Petro Pakhnyuk has won his first ever European medal last month and also had his highest all-around finish at Euros, all that at the age of 28. He talked to Segodnya.ua about the competition, his family life, and what he now thinks about his past nationality change.
Q: Petro, can you share your thoughts about the European Championships?
A: It’s hard to compete at such championships, the delegation is large, the expectations from the higher-ups are high. It’s a lot of pressure, everyone’s waiting for medals. In the first days, you can’t think about it: first, you have to compete and do your planned routine, the medals come after. It’s hard to organize your thoughts like that. But the organization of the competition was great. I was pleasantly surprised with Poland: several gyms, good apparatuses, I was happy with the training schedule. The only issue was that it was a bit cold in the arena but that happens very often at big arenas. I’m always bothered by it, so I take a winter jacket with me to competitions even in the summer.
Q: Have you ever before had a reason to dance hopak like you did after winning this medal?
A: Definitely not. It was the first time and completely improvised. A few days before my finals, Zhan Beleniuk won the European Championships in Greco-Roman wrestling and danced hopak. I really wanted a medal, so I said to me that if I win one, I’ll definitely dance.
Q: By the way, about dancing, we once asked Igor Radivilov if he wanted men to compete on floor with music, just like the women. He was against it. Even though Kenzo Shirai managed to do the routine of his teammate Mai Murakami quite well.
A: For me, it sounds a bit weird, as if dancing in gymnastics is kind of not manly. But the Japanese men are more open-minded in this sense, they even have men’s rhythmic gymnastics there.
Q: Would you be able to learn and repeat the routine of our Nastya Bachynska or Diana Varinska?
A: I definitely wouldn’t.
Q: Now, two years later, what do you think about your decision to come back to Ukraine after competing for Azerbaijan for three years?
A: I think it was my big victory and I’m glad I managed to do it. Only here, I’m perceived as if I belong.And now the rules got stricter, you would need much more time on order to leave and come back like that. Back then I wasn’t thinking and didn’t understand what it means to compete under a different flag. I wouldn’t want to do it now. Gymnastics is not boxing or football, where you can go and train in another country but keep competing for Ukraine. It’s a poor sport. If you moved to Azerbaijan, you have to compete for them and that’s it. I feel like I’m where I should be and I feel proud for my country. I want others to hear more and more about us and to respect us – both on the competition floor and outside of it.
Q: How would you compare the experience of competing for these different countries?
A: Over there, I was the only one who needed it. I felt out of place, I didn’t belong and that was it. And the people were not quite happy for me and they said things in not an open way… Only here I feel like I belong and everything’s fine. I feel free and needed.
Q: How hard was it to come back? How long did it take to gain the team’s trust again?
A: I cam and said that I wanted to come back, with my coach. They said: we won’t take your coach but you can show us what you can do. No one accepted me right away, I was dealing with the legal issues on my own, looking for lawyers and assistance. I waited for half a year for the Ukrainian Championships, won it and only half a year later, based on the result from the nationals, I was put on the national team. And, believe me, the level of the national team, except for a few guys, is not very high. So, overall, I needed about a year. The team reacted quite well. It’s just that no one could understand me: that I just wanted and still want to do gymnastics. My coach Yuliy Kuksenkov moved to Russia with his son in 2013 and I was left on my own. And the new head coach [Alexander Gorin] was swearing at me – what was I supposed to do? When I tried to say something to him, he said that a gymnast can’t talk back to the head coach. But at the end, it all looked as if I just left and just decided to come back, that’s how the others described it.
Q: You’re 27 years old but got results at such a high level only now. How can you explain this breakthrough?
A: It’s unexplainable but it’s the truth. I’ve always known [that I could do it], I just never managed to show and prove it. I didn’t even say it out loud, so that others wouldn’t make fun of me. As people say, don’t count your chickens, before they are hatched. I needed many years for that but I finally proved it.
Q: Your wife Aynur is a retired rhythmic gymnast. How did you meet her?
A: She was a coach in Baku, We met practically the first month after I moved there and we’ve been together since then.
Q: Do you watch rhythmic competitions together? Do you teach her things about your sport?
A: Yes, we watch competitions together. She’s showing and explaining stuff to me. I ask questions, we try to figure things out, whether the scores were fair, what were the mistakes and so on. We keep learning. And she’s my biggest fan, she knows the sport quite well and doesn’t ask questions like “why did you make the final on bars and not on rings?” I held all the rhythmic apparatuses, Aynur even tried to teach me some elements back in Baku. Do we have favorites in rhythmic gymnastics? She really likes the Bulgarian group, she shows them to me most frequently.
Q: Aynur is also a danced. Did she ever teach you any moves?
A: She tried to choreograph a wedding dance for them but realized, after a few steps, that it’s impossible. I’m hopeless when it comes to dancing. And when I did the hopak, she wrote: we’ll need to work more on that when you come home.
Q: You became a dad this winter. How do you feel about that?
A: I definitely like this new role, my emotional state is just great. I have what to live for, who to work for and try to achieve things. Family is everything for me. Of course, I don’t spend as much time with my son as I want to. It’s such a time when he does something new every day and I see it on my phone.
Q: How did you start gymnastics? Did you have idols as a child?
A: I was signed up for music classes and gymnastics classes in Rovno, my native town. I would always skip the music classes and go to the gym instead, everyone just got tired of fighting me on that and I started training. I had a lot of energy. Moving, running, jumping – that’s what I loved as a child. As any school kid, I admired the people I heard about – at the time, those were Klitschko brothers and Andriy Shevchenko.
Q: Did you always feel most comfortable on bars?
A: Not always. I started getting good on it in the past 5-6 years. Before that, all my events were on the average level. I really liked floor as a kid.
Q: What are your plans for the future?
A: My plans are to stay healthy, to get a bit of rest and to start preparing for the next competitions. I think I’ll change my routines a bit. After every competition, I figure out what I need to fix, to add, or to remove, and if everything goes fine, I’ll fix some things and try to show a higher level. Now, I spend a lot of time with my family, my hobbies are less important at the moment. But being a father, family life – I love this. To go out somewhere together as a family – that’s what I like. I like horse-riding but, unfortunately, I can rarely do it now. My wife and I like going to the movies, sometimes we go to concerts. I read sports-related books and crime novels, Dan Brown is a favorite. We watch TV shows in the evenings, the 8th season of the Game of Thrones.
Support Gymnovosti on Patreon from only $1 a month and help us bring to you even more awesome gymnastics coverage!
Buy cool gymnastics-themed t-shirts, hoodies, pillows, phone cases, and more at our store on Teepublic!
