Angelina Melnikova gave a short interview to Izvestia after arriving in Moscow from the World Championships in Japan. Melnikova came home with all-around gold, floor silver, and vault bronze.
Q: Were you able to recover emotionally from the events of the World Championships in Japan?
A: I don’t even know yet. The travel back was hard. I want to rest now. It took us about two days to get back. So, I guess, all the emotions will happen later.
Q: How long will you rest for?
A: I’m flying to a competition in Switzerland on November 1st. So, I’ll need to rest for a couple of days now, then train a bit and compete there. After that, I’ll come home. And that will be it, I’ll be able to rest.
Q: So, you won’t have time for celebrations like there were after the Olympics?
A: I don’t know, I haven’t been invited anywhere yet. Perhaps, I’ll be invited now that I’ve come back.
Q: Did you feel like a favorite for the all-around gold medal from the start?
A: No, I didn’t feel like a favorite from the start. First of all, I didn’t know how strong the roster would be at the World Championships. Second, I wasn’t in a very good shape, because I only had a month to train. But I managed to get in shape already in Japan. And you could say that I got in quite good shape, that’s why I managed to perform so well.
Q: World Championships aren’t usually held in Olympic years but because the Olympics were postponed, you had to compete at two major competitions in three months. How hard was it?
A: Specifically competing at two competitions in a row wasn’t hard. It was very hard to train, for example, after the victory at the Olympic Games. It was hard to train for the World Championships after that, because we didn’t have any mental or physical resources left. But we managed.
Q: On the men’s side, the four-person team that won gold at the Olympics didn’t go to the World Championships. Were you feeling pressure that you were in fact the leader of our team at Worlds and the best hope for a medal?
A: Not at all. I had my own tasks and goals, so I didn’t feel any pressure.
Q: Do you already have a plan for the next quad until the Paris Olympics? Have you thought of taking a pause in your career?
A: I need to rest first because I haven’t had a rest in a long time. I need to restore my energy and then we’ll see. I can’t say for sure now.
Q: Besides your family, whose congratulations were you most pleased to receive?
A: I guess, I was most pleased with the telegram from the president.
Q: Which of the two golds made you the most emotional – the team gold at the Tokyo Olympics or the all-around gold at Worlds?
A: Of course, the gold at the Olympics made me more emotional, but now the feelings from the victory at Worlds got added to it. Because it’s incredible to win gold at Worlds two months after the Olympic Games.
Q: Recently, Maria Paseka with whom you won team silver in Rio-2016 resumed her career. Are you ready for the competition she’ll give you?
A: I can’t answer this question because I have my own goals, my own tasks. I don’t know. Competition… There’s always competition.
Melnikova’s mom Marina talked to KP Voronezh.
Similarly to stories about other gymnasts, Melnikova was an active child and parents decided to sign her up for gymnastics classes as an outlet for her energy:
“My daughter was very flexible, wouldn’t hold still. Dad was the first to notice it and said, “we need to put her in a sport when she grows up”.
Melnikova started gymnastics when she was six years old:
“Obstacles only made my daughter stronger. Many girls were doing gymnastics since they were four or five. Six years old is considered to be a bit late [to start]. But it didn’t prevent Gelya from achieving success. She rarely came home from children’s or, later, junior competitions without a gold or a silver. Perhaps, bronze was the worst results. That is, she was always on the medal podium.”
“My daughter is a very motivated person. She wouldn’t go to sleep until she finished her homework. And she wouldn’t let me sleep either, I would help her without making excuses that her little brother Oleg distracted me. By the way, he’s also almost grown up now and doing sports as well, martial arts.”
Melnikova moved to Round Lake at 13 years old and had a hard time living without her family:
“Sometimes, Gelya would call us at night and cry, tell how hard it was for her without us. At first, we would come to visit every month. But later, at 15-16, when we would offer to visit, she’d say that she had stuff to do, that she was going out somewhere with the other girls. In other words, she became independent.”
After the Rio Olympics, Melnikova was invited to a meeting with the governor of Voronezh region and, when asked what gymnastics in Voronezh needs, said that boys didn’t have a proper gym. This fall, a brand-new new MAG gym was opened in Voronezh, but girls and women still train in a small old gym where Melnikova started out:
“The girls are still training at Shtukman’s school in the city center. It was renovated, though, and got more modern equipment, but you can’t make the old building bigger. She should’ve asked for a new gym for the girls as well.”
As a teenager, Melnikova went through some challenges in her relationships with parents and coaches:
“Problems [in her relationship] with the coach started. At first, she trained with Natalia Ishkova, then left her for Sergey Denisevich. He’s also a great coach but, I guess, the period of teenage self-assertion started. All in all, there was lack of understanding between them. In the end, Gelya went back to her first coach. And her communication with Ishkova became good again. I have to say Gelya didn’t listen to my and her father during that period either. She would often say, “I’ll do what I decide”. At one point, the fame made her a bit arrogant, we had to have serious fights.”
“She recently got her own line of gymnastics leotards. She is the designer and a seamstress translates her idea into reality. Gelya also likes learning languages. English, of course, although she already knows it well thanks to a lot of practice. And she’s also learning Italian now. Angelina visited gymnasts she knows in Italy and this country won her over – with its architecture, sea, and the cuisine with unforgettable sauces. She was also very impressed by Switzerland and Singapore. So, when she comes home to Novaya Usman village (where our house is), she talks about the contrast – how people live abroad and how sad everything is here. I tell her, “it’s good I haven’t been there and don’t have a reason to be sad.”
Melnikova has her own apartment in Moscow which she bought with prize money:
“She’s been saving part of her prize money since 2013 and managed to save enough for a two-room apartment in a new compound at the northern part of Moscow. Nowadays, she spends 2-3 days in Voronezh and is drawn back home, to the capital. She’s asking us to move there as well. But I have a job, my husband has his business. And we don’t want to live in a big city. We prefer the quiet, the forest, our own house. Gelya is different, of course. She comes home and has a full schedule. Lying on the couch is definitely not about her. Sometimes I even get a bit hurt – she comes for short visits and spends them away from home, she always needs to go somewhere.”
“Some wisdom appeared in her after the Olympics. She started asking her mom and dad’s advice on daily matters more often, she became calmer. I think that after she retires, Gelya should stay in artistic gymnastics as a judge or a coach. This is definitely her calling. I’ve seen many girls whose parents tried to force them to become great athletes. I don’t believe it’s possible. Angelina really likes gymnastics, she never stops enjoying it. And that’s the most important thing.”
