Viktoria Komova gave this interview to Inessa Rasskazova from Sovsport in July 2012, right before the Olympics. Please keep in mind that she was still a teenager then and her opinions have likely changed since that time.
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She’s a favorite based on the difficulty of her routines but she still needs to do all that [difficulty]!
Vika, waiting for me in the hotel’s lobby, became wary right away:
VK: What are you going to ask me about? I’m begging you, not about the Olympics!
Q: But that’s the most interesting topic!
VK: Please, understand me, I don’t want [to talk about it].
I had to wait for her and Elfimov for about an hour. Right after the practice, Elfimov, getting into the driver’s seat, put three gymnasts in the backseat and took them to Lobnya. The national team coach, Valentina Rodionenko, authoritatively opened the car door to learn about their plans:
VR: Are you going to buy lipstick?
Vika who was sitting the nearest to the door opened by the hand of the head coach shook her head resolutely.
VR: Are you going to buy beer, then?
Vika uttered a sound or extreme surprise at this assumption.
VR: Good. Don’t forget that people are waiting for you here.
Vika promised not to forget. She dutifully went out to the porch and, seeing that I was standing there with Elfimov, seemingly became happy and went to the lobby.
I already thought that she ran away. But she sat there, leaning back against the couch.
Q: Thank you for not running away.
VK: Why, I didn’t mean to. What made you think that I’d run away?
Q: People scared me with stories about you. Said that it’s impossible to interview you. That you don’t like us [the journalists]. What did we ever do to you?
VK: Nothing! But I really don’t like cameras, I just want to train and to compete, but to talk about it in details… Yes, I don’t like to promote myself!
Q: Well, what can you do, Vika? You’re a star and PR is a part of your job. Not many people love the beam either but they still have to go and compete on it.
VK: I think the beam isn’t relevant here.
Q: It was an abstract example.
VK: I understand. But I get asked some personal things, about my parents – and I don’t like to talk about it! Or what will happen at the Olympics? How would I know what will happen there? Of course, we’re hoping for a successful performance, we’re preparing…
Q: I can imagine how it annoys you when you’re called the Olympic favorite.
VK: Somehow it makes me uncomfortable. I’m just training, I like it and I like competing, but when I hear: “Favorite, leader, future Olympic champion” and all that attention drawn to me… I become very uncomfortable!
Q: You’re shy, probably.
VK: I guess.
Q: No, people were scaring me for nothing. You’re quite a decent speaker.
VK: One on one – of course… But when I’m surrounded by cameras, this light in my eyes, a crowd, a forest of recorders pointed at me… I want to just disappear!
Q: And what about the Amanar vault on which so much will depend in London… Don’t you want to disappear because of it?
VK: I actually manage it rather than not. I recently vaulted it on the podium and everything was ok. But in training, sometimes I can do it and sometimes not. Of course, it’s quite hard to do this vault.
Q: Is there fear?
VK: There is. I’m very afraid of this vault. No matter how many times I do it, I’m afraid every time!
Q: What are you afraid of? An injury?
VK: I’m afraid that I won’t be able to do it. That nothing will come out of it. I run, vault, everything’s fine… But the next time, I’m afraid again!
Q: Do you still have periosteum pain? The coaches of the national team told me that both you and Aliya Mustafina now have insufferable periosteum pain.
VK: It’s very painful. The pain is strong. I take painkillers every day. One pill, two, and sometimes even three pills. I can’t manage without them already…
Q: Is the pain unbearable?
VK: During the morning runs, I sometimes can’t run.
Q: And what about walking?
VK: Walking is more or less ok… But running… And I can’t train. I can’t even think about training without painkillers, can’t imagine it!
Q: And for how long have you been on painkillers?
VK: For the last month. Perhaps, after the Olympics when I recover and start treating my legs, it will get easier…
Q: What do you think, are Americans also as afraid of the Amanar?
VK: Judging by how they look, they aren’t I don’t know what’s happening at their practices. But they go out on the competition floor like robots. Impenetrable!
Q: Do you also know how to be like them?
VK: We’re different. But we also can get ourselves together, do everything and win. And I think it’s enough. To hate the competitors as much as the Americans do… It really becomes hatred! We don’t have that in us. And thank God.
Q: Do they really hate?
VK: Of course! At the World Championships in Tokyo, they demonstratively didn’t greet us and their glares were like… Like they would be ready even to kill us if they could! It was animal hatred! By the way, the Russian coaches working with the US team behaved the same way. It was because of our victory at the previous Worlds in Rotterdam. And only when everything was over, at the banquet, the Americans came over and congratulated us on our silver medals.
Q: After they already…
VK: Obliterated us.
Q: You then wrote in your status on Vkontakte: “The USA look at us in such a threatening way that our knees are shaking”.
VK: Well, it was ironic. If you want to talk about the Olympics so much, then here’s my opinion: don’t focus only on the Amanar. The winner will be the one who won’t get rattled, won’t break, will endure it mentally and not just on vault, but on all the events. Who will be better at self-control.
Q: Your tears at the Worlds in Tokyo when the judges took away your gold medal… This was such a test for you in every way. Your first World Championships and suddenly this happens. I see that it didn’t break you. Does it mean it made you stronger?
VK: I started working harder in order to avoid the mistakes like I then made on the floor. And I started training the vault again right after the Worlds. I started treating practices differently. And those 0.013 that I then lost to Wieber… I just need to get them out of my head. It won’t happen again!
Q: So, after time, you’re only blaming yourself? Not the judges but yourself?
VK: Myself, definitely. You always need to ask yourself first: what did you do wrong?
Q: I have often heard: Mustafina has a temper, Komova has a temper… I now see that you have a temper. But how would you describe it?
VK: I have a horrible temper. When something doesn’t work out for me, I… I can behave in such a way, to go to the coach and tell him all sorts of things… Later I don’t even want to remember these moments.
Q: It’s ok, Vika. When Alexei Nemov couldn’t do some element, he was basically destroying half a gym here at Round Lake.
VK: Seriously? Wow… I didn’t even know. Sometimes I’m given glycine pills to calm me down (laughs).
Q: Are boys paying attention to you already?
VK: No… I don’t even see them at all. And I don’t want to get married!
Q: Ever?
VK: No, not at all. Sometimes I pass a store in Voronezh and there are wedding gowns at the storefront. And every time I look back in wonder… But I don’t want to [get married] now. And it’s not very realistic. I have three practices a day. Physical therapy, sleep. Imagine if I get a boyfriend in Voronezh but I’m in Moscow and sometimes you can’t even talk to me on the phone. I’m either at practice or dying from exhaustion.
Q: And what about something for your soul?
VK: Japanese crossword puzzles.
Q: Japanese crossword puzzles? And you write the answers in Japanese?
VK: You have to guess and draw a picture by the numbers. You paint the squares, put in the dots… I have so many of them already!
Q: And does the inner balance come back?
VK: Yes…
