Rewind in Time: 4 years Ago

Here's an interview with former head coach, Alexander Alexandrov, done four years ago after the results of London. We've heard very little from either the Rodionenko's or the current head coach, Grebenkin. This interview is SO interesting both for what he correctly predicts and what he got terribly wrong. I wonder what surprises lay in store for us in the Tokyo quad...

One gold, two silver and three bronze medals. Аlexander, did the women’s team go to the Olympics with this goal?

From the first day when I came back to Russia, I said that I was not going to ask for two or three years to achieve a specific result. I explained that I understood perfectly well the necessity of achieving a result at each competition. I am such a person: if you have to do something, I’ll do it, but I won’t mention time. At my first championship here in London, we didn’t win anything, we achieved two fourth places. Yet I said that we were going to compete without hesitations.

Even now, a few years later, we still have problems with the number of gymnasts and we compete with a single team. This is a problem, we are very cautious, but if we play the game, we have to play it till the end. In London we had the goal of winning medals. I had available information on the level of the Americans, the Romanians, who won us at the European championships. We prepared for a serious battle, the team competed well at the last trials and we had a good level before the Olympics. I can say that the Russian team could have achieved a better level, but this is a competition and nobody can avoid making mistakes. Unfortunately, there were mistakes. Komova could not perform everything she did in training due to injuries and lack of time. Yet we found resources to compete against everyone. Nobody can blame us. We won second place after the American team. 

Was it realistic to think that Russian could beat the Americans, taking into account the level they had reached before the Olympics?

There was hope. After the qualifying competition there was a real possibility of beating them. If everyone did their best, we could achieve it. But we started to make mistakes. The first alarm was Grishina’s performance on bars. I thought that we would do better the second day. We have to analyze things.

The Olympics proved that the weak link in the team was Grishina, for whom there were great expectations. Is it only due to her lack of competition experience?

It’s a very interesting question. She is a great talent, no doubt…At the beginning of the quad, we thought that these three girls - Komova, Mustafina and Grishina - would be able to solve all the problems at any level. But Mustafina and Komova had problems. Аnd Grishina was allowed to train according to her own plan. I was against it, as was head coach Oleg Ostapenko, who was with the national team two years ago. Yet Grishina’s coach thought that he could prepare her. You can see the results.

Grishina was always with her mother at the competitions and at Krugloye Ozero.

It has nothing to do with her mother, although this would not be allowed in any other country. If the national team is training, everyone has to be under the same conditions.

Are soft conditions inappropriate for gymnasts?

They are not appropriate for anybody. But they thought that they knew better how to train. Grishina had to be among the best and fight for medals at these Olympics. But she failed; all our girls reached the finals, except her. I think it was a clear mistake. Not only of her coach, but of those who allowed her to train this way.

The fifth gymnast was named at the last moment. Was Maria’s choice justified?

Two years ago, at the European Junior Championships, she performed the double twisting Yurchenko very well. While training with Ostapenko, she performed the Amanar and she was ready to learn this vault. Yet, when she earned a spot in the national team, she suffered injuries that prevented her from training. She performed the Amanar successfully before Tokyo but she sprained her ankle after her recovery.  We didn’t know if she was able to do the Amanar that was indispensable to compete with the Americans. We thought that we needed her. We are happy that she fulfilled her task. And she won a medal for the team.

In vault final, had she not gone out of the mat, she could have become Olympic champion.

The Olympic title should have gone to the American gymnast. She masters these vaults so well that everyone thinks that nobody does vault better. You can wake her up in the middle of the night and she will perform the vault. Even if she had downgraded her second vault, nobody would have competed with her. Yet the Americans were so sure that she wouldn’t make mistakes that they did not go for a simpler vault. And things went the other way round. In any case, third place for Paseka was a great success.

But if Izbasa had not performed her vaults and, in spite of her fall, Maroney had become Olympic champion, would it have been a big score scandal at the Olympics?

If we think about it, sure, Мaroney got a very high score. If we analyse her fall, she could have won no medal. But, psychologically, the judges were convinced that she was unreachable and they were stunned. She’d never made mistakes; it was so easy for her. It’s difficult to explain what happened.

In the podium Maroney hid her medal with her hands. Our Viktoria Komova also cried when she won silver in the All Around. What did Vika’s tears mean? Didn’t she want to recognize defeat?

When we went to the Olympics I personally was convinced that Komova was able to win the All Around! She had a good program, much more difficult than the American gymnast and Vika performed it the first day. But again she lacked something. She is growing taller very fast; this causes small injuries that take a lot of time. In spite of this, Vika trained well, but she lacked confidence. I don’t think that she is weaker than Douglas; on the contrary, I think she is more beautiful and stronger than her.

Vika said that silver is not a medal.

Yes, this is what she thinks. This is what we believe. The competition is difficult, it demands a lot of emotional strength, and when there are physical weaknesses, they emerge.

Is this defeat going to destroy her as an athlete?

I don’t think so. Now she’ll go home, she’ll calm down. This will become a stimulus to train strongly. I’m not saying that she trained badly, but at her age it’s difficult to cope with your body. So this can be useful for her.

At the end of the competition, Komova said she was not sure of continuing gymnastics.

What is she going to do? She’s still a child and she spoke out of anger. She wanted to achieve something and she couldn’t. Now she can say anything.

Who can finish her career after these Olympics?

It’s difficult to know. When I worked with Chusovitina, I thought she was going to quit early. Аnd she is still competing! All depends on motivation. I’m not taking into account the material side, but what a person wants. The will to achieve results is a very strong motivation that compels a gymnast to go to the gym, follow the rules and train sometimes more than seems possible. Мustafina, Komova will become adults and, probably, they will enjoy being recognized somewhere. But they can disappear from the gymnastics scene; they must choose what they want to do.

Ksenia Afanasyeva, contrary to other gymnasts, has competed during two Olympic quads. Will it be difficult to train for a third quad taking into account that she’s almost 21?

At the beginning of this quad, I thought that she couldn’t stand it. She found strength. Of course, it was not easy because Ksenia is an adult. Last year, she was world champion and she deserved more attention. I think she enjoyed it. I wouldn’t be surprised if she began training for the next quad. Perhaps not for the All Around, but for two or three events.

After her victory in Tokyo, a lot of people thought that she would win a floor medal at the Olympics. If not gold, silver or bronze.

She competed very well at the Russian Championship in March. She competed in the All Around. The doctors said it was nothing, but she complained about ankle pain. And since March Afanasyeva has not been competing. At the Russian Cup she competed with a watered-down program and she only performed her complete program at the end of the training camp. Last year she was fitter; now we feared that she could make mistakes.

Everyone expected medals from Ksenia, but Aliya Mustafina won bronze. For you, was this fourth Olympic medal unexpected?

Yes, it was. She doesn’t train floor at full capacity because of her injuries. But she’s a fighter and competes with pleasure. Some people are scared, but Aliya enjoys competing. Aliya had no goal in that final; she only had to put up a decent routine.

After her injury, the first competition for Aliya was the Voronin Cup, six months ago, but she was a different gymnast. It seemed practically impossible for her to recover and to train for the Olympics.When she could train after her knee injury, she had acute pain in her back. We went to see many doctors. Nobody could tell us what was wrong. We were in despair, thinking that she could not come back. But thank God, everything went ok thanks to our patience and thanks to her own patience as well.

Who had to be more patient?

It was a different kind of patience. When you are 17, it’s a different patience. For an adult, it’s different. On the one hand, it seemed as if there were no possibilities of recovery. But when things went well, we were in seventh heaven. This year was difficult for everyone. But perhaps someone above decided to reward her for all her sufferings. Before, when we won in the Soviet Union era, the competitions were different, the rivals were different; today every medal is like gold. Аliya won four medals. Taking into account all her injuries, this is a great achievement.

Everyone mentions Aliya’s difficult character. When you took her, did you expect her to become not only an excellent gymnast, but such a champion?

I didn’t take her… I arrived and somebody told me: “There’s a gymnast – Mustafina - who has no coach currently. She trains in CSKA in a group that has little future”. CSKA was my club, where I grew up and work my whole life. The head of studies there is someone I have known for a long time. Her husband is a wrestler, like Mustafina’s father. She told me: “Take her, you won’t regret it. Here she’s only wasting her time”. Her father came and we talked. He signed a document and told me: “Take her.”

Was it difficult to work with her at the beginning?

She we very obedient, although everyone said that she wouldn’t make it, and quit. Little by little we got used one to the other. Later there were crises, when she was tired, but all this was normal. It’s always like this…

Could we say that she was the most difficult gymnast in your whole career?

Of course not! Bilozerchev was also difficult. I had to work with Boginskaya, a pain! Do you think Komova is easy to work with? I don’t know why there’s the idea that Mustafina is the “bad guy." Grishina seems the ideal girl; well, she’s not easy at all. And it’s very difficult to work with Komova, but no one mentions that! Аliya came to see me after she’d won the bronze medal in the All Around and she told me: “Do you know what the journalists said to me? That Valentina Rodionenko had said that I only had a chance on bars.” What could I answer? The interview took place before the Olympics. If I were her (Valentina), I would have apologized.