Sasha Solovyeva did this interview with Viktoria Komova shortly before the European Championships when it wasn’t yet known that Komova would not make the Euros team. In the interview, Komova talks about the verification for the Euros, her comeback to gymnastics and her goals. You can follow Sasha on Tumblr.
Q: What do you think about the verification results?
A: Generally, I did well on the events I will need to do at Euros. I did well on beam but I fell on bars. In general, I’m happy with everything besides the bars because that’s the main event I need and on which I can make the event final. On vault, I did an easy standard one, just a full twist. I didn’t do my floor routine for the results, it was just for the team, in case anyone gets injured.
Q: How do you assess your readiness and what difficulties did you face during the preparation?
A: The difficulties are always the injuries, of course. Something’s always hurting, you can’t get away from it. But generally, I think, I’ll be able to fight for medals. I hope that I’ll be able to make the event finals on beam and bars, if I’ll do everything smoothly.
Q: Thinking of the 2015 World Championships, you had some issues with consistency there. What did you work on in order not to repeat those mistakes again?
A: At those championships, I didn’t have such a training load as I have now because I had back issues then. I just couldn’t do enough repetitions of many things: for example, on beam, my back kept interfering with training. And now I, probably, work twice as much on beam, that’s why I feel way more confident on that event. As for the bars, I just go and do them. Of course, sometimes there are doubts if something isn’t working out in training – what if I go out at a competition and can’t do it? For example, yesterday I did beam great, so well that I didn’t even expect from myself. And what happened on bars isn’t clear, it was a stupid mistake.
Q: Which of the foreign gymnasts you consider your rivals? And to which are you looking up?
A: You know, I generally don’t watch anyone, my main goal is to overcome myself. The main thing is to manage my nerves. But, of course, it’s interesting to watch: it seems that Simone Biles is coming back. I’m waiting for her comeback as a competitor. You could expect it, you could say she never actually left the sport.
Q: Do you manage to talk to anyone at international competitions?
A: I wouldn’t say that. Since I don’t really have the [common] language [with them], I don’t speak English at all, it’s quite difficult. We don’t really talk to anyone besides “hello”, “bye”, and “good luck!”.
Q: What do you say to yourself on “bad” days when you keep not getting an element right?
A: Yesterday, after the verification, I talked to my dad with tears in my eyes because I always did bars ok and here, at the most crucial moment, I wasn’t able to do it. Of course, I didn’t know what to do, how to manage. I didn’t expect this. In such situations, I talk to my parents for a long time, they lift my mood somehow when it’s hard for me. And when I feel really bad, I try to listen to music, to switch to something else. For example, I talk to my friends in order to get distracted – after all, it can be hard here, both mentally and physically.
Q: Do you have a favorite element in your routines? Or what do you like from an aesthetic point of view?
A: I like to dance on floor. I like doing bars, the feeling of flying. I have my own element on bars, Komova.
Q: Do you plan on recovering it? And recovering inbars in general?
A: I tried but for now they’re not coming together even though I really want to be able to do it again.
Q: Are there any elements that you would like to learn before you retire? Some sort of a “dream element”?
A: Honestly, I did everything. As a kid, I literally could do anything in gymnastics. I don’t even know. I’d really like to recover two and a half twists on vault. And in general, I want to work more on my vault, I have issues on this event now and that really bothers me. I dream of one day doing the two and a half twists in a competition, in order to “get revenge” for London, so that the unfortunate attempt wouldn’t be my last.
Q: What music would you use for your floor routine if you could choose any music?
A: I love “Believer” by Imagine Dragons. Also, “Hey Hey Hey” by Katy Perry would make an awesome routine, it would be cool. There are some great songs like these.
Q: What inspires you in your gymnastics career?
A: I’m inspired by other gymnasts. For example, I really like rhythmic gymnastics. I like their performances, I want to be like them. I want people to admire my lines, my body, all my movements just like [they admire rhythmic gymnasts]. That is, I sometimes watch [videos] about female [rhythmic] gymnasts, how they train, their tears… All this inspires me to work.
Q: Is gymnastics enough to fill your life? Do you manage to do something else in your free time, do you have any hobbies?
A: Right now I’m not doing anything else, I spend too much effort on training. I come back and go to sleep right away, and then go to practice again. A lot of time is spent on rehab… We get so exhausted that sometimes I don’t even want to leave the room. Like, here’s the bed and I don’t need anything else. I just want to lie down and watch movies. I like the TV show “Policeman from Rublyovka”, TV show “Mazhory” [laughs]. I generally like love stories a lot. I like [whispers and laughs] “50 Shades of Grey” and “Twilight”. When I watch these movies, I get goosebumps, I want everything to be the same [for me].
Q: What was the most difficult thing for you in your comeback to gymnastics?
A: After the London Olympics, I was just suffocated by the injuries. I hadn’t competed for almost four years because I couldn’t get out of this train of injuries. My legs were operated on, my back was hurting. Before Rio, I even left because of my back, I said: I can’t continue like this anymore. Back then I thought I’d retire, I didn’t step in the gym for a year. Only recently I was allowed [to train] and I finally came back to the gym… The most difficult thing was to endure it mentally, to keep recovering after more and more injuries. I just didn’t want to keep training because I knew I’d get injured again and wouldn’t be able to compete. I didn’t want to go to the gym, I had a very bad relationship with my coach because he forced me to work and I didn’t want to. I just didn’t have the desire… But it’s all different now. After the comeback, the floor and vault were the hardest for me. I thought it would be hard on bars, but it turned out to be the easiest to recover.
Q: Was it hard to realize that you would have to miss the [Rio] Olympics?
A: Yes, it was terrible. And it was a conscious decision which only made things harder. But I couldn’t continue at all. It was the hardest decision of my life.
Q: Many say that after your comeback you are taking your mistakes much easier…
A: I really stopped scolding myself for every mistake. It didn’t work today – it will work tomorrow. I just need to think for myself, to understand, to do something more and then it will work out. But before, I would get upset, would say “that’s it, I’m leaving”. I would leave the practice upset and I would come in the next day in the same mood… It became easier to compete. I’m somehow different inside, my worldview has changed. When you’re training day in and day out, you don’t even think how to do something at competitions. You just go out and do it. If it didn’t work, you don’t get upset.
Q: You won a few medals at your first Russian Championships and Russian Cup after coming back. Could you describe what you felt?
A: It was so cool, I had goosebumps on my back. When you go out to the apparatuses, when everything goes well, this is an inexpressible experience. It’s just unreal joy. Even yesterday, I did beam successfully at the verification and I had goosebumps all over my body. For me, those medals that I got at the championships and the cup, they’re not silver and bronze, they’re gold. To come back at the Voronin Cup wasn’t scary either. I just felt a lot of eyes on me and even if something didn’t work out, I didn’t care at all! I just enjoyed the fact that I was out there competing. I didn’t pay attention to anyone, I was just walking with my coach and smiling.
Q: Everyone likes your floor so much!
A: And do you know how fed up with it I am? [laughs] I’ve been doing it for a long time. I wasn’t able to show it in competition for a long time but I’ve been training it since 2014. I already want a new routine.
