The Russian men’s team talked to MatchTV about what the gold medal means to him and what they were feeling throughout the team final.
Q: Guys, the final was quite nerve-wrecking.
Denis Abliazin: Very much so! I can’t say anything about stepping out of bounds of floor. We just did our routines on floor today. Our task was just to do them. We managed it, we showed what we could do.
Q: Is the medal comparable to the silver in Rio?
Abliazin: Of course not. We had a different team. Now, Artur joined me, David, and Nikita, he’s an all-arounder, he recovered, came back and made our team much stronger.
Q: When you learned you broke both legs, if you had been told that you’d get the gold team medal in Tokyo, would have you believed it?
Abliazin: I’d say I wouldn’t have. It’s very hard to recover, to keep working. But when this happened… I think we’ll fully realize it tomorrow. Now we just really want to get some rest. The medal is very heavy. Do you know how heavy it is? And how hard it was to get? I’m completely drained, no emotions left. I even lost my voice. I can’t describe what I’m feeling now. It’s endless happiness. I can’t add anything else.
Q: David, as a veteran, can you talk about how big this is? You won silver in Rio, but there were no team medals for a long time, since Sydney.
David Belyavskiy: Yes but you see, we have a different team, we got strong and talented guys. And together with the experience Denis and I have, the young guys brought something of their own.
Q: I’ve just talked to Vasily Titov, the president of the Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation and FIG Vice-President, and his said that before Artur’s and Denis’s injuries he was sure the team was the best in the world but after the injuries and the pause in competitions, there was some uncertainty that continued till the end of the competition today.
Belyavskiy: We like overcoming difficulties. I guess people in our country like overcoming difficulties. The harder it is, the more focused and put together we are.
Q: Nikita, you didn’t look so well after your floor routine?
Nikita Nagorny: I couldn’t breathe, I stood there, I was chocking, I practically passed out there.
Belyavskiy: Everyone heard that very well.
Nagorny: They were even ashamed of me, I saw that.
Belyavskiy: I wasn’t ashamed, there was nothing to be ashamed of.
Artur Dalaloyan: But Nikita was really wheezing like… I don’t know, like a groundhog.
Abliazin: But the most important thing is that there was good screaming after that. Joyful screaming. Everything’s good.
Belyavskiy: In any case he knew he did what he needed to do but we had to wait to see what the score would be because all three Japanese gymnasts got high scores on high bar. I saw how they performed. And the Chinese gymnasts also got good scores.
Q: Yes, you were making calculations during the rotation.
Belyavskiy: I saw the scores for Artur and Denis and compared them to the scores for China and Japan and we were still ahead. I knew that Nikita could do well floor, so we still had a chance for a gold medal.
Dalaloyan: Yes, he had this task to make the calculations, especially since he wasn’t doing floor. And even before that, he did the calculations and tracked Japanese and Chinese teams’ scores, but after high bar, he went really deep into because we needed to know what we had to do. Nikita was third on floor because he could do higher difficulty and get a good score. If we didn’t have a lead, Nikita would have done his full difficulty. But since we had a lead, he did a slightly easier routine.
Q: Artur, what were you feeling doing all-around for two days?
Dalaloyan: My legs are barely standing.
Q: Did you go out of bounds on floor because of that?
Dalaloyan: I’m happy with my floor. I’ve only done my second floor routine since the surgery today and I managed to do the 6.0 difficulty today that I planned to do in the qualification. Of course, my legs get tired. My calves are still different in size, my left leg hasn’t completely recovered since the surgery. It’s still hard to do a full routine. Single passes are ok but doing a full routine, especially when you have all sorts of thoughts in your head, it’s hard. But I still managed to put the routine together and do it.
Q: We could see the calluses torn off your palms on TV.
Dalaloyan: Yes, my palms get ripped every day, and I don’t think they can recover. Only if I go on vacation and spend two weeks on the beach under the sun, they start healing. But when I put on grips twice a day, of course, all this breaks down and rips, I always have this problem.
Q: Guys, when did you understand you’d won?
Dalaloyan: We knew what score we needed, David calculated everything. And as soon as we saw the score, we knew.
Nagorny: I believed and hoped [we’d win]. I didn’t know for sure because I didn’t do my routine well enough to be confident in my score. So, I was very anxious because the qualification showed that we can get lower scores than we’re capable of.
Q: Were the scores clear today?
Nagorny: I can’t say that judges are the problem, I respect their decisions and I’m not going to say that some give higher or lower scores. It’s just that we get used to certain scores when we compete at Worlds and Euros. And when you come and do an even better routine but get a lower score, you just can’t help but notice.
Q: And the score was finally on the screen.
Nagorny: I just fell down. It wasn’t possible to control, describe, or convey. It was like I died for a second.
Q: There was no Russian anthem, did it dampen your feelings today a bit?
Dalaloyan: Of course, it would be nice to hear the anthem of the country we represent. But the important thing is that our main fans – families, coaches, our country – know where we’re from and which country we represent. And the most important – we know that as well. So, no matter which music is played, it’s the anthem of our country.
Nagorny: I can’t say that it was a blow for us. I’m a true a patriot of my country and the important thing is what’s in your heart. When this whole story started, it was hard and upsetting, but it motivated us to prove – the harder it gets, the easier it is for us.
Q: You ran somewhere after high bar.
Nagorny: I went to the bathroom and got lost. I didn’t know where to go but my volunteer friend helped me.
Q: Will we see your full difficulty on floor here?
Nagorny: I saved the dessert for the final. I hope that if I survive today and get my strength back for the all-around final and after that, I’ll do it. It’s good that I didn’t need to do my full difficulty today because it was already the sixth event and I didn’t even have enough strength for this routine, I started inventing my routine.
Q: You were a bit limping in the qualification, your calf hurt. How are you feeling now?
Nagorny: It’s the same now but the adrenaline and pain killers are helping. But listen, our team is the sickest here! The team of disabled people won at the Olympics, it’s just ridiculous.
Q: And if we’re being serious now…
Dalaloyan: Our team is the best one, it took years for it to form, and it formed – it was clear back in 2019 when we won the World Championships. Of course, the coronavirus made some changes to our plans, it wanted to break, shake, and crush us in order for this gold not to happen. But we managed, we got through this, despite all the difficulties and injuries. I don’t even want to think about it, we endured it, and it was worth it.
Nagorny: Artur is a hero. What he’s done, it’s for life, you can’t put it in words. Denis Abliazin with two titan plates in his legs went out and did his floor and stuck his vault – he’s a hero. He’s like McGregor, but twice as strong. David who does all-around, overcomes difficulties and shows the young guys that he’s stronger comes here and gets a full collection of Olympic medals – he now has gold, silver, and bronze from two Olympics even though he competed at three. He actually has a full collection from all the big competition – Worlds, Euros, Olympics, Universiade, and European Games. Half a year ago, we told him that he’d get to complete it here in Tokyo. All of the guys here deserve this medal. I knew before that we deserve it but now we just proved it. We got gold for our country, we did it as a team today, we all did a good job.
Photo: Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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