Oleg Stepko, a newly-minted Russian citizen, competed in his first Russian Championships last month taking 10th place in the all-around and 6th place in the pommels final. He didn’t quite make his case for the Russian national team at this competition – before the nationals, Valeri Alfosov said that Stepko needs to show very high results in order to be invited to Round Lake. Nevertheless, Stepko seems optimistic about his prospects and is preparing for Russian Cup now (which will take place in July). Stepko said to TASS that moving to Russia allowed him to continue his gymnastics career and that he won’t talk about the real reasons for leaving Azerbaijan and Ukraine until he wins any medals for Russia.
“If I stayed in Azerbaijan or went back to Ukraine, I would’ve been retired from the sport already. But I don’t want that, I’ve spent 20 years in gymnastics already and I’m going to keep evolving. But sport is sport, when I’ll get an opportunity to make a team here, I’ll try to show good results. I know that my move to Russia elicited a lot of reactions, including quite a few negative ones. Don’t believe everything you see written about me, that I got a third citizenship and so on. I’ll talk about the true reasons for my move only when I’ll show some significant result for Russia. No one knows why I left Ukraine and [they don’t know] that I parted ways with the guys and the federation without any conflicts”.
About moving to Azerbaijan: “I realized that there I could keep growing further and I managed to give this country a Worlds medals. Then I had a decline that was accompanied by certain issues. There was a situation unpleasant for me and I decided to train in Novosibirsk after being invited by Evgeny Podgorny”.
About Russian Championships: ” For now, I’m not quite happy with how I compete because I had a long break without competitions. After the Olympic Games in Rio, I haven’t competed internationally and even nationally because of the lengthy process of citizenship change. I needed to show my best at these Russian Championships, to prove that I haven’t given up and I’m ready to fight for a place on the national team. The nerves after a long break affected my results, I lacked confidence, after all, I competed in a new environment. Now my coaches and I need to draw conclusions and prepare for Russian Cup, to get into a better shape by then. I’ll try to show myself there by performing difficult routines. I really want to work and to achieve good results”.
About becoming a Russian gymnast: “Did I manage to become one of their own already? I’ve been in gymnastics for a long enough time, I know a lot of the guys quite well. However, having friendships is one thing but to be imbued with the team spirit is a different thing. If I will be able to compete decently and the team will be confident that I will not fail them, I’ll try to become one of their own”.
Stepko was also asked about Valeri Alfosov’s interview in which the coach said that currently, he doesn’t see Stepko on the Russian team:
“Alfosov’s right. It would be worse if they put high hopes into me and then, if those hopes weren’t fulfilled, there would be a disappointment. I’m still getting to my peak and when the time comes there will be a fair selection according to athletic results. I don’t need special treatment. My achievements are in the past. Now, in Russia, I’m a simple Master of Sports, not even honored*. I need to work a lot and show high results so that I would be invited to the national team training camp. I have to prove to the federation and the coaches that they can be confident in me”.
*Master of Sports is the basic level of the athlete in Russia that can theoretically compete at international competitions. Honored Master of Sports is a title that athletes get after they won international medals at competitions like Worlds or Olympics. Since Stepko’s medals were won for other countries, he can’t get this title in Russia on the basis of his previous achievements.
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