Nikita Nagornyy talked to VTB about the team’s and his own victories in Stuttgart and the long road to this competition.
Q: What were you feeling last year when you lost to China by 0.001 at the World Championships?
A: It angered and motivated us. The important thing was that we started believing we could win. We were coming to the Stuttgart World Championships with a specific goal – to win. We became confident we could win which we didn’t have in Doha.
Q: You said that Ivan Stretovich helped you to get into the right mindset during the all-around final. What did he do?
A: I just asked him to be by my side. It’s hard for me to be alone in such high-pressure moments. Some call me a mature, serious guy but I still have that childish silliness and it will still be with me. So, in the spare moments at competitions, I like to fool around. I like having fun and entertaining others. That’s what we were doing with Vanya who wasn’t competing that day. It’s necessary in order not to waste energy on stress and not to get nervous: when you trust your body and your preparation, you just go out there and do what you can, what you prepared to. Vanya really helped me. It’s always good when you have a friend by your side who chalk the bar, so that you can do your routine without mistakes.
Q: What helped you calm down on the eve of the final?
A: There’s no such aid. Your brain does whatever it wants to, you can’t keep a hold on it. The brain is a whole story. If you want to, read a book on this topic “Red Pill” by Andrey Kurpatov. He explains how the brain works, telling some very interesting facts. When you close your eyes, it’s pointless to tell yourself: “Calm down and go to sleep”. It’s impossible. Before the team final, Vanya Stretovich and I were lying on our beds in the room. I saw that he was sleeping but I couldn’t sleep at 2 am. I would get up, walk around, sit, I’d get hot or cold. I ended up falling asleep at 3 or 4 am. In the morning, Vanya admitted that he couldn’t fall asleep until dawn either. The anxiety is understandable, we were working towards it our whole life. Our team had not won in the team final for 28 years while I’m only 22.
Q: After the victory, you had tears in your eyes and yelled “Never give up!” into the camera. Have you cried after victories before?
A: No, but when you work towards the victory for such a long time and accumulate the emotions inside, they spill on their own. I know for sure that such sincere emotions are hard to get anywhere outside the sport and such important victories.
Q: You admitted that a year before the Rio Olympics, the book “No Excuses” by Brian Tracy affected you very much. How did it change you?
A: At 16 or 17, kids are empty-headed. You’re going through puberty. You want to become an adult faster but don’t understand what for. When you’re striving towards something material, it seems impossible, not achievable. When you get it, you realize that nothing material is worthy enough to be motivated by it. In such moments, you need a wise person who will steer you in the right direction, prepare you for the adult life faster and will make you realize that you’re responsible not just for yourself but for your loved ones as well. I understood it thanks to Tracy’s book, I started thinking as an adult and not a teenager.
Q: Were there moments when you could leave gymnastics?
A: I had two such moments. The first – when I was about 8 years old. I often complained about my first coach, Olga Ivanovna Nechepurenko, because I had a difficult character. I was spoiled. My grandpa, a football player, after hearing my complaints, once said: “That’s it, stop torturing my grandson. He’ll play football”. I did it for a month and then Olga Ivanovna persuaded me to come back. The second one was after the injury I got at 12 because of my stupidity. I had surgery and missed a whole year. Worried about me, my parents decided that I didn’t need to do gymnastics anymore. But my friends went to competitions, won, and I felt nervous: we were training together but now they’re winning, while I’m lying with the injury. I wanted to recover and to compete, too.
Q: What level was you grandpa playing at?
A: He played for the Armenian national team and Rostselmash. Of course, his games were before my time but he told me a lot about it. The most interesting thing was that one of his coaches was the husband of Olga Ivanovna, my first coach.
Q: How did you get injured at 12?
A: I had an open fracture training on high bar. I was still little, and it didn’t seem like something horrible – happens to everyone. Later, when I was older, I broke a leg, got a groin injury – I was already doing gymnastics professionally, so forced pauses are much harder. One year, I couldn’t even compete. I did some events but not my signature ones. Those two injures were hard but I managed to get through.
Q: On Nemov’s show, you performed together with your wife, Daria Spiridonova. Was it unusual?
A: I wouldn’t say so. We’ve performed together many times already, so our work together has been polished. This time, we only got new choreography.
Q: You proposed to Daria after skydiving. Was that the craziest thing you’ve ever done?
A: No, I do crazy things all the time. More importantly, I love surprising my loved ones. Dasha really wanted to skydive. Me – not so much. But I decided to join these two things – to fulfil Dasha’s dream and to propose. And, honestly, that was not the best idea. Dasha got such incredible emotions from the jump that she responded to my proposal with “Well, ok, let’s do it”.
Q: Why didn’t you want to jump at first?
A: Before, even the thought of that scared me. Turned out, it wasn’t scary at all.
Q: Who tells most jokes on the men’s team?
A: Denis Abliazin knows all the existing jokes. At every practice, the first thing he says when seeing you: “Wanna hear a joke?”
Q: When launching your vlog about life in gymnastics, did you expect it to become popular?
A: I hoped for it. Because of the injury, I was in a boot and could barely train. I needed some outlet for my energy. So, I launched the channel Nikushkin Day in order to put the energy saved up in the sport into it. Youtube really helped me to get through that time. Although, the coaches were at one point a bit unhappy that I spent more time on the videos than on the sport.
Q: Recently, you opened your own gymnastics club. Was it hard to find a location for it?
A: I spent a whole year looking. We needed a place without gyms, but there are many small kid gyms in various neighborhoods in Moscow now. I’d even say too many. But there are fewer in the suburbs, especially the kind of gyms where a kid can potentially get to a high level in the future. We rented space at a mall because we needed something with high ceilings. It’s a really good idea to sign kids up for gymnastics classes. It’s the basic sport that every kid needs to do. If they don’t like it, it won’t be hard to move to any other sport after gymnastics. By the way, I was sent some videos of kids who are just starting in gymnastics cheering for us and celebrating our victories. It’s great when the next generation has such an example as our national team that showed not only to themselves but to the whole country that we’re capable of fighting for gold at the Olympics Games.
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