Nikita Nagorny spoke for the last time in the season: “I am not a robot or a cyborg”

The characters of our Olympic champions, it would seem, do not need additional verification. True, the time is now such that any motivation can be capricious. Not there, on the platform. And before him. No starts – no zeal. No competition, no excitement.

The current appearance of gymnasts on the platform of Kazan in the framework of the Spartakiad of the strongest, they say, is equated to the world championship. In terms of timing and prize money. The rest, of course, is pointless to compare. However, it is not necessary, the situation is clear to everyone. Sport lives in the conditions of the country.

But opponents cannot be left unattended. Andrey Rodionenko, the head coach of the national teams in artistic gymnastics, says that the monitoring of international competitions does not stop. And the programs that the gymnasts and gymnasts of our national teams are doing today, in terms of complexity and quality of performance, correspond to the best examples of the Chinese, Japanese, and Americans. “Our goal is to surpass them.”

There can be no other task for the Olympic champions. Only when and where it will be possible to compare forces with rivals in person, no one knows. And the practice of a large platform is half the success. You also need to be able to show what you learned in training so as not to choke on your own zeal.

In the individual all-around for men in Kazan, Nikita Nagorny won. Injured, at times grimacing from painful sensations, but not losing character. He doesn’t know how to give and doesn’t want to. As well as David Belyavsky, who took second place.

Nikita himself says: for coaches, rivals, fans, the fact that he didn’t win everything at the Spartakiad (and in some events he wanted to refuse to perform at all, but did it only in exercises on the rings), this is a kind of message: I’m not the only one, a robot , a cyborg, but an ordinary athlete who needs an individual approach to all starts. But this approach was not for various reasons.

The third was seventeen-year-old Daniel Marinov, for whom the platform in Kazan is his home. Artur Dalaloyan was forced to withdraw from the competition that day due to non-healing wounds on his hands, he performed after the team tournament only on individual apparatus (but he did not remain without awards).

Even after the first start of the gymnasts this season, I asked the head coach of the national teams: if the goal for the season for those who are rushing to the base is clear, will the leaders keep themselves without starts at the highest level?

– None of the titled athletes left the hall, it’s already good. So, there is a desire to improve. They and their coaches. It is very important that in the most difficult period the country not only did not forget about us, but extended its hand to save everyone,” Andrey Rodionenko said. – We felt it during the pandemic, we felt it now. What else to say besides words of gratitude? You have to answer with deed. Can we mentally lose one of the leaders? There is work with people for results. If there are starts, then everything will be in order.

– All athletes talk about the complication of programs.

– How else? It is important for us to create competitive programs until 2024. We have a plan for additional tournaments, this is also important – a change of scenery, sparring partners. Coaches sit in the hall at our competitions all the time to choose those who can be pulled up to the national team. So that the worthy do not skip the selection. And I always ask the experts: don’t judge names, but gymnastics. So that, if they deserve it, they get their 13 points, and not higher. And for judges, by the way, it’s easier: go and judge as you see fit. If a runner ran a hundred meters in 13 seconds, they don’t write 11 seconds for him? And why should we be cunning, if the one who usually stands behind the leader is better today?

– Some of the judges looked at one angle, someone looked at another, not for a second …

– Let them watch where and how they want. But the best must be the best. So that in this role the winner was the one who deserved it at the moment. And so that geniuses do not bubble for a long time, otherwise they are already sitting in different presidiums. To get their real assessment, they looked like, looked askance: some like a judge, some like a coach, but – refreshed.

Your own locomotive

All three starts of this year – the Russian Championship, the Russian Cup and the Spartakiad – made us talk about 17-year-old Daniel Marinov. The gymnast is not only convincing on the platform, but also does not hesitate when asked: is it realistic to beat, say, Nikita Nagorny?

The personal trainer of the gymnast Radik Kurmangalin believes that it is not necessary to push this athlete to the result. Danya is like his own locomotive, his own driving force. You don’t need to motivate the guy, but, of course, you have to prompt a lot. Like an adult, and sometimes – like a small child.

The coach says that before entering the platform, Danya may not have time, for example, to put on an overlay or bandage his leg. He still lacks professional composure, when everything is clear and to the minute: get up on time, eat, go to bed. “And on the other hand, for example, I often catch myself thinking: since this does not affect the results, maybe this is exactly how he needs to do everything – not on schedule?”

Daniel can still perform at the European Youth Championships, men’s gymnastics starts only after 18 years. “So far, he has entered the national team with only one foot,” says Kurmangalin. And she admits that Marinova is not afraid to jinx it, but she knows how important it is to maintain a balance: to praise and overpraise are two different things. He says that it is necessary to lead the athlete to the heights so that with each new step the interest does not disappear, but a second wind appears.

And Daniel himself says that at the tournament in Kazan he has just stepped on one of the important steps: he made a vault, which he had long dreamed of. He says: yes, he didn’t get up on landing, but he showed that it was possible, although before “we didn’t have anything like that, so I really wanted to prove to the audience, opponents and coaches that this is feasible.”

He admits that he went out on adrenaline and was very worried. “I didn’t sleep for three days, I fell through only for two hours, everything was seething inside. The jump is really dangerous, I thought: will it work, will it not work? Got it! It doesn’t matter what position you end up with.” It seems that he understood the most important thing about big gymnastics: without trying, you can’t go forward.

leader vs leader

The embellishment of the platform in Kazan was the rivalry between Angelina Melnikova and Victoria Listunova. Vika won in the individual all-around.

A few years ago, a very young Vika competed at the first (and so far the last due to the pandemic) World Junior Championships. And then she struck me not only with her performance, but also with what she said. “The first championship. It is important. You never know what happens next, maybe it will be the only world championship for me. And so we were all in shape, we went through a lot of model training, control, and so on. Should have done well. Here is an exercise on the balance beam – yes, it sometimes happens that I can not cope with the excitement. If the log goes with the first shell, then it always happens with me – on the first shell it starts to shake, and then everything is fine. It’s like wrestlers or boxers: you get nervous until the first blow.

By the way, the very young Diana Kustova, who beat everyone at the Spartakiad in exercises on this most insidious log, does not seem to worry even “until the first blow”. First, she won gold in the Moscow team, then – the first individual medal in adult competitions: silver in exercises on uneven bars. I let Vika Listunova go ahead, and left Gelya Melnikova behind. She modestly commented: “I knew that if I did the program well, I would be in prizes.” And then she also announced: “If I go through all the combinations well on beam and get a full base, I think there are chances too.” These chances turned into a gold medal for the fifteen-year-old athlete.

Angelina Melnikova, the captain and leader of the team, still did not give Listunova gold in her signature floor exercises. And she admitted that she performed at the start “for pleasure.” And the main result of the Spartakiad for her is that she passed all the shells without falling and collected a full set of awards. “In general, I got a good load, so now I’ll pay attention to my health: Achilles aches, I’ll call the doctor, I’ll do the necessary procedures,” Gelya summed up the performances in Kazan.

… This was not the last start of the gymnasts in the season, competitions in Belarus are ahead. Who will take part in it, and a very large group will go there, is not yet known. Nikita Nagorny, for example, said that the competitions in Kazan were his last in this gymnastic season, and his health still needs to be restored.

The head coach of the national teams Valentina Rodionenko believes that the Spartakiad was held at a good level, although the athletes made many mistakes due to the lack of starts. “Someone for girls, for example, simplified the program, not everything worked out for the leaders. There is something to work on. Maybe we will be allowed to the World Cup next year. We are preparing for it.”