Aliya Mustafina - radio interview

Aliya is giving a live interview on SportsFM radio on 14.04.
I'm live blogging the main points here:

Aliya’s talking about her cat Lisa. The cat is the boss in their family and keeps her company when Alexey, her husband, if away.

She’s mostly focusing on her studies right now, she’s getting a BA in gymnastics coaching and is supposed to finish right now. This program was the easiest to combine with training, so she decided to study there even though she doesn’t want to be a coach. And she thinks it’ll help her to earn money while she’s figuring out what she wants to do with her life. She believes she’s too gentle to be a coach, because in order to raise champions the coaches have to be tough on the gymnasts.

Aliya’s favorite football team is Spartak. She would want to visit their next game, but there are no tickets left.

She says that her husband offers her a lot of support. They can also understand the need to go to training camps and competitions.

She started getting really good at bars when Grebyonkin started training her on this apparatus and he was able to figure out the routines that worked her.

She doesn’t have favorite apparatuses or the ones she dislikes. Although, sometimes she doesn’t like a specific apparatus when something isn’t working out and she’s getting frustrated.

She doesn’t have any rituals before competitions and doesn’t really believe in good luck charms. The most important thing is to have the right attitude right before going on the apparatuses.

She was very nervous in London and wanted to please all the fans, and her mom said to her: compete just for me, don’t think about everyone else. So, she did.

In Rio, on the other hand, the fans helped to motivate her, because she thought she can’t give up now or do a bad routine because people count on her, so she has to compete well for them.

She liked the movie “Champions” (fictionalized story of Khorkina, Karelin and Popov) and thinks that there should be more movies about gymnasts.

She wanted to retire from gymnastics several times when she was mentally exhausted. Her main motivation for coming back was always the joy of gymnastics – she likes to compete.

She was the most tired in the summer of 2015 and was seriously thinking about retired. Going to classes in her university was a good distraction then and helped to get through this tough period.

She really wants to go to Tokyo.

She doesn’t know if there ever was a 3-time uneven bars Olympic champion, but if there wasn’t she hopes to be the first. She wouldn’t focus just on bars for Tokyo, though, she wants to do everything she can to help the team as well.

She knew that Simone Biles is unreachable at Rio, so she just tried to compete her best and not to think about her competitors.

She’s asked about doping allegations against Biles (hacked TUE for ADHD medication) and she’s very diplomatic about it, she says she thinks her competitors are honest and she’s trying not to read about any rumors or allegations.

She’s asked how her husband feels about the fact that she’s a more successful athlete. She says they don’t discuss this stuff and that he’s only at the beginning of his career, while she’s already close to the end.

Her favorite sport is rhythmic gymnastics.

Her dad was told that wrestlers’ daughters are slated to become good gymnasts, so that’s why he signed her up for gymnastics.

She’s asked whether she was nervous to meet Putin during the banquet for Russian Olympians and he seemed a regular person to her, she wasn’t particularly nervous to meet him.

She’s asked about her predictions for Russian girls at the Euros next week. She thinks that they have good medal chances, despite the fact that Paseka had a back injury.

The prize car, BMW, was too expensive to keep and, while she liked to drive it, she wanted something more sensible and got a Toyota instead.

She’s asked what are the hardest elements for her on bars and it’s Stalders.

Her favorite city is Krasnodar (where her husband is from).

She likes the Hunger Games movies.

Her favorite holiday is New Year.

She doesn’t like to eat onions.

She doesn’t know what she would do if she wasn’t an athlete and she doesn’t want to think about it.

She really liked Switzerland when she went to Euros last year, it was very beautiful.

She doesn’t have any hobbies.

She’s asked whether she’s expecting a boy or a girl, but she says it’s a secret.

She’s asked whether she ever tried to do a Korbut flip and says she never did, because it’s prohibited now.