Maria Paseka has been taking a break from gymnastics to contemplate her next step. In a recent interview, she said that while her body is telling her she’s done with the sport, it is extremely tough to make the decision to retire and she is not ready. The 2021 Russian Championships gave her a chance to try herself in a new gymnastics-related role – she commentated the qualifications round of the competition together with Emin Garibov (she was replaced by Russia’s long-time gymnastics commentator and Soviet Olympic champion Lydia Ivanova for the finals).
Paseka said on Instagram that she plans on attending the Russian Cup, possibly as a commentator again:
“I’d thought a lot whether to go or not [to these Russian Championships], but at some point I realized that my life became a bit boring without competitions and my teammates. And I decided to fly there. The first day, I was overcome with emotions, it felt like I was the one competing. I was really scared, I can’t explain why. When I entered the gym and saw everyone, I realized that I came back to where I belong or, as our doctor said, I came back to my family and it’s true. Two days passed and I so didn’t want to leave, I wanted to stay. I was even offered to change my tickets and stay until the end of the competition. But the nicest thing to hear was that a competition is not a proper competition without me. So, I’ve thought about it and decided to go to the next competition in Novosibirsk [the Russian Cup] and stay there from the beginning to the end. Why? Because I want to spend more time in this atmosphere and commentate the competition again – this was something new for me. And I actually liked it.”
In an interview to R-Sport, Paseka said that originally she actually contemplated competing at this year’s Russian Championships but she’s still not sure whether she will start training again:
“I’d like to [compete here] but I’m not ready. I’ve thought about competing here, I want to recover slowly, but I don’t know, I’ll think about it now. We’ll see. Because right now I’m a bit unsure that I’d be able to do it. I don’t know. As I always say, we’ll see when it happens. Definitely don’t expect me [to come back] by the Olympics because I definitely didn’t qualify there. The next quad? Well, yeah, but it will depend on my health and my mindset, because years are passing and my self-preservation instinct is pressing harder and harder, saying: “Maybe, don’t?” Sometimes I want to [come back], when I look at the girls. I came here and got so overexcited, when I was entering [the arena] from the warm-up gym, my heart was beating as if I was about to compete. I even got scared.”
Photo: Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
