Daria Spiridonova, a 2015 Worlds champion on bars and a member of the silver-winning Russian team in Rio, had a hard time getting her routines back after Rio. At some point in 2018, she even had to train at her home gym and was not invited to the national training center for a few months (Russian national team gymnasts normally train at the center all year).
In the summer of 2018, she was able to get her routines back and even went to the World Championships as an alternate. However, broken foot meant led to a long break in training and she was only able to fully get back on bars by this year’s World Championships. The coaches, choosing between her and another event specialist Maria Paseka, opted to include Spiridonova on the team and make Paseka the alternate. Spiridonova finished second after Nina Derwael in the qualifications. In the final, mistakes led to a lower score and she finished outside the medal podium. She felt like she let herself and the team down with her performance in the final:
“I was unable to meet the expectations. I couldn’t do the routine perfectly, unfortunately. Everything went wrong from the stat which took away my medal chances. I needed to do my routine well, but I missed all the handstands and you saw the score. The nerves let me down a bit, I needed to be calmer, but I got too anxious and wanted to get it over with fast. I could only beat Derwael, if I did everything perfectly.”
Before her last injure, Spiridonova used to compete in the all-around, but now she plans on focusing on just bars and beam:
“Most likely, I’ll be doing two events – bars and beam. I won’t tumble or vault because I had an injury, and I’m still not ready. But I’m 100% ready to do beam.”
This likely takes her out of contention for the Tokyo team as four all-arounders would be preferable on the team, but she might contend for a specialist spot – either try to get one through the World Cups or rely on the team winning one or two non-nominative spots next year.
Spiridonova also gave an interview to MK.ru, talking about how hard it is to compete on only one event and the pressure that was on her as a World champion on that event.
Q: How hard was it to come back?
A: Very hard, but that won’t tell anything to anyone. I don’t want to talk about the injury either. Yes, I haven’t competed in a while, some probably thought my career was finished. But I started training as soon as my recovery allowed me. I knew right away – in order to come back, I needed not only to get back the routine I did at the Olympic Games, but also do it well and cleanly everywhere. I’ve had a very long break between competitions, so it was mentally and physically hard to compete. I grew older and forgot all these feelings on the competition floor a bit. So, I’m really happy that we did our job in the team competition. And, actually, I knew that I would be more nervous than the rest of the girls.”
Q: Because you’re already a World champion?
A: Of course, the title gives extra responsibility. But, you know, some might think it’s easy to do just one event. I was very nervous because the responsibility is that much higher – you won’t be able to show what you can do or rehabilitate yourself on another event.
Q: A few years ago, you promised that you wouldn’t be just one-event specialist anymore and planned on working hard on beam.
A: And I am, but, I guess, the coaches don’t yet think that it’s time for me to compete on it. I’ll continue working on my beam routine, though. Generally, in Stuttgart, I was very happy to compete again instead of chalking the bars like I did last year in Doha. And other competitors who I haven’t seen in a while were happy to see me: some smiled, some hugged me. It was very nice.
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