Diana Varinska was finally able to win an all-around medal at a major international competition, after being a promising all-arounder for a couple of years but never quite making it. She also added a bronze on beam to her bronze in the all-around. After the mistake on bars she felt like her fight for the medals was over already and this actually helped her to do well on other events, as she didn’t feel that much was at stake:
“Before the competition, I knew that if I did my routines cleanly and without falls, I’d be able to win a medal. Right after the mistake on bars, when I fell, I thought it was over. This fall didn’t really throw me out of balance. On the contrary, I calmed down and thought: “ok, whatever happens happens, I need to get myself together and finish calmly. When I got to vault, I realized that I needed to do my vault cleanly and that could be enough for a medal. I’m glad that I managed to win a bronze medal. For me, this is like a victory. At this moment, this is my victory.”
Varinska said that she might potentially change her bars routine as she’s been struggling with her Tkachev-Jaeger connection for a while now:
“I didn’t quite understand what happened when I feel. It’s an old routine, I’ve been doing it for a long time. I made a mistake again and I don’t know why. Perhaps, I need to remove this connection from my routine and try something else because I often make mistakes on it. Perhaps, I need to remove the Jaeger. But that’s not for sure yet, it will depend on how much time we have. If the routine will be working out, then I can make changes to make it more consistent.”
She believes that the bronze in the all-around helped her in the beam final:
“Today, I managed to get myself together and do my routine without major mistakes. I managed to get into the right mindset. When you already have a medal, it’s easier mentally to get yourself together.”
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