Nikita Nagornyy gave an interview to Ivan Fragin of VTB after winning AA gold at the European Championships. He talked about the popularity of gymnastics in Russia, his plans for life after retirement and his wedding.
Q: Our last meeting happened during a period that was quite difficult for you: a number of unsuccessful performances, criticism in the media, sadness in your eyes. Now you are on top and everything turned around. How? What was the reason for this change?
A: The main reason was, I guess, the fact that I grew up a bit. In addition, I had a string of injuries then which really annoyed me. For a long time, I couldn’t get into the routine, into the normal training process, and to show good results. And when there are no results, you start getting angry and blaming everyone. You keep looking for something, analyzing where you did something wrong. When you are angry at yourself, you start attracting trouble like a magnet… Lots of things happen in life, it can be very hard sometimes. It’s important to be able to process everything, let it go and move forward. Which is what eventually happened to me.
Q: Did you believe back then that everything would turn out well? I remember I had a feeling that you were close to making some drastic decisions…
A: It was a really hard time, that’s true. I had a lot of thoughts that worsened the situation and affected my perception of reality negatively… But I believed. The support from my loved ones, especially my wife, helped. She was very firm, she didn’t let me fall apart. I understood that my injury needed to heal. I had a broken ankle then, I spent three months in a boot, then I was recovering for a long time, basically, the whole 2017.
Q: But what about the 2017 European Championships in Cluj?
A: It was the first big competition since the injury at which I didn’t do leg events, that is, my best events. Because of the injury, I just couldn’t compete on vault. Thank god, I managed to win bronze on bars… I have a tradition to come home from Euros with a medal, I didn’t want to break it. At the end of that year, I went to the World Championships in Montreal but, unfortunately, did not achieve good results. Too much time was lost. Without proper preparation, it was hard to show something decent at such a serious level.
Q: Let’s talk about this year’s European Championships. Did you manage to do everything you planned to? Are you happy with your performance?
A: I’m happy with the fact that I achieved my goals. Regarding the results… Two golds is a good result. I guess it’s the maximum I could squeeze out of myself at the time. After the Russian Championships and a World Cup, it was quite hard for me to recover in time for the competition but I managed to do it. This experience is very valuable to me. Generally, I’m happy with what I showed. Of course, some things did not work out. But nothing is ever perfect in sports. If we’re talking only about the performance and not the medals, then, absolutely, there are still areas to improve and to work on.
Q: Artistic gymnastics is a very subjective sport in terms of judging. Is the current scoring system fair?
A: Honestly, I’ve never thought about it. Rules are rules, it’s the law. We can’t change it, we have to adjust accordingly. And I’ve never met gymnasts who would complain about the rules and say that they’re not fine. Everyone’s in the same situation.
Q: Is it upsetting that, say, any football player from Spartak will be crushed by fans if he goes for a walk in the Gorky park while you and Dasha, World and European champions and Olympic medalists were not even recognized when the video at VDNH was filmed? Is it due to the fact that gymnastics is not covered much on TV?
A: I think we are partially to blame. Let’s take Alexey Nemov, everyone knew him! He was one of the most famous athletes in the country. Remember the Athens Olympics – the whole world was cheering for him, he got fame even from failures. That video was filmed when Russian gymnastics was in a bit of a hole, there were no big victories. When Artur Dalaloyan became the World all-around champion, the attention came right away. He was a guest on Night Urgant, people started to recognize him on the streets, he started getting invited everywhere. Artur told me how it was completely unexpected for him. But who cares about some guys who spend their whole days in the gym and take 5th and 6th places? Or even 2nd and 3rd? It means there’s someone better, right? So, we need to work harder and win – and everything will happen for us. Regarding the coverage of gymnastics, yes, there are issues with it. Although, after Emin Garibov started working [as the head of marketing in the federation], things started getting better. He tries to change the current situation, to help us. For example, we’ve never had such high-quality streams of the Russian Championships like we did this year in Penza. It was televised at the same level of quality as the European Championships. Everyone was happy. I even watched my routines after the competition, my parents watched it. We’re developing. The important thing is to keep going.
Q: When will you be on Night Urgant? After Tokyo?
A: I’d love to be a guest, I won’t hide it. Although, I can’t call it a goal, of course. We were invited to sit in the audience for that show with Artur Dalaloyan but I already had plane tickets – I couldn’t go. For me, this whole story was just unreal, just crazy. The fact that a gymnast was invited to be the main star on Night Urgant – when had this ever happened? I was very happy for Artur and for gymnastics in general. I hope that after the Tokyo Olympics, Ivan will invite the whole team to be on the show.
Q: Despite your age – you’re only 22 – you’ve achieved a lot already. What’s next? What are your goals and dreams? Besides the Olympic gold, of course.
A: I’me very attached to gymnastics. I can’t predict, of course, but I think I’ll never leave it completely. In the future, I’d like to open a gymnastics center where I would be able to share my knowledge and experience with kids. In general, I’d like to work on developing the sport and making it more popular, to help the regions in which there are often no conditions to train. I actually learn about it thanks to my Youtube channel. I regularly get messages like “Hi! I started liking gymnastics because of your show. I’d like to start training but it’s impossible in my town – there are no gyms.” I’d like to have an opportunity to help such people. I can call it my dream, what I want to do after I retire. The minimum goal is to give everyone who wants it an opportunity to do gymnastics. The maximum goal is to change the status of gymnastics, to achieve its inclusion into the mandatory development program for children. So that it would be as common for parents [to sign kids up for gymnastics] as to sign kids up for kindergarten and school.
Q: That’s an unexpected turn.
A: Gymnastics is the basics of all sports. It makes a kid fast, strong, flexible and resilient… It provides him with a versatile development. After gymnastics, you can sign your kid up for any other sport and he won’t be lost there. For example, in Rostov-on-Don where I’m from, guys from our gym left for boxing, martial arts, team sports… A friend of mine left for rowing, he became a European champion, he competes at World Cups.
Q: Listen, my daughter is five years old now. And I don’t find this prospect appealing – I’m talking about the mandatory program here. After all, this sport has a high injury rate.
A: A high injury rate? Compared to what?
Q: Let’s say, tennis.
A: I think tennis has a higher injury rate. There, everyone gets their shoulders and knees busted. I know it from personal experience, I used to play it a lot and to me, tennis seemed to lead to more injuries than gymnastics. At least, my shoulders hurt all the time.
Q: Would you put your own child in gymnastics?
A: I’ll say this: at the stage when gymnastics is mostly playing the role of conditioning – absolutely. That’s what I was talking about. Until what age? I don’t know. But I definitely would not urge him to do elite gymnastics. Here’s the gender of the child is also important. If I’ll have a son, then… As a kid, I dreamed of becoming a hockey player. I’m completely serious. I used to imagine that I would start playing right after retiring from gymnastics. By the way, I used to be a huge fan when we had another hockey fan on the team – Viktor Britan. He’s from Chelyabinsk, we would watch games together at training camps all the time. So, I would put my son in hockey, I guess. And daughter – in figure skating. Although that’s what I’m thinking now. Who knows what I’ll think when I become a father.
Q: Tell me about your wedding. Was Dima Lankin the tamada?
A: No, we didn’t have a tamada at all. My friend Sava Poliakov, a professional host, was the master of ceremonies. Everything went great, in a very beautiful place, in Azov, it’s a town near Rostov. Only the closest friends and family attended. Everything was just like we wanted: a small wedding, without too much fuss, in a beautiful place with a view, without going to the registry office and so on. That’s why we booked a ceremony outside the registry office.[1] But it wasn’t so easy to organize. Dasha is a very stubborn person, if she wants something, it’s no use arguing with her. She will insist on what she wants, including the smallest details. But, perhaps, this quality of Dasha’s was the reason why everything went great. It took us a long time to decide the date for the wedding. I didn’t really care about it but Dasha really wanted to have a number 8 in it…
Q: Is this related to the lunar calendar?
A: No. Actually, according to the lunar calendar, it was a bad day for weddings. Dasha just likes the number 8, the infinity. First, we wanted to have the wedding on 08.08.18. It was the perfect date but we soon learned it was impossible: the European Championships took place on this day and we could not miss it. Then we thought about 08.10.18 but it didn’t work out either, many of our friends were busy. In the end, we chose 08.12.18 – the day when we and all our guests could make it.
Q: A career in sports and family life – are they possible to combine? How has your life changed after the wedding?
A: Dasha and I have been together since we were kids. Almost all of our adult life we spent here, at the training center. If something changed, it didn’t happen after the wedding, it happened when we started dating. I don’t think the wedding affected it much. Dasha is my guardian of order. Talking about her influence, she, among other things, brought discipline and harmony into my daily life. And this happened way before the wedding. Perhaps, that was, in part, the reason I realized I wanted to spend my life with her. She does a lot for me and I’m extremely grateful for it.
[1] In Russia, weddings can only be officiated by government officials. It used to be possible to get married only in the registry office. However, in recent years, for a certain fee, couples, especially famous people, can invite the official to conduct the ceremony in their place of choice.
Photo: Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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