Vasily Titov, the head of the Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation told R-Sport that despite the pandemics, the national team was able to stay on track in their preparations for the Olympics and he is optimistic about the future:
“The year was hard, we basically had to spend it in isolation. We were deprived of an opportunity to perform in public at international competitions and there was basically no competition experience. Nevertheless, we kept a very capable and promising team. We took part in a very complicated but interesting competition in Tokyo, it was basically the only baptism by fire this year and we had quite good results there.”
“We see that the team has great potential. The most important thing is that the pace of gymnastics development in the country was not lost; we had training camps no matter how hard it was. We found the right work balance in such difficult conditions. I hope that the situation will start improving gradually.”
The team had very few cases of COVID-19 (at least according to the official sources), unlike Russian rhythmic gymnasts or figure skaters. So far, there were only three publicly announced positive tests – the head coach Andrei Rodionenko, Sergei Naidin, and Lilia Akhaimova. In cases of Rodionenko and Akhaimova, they were re-tested shortly after and had negative results. Naidin who tested positive in the beginning of the pandemic was isolated in a hospital despite showing no symptoms and was only re-tested two weeks after the first test. Titov said that all the cases on the team were false positives:
“Practically no one got sick on the team, there were a few cases [of COVID-19], albeit unconfirmed [by subsequent tests]. Thank God, everyone is healthy, this is the most important thing. It allows us to look at the future with hope and confidence and prepare for the Olympic Games.”
