Ukrainian women’s team is on the rise and they have been collecting medals all season. At the European Championships, both Diana Varinska and Anastasia Bachynska finished in the top 10 in the all-around. At teh European Games, Varinska won bronze medals in the all-around and beam finals, while Bachynska won gold on floor. Both won medals on beam at the Paris World Cup with Varinska also winning gold on floor. Angelina Radivilova won bronze medals on floor and vault at the Szombathely World Cup. However, competing in the first subdivision and somewhat harsh scoring meant that Ukraine finished only 15th, losing more than two points to Spain, the last team that qualified to the Olympics. Diana Varinska, who made the all-around final, was also the only Ukrainian gymnast to qualify to the Olympics. Anastasia Bachynska potentially still has a chance to qualify either via World Cups or the European Championships, as she is a strong all-arounder, but Ukraine is not likely to qualify anyone else.
Varinska said the preparation for the competition was extremely hard on her as she is definitely not a morning person:
“I think it was the most difficult competition preparation I’ve ever had because we had to compete early and our practices at home started at 7 am. For me, I guess, this is the most difficult training time because I feel most comfortable at night. At the beginning, I couldn’t do anything in the morning and the preparation was too hard. But, lately, things started improving and, generally, I was ready.”
“I’m not completely happy with my performance, because the scores were too low to make event finals and the score on floor was low. I also didn’t do my vault, a 1.5 twisting Yurchenko, but I hope that I’ll be able to manage it in the all-around final. I’m happy that I didn’t have any falls here and that I’ll make the all-around final.”
“Our main goal was to compete without mistakes or falls and to qualify to the Olympics as a team. But we made mistakes that ended up being counted towards the team score. For myself, I set the goal to get into the all-around final and, possibly, an event final. I was a little bit upset because of the low scores on bars and beam. I planned on doing a little better but it didn’t happen.”
For years, Ukraine had little funding when it came to buying uniforms and had to compete in the same leotards over and over. Varinska was quite happy with their new leotards and tracksuits the team recently got:
“I really like the new uniform, it’s very comfortable. An American company Alpha Factor is sponsoring us – finally, we look beautiful!”
Anastasia Bachynska did not have great competition in qualification. After waiting for a really long time for her turn on beam (it took judges about ten minutes to score the previous routine), the nerves got the best of her and she fell:
“It was really hard to wait for so long. Of course, I tried not to get nervous, the crowd was supporting me, I felt that, but, still, I couldn’t quite get myself together. This is the first time I had to wait for so long. Sometimes, I’d have to wait a bit until the previous score was posted, but this was the first time I waited so long. I fell, unfortunately, but I tried to get over it on other events.”
Bachynska also noted that it was very hard for her to train in the mornings in the anticipation of the competition but did not mind competing in the first subdivision:
“I think it’s good to compete in the first subdivision and get some rest afterward. Of course, the waiting is quite anxiety-inducing, waiting until the rest compete, until we know where we placed, where I placed, whether I’ll make the all-around final.”
Angelina Radivilova thought the team would do worse because of competing in the first subdivision:
“To compete in the first subdivision is, honestly, quite hard. We woke up at 5 am, left for the arena at 6 am. You know how it is to try to wake yourself up in the morning. Generally, we switched to morning practices in the last month, but still. Here it was even earlier because we needed to commute to the arena.”
“Honestly, I thought we would do worse because we were in the first subdivision. I think we did quite well. Perhaps, the judges were a bit harsher. We’ll see how it goes.”
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