Valentina Rodionenko talked to the Russian Olympic Committee about the Olympic Games and her hopes for the Russian national team’s future.
Q: Are you happy with how the competition at the Olympic Games went?
A: Absolutely, we came back to Moscow in a good mood. But I wouldn’t say that we’re happy with everything. We expected Nikita Nagorny to win the all-around because he was practically unmatched in Tokyo. But it didn’t work out. Nikita got a bit sick after the team final. And during the AA final he, unfortunately, made a mistake in his first event – on floor. Of course, we’re also upset that Denis Abliazin wasn’t able to win a gold medal on vault.
Q: There was a lot of controversy regarding this because he and the Korean athlete [Shin Jea-hwan] got the same scores but Denis got silver.
A: There was indeed a lot of controversy, because it’s a disgrace. When a person posts a 6-point-difficulty vault and doesn’t do it, it should be punished. They had the same scores but the Korean athlete got placed higher because of the 6-point vault, even though he didn’t do it. But overall we’re happy that for the first time in many years, both men’s and women’s team got back to the positions we held during the Soviet times. We have a young team, it’s especially true for the girls. They are promising, everyone liked them in Tokyo. And we think we’re on the right path. Now we’ll learn our lessons, figure out where we made mistakes.
Q: It was hard for David Belyavskiy to fight for a medal on bars, first of all, because of his routine’s difficulty. What can be changed in this situation?
A: The thing is that David is an all-arounder. In Tokyo, athletes that made the event finals were mostly event specialists. Only Nagorny can compete with them as an equal. Nikita can fight for medals but it’s hard for the rest of the gymnasts. And not just for us. Few all-arounders made event finals and none of them won there.***
Q: How can we improve individual events?
A: First, we need to find people for that. Yes, there’s young Anastasia Ilyankova who didn’t get rattled and won silver on bars. But for now, we have almost no event specialists lika that. We need to think about it.
Q: Was Artur Dalaloyan a hero in Tokyo?
A: Hero doesn’t even begin to describe him. And his injury was a big loss for us, of course. Otherwise, the situation with individual events would have been different. Artur is strong both in the all-around and on individual events. Dalaloyan achieved a great feat. We counted on him to do four events for the team. But he then said: “I’ll do it”. Artur did all six events for the team and for himself in order to overcome the inevitable fear after the injury.
Q: Who else made you happy in Tokyo?
A: Vika Listunova made me very happy. Yes, she got rattled on floor in the final, even though she had one of the best scores in the qualification. But overall, she showed classic gymnastics in Tokyo – clean and difficult. And, of course, Melnikova did a great job. She got herself together and did it, even though she was sick a lot before leaving for Tokyo, she had a cold. But she overcame herself and competed very successfully.
Q: Did the fact that Simone Biles missed most of the competitions in Tokyo affect the results?
A: I’ll express my purely personal opinion here but I think it’s her sunset. And we saw that on beam already. Although, of course, it would have been hard for us to compete with Biles at her peak. Still, I’d like to talk not about her but about our team’s prospects.
Q: In terms of the organization of the competition, gymnasts had quite a few complaints. What can you say about it?
A: The Japanese are generally very organized people. But there were many issues at the Games. For example, with the transport, when we would be brought to the arena two or three hours before the start. Honestly, we expected better. We were very surprised that the organizers, let’s put it like that, spoiled our impression from the competition. It’s hard to say what the reason was – whether it was the coronavirus or something else. But what’s done is done.
Q: Looking in the future, will most athletes from this team be able to compete in Paris?
A: Yes. Abliazin said he’ll continue – he’s an iron man. David Belyavskiy, too. Girls, obviously. They have a young team that only started competing at senior competitions. I think that they will be different at the next Olympics. They will have already gone through senior competitions like World Championships. I’m optimistic about the girls and the guys as well.
***This is not exactly true. Daiki Hashimoto who won the all-around gold also won gold on horizontal bar. Among other EF medalists, there were strong all-arounders like Xiao Ruoteng (PH bronze, AA silver), Kazuma Kaya (PH bronze, AA QF 9th place), Lee Chih-kai (PH silver, AA QF 17th, AA final 21st place), Lucas Dauser (PB silver, AA final 18th place). There were plenty of all-arounders in the finals that could have medalled potentially. But, indeed, the gold medals were won by event specialists (or at least, currently event specialists – Max Whitlock, for example, was an AA bronze medalist in Rio) on all events except for HB.
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