Interview to Inga Tavdshivili - April 2000

"A wondeful experience in Italy"

Who is she? A high-quality gymnast. Georgian, at first, accostumed to train in her country, in Tbilisi. She arrived in Italy some months ago, hosted together with her coach in Lali Dolitze's home. Inga competed this year for "Aurora Fano" during the Italian Team Championships (what is called "Serie A" in Italy). This team, coached by Dolitze and composed by Laura Zacchilli, M.Elisa Giuliani, Martina Vecchione, Radi Giulia, and Inga,was this year the 4th Italian Champion. A meek girl, who immediately intergrated herself in the group. She never undertook a training with foreign people. Georgia is a poor country, from this point of view. Inga, in Tbilisi, was used to train lots of hours alone. With her own music, the desert gym, swirling, in silence and together with her loneliness. Here, in Fano, the impact has been totally different. At most a three-hour training per day,at the beginning her life schedule was upset. Nevertheless Inga, who started RG when she was 6 years old, slowly got used to the new requirements. She has a peculiarity, a charming habit: she sews by herself the leotards that she wears during the competitions. Her face looks sweet, and the interview confirms this impression: "In Italy I felt at ease, Fano is a little family. We train, then, sometimes, on the evening we go to the restaurant to eat a "pizza" all together.An ideal ambient, you don't have to be stunned if this team won again the Italian Title. There are good gymnasts who cemented a fabolous group. I am really satisfied about how I lived in Fano. Fair teammates, new training methodologies, undoubted growth from the technical point of view".

Interview credit: "Il Ginnasta" Magazine
Photo copyright © Laura Vigna - to see other pictures of Inga and the
gymnasts in the Italian Championships 2000 go here