If you were worried that Oksana Chusovitina who announced her plans to retire right after the 2020 Olympics would decide to forgo an addition year of training and competing, worry not. Of course, Chusovitina is staying until 2021 which will make 32 years since her first international elite competition. Chusovitina told TASS:
“I understand IOC’s decision to postpone the Olympics. People’s health is the most important thing after all. I planned on retiring after the Tokyo Games and I’m not changing my plans. Now, I’ll stay in gymnastics for one more season, I will train in order to compete at the Olympics.”
She also gave an interview to Natalia Kalugina and talked about how the situation has affected her training. At the time of that interview a few days ago, Chusovitina was under the lockdown at the national training center, but things are changing fast and all training camps in Uzbekistan have been canceled, so she is currently at home, just like many other gymnasts around the world.
Q: Were you afraid that the Olympics could get canceled?
A: I was the least worried for myself. I’ve already had this happiness – to compete at the Olympics, to be an Olympic champion. I was most worried for the kids who had just made the Olympics, who had this chance and if the Olympics had been canceled, it would have been horrible.
Q: It’s hard to stay in shape without competitions. What can be done in such a situation?
A: I don’t know about others but I have such basics that allow me, without competing for a long time, to… On the opposite, I get such a surge of energy when I’m not competing for a long time, so I do even better.
Q: You and Svetlana Boginskaya are in different countries now. Who will you train with?
A: We have coaches here who are helping me. But Sveta and I are constantly in touch, I send her videos. When I was in America recently, Alexander Sergeevich [Alexandrov] was helping me train, and it was very nice. It was as if I plunged back into the 90s when he was the head coach and he coached and helped me. I still have such respect for him that I just can’t tell him: “No, I won’t do it”. We were joking, laughing, but these memories came and it was very nice, it gave me a positive charge.
Q: Does Alexander Sergeevich believe in your Olympic prospects? When you were 16 years old, Svetlana Mikhaylovna fought him for your right to be on the main team.
A: Alexander Sergeevich says, “if you feel you can do it, don’t listen to anyone, do what you want”.
Q: Do you think the young gymnasts will be able to stay at the same level? There aren’t any competitions now and only those that have isolated training centers are still training.
A: I think it depends on the athletes themselves, first of all. I think they know what they’re going for, what they need and what they don’t need and whether they need it at all. I think it all depends on the athletes and their desire and consciousness.
Q: Are there germicidal lamps in the gym or air purifiers?
A: Yes, we have everything, we have great conditions. There are antiseptic devices everywhere, the germicidal lamps are turned on every time, both in the gym and in the rooms. All the staff spends the nights here, no one leaves.
Q: I have a technical question – in order for the bars not to be slippery, you have to put sweet water on them. In order to clean your hands, you need to use sanitizing gel. In order for your hands not to be slippery, you have to put chalk on them. How does it all work together?
A: Fortunately for me, I’m not training bars anymore, so I’m completely safe! [laughs]
Q: And what about the kids, what do they do?
A: Well, I think that when you work on bars, you shouldn’t put fingers in your mouth between the turns. And don’t lick your hands. Everyone’s using grips now, so I think it’s all much easier.
Q: How the situation in Uzbekistan?
A: Well, there’s quarantine like everywhere, everything’s closed, you can’t enter or leave the city, buses don’t work, subway doesn’t work, it’s a complete quarantine. But I think it’s better to do it like that, to suffer a bit, and then live well. Alisher [Chusovitina’s son] is unfortunately in Germany, or, maybe, fortunately. But he calls me every day and gives reports. Everything’s closed there, too, you can’t even go outside except for essentials. He said he bought all the food, he’s at home and is studying and working on a paper he needs to submit by the 1st of April. They get homework via internet, do it, and send it back to the teachers. He’s alone there, he’s 21 years old, he’s an adult already. He’s fine, he just calls me so that I wouldn’t worry, we’re in touch. My husband is quarantined at home, I’m quarantined at the training center. Do you know how romantic that is? He comes to bring me some care packages, some things, he passes them through the fence, it’s so romantic.
Q: Like a honeymoon.
A: Yeah, kind of like the time before the wedding.
Chusovitina sure knows how to find a silver lining in every situation. She also joked that the Olympics must have been postponed to give her more time to prepare:
“I asked to postpone it a bit, I need to perfect [my vaults] a bit. So, I asked, I said “I won’t be able to prepare in time, can you please hold the Olympics a bit later?”
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