Igor Radivilov was the only Ukranian MAG who won a medal at the last Euros in the absence of Oleg Verniaiev. He talked to SportExpress.ua about being the leader of the team this past year, his competition plans and what he expects from the Ukrainian team.
Q: How is your preparation for the World Championships going, have you changed anything in your routines?
A: All the planned changes for this season including the new vaults were tested at the European Championships. Although, in the vault final, my coach and I didn’t go all in – we decided that after not so successful performance on rings I had to win a medal and so the risk was not worth it.
Q: The vault that you didn’t do could bring you the gold medal.
A: It’s D-value today is 6 points. Although it’s used to be 6.4 at the Olympic Games in Rio. The Korean gymnast Ri Se Gwang did it and won vault. And, generally, at the Euros, I was determined to do this vault. But I did a different one, a bit easier, with the difficulty value of 5.8 points. But again, the coach decided this and I’m grateful to him for it. I missed out on the rings so I had to make sure I’d win a medal and I did my old vaults.
Q: And what went wrong on rings?
A: I think I started celebrating in my mind too early. I did a great routine, one of my best in the past three-four years, I was flipping there up high and thought that the medal was 90% mine. I forgot that I had to come back to the damn ground. And so I moved on the dismount. After coming home, we rewatched the video a thousand times, we found the mistake and are working on correcting it.
Q: Are you prepared to do the more difficult vault at the World Championships?
A: We’ll see depending on the situation, after all, there will be additional competitors from other [non-European] countries there. There will be many young and ambitious gymnasts in addition to the consistently competing veterans. If I’ll need to, I’ll do whatever possible. If not, I’ll do what I already know how to. I don’t want to guess or predict anything now. Honestly, I felt a bit of a decline after Glasgow. It’s hard to get myself back in shape, I mostly worked on conditioning at the beginning of September in order to overcome the loss of energy. I left too much of myself at the European Championships.
Q: What’s next?
A: There will be more. At the end of September, we’re going to a World Cup in Paris. By that time I’ll need to correct all the mistakes. And after France, I have to be 99% ready for Worlds. There will only be a few weeks between these competitions – for keeping in shape and mental rest. I have to prepare well for the competition heat and for my rivals.
Q: Do you have any plans to upgrade after Worlds?
A: There won’t be big gaps between the competitions. At the end of November, the Worlds Cup series starts and that means that the Olympic qualification starts. For now, my coaches and I added everything I needed for competing with the leaders of the international gymnastics. What’s left is to polish the routines in competition but we’re not planning any big changes. Only working on correcting some small issues. My competition schedule is very busy. Right after the World Championships, the German Bundesliga starts where I compete for one of the clubs every season. I’ll stay in Germany for the Cottbus World Cup. Then, if I’ll be able to recover in time, I might participate in a competition in Switzerland. Overall, my schedule for this season has about ten competitions.
Q: You mentioned club competitions. Could you elaborate?
A: There’s a sponsorship system which you can compare to football where each company is represented by a specific team. My club, Cottbus, doesn’t have any big names besides me. The main team consists of the German gymnasts and, according to the rules, they can add two foreign gymnasts. In our case, it’s me and a guy from Cyprus, a young athlete who represents his country well.
Q: What are your club’s results?
A: They used to be so-so. But the thing is that the current head coach of the team is Aleksandr Suprun who used to compete for Ukraine, and with him, the real progress has started. Our club made the Bundesliga final for the first time in eight years which was a big achievement. I visit sometimes and stay to train there and I see that the guys listen to Suprun, they changed their attitude and their results climbed up noticeably. It’s nice to see that our countryman raised the level of gymnastics so significantly in a European country.
Q: Oleg Verniaiev competed for the first time since his surgery, he represented another club – Saar. How is he feeling after the forced downtime due to the injury?
A: I think that his recovery is going well and Oleg is working at full strength. Moreover, he’s gradually getting into quite a good shape which gives hope on the eve of the World Championships where we all count on his good results. Personally, I’ve always liked working and competing with Oleg. We support each other but at the same time, we have an ongoing friendly competition, who will win what, who’s better at the moment.
Q: Do you place bets? It seems that Verniaiev likes to gamble…
A: In small things, basically: we’re climbing the rope, twisting on the horse… The point isn’t what to do exactly but to win over the other one. He’s the kind of guy who never stops and always improves. Honestly, there aren’t many people like him in the sport.
Q: What are you betting for?
A: You know, for us, it’s already enough that the next day the loser will have to try to win. But generally, all sorts of things happen at practices. Sometimes, some bets arise spontaneously during training: “Let’s play” – one says, “Ok, come on!” – the other picks it up. And it starts… This is especially good in the middle of some monotonous training that depresses you. When someone clears the mood and introduces a game in the process, it becomes very interesting.
Q: How did you manage the psychological pressure of being the team leader in the absence of Verniaiev?
A: I wasn’t thinking about it. What’s leadership, after all? It’s the result of your work. If you show the results while someone made a mistake, then you’re the leader. It’s more important than just walking around and cheering on the teammates who go out and show that they don’t want to work. On the other hand, the number of medals isn’t necessarily associated with the leadership. On many teams, the captains are those who never won anything but, when needed, can cheer the team up with half a word.
Q: How will the Ukrainian team look at the team competition at Worlds?
A: By the World Championships, our team will undergo a reconstruction. The head coach is currently working on it, I have nothing to do with it. It’s nice that everyone’s progressing bit by bit but objectively this process takes months and even years. Right now there are many talented guys in Ukraine but the team will consist of those who are a bit more mature, consistent and experienced. I think that the final team will be decided during the verifications.
Q: Will your teammates give you enough support in terms of their scores or the veterans – you and Verniaiev – will still be carrying the team?
A: Let’s be honest, at the moment, the younger gymnasts aren’t required to upgrade, they need to score consistently. There’s no need to get high difficulty, to do super-routines and to amaze the world. The team doesn’t have the task to get into the top-3 in the world. It’s just that everyone has to do their job. Oleg and I are at our own level, the guys are at their own level, that is, we need not make mistakes, not to have stupid losses and then overall well get a decent result. The team already has the backbone of 3-4 people which will almost definitely go to Worlds. There’s competition for the rest of the spots and it will all be decided soon.
Q: Objectively, what can our team expect in Qatar?
A: It would be amazing to get into the top-8 but it’s hard to predict in what shape the athletes from the other countries will be there. The most important thing for us is to be ready and then, I think, we’ll be able to do it. It often happens in gymnastics that today your team is the world champion and tomorrow it doesn’t even make the team final. That’s how inconsistent our sport is.
Q: Your name is strongly associated with vault and rings. Is it normal for a gymnast to have strong events and, let’s say, the other events?
A: That’s the feature of the sport: each event has a line of the athletes who’ve earned themselves a certain image and authority. They’re well known and well scored by the judges. If such a gymnast does his routine well, this will create a good impression. That is, after a successful performance on rings or vault everyone knows that I’ll definitely make the event finals. The other events, though, are harder [for me] to make the finals on – there are other favorites there. I’m ok with that. I think I did enough for the international gymnastics so that now I can just have fun while working and moving towards my goal.
Q: Is there a chance that the most difficult vault that was named after you will be re-entered in the Code of Points and won’t be considered risky and dangerous anymore?
A: Something needs to be done for this, but only after the Tokyo Olympics, because you can’t expect any changed before that, those are the rules of the sport. I’d have to submit the element and to demonstrate it again, but every time is like the first or the last time. Sometimes I’m standing there and thinking – will I be able to do it? I don’t know if I’ll be dealing with all that. Although there are new vaulting tables now with springs and we were promised we’d get it because, currently, it’s not used at all the competitions. For example, at the World Championships the vaulting table will be the same as 10 years ago but at the European Championships there was a new vaulting table, with springs, and it was easier to vault on, the gymnasts are flying higher and the vaults take less effort. Regarding your question… I’m looking forward. There are many things in gymnastics that would be interesting for me to learn. Although I hope that someday I’ll see the Radivilov vault on TV.
Q: Out of curiosity, how did this vault came into existence?
A: At the beginning of the summer of 2016, we were at a camp in Italy and there was a foam pit there which we’ve never seen before. Suddenly, as a game, my coach proposed that I try doing it. And I vaulted! I’ll say frankly if there was at least half a year left before the Olympics and not 1,5 months, I could perfect this vault. But it didn’t make sense to go all in back then, on the eve of the most important competition of my life. I’ll put it this way: it was done not bad but not well enough either.
Q: And is it realistic to invent some other element?
A: Of course. There are lots of options but I have a different priority now – to win medals instead of inventing new elements. The whole gymnastics world already knows who Radivilov is. Everyone remembers my vault. The coaches and presidents of different federations even approach me and ask “How did you do it?” And I reply: “It was nothing, you can go and do it” [laughs]. People will soon forget about the vault but if I’ll become an Olympic champion, I’ll be remembered even 100 years later.
Q: Share your secret, how do you manage to relieve tension and stress when you need to get some rest from the sport?
A: Mostly, through spending time with my wife and family. I like light walks and recently a good friend recommended adding bike rides and, actually, I want to add them to my rest schedule next season. But I spend most of my time in the gym. Two days after the European Championships I was already training. Of course, it’s not easy mentally. But when you spent your whole summer in the gym and then you weren’t able to do your best at a competition, you have to endure it.
Q: Do you watch motivating movies?
A: Generally, I’ve seen a lot of movies. Out of the sports movies I liked the relatively recent “Pele: Birth of a Legend”. The story of how a simple guy from the bottom of the society became the football king is interesting and life-like. But I’m much more motivated by the desire to improve and show good results than by any movies. The most important thing in our sport is to have your arms and legs healthy.
Q: You have an English phrase tattooed on your neck…
A: “Pain is temporary, fame is forever”. I got it about five years ago, I had a reason then…
Q: Do you have other tattoos?
A: I have a couple but there’s still lots of free space. I’ll say honestly, I’m not a fan of tattooing your whole body. I think that when you do a sport like gymnastics, your body should stay a body and not a tattoo exhibition. No, there are athletes who have fully tattooed sleeves and legs but visually, it doesn’t look good on the apparatuses, it’s definitely too much…
