Artur Dalaloyan finished competing at the Tokyo Olympics today. Back in April when he tore his Achilles, he thought he could miss out on the Olympics. Later, the plan was to compete on only four events. But Dalaloyan ended up competing on all six events for three days – in the qualification, the team final, and the all-around final. His performance in the team final helped the team to win gold – the first team Olympic gold for Russia since 1996. In the all-around, he would have needed other top gymnasts to make major mistakes. At his top shape, he would have absolutely been a medal contender but today he finished sixth.
He told the media:
“This result isn’t bad, I can’t say I’m upset. Judging by how I felt during the morning practice, I thought I wouldn’t compete at all. Some of the routines were quite hard, especially floor and vault. It’s also a lot of mental pressure. Of course, I expected to be somewhat depressed and physically weaker today. But I did it without major mistakes or falls. Sixth place is a good results for the first Olympic Games. After the team final, I realized that these Olympics were over for me. I realized that we are Olympic champions as a team. I felt happiness. But I will be fully happy when I’ll go home, hug my wife and kids and will be with them.”
Dalaloyan was called a hero for his performance by many but he didn’t consider it heroic:
“I can’t say that it’s a heroic feat. It’s more about good support from my family, loved ones, and the team. Motivation and hard work and not heroism. I understand heroism slightly differently. Everyone believed that I would recover and help the team. Overall, I didn’t let them down.”
In an interview to MatchTV, he said he mainly anticipated eating some pizza after today’s final.
Q: Artur, it was your third all-around in five days. How was it?
A: I can say that it was serious. I worked quite well and did my job. I can’t say that I’m unhappy with the result – it was an even performance. Of course, you could see that I didn’t have enough preparation, because I only trained four events out of six. You could see that I didn’t do my full difficulty on floor and didn’t do it as confidently as I can. The vault also ended up not as precise. Of course, the lack of confidence on these two events transfers a bit to other events.
Q: But your all-around score is becoming higher.
A: Of course it’s higher, because it’s the third day of competition and the results are getting better.
Q: What was your goal for today?
A: The important thing was to do perform without issues and not to show anyone how hard it is for me. The all-around was especially hard for me today. I just couldn’t force myself to work out in the warm-up gym. It’s a hard task to do all-around for three days without preparation.
Q: You’re a second reserve on rings…
A: So what? I don’t have hope for the rings final. I hope that it’s over and I’ll go and eat a slice of pizza at the dining hall. I’ve been waiting for it all these days!
Q: Do the guys on the national team restrict their food intake?
A: Of course! For me, it’s important. I can’t allow myself to eat anything extra because it leads to extra 2-3 kilograms which can crush you on an apparatus.
Q: What else do you want to do besides eating pizza?
A: I want to call home – my wife, kids, family. Or, better, to fly hime. But that won’t happen soon. The team management were told that we will be met [by the media] at the airport, so we have to all fly home together as a team. Especially since I’m the second reserve on rings, so I can’t go home until the final.
Q: What can you tell about Biles’s withdrawal?
A: I wasn’t at the arena, but there are various rumors around. I felt like… Although, should I say that? I don’t think anything. I don’t know what happened to her. She was smiling and having fun at the competition. It didn’t look like she had the injury she mentioned in the interviews. People are saying she had mental apathy or something. As far as I understand, she still plans on competing in the finals. It’s just that if an athlete is withdrawn because of medical reasons, they cannot compete in any finals. But here, it’s an unclear situation. We’ll see how it ends.
Photo: Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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Enjoy your pizza Artur, you deserve it. I can tell he misses his wife and kids and is ready for home. After all the emotions from the team final, it is hard to motivate yourself at times as you are completely emotional drained and in his case physically drained as well.
I hope he rests now and takes care of himself as he is still not 100%