.
Q: I got an impression that you never force anyone to do anything, including yourself, right?
A: That’s right, I don’t force anyone to do anything. If I’m asked for a piece of advice, I give it but the person will decide whether to listen to it.
Q: What are you advising to yourself while preparing for another Olympics? After all, everyone who learns that Oksana Chusovitina is still competing, has an obvious question – why?
A: I have a dream. Everyone says: “Will you keep competing until you achieve it?” I joke in response: “Of course”. So, my dream. I competed at seven Olympic Games. I won a gold medals or the Soviet Union, I won a medal for the country that helped me – Germany. But I’ve never won a medal for Uzbekistan. That’s my dream – an Olympic medal for Uzbekistan. When I was thinking after Rio whether to retire or not, I realized that I still can, I have the energy. And I thought that if I don’t try again, I will regret it for the rest of my life.
Q: So, you were thinking [about retirement]? When I talked to you right after the competition in Rio, you already said that you would start preparing for the World Championships, right?
A: Well, I was thinking before that! After the final, I came back to my room and kept thinking about what happened for a long time. Should I continue or not? But the next morning, I woke up and realized that I would prepare for my next Olympics, I would go for my dream.
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