Illia Kovtun wasn’t supposed to be at the Tokyo Olympics – he’s only 17 years old and will turn 18 after the gymnastics competition at the Olympics will be over. The postponement meant he had a chance to go to Tokyo. Then Oleg Verniaiev got a four-year ban for doping and there is now much more weight on Kovtun’s shoulders because the national team’s funding heavily relies on the Olympic achievements. Kovtun already has an impressive resume – he is the 2020 junior all-around European champion and the 2021 bronze all-around European medalist. These two medals came only four months apart. In Tokyo, he’s very likely to make the all-around final alongside Ukrainian team’s veteran Petro Pakhniuk. A medal is much less likely, though, since he’ll have a lot more competition in Tokyo than he had in Basel.
Kovtun talked to iSport.ua about the upcoming competition:
A: Thanks to the postponement, people born in 2003 got an opportunity to compete as seniors and then making the team depended only on me. I won the internal competition, placed third in the all-around at the European Championships, and won several medals at the latests World Cups. I think I earned my spot on the team.
Q: How prepared you are for the Olympics?
A: I’m mentally ready, competing and medalling at the European Championships helped here because it’s experience, plus I made myself known at the senior level. Physically, I’m also well prepared, I’m almost in my peak shape and have one more week to fix some minor things.
Q: Does the absence of Oleg Verniaiev affect you negatively?
A: The team would have been much stronger with Oleg but even without him, we’ll fight and we’ll try to show our maximum, to compete well at the Olympics as a team without Verniaiev. The most important thing is to have clean execution and then we’ll see.
Q: Is the team without Verniaiev capable of making the team final?
A: First of all, we don’t know how we’ll compete because it’s the Olympics, jitters, huge mental pressure. The question is how we’ll deal with it and how the other teams will deal with it. After all, they will be under this pressure as well.
Q: Has Oleg given you any advice on how to mentally prepare for the Olympics?
A: Not yet, he hasn’t said anything, we’re training and preparing. Perhaps, there will be some advice or words of support before the flight or competition.
Q: Are you focusing on the all-around or individual events?
A: I have a couple of best events but I’m betting on the all-around. I think I have more chances for successful results there. My plan is to do my best in the qualification and then we’ll see if I’ll be able to make finals and which of them. I hope to make pommel horse, parallel bars, and high bar finals.
Q: Do you prefer to take a risk and do a more difficult routine or choose a more reliable but simple routine?
A: We’ll see depending on the situation whether to choose a more difficult or a simple one that wouldn’t have enough difficulty. Personally, I prefer taking risks and choosing more difficult routines.
Q: Will your routines change at the Olympics compared to the European Championships?
A: My parallel bars routine changed a but, there were some upgrades, but other than that, I’m going to do what I did at the European Championships.
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