Ivan Stretovich missed the Tokyo Olympics because of an injury but was selected to represent Russia at the 2021 Worlds. He is still limited by the injury and will only compete on floor and horizontal bar.
Stretovich gave a short interview to Ozero Krugloe, the Instagram account of the Round Lake Training Center where the artistic gymnastics national team trains:
“The individual World Championships are always interesting because, compared to the team Worlds, [more] event specialists come with very high routine difficulties. There are a lot of gymnasts. But there will be only 8 people in the final. Gymnastics is developing so fast now, that you can already find a high-level event specialist in any country, so I won’t mention anyone specific.”
“The preparation is going according to the plan, we are getting in shape without rushing, we still have 1.5 weeks of training here and a week of training there [in Japan], and then we’ll compete. The team is in a good, working shape, everyone knows what he’s doing, and is pacing himself for the competition.”
“For me, every apparatus is interesting in its own way. Right now, I’m only doing two events – floor and high bar. So, I’ll name them as my favorite ones.”
Since there is another rise in COVID-19 cases in Russia, the national team is once again locked down at Round Lake and can only leave the center between the camps. Stretovich expressed dissatisfaction with such measures:
“Honestly, the lockdown at the training center is very hard. We don’t quite understand why they alternate between locking us down and lifting the lockdown. Even though half the world is already open! Take Europe, for example….”
