Verniaiev: I feed on the competition spirit

Oleg Verniaiev’s competition schedule is usually tightly packed. This year, he was forced to take a break due to the pandemic but still managed to take part in several competitions in August-October. He talked about how this year went for him and how he’s preparing for the Olympics to Tribuna. The interview was published ahead of his trip to Euros but he withdrew shortly before the competition due to minor injuries.

Even in his absence, Ukraine had a strong performance in the team final and won their first team medal since 2014 – Verniaiev was part of the bronze-winning Ukrainian team at the European Championships in Sofia. Ukrainian juniors also won gold as a team, gold and silver in the all-around final and eight medals in individual finals. Verniaiev hopes this new generation of gymnasts, many of whom are age-eligible for Tokyo, will help the team to fight for medals in the coming years.

Q: Describe a perfect day off. How do you like to spend your time?

A: Sometimes I wake up and spend the whole day at home. Or go out to eat at most. When the lockdown had just ended and we had started training, I went to Odessa with my friends at the end of the week, after training. We just went there for a day to clear our minds and walk around. I don’t like to plan ahead; everything depends on my mood and the situation.

Q: When the lockdown started, did you take Covid-19 seriously right away or underestimated it at first – as in, “it doesn’t exist”?

A: The training center in Koncha-Zaspa was closed on March 17th, on that same day my friend and I moved into my apartment. We used gloves, masks, and disinfectants from the first day to keep ourselves safe. We followed all the recommendations. During the first month, we even didn’t leave the apartment unless it was necessary. Of course, with time, you start permitting yourself more. But now I started following all the rules even more strictly because I understand that I can endanger not just myself but my loved ones, too.

Q: Did the postponement of the Olympics became a good thing for you or it would have been better to compete when they were supposed to happen?

A: Without the pandemic restrictions, I had half a year left until the Olympics. I would have had to follow a strict schedule and compete and polish the routines a lot. That would mean giving up anything but training, so that nothing would distract me. Thanks to the restrictions, I had time to prepare in a more relaxed environment. During the lockdown, I ran with Aleksandr Denisov [Ukrainian “Football 1/2/3” channels director], he offered to run together again just a few days ago. But I had to say no – the European Championships are around the corner. If I twist my ankle or get a blister from running, then I won’t be able to compete well. Even though we spent almost three months under the lockdown and didn’t have our usual training, we still had more than a year to prepare thanks to the postponement of the Games. For me, this is an advantage so that I can rest and my injuries can heal. In addition, next year, guys born in 2002 and 2003 will be able to make the team. They compete successfully and force us, the old guys, make more effort. That means that next year, there will be serious competition to make the team. And competition make you progress, which is also a good thing.

Q: What do you miss most right now?

A: I miss my friends when I can’t see them for a long time. I was in Germany for three weeks to compete and missed [my friends] a lot. It’s hard for me to be alone for a long time.

Q: Have you already competed after the lockdown? How ready do you think you are? How far are you from your peak shape?

A: It’s a really long way to my peak shape – I had issues with my shoulder. I’m still recovering. After the lockdown, I worked really hard for about three months and then didn’t train at all for eight weeks. Now, I’m in ok shape, I competed in Bundesliga a couple of times and shook off the dust. Now I need to work hard and with purpose.

Q: What other big competitions will happen before the Olympic Games? Where do you plan to compete?

A: This year, there will only be the European Championships and the rest are professional leagues. Before the Games, there will also be Olympic-qualifying World Cups which were supposed to take place this year. I’ll compete at all competitions where I’ll be able to. It will all depend on the state of my health. I need to compete, I love competing, so I will try to do the maximum. I feed on the competition spirit, on those emotions. This is what helps me stay in the sport.

Q: You are competing for a club in Bundesliga. Can you give more details on how these competitions go?

A: The rules were changed a bit recently due to the pandemic but overall, it’s like football. Eight teams compete against each other, then the best ones go into play-offs and fight for top places. There are leagues like that in France, Italy, and a few other countries. For us, the most important ones are the French and German leagues, that’s where most Ukrainian guys compete. These are professional competitions, they allow us to compete, to try out routines and to earn money. Teams are formed according to agreements but, of course, there is a limit on the number of foreign gymnasts. At the competitions, the teams decide who will compete on which events and against whom. It is all decided in the moment, you don’t know what even you will do, that’s why it’s interesting. Everyone’s fighting for team points and at the end of the competition, an athlete that brought the most points for the team is honored. I won the “Top Scorer” t-shirt at several of the last competitions.

Q: You also compete at the French league. Is it allowed to combine them?

A: Yes, it’s allowed to compete for different clubs in different leagues. Although, the seasons overlap sometimes. Then I choose which team is a priority for me. Since I’ve been with the same club in Bundesliga for seven years, Bundesliga is my priority. But I can’t deny that money play a role, too. If one club will offer me 300 euros for a competition and another – 50, then it’s obvious for which one I’ll compete. It depends on the situation, sometimes I can go and compete for free if I need it too and sometimes I can earn some money.

Q: Do you have any sponsorship contracts at the moment?

A: My contract with Toyota is ending soon and that’s it, I don’t have anything else. I was approached by Porsche but they were a bit late, they contacted me practically a month after I signed with Toyota. If they’re still interested in me, it would be cool – everyone knows how much I love this brand. If you’re a big company and you’re reading this interview, send your offers, I’m interested in partnerships.

Q: How do you choose who to partner with? What kind of product you would never advertise?

A: Depends on what I’m offered. Nowadays, no matter what you advertise, there will be someone who won’t like it. There are people complaining that McGregor is advertising whiskey but meanwhile, he’s become a millionaire already. What does he care what people think about him? Perhaps, thanks to some partnership, you will be able to find your footing and then help hundreds of people. What does it matter afterwards what product you advertised if you helped people because of it? I mean, obviously, I won’t advertise drugs. Of course, if I’ll be offered to partner with some alcohol brand, this would be some sort of a mismatch – alcohol and an athlete. In such a case, I’ll think a lot about it, ask people I trust for advice, and make a decision. I need to earn money which I have an opportunity.

Q: How are routines compiled, how do you chose elements?

A: It starts in childhood. Sometimes, there are various techniques for the same element. When you start learning an element, you try different ones. Whichever technique worked for you, you choose that direction and develop further. For example, Chinese gymnasts like to have their own style of elements, only they do it like that. I don’t use that style, it’s painful for me, I protect my shoulders and do it differently. You choose elements together with your coach depending on what you’re better at.

Q: What’s the goal – higher difficulty, better execution or the overall look fo the routine?

A: There are different goals at different competitions. Sometimes, I need to have the highest difficulty, and at some competitions it’s enough to do simple routines cleanly in order to win. At the Olympics, you need to go all in – you prepare difficult routines in order to get the highest possible scores. You polish those routines and you have to have the core routines ready for the competition. Let’s take my performance in Rio as an example. I had the difficulty of 7.1 and the Chinese gymnast had 7.3, he competed before me. It’s a big difference in difficulty. For the final, I was preparing an additional element in order to raise my difficulty. But when he fell during his routine, I knew that there was no point to risk doing that element and it was enough to do my regular routine cleanly. But if he did his routine properly, I’d have gone all in. The issue is that not everyone can look at the performances of the other competitors and change their routines on the go. And it’s not a matter of experience, you either have this ability or don’t – it’s about how quickly you can think and improvise.

Q: Are your Tokyo routines ready or still in the process of preparation? What will you surprise us with?

A: They’re still in the process of preparation. We will still upgrade them. We start preparing the routines when the new Olympic quad starts, so four years in advance. Before the end of this year, I still need to learn a few more elements. At the European Championships in December, I already need to try my new bars routine in order to keep practicing it next year for the Olympic Games. It’s difficult and I need hone it at competitions. After the Olympics, the rules always change. After Rio, my coach and I already knew what I would need at the next games in order to achieve results and in which direction to move.

Q: How are routines scored? Many people don’t understand the tenths, hundredths, thousandths. Tell us about the scoring system. Can it be considered objective?

A: Of course you can’t talk about objectivity of a system where judges participate in evaluation. There are some things that even I still don’t understand. My task is to go out, do the elements of a certain difficulty, and win, and that’s it. These hundredths and thousandths appear in the score because of different calculations. In gymnastics, there are usually five or six judges at a competition. Some of them are responsible for [calculating] the difficulty, some are for execution. The scores they give are averaged, that’s how those weird numbers appear. For objectivity, they can take out the lowest and the highest score from the judges when calculating the average.

Q: Do the judges explain their scores?

A: No one ever explains anything. You can only appeal the difficulty score. Because when we do the elements that we prepared, we know their difficulty and go from there. You can do four difficult elements in your routine and I can do ten average ones, but I’ll have a higher difficulty score.

Q: Which event you would call the most difficult for you and why?

A: High bar is hard for me. As a kid, I was afraid of it for some reason and it has been difficult since then.

Q: And parallel bars is your most successful event?

A: I think so. Judging by my medal count.

Q: What event do you pay the most attention when preparing for the all-around?

A: You always pay more attention to some events and less to others. Besides the all-around, I have several events in which I can fight for medals. I do well on parallel bars, pommel horse, and also vault sometimes. And the higher the score is one a certain event, the more it adds to the all-around score.

Q: What was the most unusual place where you did gymnastics?

A: Once in Croatia, after a World Cup, our team came to the airport early. There was a playground near the airport. So, we left our things inside and went to the playground to spend some time. There were bars and rings and we started going crazy, fooling around. But carefully, of course, in order not to get injured. Sometimes we all feel like children, so, that happens, too.

Q: Most of your main rivals are Asian gymnasts. Do you think there will be issues with judging in Tokyo?

A: It’s a common phenomenon – people help their own a bit. The home arena helps, the judges are a bit more lenient. There are guys who whine that they were unfairly judged or someone else got an unfairly high score while they were better, and so one. But my coach taught me – if you got a lower score, there was a reason. You have to not give them a reason. If you’re perfect, you won’t get low scores, but if you made a mistake, it’s on you.

Q: Are there conflict between competitors at competitions? Do fights happen?

A: Thankfully, not in gymnastics. Of course, there are weird people sometimes who can try to provoke you somehow or throw you off your game, but in general, everything’s calm and the environment is quite friendly. I think there’s healthy competition, we often support each other and sometimes our rivals, too.

Q: Does the body type play a role in gymnastics? Tall and big or short and wiry – who has an advantage?

A: It actually does play a role. Average body type is the best – not to small and not too big. There’s an English gymnast who’s about 180 cm tall and weight around 80 kg. Everyone was saying that he was big and clumsy but he became a World bronze medalist on vault. All my main competitors have more or less the same body type. Japanese gymnasts are skinny and small. Chinese gymnasts became big and Russians are huge, too. But you can’t achieve anything in gymnastics without muscle power.

Q: You lose weight before competitions. Is it for your personal comfort or are there requirements at competitions?

A: There is a comfortable training weight and a comfortable competition weight. It’s all individual and depends on personal comfort.

Q: You don’t cook but what’s your favorite dish?

A: I roomed with a friend during the lockdown and he cooked really tasty food. I sometimes invite him over now so that he’ll cook. I don’t really like restaurant dishes when you get a dish weighing 12 grams. I like borscht, I like fried meat and potatoes – I can eat a whole pan at once. When I eat out, I order burgers or pasta, something satiating.

Q: Health costs a lot now and professional sport always causes injuries. How hard is it mentally?

A: I’m ok with it now. When I was preparing for my first shoulder surgery, I was really scared. Truly scared! But the last time, when I had leg surgeries in Israel, it was fine already. And the doctors spoke Russian, to they kept my mood up with some jokes and wouldn’t let me get sad. There’s isn’t a sense that it’s something horrible anymore. I don’t have mental issues because of the injuries. I’m not afraid of injuries but worry that they can interfere with competition preparation. I tried to do everything carefully.

Q: Do injuries bother you in daily life? Do your joints react to the weather, for example?

A: It happens, sometimes the left ankle hurts. I can’t sleep on my right side because my shoulder gets stiff and starts hurting. My back hurts sometimes, but it’s all minor things that I’m used to already. When I’ll retire, I’ll fix it all with a physical therapist and it will get better. Even after retiring, you have to stay fit, you can’t stop training at once.

Q: What do you do during the times you’re recovering from injuries and can’t train?

A: I don’t get depressed because of this. I will find what to do. I’ll meet with my family and friends in order not to focus on the negative stuff. I only don’t train at first – it’s a very short period. Then all sorts of training starts in order to work on muscles and joints. You blink and you’re already completely immersed in the training process.

Q: Have you already thought about retiring? Have you thought what you’re going to do next?

A: I can’t even think about it. Even if I wanted to, I’m not able to think about it. I can’t be without the sport. At the moment, it feels like my life will some of its meaning when my athletic career will end. I am sure it will be hard for me. I will need time to accept it all. I think that I’ll stay active in promoting sports in our country even after I retire.

Q: After the retirement, do you plan to live in Kiev or move somewhere?

A: Of course, I’d like to leave my mark in Ukraine and live here. And if that doesn’t work out, I can always leave.

Q: Five and two years ago in interviews, you said that there was a huge problem with gymnastics gyms in Ukraine. Did the situation change somehow?

A: Everything’s ok at the Olympic training center, the ministry is giving all the proper funding. Regarding new gyms in other cities – I’d say no. But we see that thanks to the president’s “Big construction project” the situation is slowly changing. This makes me happy.

Q: You said several times that you’d like to open your own gym. Have you started working on it?

A: It’s all really hard, I can’t do it alone, I need support. Have you ever seen our gym at Koncha-Zaspa? It’s huge. In order to equip a gym like that, about 500,000 euros are needed. For that, I need people who will be interested in opening that gym and can help with money. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as I’d like it to be.

Q: How important is public recognition for you?

A: It’s a nice bonus in addition to my work. We all have vanity, we like when people are talking about us. We have guys who can win a “wooden” medal [fourth place] and present it as if they became World champions so that everyone will talk about them. For me, it’s more important to prove that the work I am doing with my coach is going in the right direction. And when you earn an important medal, people learn and start talking about you. There’s no need to try to attract attention artificially, you have to get there step by step.

Q: Do you get upset that you can keep winning for years and people are silent but someone wins once and becomes very popular?

A: I don’t get upset. It all depends on how people promote it. There were cases when I would return from World Championships with a silver and people wrote about me that I regressed and earned “only a silver”. But sometimes I’d come back from some random competition and everyone’s shouting about it: “Wow, he earned gold!” You look at all that in confusion.

Q: When do you feel the most happy during the award ceremony – when you step onto the medal podium, when a medal is put on your neck, when the anthem is playing, or when your name is announced?

A: I enjoy the whole process. When you step onto the medal podium, you feel calm and content. It can be compared to an orgasm when you’re at the peak of pleasure. The first emotions can be different, when the color of the medal is not what you wanted. There are some that take the medal off and throw it in their bag as soon as they step off the podium. I’ve learned to be happy with every medal by now.

Q: Which medal is the most important for you?

A: There are many important ones. In 2012, I won silver at the European Championships for the first time, in 2013 – bronze in the all-around at the European Championships for the first time. In 2014, I won a European event title for the first time and later became a World champion. Of course, the Olympic medal in 2016 is important, and in 2019, I won bronze in the all-around at Worlds. Each medal is important in its own way.

Q: Sometimes a bronze medal makes you happier than gold. Is it true?

A: It all depends on the situation. When I won bronze in the all-around at Worlds, it was quite cool. But it all depends on how you feel. For a spectators, a person outside the sport it doesn’t matter what medal I won – team, individual, all-around, or event. What matters is what color it is. Right? Because many don’t understand what’s harder and what’s more important. A medal is a medal.

Q: You’re a lot in the public eye – you appear on TV shows and promote your Instagram. At what point did you realize that media presence plays a big role for athletes as well?

A: I had the realization that various media activities are important almost right away. In 2013, I went to a competition in Mexico. After the competition, foreign athletes asked to take a picture together and post it on Instagram. I didn’t even know what it was at the time. They showed it to me, I downloaded it right away and started developing my account and realized that social networks are an important element of our life a well.

Q: What’s the story on Instagram about you buying competition results? Where did it come from?

A: It’s just regular hate that shouldn’t even get any attention. Some think I’m a weak athlete and did not deserve to win at the Ukrainian Championships. But it’s just an opinion of a few people. I know who’ behind all that. You have to understand – I can give up all my medals from the Ukrainian Championships, but the results at European and World championships prove my level.

Q: How are you with foreign languages?

A: I speak a bit of English. I feel comfortable talking to foreign athletes at competition. I studied English as a kid but then forgot it a bit when I didn’t have practice opportunities and at competitions, I can talk and practice. This is really necessary and helps. People treat you differently when you can talk to them and don’t run away because you don’t understand anything.

Q: What kind of a person Oleg Verniaiev is? Describe some of your character traits?

A: I guess, my friends know me best. I take risks, I’m kind and loyal.

Q: What was the funniest joke you heard from your friends about yourself?

A: The guys and I are always making jokes about each other. I used to get offended when they joked about me getting bald but now I can also laugh about it. I don’t really get upset by jokes.

Q: Name your worst, most difficult character traits?

A: I can be hard to deal with, just crazy hard, even in my relationships with women. I’m too obstinate and can go too far at moments. I like when everything is the way I want.

Q: Are you single now?

A: I’ve always thought that private life shouldn’t be public, so history doesn’t not have a record of that.

Q: Do you usually make the first step with women or they approach you?

A: Nowadays, women aren’t shy anymore, they can approach me, message me on social networks. Of course, no one will come up on the street, there’s still a sense of self-worth, but, generally, I don’t see a problem with that.

Q: Do you think that with age, social status and height don’t play a big role anymore?

A: I think it comes with experience and not with age. You learn to value yourself and see your chances with different women realistically. From my own experience, I understood some things in life – everyone screams about the soul, but it’s all rubbish, you don’t learn about the soul right away and everyone’s judging the looks at first. And even though some say that happiness isn’t about money, everyone still pays attention to the financial situation and money rules over everything.

Q: Do you care about fashion? What’s the mot expensive item in your wardrobe?

A: The most expensive item in my wardrobe is my car. I don’t have any brand-name clothes [except sportswear]. All my clothes are athletic apparel. You don’t know how many clothing items I give away to my friends and acquaintances. I rarely buy clothes. I went to a competition in Germany and Adidas clothed me, I went to France – Nike clothed me, I compete for Monaco club. I had a contract with New Balance for a year and got my whole wardrobe from them. I don’t keep the items I don’t wear regularly. I don’t like stuff like “I’ll buy a t-shirt and keep it in the wardrobe for two years because it’s a Gucci and you only wear it on special occasions”. If I notice that I’m not wearing something, I’d rather give it to the young guys at the training center, I’m ok with it.

Q: Everyone who knows you associates an orange Porsche Macan with you. You said that you like American cars. Do you plan to get a new car?

A: As it turned out, my Porsche Macan is more known among auto geeks than me. I have a circle of friends who are into cars and I often ask them for advice about the car. I wanted to make some modifications and asked them what would be an interesting thing to do. One guy told me a story. He was in Odessa and he knows a guy there who also owns a Macan. He started asking for advice about what to do with this Porsche model to stand out. The car owner said – there is a modified orange Porsche Macan in Kiev, ask the owner. In the end, it turned out to be about me. But I only have a peel coat on the car, the insides are not modified at all. Because of the bright unusual color, my car is very easily recognizable in Ukraine. I guess it’s kind of my calling card, too.

Q: How much of gambling man are you? How often do you make bets?

A: I only make bets for fun. I never bet if I know that I’ll 100% lose. But if it’s something that doesn’t depend on me or my opponent, why not?

Q: Many athletes went into politics during the last local elections. Have you thought about it?

A: My training schedule wouldn’t have allowed to do it, so I haven’t even thought about it. And I don’t want to make predictions for the future. If I’ll have a good team that will help me understand all the caveats, then why not? There are things to work on in our country and I have lots of ideas. I think the time will come for us to turn them into reality. I think that Zhan [Beleniuk] made the right decision [to run]. People told me so many times, they criticised Zhan claiming that he became a parliament member and doesn’t do anything. I reply that first of all, stop being jealous. You weren’t invited which means no one’s interested in you. And second, everyone needs to understand that very little depends on just one parliament member. He’s not the one deciding on salaries and building gyms but his whole team is working on it. I believe in them.

Q: If Beleniuk will run for president, will you be on his team?

A: Whether I will be on his team will depend on his decision. But I can say for sure that I and my family will support him in all of his decisions. I’m very close to him, he can ask me how I’m doing and I can complain about something. We’re friends.

Q: What are your plans for the next year?

A: To try to stay healthy and to avoid injuries and prepare for the Olympic Games successfully. There are many talks around me now, too much unnecessary information, I want to ignore all that. Everything needs to be proven by actions and this is what I plan to do. I really love and adore Olga Kharlan, she’s a Ukrainian sports legend. Once, she came from a competition without medals and I was embarrassed for the media when I saw headlines like “Kharlan is not the same anymore”, “Kharlan’s on the decline” and so on. Later, she won another World Championships and put everyone in their places. You make a small mistake and that can turn you from a hero into an enemy. So, I wish for everyone to think critically and use their head – athletes are people like you and deserve your support. Especially in those moments when it’s hard and they don’t win.

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