Daria Nagornaya (nee Spiridonova) talked to MatchTV about her life after retiring from artistic gymnastics last year.
Q: Daria, we are now at a cafe with a huge display case full of desserts. Do you allow yourself eat such things now?
A: Actually, I always have, but I’ve always controlled the quantity. It’s hard to train when you gain weight and it’s even harder to compete. Now, actually, I don’t want it much, I guess, because I’m allowed to eat everything. It’s true what people say – the forbidden fruit is the sweetest. I used to be able to eat even between practices, when we had naps. After the nap, you crave something sweet even more. I could eat quite a lot of sweets but I tried to limit myself. Now, when I know that I can have any cake, I barely want it.
Q: You’ve been doing gymnastics since seven years old but you started training seriously a bit later. Can you say that it allowed you to have a normal childhood of a child outside the elite sports? Walks, games, playing in the yard – all that.
A: Yes, I had all that which makes me really happy. I remember how older girls would come to take me with them – for some reason, I was always closer to the older ones. They would walk up to our floor, knock on the door, my mom would open, and they’d say, “Can we take Dasha out?” We hung out and played, it was a lot of fun. But, by the way, I started going to Moscow for camps when I was 8 years old.
Q: You were a part of a remarkable story when the Worlds gold on bars was given to four gymnasts simultaneously…
A: It was the kind of a moment that will forever stay in the history of gymnastics. It has never happened before and, I think, will never happen again. But I have some fun memories. No one was left out and everyone was happy. I was happy for myself and for the girls.
Q: Were there any hurt feelings, like, you won but it’s a pity that you weren’t the only winner?
A: Well, of course, it would have been nice to be alone on the top of the medal podium, but it’s not upsetting like if I lost and others won. A gold medal is a gold medal, that’s what’s important. By the way, it was recently 6 years since this event, since the medal ceremony in Glasgow. It’s crazy how time flies.
Q: Speaking of the time. It’s been a bit less than a year since you retired. I imagine it was a well-considered decision that took some time to make, but were there any days when you thought, “Oh, perhaps, I decided too fast”?
A: Actually, no. And you’re right, I really came to this decision consciously, I thought it through. I didn’t retire because I couldn’t do something or I was burnt out. I was trying to win a spot for the Tokyo Olympic Games, only not on the team, but on individual events. At some point, we went to a competition in Baku where we competed on one day and then were prohibited from competing because everything was put on lockdown. We went home and spent another year under a lockdown at home. I thought about it long and hard. My husband Nikita and I discussed everything and decided that was it, enough. I didn’t have the motivation, the desire to train I used to have. My years in gymnastics were amazing and I’m extremely grateful. Where else would I get all this life experience? But my decision to move on and try something new was right. I don’t regret it at all.
Q: So, now you’re busy with your nail salon and your own gymnastics clothes brand, and you’re also active on social media. What do you feel the closest to, what do you enjoy the most?
A: When I just retired, it was interesting for me to try absolutely everything. I wanted to do this, that – to try everything. Before, I spent all my time at the training center and didn’t see anything outside – training, gym, bed. And when you leave the sport, it’s like the rest of the world opens before you. I first tried launching a fashion brand about five years ago when I was still training – I didn’t even have time to go to the factory or meet the seamstress. So, I gave up on that then and resumed it now, I like it. The salon is also extremely interesting for me. I love everything I’m doing.
Q: So, Daria Spiridonova is a true business woman?
A: I can’t call myself that yet, I’m still inexperienced. But I’m going to grow in this area.
Q: What did you feel when you husband brought the long-awaited Olympic gold home?
A: It’s hard to even express it in words. Happiness! I know how he dreamed about this medal and how he trained, how he prepared, how he worked on losing weight at home and how much he restricted himself. Nikita deserves this gold. He did a great job.
Q: Wait, why did he need to lose weight?
A: Nikita likes his food, so he always pays extra attention to his weight before competitions. I remember how about a week before leaving for the Olympics he ate and then went for a run. Because he wasn’t allowed to gain any weight. A lot in gymnastics depends on your weight.
Q: How does it work that you have to limit the food so strictly with such crazy training loads?
A: He’s just prone to weight gain, I guess. But he actually lost weight after the Olympics. I guess it was the same as with me – when you’re allowed to eat, you don’t want it that much.
Q: How is his health? Is he training?
A: He’s feeling great. He’s training but less than prior to the Olympics, of course. He now has other ideas and plans. He still goes to competitions, so he now trains even less than he competes. But other than that, he has Yunarmia and other stuff.* He spends a lot of time on Yunarmiya. Yesterday, he came back from Crimea, today he left for a competition. Sometimes I don’t even see him. He comes home for seven hours during the day to sleep and that’s it, he flies away again.
Q: I can’t help but ask about this controversial topic. Irina Viner-Usmanova called Artur Dalaloyan an idiot when he, while talking to journalists, carefully wondered whether it was fair to award Averina sisters more expensive cars than they were supposed to get according to the general rules for winners and medalists of the Tokyo Games. Have you heard about this and what do you think about this situation?
A: I don’t know exactly what happened. But journalists sometimes can convey something a bit differently than how it was said or to embellish a bit. Actually, it’s none of my business, but Irina Aleksandrovna could’ve expressed herself in a gentler manner when Artur just expressed his opinion.
Q: What are your plans for the near future? Are there going to be some shows, performances, or master classes?
A: We are preparing for Alexey Nemov’s show now because it was postponed, and also for Svetlana Khorkina’s show. This show will happen for the first time, I don’t yet know how it’ll look and what will be there, but it’s very interesting, we’ll participate in both. Regarding master classes, I haven’t done any yet, it’s not a well-developed area in artistic gymnastics [in Russia]. But if someone organizes it and invites us, we would be happy to come.
Q: I often see your supportive comments under the posts of our figure skaters on Instagram. What connects you to this sport?
A: I just really like figure skating. Back in 2015, I was lucky to meet Zhenya Medveva and we’re still friends and stay in touch. Her birthday is coming up, she’s already invited me. I really like this sport. I think if I have a girl, I’ll sign her up for figure skating. Well, it’ll depend on what she wants, too, but figure skating is truly an incredibly beautiful sport. I’m closest to Zhenya but, of course, I follow what happens in the sport. I try to support everyone.
Q: Daria Usacheva from your home club Sambo-70 recently got seriously injured at a Grand Prix competition in Japan. She just went for a jump in warm-up and, seemingly, something went wrong in the air, and the fall was very unfortunate. Are there many cases of injuries in competitions in gymnastics?
A: When you were talking about it, the first situation that came to my mind was the one that happened to Aliya Mustafina. If I’m not mistaken, it happened in 2010**, she injured her knee on vault. It was very nasty, everyone got scared and upset. Fortunately, Aliya was able to recover after that and she competed a lot, managed to overcome everything, and won many medals. She’s a strong person and a real champ. I wish Dasha Usacheva the same.
Q: In your experience, do such injuries happen because of bad landings or as a results or micro injuries with which an athlete comes to a competition?
A: Injuries can happen because of anything, these are elite sports and they’re unpredictable. You can twist your ankle on any small thing, like it happened to me. I did the simplest element possible in gymnastics and twisted my ankle so badly that I needed a surgery and to put a metal plate in it. And I lived with this plate for a year, compete at competitions, at two World Championships – in Doha and Stuttgart. And only a year and a half later I got that plate removed. So, it’s really unpredictable, whether you do a difficult element or something simple.
*Yunarmiya – the Young Army Cadets National Movement, a controversial militarized youth organization in Russia that is supported by the Russian government. Nagorny is the Head of the General Staff of the Young Army. You can read more about it here.
**The injury in question was at the 2011 European Championships.
