Interview Olga Belova

All Russian Youth Games 1999 - Article by Olga Volkova

Url : http://www.poptsov.ru/versti/archiv/html/1999/64/sport.htm

Olga Belova at the Grand Prix of Prato 2000, Photo ©Laura Vigna

The competition on the floor was cruel. Behind the curtains the girls who were unsuccessful were shedding one tear or two trying not to spoil their make-up, but for the performance with the next apparatus they appeared in front of the audience and the judges with brilliant smiles. You have to agree that such kind of composure will honour every man. In the all-around competition rather unlucky was the virtuous and artistic Zarina Gizikova from Nothern Osetia who is coached in Moscow. She lost the ball and this mistake did not allow her to reach more than the third step of the podium. Despite that she was able to win a gold medal with the rope and a bronze with the clubs. The second place went to the very exquisite and plastic Elena Sudakova. But the queen of the competition became Olga Belova. She not only won the title with superiority over the others, but also became champion with hoop, ball and clubs. She received so many medals including the silver medal for the rope, that this progressing young star lost two of her medals somewhere in the hall and refused to give this interview until she found them. She said, "Please understand, one relative is going back to Volgograd and I want her take my medals to my family. My mother will be so glad and proud, and especially my grandfather who is my most truthful fan."
Q: Olga, you live already 3 years in Moscow, do not you miss your family?
A: Of course I miss them, but I got used to this, I love gymnastics very much and you have to sacrifice something on order to reach your goal.
 Q: and what is your goal, to become a star?
A: In any case, I would like to be able to express myself. When I came to Moscow, I could not do anything, but I was very dilligent. I trained together with Amina Zaripova, Natasha Lipkovskaya, Yana Batyrshina. I watched Amina and tried to work on my plasticity. I tried to study from Natasha how to be artistic and from Yana I studied good technique. And now I want to be only Olga Belova and to resemble nobody else. Many coaches work with me, a choreographer. I would like to thank them all.
Q; You will participate in the worlds in Osaka, with what kind of apparatuses?
A: With the ball and maybe with the hoop too. Irina Alexandrovna has not decided yet. It is scary, of course.
Irina Viner accepted greetings for the success of her gymnasts: all her students looked great. This competition was the main rehearsal before the world championships not only for Olga but for the leader of the Russian team Alina Kabaeva and the group who participated out of the ranking.
Q: Irina Alexandrova, you made several prizes yourself. The prize for the most progressive gymnast you gave to Olga Belova - is this real?
A: Absolutely! She came to my school without any preliminary preparation, I have to say her preparation was zero, even on the negative scale. Even my choreographer, Veronika Shatkova told me, "Why we have to take a kid who cannot even walk? At the same age Kabaeva was already a junior world champion." And do you know what I answered? If a coach finds only one time in her life a gymnast with such physical qualities as Olga, it means that the fate is smiling at the coach. And if the coach does not try to make from the raw material a sparkling diamond - this is simply a sin. Olga made the impossible in the rhythmic gymnastics jump, this year she entered the Russian elite. Unfortunately this year retired Aselma Stasinova, she could not overcome her character, so she freed space for Olga.
Q: It is obvious that Olga has a strong character.
A: She has a very strong will, she is always striving for the victory. She is very creative, this is very important. In our sport there are so many people with difficult characters. Usually people have more negative qualities than positive. If the positive qualities are equal to the negative, then it is good. We, the coaches, sometimes joke and say it is an ideal situation if the gymnast have even one positive quality more than the negative ones. I can say Olga is ideal.
 Q: How do you manage to keep such a continuation of the successes of the Russian gymnasts? One star is retiring, then a new one is rising.
A: We work. We can see a very obvious, huge progress in the Russian gymnastics. In this competition participated gymnasts from 52 regions and the level of their preparation is very high. The girls want to be like Kabaeva, Lipkovskaya, Batyrshina. In order to raise champions it is very important that the new generation can train together with the present stars. But the training centre in Novogorsk is becoming very expensive for us - for the gymnasts who live there and for the coming coaches who have to pay for the halls. I am working now on one of my dreams - to make a RG Sports Centre in the new Olympic village where we will receive a gym with all the necessary things and a dormitory for the gymnasts. The vice-mayor of Moscow who is a big Rg fan promised to help us. Then there would be able to live and train 30 gymnasts and this will make possible that there would be no interruption between the generations.


Thanx to Kirilka Nikolova for the translation and the attention :))
The photo was made by Laura Vigna during the International Grand Prix of Prato 2000