Angelina Melnikova has been self-isolating at home for over a month now, since Round Lake, the national team’s training center, was closed. She talked to the Russian Olympic Committee about life under quarantine.
A: I hope that in May, we will already be able to go back to the training center in order to train properly.
Q: What did you feel when you learned about the postponement of the Olympics Games?
A: Everyone understood it was the right decision. Although, at the beginning, no one knew until when it would be postponed. So, we were happy that it will be next year and not in 2022. It would be very hard to wait for two years.
Q: In 2021, there will also be World Championships which the FIG isn’t planning to cancel. Will it be hard to compete at two big competitions in a row?
A: You have to prepare very seriously for each competition. And if I’ll go to the Olympics, I still won’t decline participation at the World Championships.
Q: Where are you now?
A: After Round Lake had been closed, I didn’t go to Novogorsk but went home to Voronezh right away. At the moment, as everyone else, I’m self-isolating at home.
Q: Are you able to follow the training schedule at home?
A: Now’s exactly the chance to get some rest from the schedule I’ve been following almost my whole life. I mostly train how I want to. If I want to, I can train in the morning or at night. But it’s hard to call it training. It’s much harder to force yourself to do anything at home. But I understand that I need it. At the same time, when you’ve been isolated at home for a long time, you want to be more physically active.
Q: Do you have any exercise equipment at home?
A: No, that’s why I just do regular exercises – squats, handstands, push ups, stretches. I also work on choreography. But that won’t replace difficult elements from which gymnastics is built. No matter how many abs exercises you do, you’ll still get out of shape.
Q: The guys are trying to do difficult elements.
A: It’s better not to do such things at home because it can cause injuries. But guys are a bit sturdier than girls.
Q: How long was your longest vacation?
A: Two and a half weeks tops. But I still went to the gym two or three times a week during that time. Before New Year, we usually have a short break between camps and we try to go somewhere warm where we can replace our training with something else. And this New Year, for example, I went to Austria. I tried snowboarding for the first time there.
Q: How fast do you usually get back into the training process after a vacation?
A: When you rest for two weeks, you get back really fast. But I’ve never had such an experience where you don’t train for a month. I think that if there’s a will, it won’t be too hard.
Q: What do you now have a chance to do?
A: I got time to learn English. I watch movies. I like science fiction and action movies.
Q: How are your university studies going?
A: I’m a second-year student at the Smolensk State Academy of Physical Culture, Sports, and Tourism. I study according to an individual schedule, so there are no issues there.
Q: On Instagram, you are doing give-aways for your subscribers. One of them, a contest, was called “Three champions, three sports, three gifts”. Who came up with this idea?
A: This contest was organized by me together with Marina Golyadkina and Dasha Dubova who proposed the idea. We’ve known each other for a long time. We train at the same center as synchronized swimmers and we know rhythmic gymnasts quite well.
Q: What prize will the winner get from you?
A: It will be a Russian national team vest. We’ll mail the prizes later.
Q: Have you participated in any online challenges?
A: Only in the Pillow Challenge. I’ve never participated in anything like that before but this one got me interested. Also, it wasn’t hard to find a pillow and a belt at home.
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