While sometimes you may get the impression that Russian gymnasts live at their training center all year round, the national team actually has breaks between camps during which they can normally go home. However, as gymnastics gyms are being closed around the country and internal travel restrictions might take place soon, the federation wants the gymnasts to stay at the center in order to be able to train. Valentina Rodionenko said that the WAG national team members are already mostly at Round Lake while the MAG team will arrive this week:
“Many gyms are closed and we’re not letting athletes leave, we’re extending the camps at Round Lake. We were supposed to have the Russian Championships now, so they all stayed for that period at the camp. Since competitions were scheduled at different times, the guys are coming on March 23, everyone will train only at Round Lake.”
Russian gymnasts are among the few international gymnasts whose training has not been interrupted as many countries closed their national training center due to the pandemic. However, their training plans still had to change as all the competitions scheduled in the next couple of months have been cancelled, including the nationals and the European Championships:
“Of course, it’s harder to maintain motivation now. First, they were in good shape, they were preparing for World Cups and European Championships, but those were canceled. Supposedly, they will be postponed but we don’t know what will happen with the Olympics. Maybe, they’ll hold them before the Games, in June, or after, but there’s no point in holding them after, because the European Championships were supposed to be an Olympic qualifier for all-arounders. Of course, we’re lowering the training load a bit now because you can’t always stay in the state of [competition] preparedness. We’ll be following the news.”
Round Lake which serves as a training center for several sports upped its protective measures. The center prohibited foreigners from entering back in February and is now even stricter about visitors. Athletes have their temperature checked several times a day and are being monitored by doctors.
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