David Belyavskiy decided to participate in a competition from Under Armour Russia #WillFindsaWay and posted his personal story in the sport of gymnastics as an example of willing to win and never giving up. Beliavskiy talked about growing up poor in Votkinsk, a small town without a strong gymnastics program, and finishing in 46th place at his first Russian Championships. It took him a while to get to the national team and this involved moving to Yekaterinburg and living in a boarding school in order to be able to train at a better gym.
Belyavskiy writes:
“I started doing artistic gymnastics at 8 years old in Votkinsk, it’s a tiny town in Udmurtia. I walked 2-3 kilometers to the gym every day after school. The first town competition didn’t go well, I finished only in the 6th place. I trained a lot and didn’t stop believing that victory was possible, I did what I really loved – it was gymnastics…”
“After some time and a lot of hard work, my results started to improve and for the first time I went to the Russian Championships as a part of the Udmurtia team and I finished in the 46th place there. After many more competitions were first there were 35th, 27th, and 21th places, in 2005, for the first time, I took the 14th place out of many participants at the Russian School Championships. I was noticed and invited to the Russian national team training camp. It was already a huge achievement for me. I was invited to move to Yekaterinburg and, at the age of 15, I move to a new city alone. I lived in the dorms, I tried hard in order to keep my scholarship, even though I was always strapped for money and couldn’t afford anything. But I knew that I came here for a reason, to improve my results. And a year later I became 4th at the Russian Championships and another year later I won it and made the Russian team for the European Championships where I won 2 silver medals”.
“Another two years later I made the main national team, just so you understand, it’s the 14 best Russian gymnasts. My results were gradually improving. My first World Championships were in 2010 and both I and my team left without medals but this was just the beginning. At every Worlds since then, I tried to win a medal, whether a team or an individual medal, I just wanted a medal, but I couldn’t manage to win it! Only six World Championships later I managed to win, and not even one, but two so long-awaited medals! During those six years, I got five gold medals at Euros and there were many other competitions. My first Olympics were in 2012, I came home with nothing, but four years later there were my second Olympic Games in Rio, where I managed to win two medals, one team and one individual. Despite all these medals I still couldn’t conquer the World Championships and then finally, in 2017, I managed to win medals there. Right now my goal is to win a gold medal at Worlds and a gold medal at the Olympics since I’ve already won all the other medals”.
Support Gymnovosti on Patreon from only $1 a month and help us bring to you even more awesome gymnastics coverage!
