Maria Paseka talked to R-Sport about coming back after the back surgery and doing gymnastics as an adult.
Q: Looking back, how did it happen that you had to miss such a long period of competition? What was your injury, how did these issues with your back start?
A: Generally, it’s nothing special. A spinal disc got worn out, that’s it. They did the surgery, fixed it in one place and now everything’s fine. We just waited a bit more time during the recovery in order not to bother my back too much after the surgery.
Q: So, this is just a result of many years in the elite sport?
A: Perhaps, I landed incorrectly as a child. Especially since I used to have a bad habit – I used to land incorrectly, arching my back too much. And with every time, over many years, it became a bit worse and worse.
Q: When it was time to have the surgery, were you thinking about retiring?
A: I didn’t want to go to Rio, my back hurt too much. I approached Evgeny Anatolyevich Grebyonkin with that, I wrote to Vika Komova that it seemed like I’d decline my spot. I didn’t want to go to the Games and let my team down. Even the individual medal was not as important to me. The team is the team. Vika called me and said: “Are you crazy?!” She yelled at me. Evgeny Anatolyevich also told me: “What?! Everything will be fine! We’ll get there and there’s lots of time left!” So, I got myself together and went there. Later, before the 2017 World Championships, I promised to myself that if I won, I would have the surgery. I wanted to retire on my terms, in case I wouldn’t be able to come back – as the champion, not a fifth or sixth place finisher.
Q: In Montreal?
A: Yes. And I won. Then I had the surgery and realized that I couldn’t retire. While I still can do it and want it – why not continue? Now I have one more chance, one more Olympics and then, whatever happens.
Q: Whatever happens? And what about following the example of Oksana Chusovitina?
A: I can’t be like her! Oksana is a phenomenon. Sometimes I ask her: “Oksana, I’m 24 years old, you’re a bit older. How do you manage?” She replies: “Well, so what? I just keep training”. I think a person has to have a very strong character in order to keep competing like that, she had so many injuries… I don’t know.
Q: Perhaps, it’s not about the strength of the character but about a positive approach to life? You’re also known for that.
A: I’m trying not to show people that I have some problems. Everyone has problems, after all. But everything has to be fine at some point, right? If you look at everything positively, you deal with the problems in a different way than if you just sit and whine – “God, I can’t, everything’s bad” – all the tears and apathy. Yes, I had such moments, too, but I wrote to my friends right away and they replied: “Masha, you’re Masha and not a rotten apple!”
Q: You came back to training last spring, at the training camp in Spain, right?
A: Yes, I started running there and I’m still running every morning. Artem Igorevich [vault coach] told me that I needed to get a bit leaner and it would get easier for me. So, I’m running every day, except for Sundays and it does feel easier. My weight stayed the same but the body feels completely different now. There’s much less pressure on my back. Many people are asking if I follow a special diet but I don’t have one. When I started running, my weight was going up and down a bit but then everything normalized and now I can eat anything I want, I can have a dessert sometimes. That’s because I know that in the morning I’ll put my warmups on, run for 10 minutes, and all the extra weight will be gone.
Q: So, you’ve been training for so many years and only now you’ve discovered this “secret”?
A: You know, when I was 18 and Ksyusha Afanasyeva was telling me that it was hard for her, I looked at her and thought: “How can it be hard?” But now I understand what she was talking about. It’s also harder mentally, your attitudes towards everything must be different. Before, I could stop training for a week, not even go to the gym but then came to Round Lake and did everything right away – bars, vaults. But now, can you imagine, I feel a bit of fear! Even though I never had it before. Everything’s different. I have to have eight hours of sleep, if I sleep less, I will be exhausted and the whole day will be spoiled.
Q: Do you have to sacrifice more and more now?
A: Yes.
Q: Last year, when you started training, you were talking about possibly coming back to competitions in the fall.
A: We wanted to but I was still getting used to the new state of my back. It was a bit weird, it seemed like I was jumping and something was jumping in my back as well. It was uncomfortable and I wasn’t sure about it, I needed to get used to it.
Q: Did you just decide not to risk it?
A: There was no point, after all, there were more competitions ahead of me, and I wanted to come there and compete… not the way I did in Baku. But I just had no rest, it was the second competition, I needed to compete, and I couldn’t even feel the adrenaline, I was just numb.
Q: Compared to Rio, are your vaults more difficult now?
A: No, the vaults are the same, it’s just that the difficulty scores were lowered after Rio. But the specialists told me in Szczecin that my Amanar is now cleaner, the leg separation is not as large now, it looks better. But I wanted so badly to do my Cheng well, that I went too far off.
Q: From the outside, it looked like you went to compete in the final in Szczecin radiating absolute confidence.
A: I can’t say that. I was very scared. I remember how in the qualification, because I was sick, I was extremely nervous, I had cramps in my legs. I was anxious. I don’t even understand how I managed this anxiety. Before, I could filter everything out, not to hear anyone. But here I heard everything around me and couldn’t hear myself. But I really wanted to win here.
Q: I was impressed with the landing, honestly.
A: What helped is the fact that Evgeny Anatolyevich and I added an exercise on sticking the landings during the warmup.
Q: I can’t not talk about one issue. In recent years, the men’s team has achieved significant progress but the women…
A: The opposite.
Q: What is the reason for that?
A: We have new girls, little ones, they still lack experience, they’re still scared. The boys, generally, have the same team as they had at the Olympics. They needed excitement, otherwise, you start giving up if you keep losing. And when they won silver at the Olympics, anyone would get excited. For how long I’ve known Artur, he would make a mistake and then his whole all-around competition would go south. But he got himself together at the World Championships in Qatar and won the all-around. I was crying, I’ve known him since we were kids, I used to train in Dynamo as well. And I know how much he wanted this, how he dreamed about this. So, I started crying, thinking “finally!”.
Q: The women’s team managed to qualify to the Olympics during the first round. But what does the team lack, still?
A: Keep in mind that other countries are seriously improving. We need to upgrade our routines a bit and compete cleanly. We’re not that much behind. It’s just that sometimes we want to do well too much. This factor plays a role, too.
Q: How did Mustafina’s return affected the team?
A: Aliya was on maternity leave, the girls are improving but she’s not in the same shape as she used to be. We need to realize that the young ones will get ahead of use someday. This is what will happen. You can say that Gelya Melnikova is getting to Aliya’s level, she’s our leader.
Q: But did the mere presence of Aliya at the World Championships play a significant role?
A: Of course! She’s an experienced athlete, she helps the girls, explains some things to them. How else? At my first Olympics, Ksyusha Afanasyeva kept me present, she would slap my cheeks and say: “Hey, wake up!” When I saw the crowds there… After all, the sport isn’t as popular in our country, isn’t as developed. Half the people think that we do exercises with ribbons, that it’s rhythmic gymnastics. I’m telling them: “To make it clearer, we’re vaulting over the horse”. And some even think that gymnastics is track and field.
Photo: E. Mikhaylova, Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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