Dmitri Lankin will compete today at the European Games and will do all-around at a major international competition for the first time. He gave an interview to VTB in May where he talked about his gymnastics career and personal life.
Q: Your dad is a football player and your mom is a gymnast. Why did you follow your mom’s footsteps?
A: It happened like this: my mom and I were coming back from the market and passed a gym – it was about a two-minute walk from our home in Maykop. They were selecting kids for a new class. However, they only accepted seven-year-old kids and I was five. We came in, my mom started persuading the coaches to just look at me… We had horizontal bars in your yard and my mom also taught me splits and folds, so I had something to show. I came up to the bar and did thirteen pull-ups. The coaches were surprised and asked: “Can he do splits, handstands, and bridges?” I showed them everything. And they were like: “Ok, come back on Monday”. So, I ended up being the youngest in that class.
Q: The most popular videos of Dmitrii Lankin are not about gymnastics. Or, rather, not exactly about gymnastics. Tell me about the “Vam Slabo” project. How did it start?
A: We were just sitting and thinking about what kinds of interesting things we could do. Nikita Nagornyy suggested this format and we started filming. After a while, we decided that it didn’t fit on Nikita’s main channel, so that’s how a new channel Vam Slabo?! appeared. Although, in the end, we came back to “Nikushkin Day” and left the separate channel.
Q: Some of the videos get tens or even hundreds of thousands of views. Will you keep making the videos just for fun or it’s something serious now?
A: Of course, it’s serious. We like it and the viewers do as well. If it was just for fun, we wouldn’t have a schedule of publishing the episodes. Everything has to be filmed in time to edit the videos. It’s work and we’re not approaching it as “it’ll be ok”, we’re trying to do everything as well as possible, so that it would look great.
Q: Do you get any income from it?
A: Only in the numbers of subscribers – we’re growing the audience of our Instagram accounts. There’s no other income for now.
Q: Crazy tricks, saltos in elevators… What do the coaches think about it?
A: We never talked about it. I don’t even know if they watch these videos?
Q: You’ve been training since you were five, the Round Lake is like your second home by now. Don’t you feel like you’re in a golden cage here? Do you have opportunities to party hard?
A: You can’t really party hard because there are only 1.5 years until the Olympics. Worlds Championships and many serious competitions are ahead. You understand well that every party night can lead to the biggest failure of your life. You partied for a day and can lose your chance to go to the Olympics. And so you choose for yourself – either to party well now or to relax even better but after the Olympics.
Q: At 22, women already retire, while the men, basically, are just starting. Your career is going upwards. What are your plans and goals for the near future?
A: Soon, the European Games are starting in Minsk, there will be an all-around competition there. I want to go there and compete well. In order to make the Olympic team, I need good results, so I’m working on the all-around now. I have more work now, but I like it – there’s no time to get bored. Then there’s the Russian Cup and the main goal is to make the Olympic team. The goal after that is to improve further in the all-around, because a five-person team is going to Worlds, while only four people are going to the Olympics. The competition inside the national team is very serious. It’s possible that I’ll be fighting with someone over the last spot: either it will be me or someone else.
Q: Is there tension on the team because of it? American movies about sports show this kind of fight very well. How is it in real life?
A: Everyone’s working on their mistakes. If you’ll try to set someone up, nothing good will come out of it for you. People will be disappointed in you, they’ll stop trusting you – how can you work with such a person? The team management will be disappointed, too. So, no one’s setting anyone up, everyone’s working on their own thing, everyone’s proving their right to go to competitions on the apparatuses.
Q: You’re always together with the guys from the team. Does this friendship continue outside Round Lake? Do you stay in touch in real life?
A: Yes, of course. It’s just that outside, everyone has their own stuff to do – family, work, interview, filming, someone can go on vacation… We stay in touch, it’s just often harder to meet up. Here were are all together, so it’s easier. You leave your room, walk a minute to their room and talk to them.
Q: Here, at the training center, the level of discipline is almost military. What do you do in your spare time?
A: Depends. If I’m not too tired, I can read a book or play a game on PlayStation. If I’m tired, I’ll go to sleep.
Q: Do you follow a strict diet?
A: Everyone has a unique body and a unique diet. For me, it’s very easy, I can eat anything. But it would be stupid to eat five burgers at once. I’ll be able to work after that but, of course, it will be hard. But generally, I eat anything I want. For some guys, one extra gulp of water can really turn into half a kilo of extra weight. If you drink too much water, your palms will be sweaty, it’ll be harder to swing. If you eat too much meat or chips, your belly will be shaking when you’re running.
Q: What about doping? As we know, even the regular Teraflu contains it. How do the athletes control it? How not to get into an unpleasant accident?
A: In my regular life, I don’t take any medications, even for a headache. And I don’t really get sick, for example, last year, I didn’t get sick at all. If I do feel unwell, it usually happens here, at the training center. I tell the doctor that I got a cold, he gives me the medicine or writes down what I need to buy at the pharmacy. It’s very simple.
Q: Have you even encountered unfair judging?
A: I have to go out and do what I’m supposed to. Whatever the judges decide doesn’t depend on me. If you want to be judged well, you have to be one step ahead of the competition. If you do that, then the judges wouldn’t be able to lower the scores, even if they wanted to. It’s better to adhere to this principle instead of placing hopes on the judges.
Q: Do you get special training in how to look relaxed and positive in competitions?
A: Not every day, but yes. Sometimes, we’re told: here, you needed to turn, to show yourself, to raise your head, so that everything would be crisp and beautiful. If you look at the Americans, they always compete as if they’re on some show: he lands, salutes, and there’s wild joy and right away, a storm of applause. When we land, we have to show it well, to get upright, to turn to the judges, to bow, to thank them and only after that, we can leave. That’s the ideal for us. They, however, already have show elements at this stage.
Q: In one interview, you said that you have to work extra hard in the all-around. Is that true?
A: There are four main events that I do at a high level. I think I’ve also improved on high bar now. I have issues on pommel horse. When I was a kid, I kind of “missed” this event and now, in order to make the Olympic team, I have to work double hard on it. It’s my biggest problem that can cause me to miss the Olympics. Last year, I started learning it almost from scratch.
Q: So, you’re still not on good terms with it?
A: Well, no, we’re on more or less good terms now [laughs]. But there’s very little time left, no time to get friendly with it, I need to work.
Q: Do you spend more time than the others in the gym because of the all-around?
A: That depends on who works on how many events on a specific day. Let’s say someone can spend three hours on three events in the morning and the same during the evening practice. And there are those who spend an hour on two events. I try to do four events both in the morning and in the evening. And on each event, I need to give my all. Of course, it’s hard to deal with all of it but no one said it would be easy.
Q: What do you like to do in spare time, what are your hobbies? Disco, clubs, bowling?
A: I’m a bit too old for disco, I haven’t been in ages. I don’t even know… lately, I really like to be in nature. When you spend most of the time inside, you really miss it. During winter, we barely went outside, it was too cold. Now I really want to take walks.
Q: When will you have a break between camps next time?
A: I think the closes break between camps will be in 10 days, I’ll spend a couple of days at home. Otherwise, on Saturdays, I go home right after the evening practice. It’s just that I don’t live alone, I need to give attention to everyone – my girlfriend, my dog. I also need to get away from the training center for a bit, to get a breath of fresh air.
Q: Is your girlfriend an athlete, too? What does she think about your lifestyle?
A: Yes, she’s an athlete. She’s in Moscow right now but it’s still hard, we don’t see each other as often as we’d want to. She understands everything, she’s also training.
Q: Tell me about your tattoo? What does it say? It’s Latin, right?
A: Yes, it’s Latin. A quote from Virgil: “Toil conquered the world”
Q: Is it your motto?
A: Yes, I’m more about hard work than about talent. There are guys with inborn talent but even they can’t achieve anything without daily work. And if you don’t have that much talent, you need to work even harder.
Q: Do you go to the gym an hour before the practice or stay after the practice? Or you’re not allowed to do that?
A: We can’t, without a coach. If you did something wrong and got injured, you’ll be responsible for that. And the coach will be blamed, of course. But if he wasn’t there, he couldn’t have helped me. When the guys leave in the evening, I stay for another half an hour to condition, but I don’t train on the apparatuses.
Q: You talked about your gymnastics goals and dreams, but what about your regular life? Do you have dreams or big goals?
A: Big goals… I have some small ones, some big ones, like everyone. I want to get my driving license this year and buy a car. I want to start my own business – there’s much to think about. I like to travel.
Q: Tell me where you’ve been already and where you plan on going.
A: I decided to give myself a birthday gift and went to Turkey for the first time. Traveling while training is different from a regular vacation. Here I came, lied on the beach for two days, then got an adventure tour – rafting and buggy racing in the mountains. I came to the hotel, ate, slept and at 3 am, there was another tour – to an ancient city. You can’t do things like that during a training camp. I really want to visit Venice, I like the city. I can’t explain why, but something’s drawing me there. Generally, I really like Italy because I really like to eat. I’m crazy about Italian food.
Q: Pizza or pasta?
A: Definitely pasta. Of course, there are differences between Italian pizza and ours. But you can also find good pizza here. Pasta, however, is completely different. Here, instead of pasta, you get some macaroni with minced meat, nothing special. There, the preparation of pasta is a true art.
Photo: Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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