In the third part of the interview Oleg Verniaev talks about his plans for the next quad and for the New Year celebration.
The original interview is in Russian and you can read it here.
Q: Are you going to try to get into all the finals at Euros and
Worlds?
A: Yes, if I can. It depends on my routines. For instance, in
Switzerland I had a 7.2 pbars routine, and if I do the same routine next quad,
it’ll stay 7.2. However, if I don’t manage to do my Healy, my difficulty falls
to 6.6. automatically, because Healy is an E element, and my score counts one more
D element instead of E.* I need to either have some other elements to have room
for error or train this skill until I can do it perfectly every time.
*I frankly didn’t get this part, because in new COP Healy is D. Was
it E in the last quad and Oleg just doesn’t know yet that it’s been downgraded?
Or does he mean some other element and there was a mistake in the article? Can anyone with MAG knowledge help?
Q: What do you like or dislike about fans’ behavior and what they
say online? You now have a lot of fans, all different. How do you manage?
A: There are people who write normal stuff, but there are some who
write things that I show to my friends in shock, I won’t say what things, but
they’re really horrible. There are pleasant comments, but some will just blurt
something that makes you speechless. I always read everything, and when there
are a lot of compliments I’m slightly uncomfortable. I don’t like fans who are
obsessed, who stalk all my connections and ask me questions why some friend did
something, and I don’t even know what they’re talking about.
Q: How do you feel on the competition days? Are you nervous,
stressed, focused, thinking only about the competition, or it’s just a regular
day, when you train in the morning, rest and try not to think about the routines?
A: If it’s a serious competition, I can’t sleep. During the
Olympics, I only managed to fall asleep at 4am. Otherwise, until I get to the
competition hall, I don’t care whether it’s a competition day. I wake up, get a
contrast shower, pack my bag, wait for the coach and I’m ready to fight.
Q: What was the hardest thing for you on the journey from London to
Rio?
A: The hardest was that at every competition my coach told me that
I’ve won already and set the bar high, so I have to keep it that way. And every
time I need to train more and more to keep the bar high, I have more responsibility.
To stay on top is the hardest.
Q: What are your thoughts on the fact that people started to throw
dirt on all the officials who have to do with sports in Ukraine?
A: Yeah, I read what people are saying. For them, Sergey Nazarovich
[Bubka] is bad, and the sports minister is bad, everyone’s bad. They’re always
complaining that our minister of sport doesn’t look like an athlete and stuff.
You know, how from 2008 we weren’t getting new equipment, and there were many
ministers, but only the current one finally got us new equipment. He’s helping
us, supporting us, we’re moving forward. Sergey Nazarovich bought us the new
floor, gave us a push. They’re helping us, so we’re very grateful.
Q: Is there something that needs to be changed in the Ukrainian
sport?
A: Laws need to be changed, I’ve talked about this before. For
example, in Germany, I was told, sponsoring gymnastics is tax deductible, so
big companies invest in gymnastics and get deductions on their taxes. If we had
a law like that, everything would be different. Companies need to pay taxes
anyway somehow. They can choose to pay taxes directly, or they can choose to
invest in sports, advertise themselves through this and do a good deed for us.
Q: What do you feel when you’re standing on the podium with a gold
medal and hearing the Ukrainian anthem playing because of you? Are you less
excited now because it happened many times?
A: Well, you know these memes “bang-bang-bang, Batya v zdanii”*, so
when I’m standing there I feel like that, like here I am and I did my job.
Really, it’s a great moment when your job is rewarded by a gold medal, all the
country is supporting you and you’re giving them the gift of the national flag
raised and the anthem played. At this moment, I’m not thinking anything, I’m
just standing there and enjoying it. That feeling never diminishes, I’m always
standing and пкшт акщь уфк ещ уфкю
*These are Russian memes based on the song “Batya v zdanii” [Daddy
in da house] by MC Hovanskiy, Russia recording artist. The memes usually
feature some badass person and this phrase. I’m including the link to the video
if you want to watch, but basically, the meaning of the phrase in this context
is kind of like “I’m the king of the
world”.
Q: Are you playing football? [for Americans, they mean soccer] You were
recently seen at FC Shakhtar’s practice. Who of the players are your friends?
Would you like to try out for the team? As Usain Bolt trains with Borussia and
can even play if needed. What do you think about this idea?
A: I can train anywhere, but it doesn’t mean that I would play a
real game. I mostly play football on Sony Playstation, and sometimes we play on
floor in the gym during practice. I mostly in touch with Pyatov, Stepanenko and
Rakistkiy from FC Shakhtar.
Q: I know that you’re competing a lot and you’re dreaming about
vacation. What kind of vacation do you prefer? Active or passive? What do you choose: to lie in sand on a sea coast or not to stay
still, keep climbing, running, walking somewhere?
A: Climbing, running and walking is really not for me, I’ve very
lazy. I like to lie at the beach.
Q: We saw your 7.2 pbars in Switzerland. Does it mean that you’re
going to compete this routine at Euros and Worlds next year? Or it’s not ready
yet? Will you be adding difficulty on other apparatuses?
A: Of course, we’ll be trying to change and add something, because
you can’t stay in one place, younger athletes are always behind, pushing and
trying to pass us. Regarding the pbars, I’ve been training this routine for a
long time now and I’ll be competing it. I was in Germany and my coach said that
it’s ok not to finish the routine, but we added a new element, and this element
has to be done all the time.
Q: You talked in one of the post-Rio interviews about wanting to
start a Verniaev foundation. How’s it going, will it be possible? Or it will be
killed by bureaucracy?
A: It’s turned out to be not that simple, so for now I’m not doing
anything about it, I just don’t have enough experience.
Q: After the Rio Olympics you became much more popular. Do you have
an official fan club or some group on a social network?
A: Of course, I’m on all the social networks myself, and there’s
also a group, girls are in charge of it. I’m also posting all the news myself.
Q: Do you spend a lot of time on social networks?
A: When I have time, I go online. My phone’s always with me, if
there’s something important, I’, answering right away, otherwise I find time to
answer later.
Q: What’s your New Year wish?
A: At this moment, I only wish that everyone will be healthy – my friends,
parents, coaches. Health is the most important thing and I’ll take care of the
rest. And, of course, I wish for the war in our country to stop, for all the
problems to end, so that we could start growing and using our potential.
Because our country can do a lot, but we’re at the bottom for now. That’s what
I want. We just need to be kinder and more positive and to love other people.
Q: What are your plans for the New Year’s Eve?*
A: Depends on who’s coming to the party. Last year we had an
amazing night, it was just me and two friends, we got into a car with lots of champagne
and drove around the city. Of course, I wasn’t drinking, because I was driving.
One of my friends is in KVN**, so he’s got a great sense of humor. I had a
loudspeaker that I brought from Germany, so we were yelling jokes from the car
window. If we saw a fun company, we would stop and offer champagne for a poem***,
for example. Talked to everyone, offered food and drinks, had fun. We didn’t organize
anything, but it was a lot of fun. That was not just a regular party at the
apartment, very unusual. That was the 4th New Year I spent sober.
*For those unfamiliar with Russian/Ukrainian/Post-Soviet country,
we don’t celebrate Christmas. In USSR religious holidays were prohibited, so
people celebrated New Year instead of Christmas. It’s the biggest holiday of
the year, everything is decorated, there are New Year’s trees, parties, and
people get gifts and a long vacation. People celebrate till morning, usually
with family and/or friends and they normally drink a lot. You can also find
lots of people celebrating in the streets even though it’s cold. Christmas is
celebrated on the 7th of January and only by religious people.
**Wow, I’m explaining a lot of cultural stuff today. This interview
was for a local website and quite informal, so the audience of the website
would understand all this references, but, of course, international fans are
probably unfamiliar.
So, KVN is a humour competition, kind of similar to stand-up, done
only in the FSU, hard to explain to foreigners. I found a Wiki article in
English about it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KVN
*** In the FSU countries there’s a tradition that children get up
on a chair, read a poem they memorized and get a gift for their effort. Older people do it too,
especially when they’re drunk and it’s a New Year’s party. It’s fun. Some poems
can be dirty. In general, we Russians know a lot of poems by heart, because we
have to memorize hundreds of them at school.
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