Maria Paseka announced last month that she is taking a break and will not pursue Olympic qualification anymore. However, she still plans on coming back for the 2024 Olympics. In a live stream on Instagram, she confirmed her coach’s words that the main reason for the break is trying to have a baby:
“I’m taking a break right now. First of all, my boyfriend and I are planning to have kids. It’s time, at 24 years old, after all. I plan on coming back for the new quad, to start training by 2021. I don’t want to give birth at 28 or 29. Originally, I wanted to have a baby at 21 but that didn’t happen. I hope that everything will work out now. I need to spend time on that and then, I think, I’ll have the strength to come back.”
Paseka also said that one of the reasons for wanting to return is that being an elite gymnast in Russia is a viable career option and it can allow her to ensure the future of her children:
“I really love kids and everything about kids. I’ve always wanted for my kid to have a savings account that would allow them to buy something when they turn 21. It’s hard to find a job now, so I’ll come back to the sport. I also want to test myself, whether I’ll be able to come back.”
At the same time, she doesn’t plan on sticking around as long as Oksana Chusovitina:
“I’m shocked by Chusovitina. I asked her: “Oksana, why do you keep training?” She responded: “What will I do at home, though? My husband knows how to cook, my kid is grown up, why would they need me there?”
She says that people not believing in her was a big motivation for her to keep going:
“Since I was a child, I was motivated by people saying that I wouldn’t make the national team. But I dreamt of going to the Olympics and when I went, everyone said: “We knew, you did such a good job!”
For the first time in years, she doesn’t have a competition looming ahead and can relax and only do some light training:
” I finally have time to rest. I play videogames. I do abs and back exercises, lunges, and squats.”
Paseka also talked about recovering from her back surgery:
“At first, after the back surgery in 2017, I couldn’t get used to my spine, it bother me, I was uncomfortable because I was even afraid to sleep on my stomach. With time, it got much easier and I sometimes even forget that I have some piece of metal in my back. It bothers me a bit when I drive, a fibrocartilage callus grew there. The swelling went down in January [of 2018], and I started running a bit seven months after the surgery, I started jumping on the trampoline, jumping off the vaulting table. It took me about a year to recover.
Photo: Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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