Viktoriia Listunova, the reigning Russian national champion and Junior Worlds Champion will try to add a senior Euros title to that today in the all-around final. Listunova finished second behind teammate Angelina Melnikova in the qualification on Wednesday. She also finished second behind Melnikova on floor and qualified to the final on that event. And Listunova accomplished an important achievement for the Russian team – she qualified an extra individual spot to the Tokyo Olympics. That spot won’t go to her, though, as she’s the main candidate for the four-person team. Listunova talked about competing at her first senior international competition to MatchTV.
Q: You recently won the senior all-around title at the Russian Championships, today is your debut at the senior European Championships. How did your day go?
A: I was quite nervous – it’s my first senior international competition. The level of competition is higher here than at the nationals, there are girls from all over Europe here. I was shaking a bit.
Q: Was the fall on beam due to that shaking?
A: Both the shaking and all the execution errors I could and couldn’t afford. It’s likely due to not working on it enough even though everything seemed fine in training.
Q: Usually, after the first or the second event, and athlete gets into the process and continues calmer. Did something like that happen to you today or you were equally nervous on every event?
A: On every event. Beam was the third event but I was still shaking. It’s weird without spectators, there were only the participants in the stands. It was nice that the organizers came up with the idea of some kind of virtual tickets and some spectators were shown on big screens covering the stands but it was still weird.
Q: Was the fact that you needed to put the mask on between the rotations distracting to you?
A: It was very weird. When you’re competing, you forget about everything, you’re in the competition, there’s only you and the apparatus. And suddenly someone comes up to you and says: “Put the mask on”. We’re like: “ok, whyyyyyy?” After all, we’re already focused on something else, we’re trying not to think about it.
In an interview after the Russian Championships, Listunova said that her favorites in gymnastics are Simone Biles and Lilia Akhaimova. Listunova called Biles “a unique gymnast, her difficulty is through the roof, it’s astonishing”. If the 2020 went as planned, there was a high chance Listunova would never have competed against Biles because she only turned senior this year and Biles repeatedly said she plans to retire after Tokyo. However, the postponement means the gymnasts are likely to compete against each other in the all-around this summer.
Listunova’s coach Olga Petrovicheva in an interview after the Russian Championships said that the postponed Olympics forced her to change all the preparation program for Listunova but it was worth it.
Q: Olga Gennadyevna, the coaches needed not only to accept that the Olympics were postponed but also to motivate their pupils in the right way.
A: Yes, that was a difficult situation. On one hand, you feel bad the people who have been preparing for a long time… When you have the inspiration and suddenly you’re deprived of that path.
Q: How did Vika Listunova manage to deal with this situation?
A: She’s a reasonable girl. Of course, we were preparing for the World Championships but since there was this chance to prepare for the Olympics right away – it has to be used. And we’re glad we have this responsibility now. Yes, we need to do what was planned for four years in one, and we won’t be able to do everything, but we need to speed it up.
Q: Wow…
A: So, we’re moving forward. She didn’t do all her difficulty in Penza, we didn’t rush it. She wants to win. She knows how to do it. We really want a new floor routine for her, something more pumped up. She did her old routine in Penza. Vika is beautiful on floor. We’ve upgraded all her routines compared to the Junior Worlds. Some old things stayed. But, for example, her bars routine is completely new. We added everywhere – on beam, on bars. Her vault has more amplitude, it looks better.
Q: Has Vika’s attitude towards work changed?
A: She’s grown but gymnastics is still her whole life, she follows everything, she’s interested in everything. Of course, she’s older now. Thankfully, Vika is not lazy and she’s very serious.
Q: What do you think is the main issue during this period when, on one hand, people return to normal life, and on the other hand, there’s preparation for big competitions?
A: There are too few competitions, of course. It’s always a rush of energy that helps gymnasts to become better. See, there were no competitions for a year. Young athletes are very nervous. They don’t quite understand how to go out and get themselves together now. The competition experience is getting a bit lost. It’s a bit hard. It’s good that there are verification competitions at Round Lake. But it’s not the same – gymnasts are at a gated training center. We couldn’t even invite the judges because the access to the center was restricted due to the pandemic. You can’t imagine how it is for the athletes now – the fact that they walk outside, see other competitors, talk to them, even if they’re wearing masks. They got a taste of freedom! We’re very happy. I don’t even know how many emotions were poured onto Penza.
Q: Are there many changes to get used to on the senior team for Vika?
A: For example, I teach her to compete with other coaches, so that she would work on her own. Because there’s only one coach on the competition floor for the whole team. One coach means that for us, it’s always the head coach and one of the male coaches helping her. So, I go to competitions as a judge and it’s good that I’m there. But it could happen that I won’t be there. And she needs to know how to compete without me. To prepare for it, to know what she needs to do. Of course, we’re constantly in touch. But still, for example, during the all-around in Penza, I haven’t seen any of her routines except floor because I was judging floor. it’s really important to go through everything on her own. Vika understands everything, she’s very smart and persistent, gymnastics is her life. And she knows that she will be, you can say, alone against the competition floor.
Q: Do you talk about the Olympics to her?
A: I do. I keep telling her: you know that you’re a contender for the Olympic team, so no crying and no excuses. We have very little time. All the coaches talk to the athletes every day, they need to get some adrenaline.
Q: Did you miss the motivation that the competitions bring?
A: Terribly. And we really miss competitions. It’s good that there will be the European Championships, because they will at least compete internationally before the Olympics. Because, try to imagine, they were home, they competed in Penza and then, if not for the European Championships, it would be the Olympic Games right away. But an international competition has a different order, a different training system, a different system for entering the competition floor. They still need to learn all that. It’s one thing to see the competitors on TV or watch their training videos on Youtube but it’s completely different to be with them, to watch them close up, to evaluate yourself compared to them and to see what you need to change. This is also quite the motivation.
Q: Can you praise Viktoriia for the Russian Championships?
A: For everything she did, to praise and thank her. Because she wants it, she works hard. In the two months we spent in lockdown at home, Vika sent me videos of what she did every day. Two months! She went to the dacha and she ran there and put some boards on the ground to train “beam”. She didn’t train bars, of course. And, of course, after the break, she would even peel off the bars because her body forgot how it feels, her fingers forgot how to grip. It was hard. So, I can praise Vika for absolutely everything.
Photo: Elena Mikhaylova, Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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