Last week, Nikita Nagorny returned to competition for the first time since the Tokyo Olympics – he competed for TG Saar club. Nagorny spent the two months after the Olympics mostly resting his body, giving interviews, and attending events, so he hasn’t been able to train much. This makes his results at the first competition even more impressive – he downgraded but still scored over 85 in the all-around.
Nagorny said about his performance in Bundesliga:
“I’m incredibly impressed with my own strength. I barely went to the gym [during the break] and, at the same time, I had a three-week break [before this competition]. I only had a week to prepare for this competition, only maintained my physical shape without any extraordinary elements. I thought that everything would be very difficult and I wouldn’t be able to do anything. Based on that, I even thought that I wouldn’t be able to recover. But I went out and did basically my Olympic difficulty without a couple of elements. And I did it well.”
Nagorny plans to continue the Bundesliga season and is also slated to compete at the Artur Gander Memorial and Swiss Cup in November together with Angelina Melnikova.
Unlike Melnikova, he opted out of the World Championships and Russia will send a mix of B-team members and recent seniors to try them out in Japan. The men’s team that competed in Tokyo all have nagging injuries and taking a break from competitions altogether or attending competition where they don’t need to do their full difficulty will allow them to focus on their health. David Belyavskiy and Artur Dalaloyan also competed in the Bundesliga last weekend, while Denis Abliazin returned to training at his home gym but hasn’t been back to Round Lake yet. Nagorny said the decision that he skips Worlds was made together with the national team coaches:
“I didn’t refuse to go to the World Championships, the decision to skip the competition was made together with the coaching team. There was no refusal from me. I have health issues which need to be treated. The next quad is much harder and I’m at that age when I need to pay twice as much attention to my health. I need to fix the health issues and push forward.”
Right after the competition in Germany, Nagorny flew to Sochi to attend the Formula One event there and cheer on Nikita Mazepin. Nagorny talked about buying his first car which he apparently drove without a permit (the legal driving age in Russia is 18 years old):
“With my honestly earned money, I bought a Kopeyka, I was 16 years old. it was at our training center where we live and train almost all year round. I had a passion, I always wanted to drive, and I realized that it’s necessary to learn [how to drive] on Russian-made cars. I found this Kopeyka in the closest village on Avito. It was so broken down, that on my way back, I wound a log to put it behind the back of the seat, it was falling off. I would drive to the store every day, even if I didn’t need anything there. I would do such a “promotion” – I offered to bring something from there for others.”
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