Ivan Stretovich had to miss the Russian Championships because of wrist surgery and is now training for the upcoming Russian Cup. He gave an interview to Podgorny Center, his home gym in the city of Novosibirsk where the Russian Cup will take place on June 6-13.
According to Stretovich, he is still far from his pre-surgery shape:
“I’ve been able to recover about 20%. I can’t work on pommel horse yet but the rest of the events are already getting there, the progress is good. This makes me happy. My plan now is, as always, to keep working. And, in my case, not to hurry. My wrist hasn’t yet healed completely. After all, two ligaments were repaired. The surgery wasn’t easy, such injuries always take a long time to heal. But I hope that everything will work out and you’ll see me at the Russian Cup here, in Novosibirsk.”
Stretovich is not yet completely sure whether he will compete at the cup and how many events he will do:
“As you know, doctors always stay on the safe side when giving approximate times. I’ll see how I will be feeling. For now, I don’t want to predict how many events I’ll do – perhaps, just one, or, perhaps, the whole all-around. I’ll see how my health will be and I’ll just keep working. The hardest events now are the ones that require putting all the weight on the hands, like pommel horse. High bar is going fine, I’ve recovered all the elements, what’s left is to put them together into a routine. The most realistic thing I’ll be able to do at the Russian Cup is floor – it’s the easiest one on the hands. There’s a month and a half until the competition and I’m already ahead of the doctors’ [recovery] schedule. My first post-surgery camp has just ended and in three and a half weeks I recovered a very large number of elements. If everything goes how it’s going now, I think my results might be very good.”
Stretovich said the injury initially did not seem that serious to him:
“When my wrist got injured, I didn’t even understand what happened at first. I came for the diagnosis and was told – you’ll need surgery, two ligaments are damaged. Now my wrists even look different from each other. And they’ll stay that way forever.”
Stretovich is now at Round Lake again:
“In May, I’ll be training with the national team in Moscow. On May 5th, a training camp starts and the Russian Cup here in Novosibirsk will be right after that. It’s always interesting to compete at home – your own gym, your city, support. But everything still depends on us, the athletes – no matter where you compete, you still have to work. No one will go out to compete for you, doesn’t matter whether you’re home or not.”
Photo: Elena Mikhaylova, Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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