Nikita Nagorny, a reigning World and European champion, has a chance to win Olympic AA gold in Tokyo. However, he said in a interview to VTB, a team medal is much more important for him.
Q: Nikita, Russian media often call you a perfect athlete.
A: I wonder what they mean by a perfect athlete. This could be interpreted in different ways…
Q: For example, that the team’s success is more important than individual medals for you. What motivates you? After all, artistic gymnastics is more of an individual sport.
A: It’s just how I am and how I’ve always been – not just in the sport but outside of it as well. I like when people around me achieve success. This gives me additional motivation as well. When I compete alone, even if I make a mistake on an event, I always have a chance to do better on the next event. To put it simply, I have room for an error. When we compete as a team, any mistake can be fatal. I won silver as a part of the team twice – at the Rio Olympics and at the World Championships in Doha when we lost by 0.001. So, when we finally won gold in Stuttgart in 2019, this became the most important medal in my career. All of the guys spent most of their lives in the gym, gave their all to artistic gymnastics, same as me. To share the victory feelings with your teammate means a lot.
Q: How much time do you spend in the gym every day?
A: Depends on the time of the season. If we’re talking about competition season, I have two daily training sessions at the very least. Plus recovery procedures, stretching, preparation, additional treatments. It’s possible to spend the whole day in the gym. If it’s outside of the competition season, then one training session a day is enough.
Q: What do you do during the training sessions when you prepare for competitions?
A: In the morning, I usually do my standard routines in the gym, go through all six events and do all my routines. The evening training session is to polish certain elements that weren’t so good in the morning. Sometimes, I do conditioning or work on the technique.
Q: Let’s talk about the element that was named after you. How did you decide to do it?
A: We actually reminisced about this moment today! Right after the Rio Olympics – during a camp in Italy – the head coach of the national team Valery Pavlovich asked everyone to try a triple back into a foam pit. Since that, I had a new element in my arsenal – Liukin’s triple salto. During the lockdown, I decided to upgrade it and do it not tucked but piked. And in April, during the European Championships in Switzerland, I decided to add it to my routine.
Q: Will you add it to your routine at the Olympics?
A: We’ll see. God willing, the Olympics will happen and I’ll be able to participate and then we’ll see how things will go. Most likely, yes, I will do it.
Q: How are you affected by the fact that Russian athletes were forbidden from using the country’s flag and anthem at the Games?
A: Not positively, that’s for sure. I think that sports should be separate from politics. Even if we will compete without a flag, everyone knows which country we represent. Of course, it would be nice to hear our anthem while on the medal podium. And I’m sure many athletes will sing it in their heads.
Q: Olympics Games is something people are striving for their whole lives. How many Games can be in a life of a gymnast?
A: It’s all very individual. And it depends on many factors. For example, whether the athlete had any serious injuries. If someone has good health and recovers fast, he can keep competing at a high level for quite a long time.
Q: You became the all-around European champion this year. Do you aim to repeat this at the Olympic Games in Tokyo?
A: Actually, no. The team’s success is more important to me. If I’ll have to choose, I’ll choose a team medal, no doubt.
Q: Let’s imagine that you become an all-around Olympic champion. How can you stay motivated after achieving everything you’ve wanted?
A: Same as now. First of all, by remembering how big of an honor and responsibility it is to represent your country at such a competition. In such moments, personal goals are in the background. It’s already enough of motivation to keep fighting for titles. If my health will allow it, I will try to keep representing Russia at international competitions for as long as possible.
Q: You are now busy growing your gymnastics school. How do you attract kids to artistic gymnastics, a sport that isn’t as popular as football, for instance?
A: We don’t have age limits, so parents bring their kids to us already at 1.5 years old. Artistic gymnastics develops kids well, helps them become flexible and healthy. We try to make our training sessions entertaining and smart, do them in a playful form – we come up with various challenges which makes it more interesting. This continues until the age of four or five. Then, general conditioning training starts – until around the age of seven. At that age, a child becomes stronger and has better motor coordination. After that, we try to add more serious gymnastics exercises to the training sessions. At 8 years old, a child (together with their parents) can decide if they want to stay in gymnastics, understand what they like. All this can affect the decision. We only try to create the kind of atmosphere that will make children want to stay. Not just for a future elite career in the sport but also just for fun. Now is the time for recreational sports and we work on that as well.
Q: Who brought you to the gym? Did you look at other sports or did you fall in love with this sport right away?
A: When I was in kindergarten, a coach from the local gym near my home came with a visit. Once a year, this gym opened new groups and took the most active kids. My kindergarten teachers told this woman right away that I was the most active kid in my class. Indeed, I couldn’t stay still, I kept running and jumping all the time and never ran out of energy. Artistic gymnastics was the perfect option for me. The kindergarten teachers told my grandma about the gym and she agreed to take me to classes.
Q: So, at first, it was just a place where you spent your excessive energy?
A: You could say so. I remember it well – our practices lasted around 60 minutes, and after that I kept jumping around the house for another three hours and tried to repeat all the exercises we did in training. We lived in a detached house, without neighbors, so I could run and jump all I wanted without bothering anyone.
Q: When did you realize you wanted to commit to the sport?
A: I guess when I was 15. It was my first European Championships, my first international competition. I realized then that I could achieve success in gymnastics.
Q: Do you see yourself as a coach in the future? Or would you like to do something else?
A: Right now – rather no than yes. I’d like to become a development coordinator of a sport – it doesn’t have to be on the national team. Perhaps, at some club – to go to competitions with the team, to prepare them, to inspire and motivate them. I’d just share my experience, give some tips. I’d also like to give master classes – go to Russian regions or, perhaps, even to other countries. In any case, I don’t want to limit myself to just gymnastics. I’d like to grow in various fields.
Q: By the way, you’re one of the few Russian athletes who are active on social media, you film videos for Youtube and Tiktok. Do you do it to promote the sport?
A: Yes, so that the kids would want to do artistic gymnastics and the adults would come to competitions to support us. I remember a Voronin Cup in Moscow before the Rio Olympics. It was really upsetting to see empty stands even though entrance was free and the level of the competition was quite hight. Compared to other European countries, artistic gymnastics is much more popular there. After this competition, I started thinking about what to do in order to make people interested in gymnastics. If every athlete will at least have an interesting Instagram account, it can positively affect the popularity of the sport. For example, you can film your training sessions. It will be enough at first. Perhaps, it will interest someone, not necessarily kids. Perhaps, some adults will get interested in gymnastics and start watching it on TV and will understand the rules and judging a bit, will start following the national team or specific athletes.
Q: Who’s helping you with the Youtube channel?
A: Besides a video editor and a couple of videographers, I’m doing it all on my own. I come up with ideas, bring people together and organize a shoot.
Q: How did your last five years go? Have you achieved your goals?
A: In any case, it’s impossible to do everything you planned. I set a lot of different goals for myself every year. At the end of the year, I examine what I managed to do and what I didn’t. I conduct an analysis of sorts. For example, with the social media, I try to understand what I can improve, where I can add, what’s watched more, which videos get more likes. In 2015, I managed to achieve about 40% of my goals. In 2020 – 80%. I know more about some things, I learned to manage my time better. For me, it’s also a kind of a reset outside of competitions. If I was only focused on competitions all the time, I’d burn out very soon. This way, I keep doing something productive while I rest.
Q: What helps you to take a break from competitions and training?
A: My activity on social media, my Youtube channel, interacting with kids. I know that I have a lot of responsibility to the kids. Everything about the new generation gives me extra energy.
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