Maria Paseka talked to Sport-Express about her comeback to training and what she thinks about the Tokyo Olympics.
Q: How did you feel about the performance of the Russian team at the Olympics?
A: I was happy, of course, we’ve been moving towards this for a long time. Finally, our country managed to achieve this in our sport. Of course, I was very happy and even cried.
Q: Weren’t you upset that you were not competing there, in Tokyo?
A: Yes, but not in the sense that I wasn’t selected. Our team went out, competed, and won gold – it doesn’t matter who’s on the team. The medal is important. I was upset with myself that I’d spent so much time working hard. It’s upsetting when you’re aiming at a gold, when you already have a silver and a bronze, I wanted a gold medal… But, I guess, this was my fate that I haven’t gotten it yet. You know what my dad used to say to me? If you’re meant to stay on the middle shelf and you’re trying to go higher, but can’t manage it after many years, then you’re meant to stay on that shelf. Perhaps, you’ll move to another one, a bit better, and will be able to achieve something from there. I will make my last push in gymnastics now. If it works out, very well. If everything works out the way I want it, I’ll retire in peace. If not, I’ll try something else.
Q: How is your training going now?
A: I can’t yet say that something changed [since I resumed training]. Everything’s the same, but, at least, my joints don’t hurt anymore. Some ligaments are starting to hurt but it’s completely normal. Perhaps, some people will ready there and say, “God, she’s crazy, why is she doing that?” I’ll explain: I stopped training abruptly a year and a half ago and started abruptly now. During that time, I would come to practices but they weren’t the kind [of practices] that an elite athlete is supposed to do. Naturally, everything will hurt now. I was prepared for that, I knew it would happen. After all, there’s also my age.
Q: Recently, you said that you did vault that could be rated 2 out of 10. How are your vaults now?
A: From the day I started experiencing a decline, it went back to zero. It’s normal, that’s how it will be now – rises and then steep declines. When I posted the video on Instagram, I was on the rise – wow, first week, I’m on a high. But the second week, everything was harder. You have to get into it slowly,
Q: Does your heel injury bother you now?
A: Now – no, thank God. Everything’s perfect.
Q: Are you also recovering another event in addition to vault?
A: Well, Valentina Aleksandrovna [Rodionenko] said that I have to have two events. If the head coach said that, then I’ll have to do it. I don’t see the point of coming back to the national team otherwise. We don’t know yet which event it will be – either floor or bars. We’ll have to look at the rules, since they change every four years.
Q: Do you already have a plan regarding when you will compete?
A: For now, I try not to talk about competitions at all, not to think about them. The most important thing now is to get my body into the shape it used to be. So, I’m doing conditioning. I have to see how I’ll feel in the gym. In the past, I could have said that I would be ready in 1.5-2 months. But for an elite athlete, such a break, especially when you’re 26 years old, is hard. After my back injury, when I had surgery, I had a year-long break. And I, for instance, did leg conditioning. I still tried to keep my muscles toned. This time, it didn’t happen.
Q: Going back to the Olympics, how was it for you to watch Artur Dalaloyan who competed after an Achilles tear?
A: I’ll tell you this, I’ve known Artur since we were kids, we used to train together at Dynamo. He’s still training there but I left. He’s very persistent. At first, he wasn’t able to get selected for anywhere, and then the rise started. When I saw him at the [2021] Russian Cup, I asked how his foot was. It’s very scary to watch from the outside, when you’re an athlete, you understand everything. When I watched how Artur was doing his events, I was scared for him, for his foot. He had to do everything carefully because, for example, if you stumble, this can affect your injury. But Artur is strong mentally, when I talked to him, he said that he’ll manage to do everything in time. I saw that he was progressing confidently and and listening to his body.
Q: Perhaps, you were inspired by his performance?
A: Generally, I’m the same, I also competed with injuries. Although, in this case, it’s an Achilles, a bit scarier. But it was my back in my case, also scary. Sometimes, there’s no wow moment for athletes. You just either give up and leave or endure it and go on, no matter what hurts or what is happening with your body. If you want something, you have to pursue it.
Q: How did you react to the same scores on vault for Denis Abliazin and Shin Jea-hwan?
A: Honestly, I didn’t manage to watch Denis’s vault, I only saw the scores. But I asked my coach about it. Marina Gennadyevna said that he [Denis] did it much cleaner. I think that sometimes an athlete’s [well-known] name works for them. Although, Denis is also well-known, he had competed at the Olympics in the past. They could’ve given them two gold medals.
Q: Is it regulated somehow in artistic gymnastics?
A: I’ve been in the sport for so many years and I’ve never even given a thought to whether it’s possible to award two medals? It would have been right. Everyone says to me that Denis did it cleaner.
Q: Were you surprised when Simone Biles withdrew from almost all the competitions at the Olympics?
A: I even told my mom, “Why is it that when I’m not there, something always happens with Simone? It’s not fair”. Of course, we can joke, but I felt sorry for her as an athlete, it’s a huge amount of stress. On the other hand, perhaps, she wasn’t too upset because she already has tons of gold medals, both Olympic and others. But because of her problem and because other girls on her team also fell, we got a chance to move ahead.
Q: But the situation is complicated – Simone was prohibited from using her therapeutic use exemption.*
A: On one hand, perhaps, it’s right, after all, everyone’s competing with their mental issues without any drugs. On our team, no one takes anything like that. Japan did well in this aspect, after all, everyone’s arguing for the fair sport. But this situation has another side as well – she’s ill, so, perhaps, she shouldn’t compete? I don’t really like this topic – you understand her and, at the same time, as an athlete, you don’t like it much.**
Q: If such a strong athlete withdraws, is it easier or harder for the rest?
A: Easier because Simone currently has the most difficult routines in the world. To put it bluntly, with her routines, she’s worth two people on the team. If she withdraws, it’s much easier.
Q: What do you expect from the upcoming World Championships?
A: The post-Olympic World Championships are always easy. All the strong athletes – they’re 23-25 years old – take a break. 16-year-old children come there. So, it will be much easier for our girls.
Q: So, that’s a chance to make yourself known?
A: Yes, exactly, a chance for the young girls to become not just Olympic champions but also get a lower-class medal. They’ll do it in the reverse order. [laughs]
*Russian media are still propagating the rumor that Simone Biles withdrew from competitions in Tokyo because she wasn’t allowed to bring her ADHD medicine to Japan. The rumor is based on the speculation published by a prominent Russian journalist Elena Vaytshekhovskaya. Vaytsekhovskaya claimed she got the information from a trusted source but did not name the source. However, athletes were allowed to bring ADHD medicine to Japan with proper documentation and Biles also clarified that she is not currently taking ADHD medicine anyway and hasn’t been for a long time.
