In 2013, when Azerbaijan started building its artistic gymnastics program, they managed to recruit quite a few gymnasts, mainly from Russia and Ukraine. Marina Nekrasova was not one of their top recruits on the women’s side – those were Anna Pavlova, multiple Olympic, World, and European medalist, and Yulia Inshina, Silver World medalist. Yet, Nekrasova was the one who stayed in Azerbaijan the longest and who will be the country’s first female gymnast at the Olympics.
In 2016, Nekrasova was the first reserve for the Olympics, after underperforming at the Olympic Test Event. This has fulled her for the next three years and now she is finally going to the Olympics. The full (unofficial) list of the qualifiers can be found on TheGymter.net.
Nekrasova said the fact that she was the sole female competitor from Azerbaijan at Worlds and the only one who could secure a spot at the Olympics weighed heavily on her and led to several mistakes in the competition:
“Mentally, it was very hard. I didn’t do as well as I wanted to. I was shaking, I was very nervous. There’s a lot of responsibility because I’m the only one here representing Azerbaijan. I guess all these nerves are hard to hide on the beam.”
In addition to training and helping her younger teammates, Nekrasova is trying to promote gymnastics in Azerbaijan. Since the country is relatively conservative, parents are sometimes unwilling to sign their daughters up for gymnastics. This Spring, Nekrasova competed in a unitard in order to show that there are different uniform options for gymnasts and those who do not feel comfortable in leotards can choose something else. She hopes her example will inspire more girls to take up gymnastics in Azerbaijan.
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