Nikita Tells His Story
“No hard
feelings towards Vanya. He’s very good, maturing, and giving a good fight. I plan to take a break from all this and slowly return to training all
refreshed. Looking at our events, Vanya and I pretty even in terms of scoring
potential. But the coaching staff must think my team performances in this cycle
with gold medals at Universiade, European Championships, and European Games are
worthless.”
“They forgot about what happened four years ago in London and don’t care that I’m 24 years old now; the next Olympic cycle will be tough for me. The same can’t be said for Ivan who’s only 20 and at the beginning of his career.”
“On Thursday after the closed control they called out everyone and began to sort us out by the exit. At that time I was on the team for Rio, then I left the training hall. Ten minutes later Andrei Rodionenko came in and announced a "battle” between me and Vanya on pommel horse, parallel bars, and high bar. Whoever wins goes to Rio. It became clear to me I was in a losing position; I already got what it was all about. Later they told me in secret that David Belyavskiy and Nikita Nagornyy had suggested the idea to the coaching staff. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but coaches simply don’t change their minds like that in just 10 minutes."
“They forgot about what happened four years ago in London and don’t care that I’m 24 years old now; the next Olympic cycle will be tough for me. The same can’t be said for Ivan who’s only 20 and at the beginning of his career.”
“On Thursday after the closed control they called out everyone and began to sort us out by the exit. At that time I was on the team for Rio, then I left the training hall. Ten minutes later Andrei Rodionenko came in and announced a "battle” between me and Vanya on pommel horse, parallel bars, and high bar. Whoever wins goes to Rio. It became clear to me I was in a losing position; I already got what it was all about. Later they told me in secret that David Belyavskiy and Nikita Nagornyy had suggested the idea to the coaching staff. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but coaches simply don’t change their minds like that in just 10 minutes."
As I said before, why did coaches think it was worth anything to give up David and Nagorny's names? If they had any consideration for personal feelings they must've seen how he would take this as a toxic betrayal. To me, it seems the Rod's wanted to be absolved of any sort of guilt or responsibility, and by telling Nikita that his teammates encouraged an internal competition, they did just that. His anger is now misguided [which is why teammates should stay out of the team selection process to begin with]! Nikita says he left the training hall and that no one followed him for ten minutes until Andrei came into the room to speak with him; knowing what he knows now, about David & Nagorny's participation, he is being made to feel like the team was "talking about him" as soon as he left the room. Does he deserve to have these insecure feelings thrust upon him when he's been there for Russia for three years, winning medals all along the way? I won't say that Ivan doesn't deserve a place on this team- the numbers back him up- but as usual with Team Russia, the problem so often lies not in what they did but how they did it. After all, it's possible that Andrei told the boys he was replacing Nikita and D&N suggested a competition as a way to give their friend one last fair chance to prove himself worthy. But with the way these coaches finagled through the situation, there's bitterness and distrust and awkwardness overshadowing the men's team.
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