Saturday, April 29, 2017

Melnikova on Euros, her floor, and how she just wants to stay home and sleep in

Melnikova gave an interview to Marafon, sports TV show. Here's the summary.

She says that she was very tired after Rio and really wanted to take some time off, but she had to return to competitions almost immediately. She couldn't seem to get it together and made mistakes in competitions all the time. It was so hard that she was crying a lot and asking to give her a break, she didn't even want to train for a while. Her coaches and teammates helped her through it and she was able to start enjoying training again.
At the same time, she believes the four competitions she went to this year before Euros helped her to gain experience and become more confident. She was extremely nervous competing in Stuttgart, then it was a bit easier in Jesolo, in London, and by Euros she wasn't afraid to compete anymore.

There are rumors that several national team gymnasts left their previous coaches and are now training with Grebenkin as their personal coaches (I've heard this about Spiridonova and Melnikova, but there might be others). Ishkova and Denisevich are still listed on the Russian artistic gymnastics federation website as her coaches, but the website often lists old information. In the video, though, Ishkova is introduced as Melnikova's former coach, so I guess the rumors are true. 

Ishkova, Gelya's former coach, clearly disapproves of Melnikova going to so many competitions before Euros, saying that Gelya was completely exhausted by the end. She also disapproves of Gelya competing two vaults already because she believes the second vault isn't ready yet.

When asked about not making the all-around final at Euros (she finished behind Eremina and Kapitonova), she said it doesn't make her very sad and it's not the end of the world. She is always surprised by her falls because physically she is ready and doesn't fall in training. However, she is afraid of falling in competitions and thinks that's why she falls. She started getting afraid when she got injured before the Olympics and it's been hard for her to overcome the fear.

Her new floor was choreographed by Olga Burova. Gelya was at first afraid she wouldn't be able to do both complicated and physically demanding choreo and the tumbling, so learning the routine required a lot of repetitions. She likes this routine very much. In the EF after her third tumbling pass she realized she's in for a medal, so she tried really hard to stick her last landing.

After Euros Melnikova finally went home to Voronezh for 5 days. She hasn't been home for several months. And during these 5 days, she is mostly studying because she needs to prepare for several exams (she's in 10th grade right now).

She is dreaming of just staying home for two days, doing nothing and sleeping in. Clearly, it's not happening, because next week she's going back to the Round Lake.

1 comment:

  1. Why are they wearing her out with no rest? She is clearly one of the top AAers in the national A team. It doesn't make sense.

    ReplyDelete