Aliya Mustafina was recently included on the Russian nominative team for the World Championships. MatchTV talked to her about recovering from a knee injury and coming back to gymnastics as a mom.
Q: You didn’t go to the European Championships because of your knee. Is this the left knee which you horrifically injured in 2011?
A: No, that was the right knee, but I also had a surgery on it, only in 2015. Then I had a torn meniscus and this year, at the Russian Championships, I injured this knee a bit again.
Q: During your career, you injured both of your knees and, likely, there were other issues as well. Do you have any chronic injuries?
A: Not really, because out of my three surgeries, I don’t remember two of them at all, I have no symptoms left. One knee, due to the circumstances of the injury, will distract me from time to time but this issue can be eliminated in just two weeks.
Q: Many gymnasts have back problems. How did your back react to the third trimester of your pregnancy?
A: It’s very interesting. I have constant low back pain since 2012. And the only time it didn’t hurt was during the pregnancy. During those months, I didn’t even remember about back pain.
Q: Did the pregnancy change your body?
A: Gymnastics is such a sport where functional characteristics, endurance, and power don’t play a huge role. The important things are the technique and the precision of execution. In that sense, I don’t feel any big changes.
Q: So, the young gymnasts who will read this interview shouldn’t be afraid to give birth?
A: It’s all individual, of course. But from my experience, I can say that taking a maternity leave is not so scary. Of course, it’s a step in your career but if you build a plan in your mind leading back to the gym, it will be easier to come back. For example, I stopped training right after the Rio Olympics and only a month later learned that I was pregnant. I started training again in September of 2017, that is, three months after giving birth and I also stopped breastfeeding then. By the summer of 2018, I was already in decent shape.
Q: You said in the past that you don’t like running or being on a diet. What did you do to lose weight?
A: I lost a lot of weight right after giving birth, in the first week. I started training without going on any diets, I just watched a bit what I ate but I didn’t have a goal to lose weight by restricting the food intake. The weight kept going down because of the training, my body was getting back in order on its own.
Q: Olga Zaitseva* said that she only agreed to come back on the condition that her child would always be with her during training camps. How did you come back?
A: For me, on the contrary, the main condition was that I could leave my daughter with her grandma, my mom. If this were impossible, I wouldn’t even think about coming back. But my mom immediately decided that she would support me. At first, when I was leaving, it was hard. I was worried that my mom wouldn’t notice something, wouldn’t understand something in her behavior in the way that I would understand it. But gradually the fear subsided, Alisa will be a year and four months old soon and it’s all fine now. But I see her often – on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays when I go home to Moscow.
Q: Were you anxious at your first competition since coming back?
A: Yes, I was very scared, especially on the very first event. I had this feeling as if I didn’t even know what it is – to salute and to do my routine. But in the course of the competition, it became easier. In addition, at practices, we did verifications that are mock competitions and this also prepares you for the competition.
Q: There are three weeks left till Worlds, what is your training schedule?
A: Right now the training load is at maximum, we will start lowering it about a week before in order to get to the competition relatively fresh but without losing the shape.
Q: If you compare your readiness before the nationals and now, is it higher now?
A: According to the coaches, I’m much more prepared now. After the nationals, I had kind of a pause in the training and when I came back to the gym and started getting in shape, I reached a level closer to what I had before giving birth. And I feel very differently now.
Q: Were you able to restore the routines you had before the pregnancy?
A: Bars – not completely. I can’t do the hardest gymnastics element on them – inbar stalder. I can do it on its own but I still can’t manage to put it back into the routine. We even joke with the girls that it’s easier to give birth than to do an inbar. Besides that, I completely restored my routines. On beam, I even upgraded with some new connections. The currents code of points is very favorable for me because it’s possible to get a lot of bonuses with not the hardest elements. So, my difficulty on beam is quite good.
Q: What are your goals for Worlds?
A: The main goal is to make the top-3 at the team competition in order to qualify to the Olympics. I was preparing two events – bars and beam. I haven’t been training vault and I’m tumbling on floor but I probably won’t do floor at Worlds. I’m preparing it more for myself so that I could get closer to the all-around.
Q: Aren’t you afraid of the heat in Doha and the fact that you’ll constantly have to be in the air-conditioned spaces where you can catch a cold?
A: I haven’t thought about it yet but I’ll start when I’ll be packing the bags. We’re arriving there in advance because there will be podium training for men and women before the competition, so I’ll have 9 training days in Qatar.
Q: You are very active on Instagram. Is that a replacement for talking to the press?
A: I wouldn’t say it’s very active now, I’m not open enough and don’t have time to make good photos. I rarely publish new posts now even though I now that my subscribers would want it. But because of the training, I can’t find any energy to tell them about something new.
*Olga Zaitseva is a Russian biathlete who kept competing after giving birth to her son.
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