Artur Dalaloyan was chosen as one of Russian Esquire’s Apostles and gave an interview in that role.
Q: For how many years have you been getting paid for doing the sport? I’m not talking about your first prize money which you spent on going to McDonald’s with your family. For how many years have you been a professional athlete?
A: Eleven years, I think.
Q: You’ve been getting a salary for 11 years?
A: Even for longer than that. When I was twelve or so, I had a stipend, not a salary. I think it was about 14,000 rubles a month. It’s not bad. I wouldn’t spend it the whole month but then I was able to afford going to a store and buying some clothes.
Q: It’s weird to limit spending on things that you really want to get.
A: I think so too. Many people try to save and save, they completely restrict their spending, deprive themselves of things, but I think it’s immoral to hinder yourself. When you’ve done the job, achieved something, you have to celebrate it, mark it. It’s for your mind, for mental health, in order to step even higher again and again. So, I spent my first prize money on a car.
Q: You’ve been earning a living by being an athlete for twelve years. People don’t see you as a hero… You’re a celebrity. For many, you’re not a person, you’re an image. Someone turns on the TV, they don’t see Artur, they see Dalaloyan. You’re a character. For example, when the Olympics come, people will expect a lot from you. You have to win all the medals and, preferably, in other sports, too.
A: I see it all as a professional athlete, I treat it as my job. I have a family and everything in my life basically depends on it. What’s the most important factor for me? To always stay in top shape, to compete with the team, to stay healthy. I don’t strive for crazy feats already because I understand that in order to achieve a crazy feat, I have to risk my health in training. Now I understand that no, this road is not for a responsible person, not for a husband and a father.
Q: You’re not a rock star, you’re a hard worker.
A: Absolutely. I’m some reckless person. I’ve been in this system for a long time. I know what’s required of me in order to stay at the level I set for myself.
Q: How did you become so reasonable?
A: I think every person gets to the moment when your peak is over. Let’s take the year 2018. Few manage to fly as high as I did – five medals at the European Championships, five medals at the World Championships. It’s ridiculous! That was the peak. But that won’t always happen. It’s as if you’re playing roulette and expecting the number you bet on to come up every time. What I want to say is it’s important to stay realistic. If you once had luck and everything worked out, it doesn’t mean it will stay like this forever. You’ll only get disappointed.
Q: When did you realize that you can’t take unnecessary risks with your body, your mind, and your discipline?
A: I guess, in the beginning of 2019. I was preparing a bars routine. We started talking with mentioning the dismount named after me. I had a perfect bars routine. In 2018, I was the European champion on bars, at the World Championships I took third place. A year later, I decided I’d perfect this element. It’s incredibly difficult, especially at the end of a routine. In the end, I came to the European Championships and realized that I spent all my energy on that dismount but didn’t get anything from it. I made the final. In the all-around final, I did my routine but realized that it was getting harder for me and the elements in the beginning were not as precise and good because I spent too much time on the dismount. My mind backs off and I tell myself that in the [bars] final, I shouldn’t do that dismount because I won’t power through, I’ll just fall. In the final, I do my whole routine quite well and do my old regular dismount which I had already forgotten. It is easy for me but it has not been polished. I land but with a big step back and finish out of the medals.
Q: What competition was that?
A: European Championships. This situation taught me a lot. I realized what’s important, why our sport is called “Artistic Gymnastics” – your routine should show mastery, that you’re not trembling, you didn’t get tired, you didn’t power through somehow and managed to dismount while half-dying. The most important thing in our sport is to show ease and smile casually when you dismount. Being at ease – that’s the most important thing, I guess.
Q: Maybe, that’s true for any judged sport. It doesn’t matter who smiles in what way at a 100-meter run.
A: Or another situation. World Championships in 2018. The Chinese* [gymnast] and I get the same sum of scores only he had quite a higher difficulty while I did my polished and perfected routines, hit everything and did every routine perfectly. We get the same sum of scores, he has more mistakes [in execution], he loses.
Q: He had more difficult elements but didn’t do them perfectly.
A: And here it is – the gold medal. I don’t know why, what changed in my mind, but after 2018, I started striving for higher difficulty, making this effort, even though I don’t need it at all.
Q: What does it mean for a guy to retire at 30 years old? Basically, you’ll become a retired athlete at around 30. As I understand, the Ministry of Sports and the federation don’t pay any pensions, right?
A: I know one thing. If an athlete in Russia wins an Olympic gold, that athlete will be paid a stipend of 52,000 rubles all their life, the presidential grant.
Q: You made the decision that you won’t ruin your health. Many athletes don’t make such decisions and ruin their health. You said your back hurts. You all have pain in your backs. We all know that professional sports aren’t about health at all. What you do is beyond human capabilities. It seemingly shouldn’t happen. Why are you doing it?
A: Not everyone can explain why it’s all being done. It’s in the blood, I guess. Athletes, especially professional ones, are just the kind of people who need physical exercise. Perhaps, they’re even sadistic.** I torture myself in the gym day after day, exhaust myself but I like it. I know I enjoy it. If you pay attention to all these little things – nutrition, proper sleep, healthy way of life, you stick to the routine, then you don’t harm your body. You work, you give it your all, you try hard, and you grow. People say that professional sports are harmful for one’s health. The harm is caused by the people who do professional sports but also smoke weed, drink every day or allow themselves [to drink] on some days. When you allow yourself such weaknesses, such disruptions, that’s bad.
Q: I think that professional sports are cool but it’s a show. I turn on the TV, watch what Artur does and really enjoy it. For you, is it serving Russia or you’re just a physical abilities artist?
A: It’s a combination of power, beauty, and grace. There’s absolutely everything in gymnastics. Plus the fight. You know what kind of competition there is for a spot on the team?! When you realize that there are other competitors, especially when you’re 19 or 20. It’s not just coming there and showing how graceful you are. There are five more people who want to make the same team besides you. You compete with them day after day, even in training, you earn “points” so that the head coach sees it.
Q: Have you had the biggest lesson for sports or life? Something you will always remember?
A: Half a year ago, I was under a lot of stress, and I started getting boils on my legs. I needed to go abroad for a few days and didn’t want to cancel. I went [to the medics] to change the dressing every day and monitored it to ensure it doesn’t get infected. Because of the trip, I was told I’d have to take care of my leg by myself. To get inside my leg by myself. But I had to. “Had to” because the other option would be gangrene.
I know really well what I have to do and what I shouldn’t do. In every case, in every situation, I know full well what I did wrong. Even if I allow myself to rest for one day or to drink something, beer or wine, at the wrong moment. I know there will always be consequences. So, In 2018, turned off all the cravings, all the bad habits in my mind and you know how well everything went together!
Q: So, you were truly thinking only about it – to be just a gymnast?
A: Yes, about every detail! If I train for three weeks at the training center and don’t leave it, I go crazy. It’s playing very dirty tricks with me. Yes, I get physically ready there but mentally I’m exhausted, I’ll fail anyway and all my work will be in vain. In 2018, I had already moved in with Olya. I came home every day, the training center was open. I came to the center as if to work and worked every day. I have a practice at 7:30 am, then at 11, and then from 5 pm to 7 pm. After that, I went home to be with my family. I recharged emotionally. The next day I would wake up at 5 am again, go to the gym, and work again. Every day was like that. I didn’t get tired once in all that time. Everything I gave in the gym I could get back at home because of the emotions and the variety. I learned a lot. During all those years when we were preparing for Rio and for European and World Championships, I would put myself into such a strict routine that I couldn’t handle it.
Q: So, the routine played against you. But now you cut off all the things that are bad for you but aren’t boxing yourself in. Did someone help you to figure it all out?
A: It’s intuition, that’s all. I can’t say that I sat down and developed a scheme. I got into such great shape that I could just wake up, open my eyes and do a bars routine. It was nothing for me. I would come to practices and wouldn’t even warm up. We have an hour-long warm-up and then difficult elements on every apparatus. I would come to the gym and think: “What warm-up?! I now need to wait for an hour until everyone warms up!” Then the verification would start. I would do six events, six routines and that was it, the results were easily seen.
*There has lately been a lot of discussion regarding how in English media, for example, during TV broadcasts, gymnasts from East Asian countries are often referred to by their nationality/country and not by name, while gymnasts from Western countries are referred to by their names. This might seem like a similar case but it’s very common in Russian sports discourse to use nouns meaning “from X country” instead of names to refer to any foreign athletes, be they from the USA or China. I am not sure why that is and whether this practice could be considered disrespectful to foreigners on the whole but at least it doesn’t single out specific countries and ethnicities.
**Dalaloyan probably meant “masochistic” and confused the two words.
Photo: Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation, Esquire
