Artur Dalaloyan is still on a break from training and competing in order to let his Achilles fully heal. Neverthless, he performed at Svetlana Khorkina’s gymnastics show last week and talked to R-Sport about his post-Olympics life and plans to resume training
Q: You’re performing at Svetlana Khorkina’s gymnastics show while the recovery after your achilles injury is still ongoing. It’s not too hard on your body, right?
A: Yes, I specifically asked to do rings because this is the event with the least risk to re-injure something. Although at the end of my routine, I still do an acro combination on floor – that’s a must. After all, I like to tumble. Floor and vault are my favorite events. But, of course, everything is low-key, gentle on my body, since the recovery is still ongoing. I still feel a bit of tension in my achilles but it’s nothing like at the Olympics.
Q: At the same time, you’ve already announced that you’re continuing your career. What helped you to make the final decision?
A: I’m recovering slowly and starting to train. In general, I’m already tumbling well and even training floor, although on the tumble track for now and without extremely high difficulty. On vault, I can also run and do some sort of a vault. I feel good and the most important thing is I know I miss it. I miss the training, the preparation. I know that I still have something to say at competitions, so that’s why I’m continuing.
Q: Will the intensity rise the closer you get to the end of your recovery?
A: I told myself that I definitely need to take a break from intensive training until January in order to enjoy it instead of pushing myself too much. If I want to, I go and train. If I want to tumble, I tumble. But without effort and meticulousness, in a relaxed way. Starting in January, I will take training more seriously and start working on raising difficulty according to the new rules.
Q: Do you know what you need to upgrade?
A: Yes. My coach and I sat down once and discussed all the issues – in what way the new rules benefit us and in what way they don’t. We discussed on what we need to work when we start getting into the training process. Where to add, where to be more attentive, how to modify the routines. So, we have the understanding and the vision [of how to change the routines].
Q: So, there’s more confidence than questions already?
A: I can say that I am even happy with some of the changes. New things in the rules set the tone for artistic gymnstics where you need to be more versatile, show different gymnastics on all events. And that’s how my routines are built – not just on one kind of element that I’m really good at. I have very diverse routines on each event, so in some way this even benefits me.
