Interview of Evgenia

In the interview of Evgenia Kanaeva we read about six gold medals of Montpellier, Irina Viner, “celebrity’s” life, and plans for the Olympic Games in London.
The Russian RG team had no equals at the recently finished World Championships inMontpellier. Our girls have confidently won team competition, taking 13 medals: 7 gold and 6 silver ones. With no doubt, 21-year old Evgenia Kanaeva has become the main heroine of this event; she collected 6 gold medals.
-Evgenia, you have had the fantastic tournament, winning everything you could. Please, share your impression of that.
-Every new championship and every new tournament brings completely new emotions and impressions. I’m glad I was able to perform successfully in Montpellier. I liked the public and organization of this competition. I’m happy with my performance, not completely, of course, because I had mistakes. But I’m in a good mood at the moment.
-You are 17-times World Champion. You are the only person on the planet who has these titles. How does it feel?
-You know, I’m trying to never think that I have won this or that tournament.  In our sport, as well as in any other, you can never stop; you always have to move on. When you are done with sport career that is the moment when you may count all your medals and be happy about that; well, and to make some conclusions.
Honestly speaking, I’m very happy that we have such wonderful coaches who are constantly making us moving forward and not letting us rest on our laurels.
-Will you have opportunity to rest now for a while?
-Yes, I will. Well, 6 days only. You see, rhythmic gymnastics is a sport in which you can’t rest for long time and do nothing (laughing). You always have to be in shape because our sport is very young.
-It’s clear why you have motivation to perform at the World or European Championships. But what makes you come to the small tournaments?
-I understand that it won’t last forever. I’d say it’s the very short period of life but the most remarkable. This is the reason I’m trying to show 100% of what I can at each competition. I love this sport, I enjoy doing it. And it makes me even happier when I see that people enjoy watching my performance.
-You are at the stage of your career when is the most important to “undergo test by fame”. What do you think about it?
-It’s very pleasant to get a lot of attention, when our fans are happy and they congratulate us. But I don’t feel some heightened interest to myself. No, there’s nothing like that. Stars are shining at the sky; I don’t consider myself a celebrity. There are many people who achieve success and not necessarily in sport; there are many different fields of occupation. These people are written and talked about. Nevertheless, these people deserved that by hard working and patience.
I wish that our heroes, I mean people who win medals for their country, who are at the pedestal they weren’t forgotten after another tournament is over. It’s important that fans remember them and pay attention to them.
-It means you don’t live “celebrity’s” life?
-No, I have standard training day of sportsman by the moment (laughing). I don’t think my life is so much different from others people lives; although I get a little bit more attention from mass media (laughing).
-Irina Viner is kind of hard and even totalitarian in some way coach. Is she hard on you or you are out of that age already?
-No, she has never raised voice to me. You know, she always finds the right way to approach each gymnast. Irina Aleksandrovna feels perfectly when it’s necessary to yell or when she can’t do that; when it’s needed to whisper or to point out something with calm. We are all happy that we have such an amazing coach. She is like a guide for us.
-And yourself, do you give advices to young girls who are new in the team?
-Yes, of course. There are many young girls in our team. There is even a girl from my hometown. I love them very much; they are my friends and the very dear people to me. But then again it’s not only me who give advices, but they give me a lot, they teach me many things.  You see, we spend a lot of time together; we live together so that when some life situations happen they are helping me.
-Do you still need advices in professional life?
-Yes, sure.
-There is less than one year left till upcoming Olympic Games in London. What is in your head concerning this event? What are you dreaming about? What are your goals?
-You can never plan anything in sport. First of all it’s necessary to be selected for Olympics. There are many new starts ahead; we will work on a new program. So it’s silly to think about anything ahead. I think that names of those go tob London will be known may be half of month before Games. In general, I’d say we have to work hard, listen to our coach, take care of our health and be thankful for anything we have to go through (smiling).
-You pointed out that sport life is short. Can you share what you are planning to do after?
-Right now I’m at the sport so I can’t say what is going to happen after. Person can think of something at this moment and of something different in 6 months. At this moment I’m here and it means I have to think about today. Unambiguously I’m not going to leave the sport in the near future.


Erittäin mielenkiintoinen haastattelu Evgenia Kanaevalta, joka sanoi mm. että ei aio jättää lajia vielä lähi-aikoina. Lukemani tieto, että Lontoon jälkeen hän lopettaisi olikin virheellinen. Lisäksi hän sanoi, että ensi vuodeksi olisi tulossa uudet ohjelmat....