Gymnast Listunova told how she became relaxed: she ignores panic

– Vika, remembering now about the performance in that competition is probably a little funny, and it’s not about sports at all. Was she surprised then? When talent shows what it can, it’s always amazing. But for the gymnast, what caused the admiring surprise of the jury was a completely natural work …

– I then already got into the youth team. I remember I was at the training camp at the Krugloe Lake base. The head coach of the Russian national teams Andrei Fedorovich Rodionenko called and said: you will go to the competition, you will perform on the balance beam, we were invited to show artistic gymnastics. That’s how she reacted to it.

But everything, of course, was unusual: the log would be dragged somewhere, it would not be in the hall, but on the stage. We have everything in the hall according to the standard – rectangular. And there the arena was round, a log was placed diagonally so that the mats fit exactly. And they asked me to make the dismount even easier so that I would not fly offstage. I remember that I started to try to do something, but the log was not dangling, but even sliding. I do the exercise, and it is with me … We began to think about how to fix it. I even had to hear: let’s pour Moment superglue under it, and let it stand, it will be fine … I remember thinking: “Is it really?”. Finally figured something out.

– And a year later you won the first junior world championship in history. But then the pandemic swallowed up tournament after tournament where one could play. Now they are burning in the furnace of the removal of our athletes from international performances. And yet – your fate is amazing: between two such long pauses on the world stage, you received the title of Olympic champion.

– I had a chance to go to Tokyo only when the Games were postponed for a year. But this issue – with the age limit – was resolved for a long time: after all, they could have held the Olympics in 2021, leaving the age rules for 2020. That is, I would not be allowed to perform in Tokyo. And as a result, the year of birth in 2005 got to the Games. I remember how my coach Olga Gennadievna (Petrovicheva. – Approx. ed.) wrote: “Vika, they let us in!”. At that time my head was just swollen with thoughts. Nevertheless, they said before the transfer: your time is later. Or: oh, if you had been born a year earlier, it would be great, but now you are small …

– You still really turned out to be the youngest in the entire Russian team in Tokyo 2020 …

– But we were all so ready that I even sometimes forgot about the scale of the tournament in Tokyo itself. Or maybe she set herself up that way. The team tried so hard to approach the start so that during the performances they would not create difficulties for themselves. The main word was the word “responsibility”. The coaches led us very clearly to the Olympics. I had to execute certain programs with sufficient complexity. But at the same time, for about three months, we did not change anything in these programs. Just worked and worked and worked to make sure everything was done right, from start to finish…

– Was it very depressing? What didn’t change?

– I now understand that everything has its time – and my emotional mood. Later, after the Games, the programs and elements became different. I reached a more adult level of gymnastics. At the Russian Championships in March, I already had such programs that, I think, I could not even think about before. I remember looking at some of the elements performed by the leaders at the Olympic Games, but for some reason I didn’t even try them on myself. Now I understand: I can do it too! And I show my abilities.

– Allowed talent and experience looseness?

– Here’s another thing that worked well: I had an elbow injury at the Games. Naturally, the load then during the recovery was less. And the body just at that time was rebuilt. The injury, it turns out, played a plus here: the body got its way in time (for four months, the doctors forbade Vika many movements, the operation was not needed, but severe inflammation required gentle loads. – Note. ed.). We began to revise the programs, adjust them to the new rules. There was a combination of many factors. But you are right: I have become more relaxed approach to work. Perhaps this is the right word.

– Vika, there, in Japan, you found a way to thank the coach Gennady Nikolaevich, who, alas, did not see the Tokyo 2020 Olympic platform (After the award, Vika showed a photo of her mentor in front of the camera: “I am grateful to my coach, who recently passed away, I miss him very much, I miss him.” – Approx. ed.).

– Yes, two of my coaches: Olga Gennadievna and Gennady Nikolaevich, the Petrovichev team. I was very lucky. It is happiness when you meet people who feel you. And you feel them.

– Once, when she was still very young, she said that you are inspired by the elements that Simone Biles makes: exceptional, from the field of “nothing is impossible”.

– So it was, and is. And this is the essence of sport: one is interested in trying it, the other is interested in watching it. Only the first cannot be done while sitting on the couch.

– What do you want in gymnastics? You, already an Olympic champion?

– Well, I achieved the title of Olympic champion with the team, this is a common merit … I will say this: I want to leave a special mark. Let it sound loud. I want the most prestigious awards. Winning in a team is the height of emotions, the most united. But there is a personal all-around, when everything depends on you alone, you must collect the entire maximum on the platform. And yes, there are plenty of possibilities. Right now – it seems that I am already doing complex elements, but they tell me: you can add more. And if you are taller, then you have to be very far ahead of your rivals.

– Aren’t you afraid of your desires?

– They are not scary, but difficult to fulfill. And then – there are always tasks that you set for yourself. Is not it so? And in general: there are so many goals that you don’t need to invent them, they jump out on their own, but you can’t push them back.

– Is that why you never try to praise yourself?

– Well – how? Depending on the situation. But I’m not fond of praise, it’s true. They say that I take everything to heart. And – such: a maximalist. But that’s okay. You understand that you didn’t do it, but you didn’t make it, how can it be good then?

– I saw your hand in Kazan, one finger did not bend, and it looked awesome. And what – it was possible: for poles, for example, to grab onto the uneven bars with such a hand (Victoria won five gold medals at the Russian Championship. – Approx. ed.)?

– You know, we often have a situation where competitions are held at some kind of overcoming. Not only in gymnastics, but in sports in general. And at the Russian Championships, everything happened on the very first day of training. I stuck my finger in the pole during the flight. The coach filmed a video of the workout: I managed to intercept my hand and continue. After all, we are always like this: uh, it’s okay, then I’ll figure it out, stuck and stuck, this often happens. We are working at such a pace: stuck, intercepted her hand, we need to finish it, and later we can see what and how. And then I often see how some panic is bred out of the blue. This time I didn’t even put ice, I had to, of course. After the uneven bars I went to the log. She did something else. In the evening – the finger is blue. By morning, even more.

– A panic plant “out of the blue” – not yours?

– Not mine at all. I don’t like being scared or scared. My main reaction: everything will be fine! In general, as they say, I perform in my repertoire – I always hide such things to the last. Everyone learned about problems with the elbow at the Olympic Games not on the first day, but only before the team final. For six days somehow it was possible not to advertise. Then they came to a hitch after qualifying. Everyone’s emotions are seething after the first Olympic day, everything went so smoothly. The coach says: stand up. I get up, and everyone sees that I am not standing straight, on one arm, and the other is bent. “What happened? – My elbow hurts, I felt it a week ago. I didn’t want to scare anyone, and I need to perform. What plaster? What are you! There is no pain, everything is tolerable. But, of course, this elbow ruined my personal performances there, it’s good that I didn’t let me down in the team all-around.

– About the character, I understood everything a long time ago. But those who have not spun on the uneven bars and not stuck into the poles do not understand: how, technically, with a finger that cannot be bent, you can grab onto these poles?

– It hurt, but not even as expected. I couldn’t take something in the fist, but on the poles and 90 degrees is enough to hold on.

– Still clearer. But I ask: do you cry sometimes?

– It happens sometimes. Here, at the control training before the Russian Championship, I was blown off the uneven bars twice, I was very upset. Resentment engulfed. And bewilderment: “I did it, I did it, and then – this! Like this?”.

– I quote: “Many consider us to be some kind of aliens, and we are just people, there is nothing complicated or strange in athletes.” You said it at 14.

– Was she right?

– And outside the platform, they say, there is life too …

– At the moment my time is in gymnastics. And life is concentrated in it. And what is there outside the usual, I still have no idea. I once saw gymnastic elements from the side, but did not try them on myself. So, probably here. Maybe it’s too early? And the point is not that there is no need to be distracted and sprayed, but it’s just not my time.

– I deliberately do not ask you a question about the motivation in the current situation for Russian sports. You show it and confirm it with every performance at the internal start. Yes, and guessing in sports is generally difficult. But it so happens that, having jumped to the Olympic Games at a very young age, you opened the door of longevity on the platform for yourself …

– How much to be in sports, probably, depends on genetics, and on desire. There is a record holder in women’s gymnastics, of course, Oksana Chusovitina, who is aiming for the ninth Olympic Games. This is an explosion, something unreal. But I don’t think about it at all. We have an interesting development in gymnastics: first you climb the steps of the age, then you get an understanding of what you can do on the adult platform. How do you fill it.

– And never say that you are proud of yourself?

– And this depends on the goal: if you specifically think about the path in gymnastics, then there is no time to waste. The competitions were over, I got down from the pedestal, and began to hone the programs in a new way. It’s not that I don’t like to be proud of myself, it’s just that life goes on. It seems – yes, there are achievements, we managed to win big medals. But, on the other hand, I do not show my maximum. And from here I understand where to go next. I can and should do more. Something like this.