Angelina Melnikova gave an interview to Vogue Russia in which she talked about her successful season, plans for the leotard line, and makeup staples.
Q: Angelina, congratulations on the amazing season! When it was just starting, could you have imagined that everything would turn out like that?
A: Definitely not. When I saw the news about the postponement of the Olympic Games in 2020, I felt crushed inside. A year is a colossal amount of time for an athlete. It was very hard mentally. But if we’re talking about this season, I am honestly surprised by myself. Turns out, I have so much strength! To go to the World Championships while completely exhausted after the Olympics and win a gold there – it’s like a fairytale. I still can’t believe it. And the Olympic champion title still hasn’t been processed in my head. I’ve been working towards it for so long, my whole career. And here it happened not just in one season, but actually I managed to win the two most important titles in the span of just a couple of months.
Q: You competed at two Olympics. You were 16 years old in Rio and 21 now. What differences do you see between that Angelina and this one?
A: When I was 16, I was just starting mu senior career – it starts at 16 in our sport. So, I basically started at the Olympic Games. I was just a baby then, I didn’t have any journey towards the victories yet… Now, when I’m 21, I’ve had a conscious journey on this arduous path of an athlete with its rises and falls. Of course, at 16, I had more energy, but I was also more nervous. In gymnastics, the perception of your own body comes with age, so, as a teenager, you still demonstrate children’s gymnastics. I completely trust myself now, while I used to rely on my coach a lot in the past.
Q: Was it your decision to participate in the post-Olympic World Championships? How did you manage to get yourself together and come there in such a good shape?
A: Yes, it was a conscious decision. Although people tried to persuade me not to do it, even my coach, because she went through the whole training for the Games with me and knew how exhausted I was. It’s just that after the Olympics, I once came to our training center to see what’s going on there, who’s training, who isn’t. And I saw that barely anyone was preparing for the World Championships, so that’s how my decision to participate came. I only had a month to prepare, I first wanted to train in the light mode, but in the end, my condition was barely any different from the Olympics. I managed to recover full routines in a month, I myself was surprised. I think it was due to excitement. Of course, it was hard, I felt lazy at times, but the World Championships were my priority.
Q: Do you have a favorite event?
A: I used to love beam. Truth is, even though we fall off it a lot, it’s the easiest to work on. I’ve now come to love floor, I wasn’t a fan in the past. It’s my signature event, but it’s very difficult, it’s difficult to train and difficult to do at competitions. As to my favorite element, it’s my first pass on floor. It’s the hardest thing I do.
Q: Unfortunately, people remember artistic gymnastics once every four years, for the summer Olympic Games. What do you think needs to be done in order to make your beautiful sport more popular?
A: Yes, it’s true. The hype only comes during the Olympics. There were the World Championships recently, and there was not a single tv broadcast [in Russia], and only one journalist greeted us at the airport when we came back. The popularity comes, first of all, thanks to TV. I can’t explain it, I don’t know why it happens this way. Also, people are always interested only in scandals. I also got caught in this at the World Championships, [the floor judging] was the only thing I was asked about. Everyone was interested in the medal I had lost, not the medal I had won. The goal of the sport is motivating people but it looks like people are occupied by something else in our country. Gymnastics is on such a rise in Europe and even more so in the US! But here it’s as if people have never heard of this sport.
Q: What do you plan on doing after retiring? Or you’re not yet thinking about the retirement?
A: I’ve been trying to get a gym built in my native Voronezh for a long time. So, right now, when I’ll rest, I’ll work on this issue again, it’s my dream to change this situation somehow. Overall, I want to leave something behind in the sport. I will also wok on growing the production of my leotards, the plan is to move to larger volumes, to a different level. Right now, we’re making them for kids.
Q: Tell us about the leotards in which you compete. Are they made for the whole season or for specific competitions? What is the creative process?
A: I try competing in different leotards at every competition. Designers and I discuss my preferences, they send me the sketches, and I can ask to remove or add something. In gymnastics, we don’t match leotards to specific routines like in figure skating. We just take tastes and preferences into account and come up with something different and interesting. On average, there are 10 or so leotards per season.
Q: Do you have a favorite one this season?
A: Yes, the pink one which I wore in the all-around final at the Olympics. I really like it even though many said that other colors, like blue, suit me more.
Q: Do you do your own hair and makeup for competitions?
A: Yes, always. By the way, I consider myself kind of a fashionista, so I always try to match my makeup to the leotard, twirl in front of the mirror, put the leotard near my face to make sure it matches the eye shadow and the lipstick.
Q: So, you like fashion in your daily life?
A: I love fashion, I’m inspired by it. I think that if not for the sport, I would definitely work in this field. I would like to try my hand in design and I also find a job of an editor at a fashion magazine interesting. Of course, it’s not like I have many occasions to dress up and be fashionable in my daily life, my wardrobe consists of sports clothes, but I dress up at every opportunity I have. I guess I like dresses the most, I have quite a lot of them. I think this style suits my personality, I consider myself a bit delicate.
Q: And what about makeup?
A: I like to experiment with makeup both in life and in the sport, sometimes I draw some kind of winged eyeliner, or come up with something else. My must-haves are Inglot foundation and eyeliner and M.A.C. mascara. But most often, I choose a natural look. Overall, I think, I got very lucky with my skin, so I practice minimalism when it comes to facial care. I’ve never used something special, I normally just put a regular baby face cream. Sometimes, I use masks.
