Grigorii Klimentev gave an interview to Izvestia about his Worlds debut and winning a medal on rings.
Q: What did you feel when you learned that all the [Russian] Olympic team member would skip the World Championships and you would be one of the people to go instead of them?
A: I can’t say that I had some intense emotions. Rather, I understood the responsibility.
Q: Was it unexpected for you?
A: No, I learned about it back in August. At least, that was when I was told that I might go to Japan.
Q: Did your training change after that?
A: No, we had a routine since the Russian Championships. I then competed it at the Russian Cup as well. For the World Championships, we learned only one element in order to upgrade the difficulty – the dismount. Other than that, my training process was the same as usual, it doesn’t change for me no matter the level of the competition. A month before Worlds we competed at a World Cup. It was like miniature World Championships needed in order to learn how I score internationally, to see what worked and what didn’t and what I still need to work on. In essense, the preparation for the World Championships took two months full of work on the routine.
Q: Did Nagorny, Dalaloyan, Belyavskiy, and Abliazin cheer on you somehow before the trip to Worlds?
A: The guys were resting, they have their own life. And we were under the lockdown at the training camp, training non-stop.
Q: Are you friends with them?
A: In our case, the closeness of the relationship depends on how often we see each other. I haven’t been at the same camp as Nagorny and Dalaloyan in the past two years. But at competitions, we have a friendly relationship. Not like someone looks down on another.
Q: And what about Angelina Melnikova?
A: I didn’t hang out with her at the World Championships. The training and competition schedules of our team and the women’s we made in the way that we rarely saw them. But from the outside and judging by her behaviour, she’s a good person.
Q: How did you react to the situation with the inquiry on floor because of which Angelina lost the gold?
A: The guys and I were at the stands during this because no Russian men made the finals on the same day as women’s floor final. My position is this – I’m not an international Brevet judge, so it’s not for me to judge, especially the results of women’s competitions which I know nothing about. After all, girls have elements on floor that we don’t have and the score is calculated a bit differently. I know that our delegation tried to submit an inquiry and it wasn’t accepted. But I have no idea how the inquiry submission works. At the end, Mai Murakami’s coaches submitted an inquiry and it was accepted. I saw from the stands that Angelina’s coaches tried to solve the issue with the inquiry for the long time. But since there weren’t able to, there must had been reasons for that. It’s not for me to evaluate the work of professionals.
Q: What new challenges did you encounter at Worlds?
A: There were some difficulties connected to the flights and getting acclimated. After all, the trip to Turkey where the September World Cup took place and to Japan are very different. The competition schedule was more or less clear, though. I don’t normally follow other competitors and don’t watch them. I know what routines they have and how well they can perform, but I focus more on what I’m capable of. Regarding the intensity and the emotions at Worlds, I feel more or less the same at any competition, only, perhaps, there’s more responsibility. In any case, I have to always start the competition from scratch – that’s the mindset of my coach. I have to do the routine the way I do it in training. To do exactly what I prepared. I’m not asked to do more than I’m capable of.
Q: Was it easier for you as a newcomer from whom medals aren’t demanded? Or the coaches let you know that they expect you to place in the top three on rings?
A: Regarding the duty to win a medal – there was nothing like that. There was personal responsibility. I knew that we would be seen as the young ones who are potentially capable of making the main national team. But I didn’t think about medals. If you do your routine well, then you’ve already done your job and it doesn’t matter what medal you’ll get. But, in any case, I didn’t plan on going to Japan just as a tourist.
Q: Were the COVID control measures strict there?
A: They’re very particular about it in Japan. We needed to get tested 72 hours before landing in Tokyo. Then we were tested again at the Tokyo airport. And only after all the results returned negative, our delegation was accompanied to Kitakyushu where the World Championships took place. There, we had apps installed to control our whereabouts. On the first five days, we were tested every morning – one COVID-19 express test and one sample. We took only cabs to get to practices and competitions. While at the World Cup in Turkey, a month before that, different teams rode the same bus, in Japan, there were only cabs and different delegations could not use the same car. Our delegation took four or five cabs with three people in each.
Q: Have you ever had COVID-19?
A: No, but I got vaccinated this spring. All the athletes on our national team are vaccinated.
Q: Have you always specialized in rings?
A: I’ve been strong since I was a kid. In 2014, at the national competition Olympic Hopes, I won my first bronze medal – specifically on rings. It so happened that this event became my main one when I competed at the Russian Championships, Russian Cup and the junior European Championships. In terms of the progress, this was my best event. And there was emphasis on rings from the start, the coach saw that I had a talent for this event and tried to develop it.
Q: Do you strive to become an all-arounder? Or you plan on focusing what you do best in the future as well?
A: I haven’t done other events in a year, or, perhaps, even longer. For the future, I need to decide it with my coach – it will depend on which events the national team will need. If, for example, the team will need vault and I’ll be able to do it as required, then I’ll do it. We’ll have to decide based on specific goals.
Q: Do you feel know that you made the main national team? Are you ready to compete for the spot with Denis Abliazin, the main rings specialist from the Olympic team?
A: I’ve already competed against him at the Russian Championships and Russian Cup. Overall, rings are the kind of event where gymnasts have more or less the same difficulty. And whoever is better prepared and currently has the cleanest execution wins.
Q: How did you end up in artistic gymnastics?
A: I was born in Petrozavodsk. As a kid, I was hyperactive, ran around the room, and couldn’t sit still. So, when I was five, my mom sat me down in front of the TV and turned it one – they were showing Alexey Nemov’s high bar routine. I told my mom that I wanted to do that. She responded, “Ok, you’re going to do that then”, and took me to a sports school. I kept walking past the exhibition stands with trophies and medals. And in about two years, I told my mom that I’m going to win medals, too. In 2016, I moved to Penza because they have a great gymnastics school there, good coaches, and famous athletes – like Abliazin, for instance.
Q: What do you like besides gymnastics?
A: I like technologies, computers. I’m into programming and design. And I also educate myself – read books, watch movies.
Q: Can you name your favorite books?
A: I like Martin Eden by Jack London and Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. And the Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski. I’ve re-read it twice already.
Q: You mentioned design. What kind of design are you into?
A: Web-design. I’ve taken a year-long design course online, watched webinars, listened to lectures, did assignments with the rest of the students. I mix web-design with programming and it’s a way to distract myself from the daily grind. But programming is about doing something, while design is about making something pretty which is a bit easier. After all, you need to know math in programming. When I encounter something difficult in my independent studies, very often it turns out that I also need to learn math for that. It’s a bit easier in design. You look at pictures and if you like something, you try to use it in the websites.
Q: Are there working websites that you designed?
A: I had study projects. I didn’t create a portfolio. I did a couple of commissions but don’t know what happened to them. Those weren’t fully-functioning websites, just design projects, and I don’t know where the clients used them.
Q: Do you watch other sports besides gymnastics?
A: Any sport is interesting to watch when sports stars compete. For example, I will gladly watch a football game between Juventus and Manchester City, or an NHL game, or a tennis match. Although I barely know any tennis players. But if I’ll stumble on a tennis match video online, I will gladly watch it.
Q: Do you have idols in other sports?
A: Alexander Ovechkin, of course. Fedor Emelianenko.Among the foreign athletes, I like Paulo Dybala from Juventus and the coach Pep Guardiola from Manchester City.
