Aleksandr Kartsev had to leave Tokyo much earlier than other Russian gymnasts, since he did not make any individual finals and was not part of the four-person team. Shortly after his arrival in Russia, he was interviewed by Vedom.ru about his Olympic experience.
A: By the way, I already went to a World Cup in Paris at 17 [in 2019], it was one of my first big international competitions. I competed alongside gymnastics stars, made a final, and finished 7th on parallel bars. When I entered the arena, I saw two rounds of huge stands, five thousand people! They love gymnastics in Paris. Everyone had flags, rattles, and pipes. The fans screamed so loudly, it took my breath away! It was impossible to hear anything. You talk to the coach and can’t hear him or even yourself. Before that, I was at a World Cup in Croatia where I finished second on horizontal bar and third on parallel bars. After Paris, I had injuries, two ankle joints broken. Later, I had Covid – it wasn’t serious, but I lost both the sense of taste and smell.
Q: When did you make the national team?
A: At 13. At first, I went to Espoir and then junior competitions. At 16, I was seriously injured and it took me over a year to recover. I had a titan screw inserted into my leg, plus a surgery on my arm. It was a very difficult period. I was on the reserve national team even though I didn’t have results. It felt like no one believed in me anymore. What helped was the support from my parents Oksana Gennadyevna and Nikolay Yuryevich and, of course, from my coach Igor Nikolayevich Kalabushkin. He has always believed in me! Even though at first, I wanted to play football. But I wasn’t accepted to the club at 6 years old and the coach said to come a year later. And my mom (this was in Ivanovo) decided to give me a chance to grow stronger and took me to a gymnastics gym. When I started attending the classes there, I forgot all about football. My first coach was Aleksey Aleksandrovich Tikunov. He was the one who told me three years after I started, “You have to go to Vladimir” [city in central Russia]. So, at 9 years old, I moved here because of the artistic gymnastics’ school. I had to grow up fast. I needed to make my bed, do laundry, and do my homework by myself. But the Vladimir school is now my home and it’s the best! We have a great team, everyone supports and respects each other. I won’t forget the warm welcome I got after the Olympics. The director, the coaches, the guys – everyone applauded me. The support meant a lot.
Q: How did the Olympic selection process go? Did you believe that making the team was possible?
A: It was really hard. A preparation period for competitions takes a month or 1.5 months. It doesn’t matter if it’s the European Championships or Olympics. The first time I realized I could make the team for the Tokyo Olympics was when I went to the 2020 Russian Championships right after having Covid and placed first [in the all-around]. I started working harder. At my second Russian Championships in 2021, I won the all-around over Artur Dalaloyan and David Belyavskiy. Then, at the European Championships, I missed out on the all-around by two or three tenths. Then there was the 2021 Russian Cup where I placed second after Nikita Nagorny. After that, I was selected for the Olympics. But I had to compete as an individual and not on the team. It is a valuable experience. The first routine was on rings. I did well. It was the first subdivision, at 4 am our time. Judging was strict. Usually, I would get 8.7 or 8.8 in execution for such a routine but I got 8.5 here. After that, I did vault – the best I’ve done lately. I did my best on bars and got a high score – 14.533. It was hard to make the final, of course. Even athletes with 15+ scores missed out. But it’s the Olympics. My horizontal bar routine let me down. I never fell in verifications or training. But here, I wanted to do better than I can and on the Tkachev release, I didn’t catch the bar correctly with one of my hands. I fell. Of course, I was upset. The devastation still hasn’t gone away. I need time. I’m not training for now, I’m recovering. My coach said that I need to start missing gymnastics.
Q: Two-time Olympic champion and commentator Lydia Ivanova noted during the men’s qualification beautiful Aleksandr Kartsev’s body type is. “Be jealous that our artistic gymnastics has such a talented athlete from Vladimir!”, she said.
A: Of course, it’s nice to hear praise from such a famous athlete. But I don’t pay much attention to it, there’s no point in getting my nose stuck up high. Never. But such praise adds positive emotions. I’ll be happy if fans will support me on social media. It feels really nice! So, I’m waiting for new subscribers!
Q: What helps you compete and what are the obstacles?
A: At the Olympics, the schedule was an obstacle. I don’t like training early at home either but it was very-very early there. Fatigue and injuries are obstacles, too. It’s not like you just don’t want to perform well. You always want to perform well. But if you’re sleep-deprived and everything hurts, you need to overcome it at each practice. It gives results. You need to be well-prepared and believe in yourself and in the best outcomes in order to compete. You can never give up! But the way, after Tokyo, I got a tattoo, the words, translated from Latin, mean, “Impossible is possible”.
Q: Which of your wins you consider the most important?
A: All of them are dear to me. Because they aren’t easy to get. But I remember my first upsetting loss and my own disappointment. It was my first ever competition. I was seven years old. “How could it be, I trained but placed only 7th?”. I cried on my mom’s shoulder, “Perhaps, I shouldn’t do this anymore?” But mom calmed me down and explained that such a result at one’s first competition was good.
Q: I saw the technique of the Chinese gymnasts on pommel horse. They are flying! Would you want to go to China or Japan to learn their technique?
A: It was interesting to watch the Chinese gymnasts. They’re different from us, completely different! But we have our own technique and our own coaches in whom we believe. And I believe in my coach, Igor Nikolayevich. To be honest, I have a very difficult personality, I can suddenly get angry, blow up. But he has his approach to me.
Q: How were the attitudes towards Russians in Japan?
A: Great! I haven’t heard a single bad word about us, only friendliness and positivity. Although, we weren’t allowed to leave the Olympic village. The living conditions were modest. Sleeping on cardboard beds wasn’t very comfortable. But the dining hall was huge and had cuisines from all around the world, so there was a lot to choose from.
Q: Did you take any lucky charms with you?
A: I’m a man of faith, so I always take an icon of Mother of God with me to competitions.*
Kartsev said he and his father also got a tattoo in honor of him becoming an Olympian:
“We made an agreement half a year ago that if I make the Olympics, my father will get a tattoo with the Olympic symbol. As agreed, after I came back, father got Olympic rings tattooed. And I got a tattoo on my leg that says “Impossible is possible” in Latin. Unfortunately, I can’t share the final result yet, the tattoo is wrapped in a healing bandage.”
He will unfortunately miss the upcoming World Championships because of health issues but plans to prepare for the 2024 Olympics.
*Most Russian Christians belong to the Russian Orthodox Church. In Orthodox Christianity, icons (images of God, saints, and religious scenes) are extremely important and it’s common to have them at home, in a car, and even a wallet.
Photo: Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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