Igor Radivilov’s 2021 season started with the European title on vault, his 11th European medal. However, at the Tokyo Olympics, he failed to advance to the event finals after placing 11th on rings and 14th on floor in the qualification.
Radivilov hoped to have better results at the World Championships in Kitakyushu and add to his Worlds medals. However, an error on vault and a grip issue on rings left him outside the finals. The performance made him realize he did not get enough rest and recovery after the Olympics, he told Gymnovosti:
“You know, it’s hard for me even now. Today, I felt that I am not yet mentally ready for such big competitions, I will now need a bit of a break to recover. Unfortunately, today showed that I’m not ready and I haven’t yet recovered after the Olympic Games”.
Radivilov went on a short vacation after the Olympics but came back to competition in September in the Bundesliga.
During his routine on rings at Worlds, his grip became so stretched that he was not able to hold on to the apparatus. He said he believed it couldn’t count as a grip failure because the grip did not tear fully and thus, wouldn’t qualify for a do-over:
“My grip stretched completely and I couldn’t continue my routine. My right hand just peeled off and I couldn’t work normally. The tempo was off and I had to jump off. Since the grip didn’t tear, it stretched but didn’t tear, it doesn’t count [as an equipment failure].”
It appears that Radivilov could have been eligible for a do-over, according to a Brevet judge. However, since Radivilov was not aware of the option during the rotation and didn’t tell the judges his fall was caused by equipment failure, he did not get another chance to go.
After the Olympics, Radivilov wrote about the ongoing conflict on the Ukrainian national team on his Instagram and how much the situation affected his training negatively. While few details on the conflict have been publicly released, Radivilov shared that the situation has not improved so far and he even had to train abroad in the past month in order to get some calm:
“At the moment, the issue is open, the process is ongoing. I trained [for this competition] in Germany because I had to leave. It’s hard for me to stay in such an atmosphere, so I had to work in Germany. We are now waiting for this issue to move [towards a resolution] somehow and that we, the athletes, will get some sort of an answer”.
Radivilov’s teammate Petro Pakhniuk also had to train outside the national team training center while preparing for the World Championships.
