"I got caught up in the trap of my own talent": Khorkina about Biles's jump, the nature of Russian gymnasts and the complexity of the programs

- The main gymnastic news in Tokyo was the refusal of the four-time Olympic and five-time absolute world champion Simona Biles from performing in the team and individual all-around.

Do you understand what happened to her?

- I think I understand.

Today Simona is number one in the world.

By the Games in Tokyo, she began to complicate the program, which was already difficult for anyone to do.

In other words, Biles has been alone at the top for a long time, since other gymnasts have no chance of getting close to her.

But at the same time, she is the same person as we are.

- Do you want to say that Simone did not have enough mental reserve?

- Firstly, a great burden of responsibility and maximum attention fell on her. I saw all of her pre-Olympic filming, when Simone was invited everywhere. I myself also got into such situations: I was constantly reproached for being too distracted from training and therefore making mistakes. But, when you are already over 20, you cannot be constantly focused only on gymnastics. You need to try something new, show yourself not only from the athletic side, staying at your peak. Time is running out. New champions come, they forget the previous ones, but you want to somehow remain interesting to people.

But it's not only that.

Biles really demonstrated the incredible complexity of the performances, just cosmic.

It seems to me that she suffered not a psychological, but, first of all, a technical failure.

It happens.

My good friend and a very good gymnast, whose last name I will not give, has even ended her career because of this.

Together we won the Olympic team silver in Atlanta, and a year later she said: “That's it, Light, I'm finishing, because I started to jump.

I'm not ready to put my life in danger. "

I must say that I understand her: artistic gymnastics is still not doing a somersault on the carpet ...

“Do you think Biles had just such a jump?

- Yes, on screw elements.

I have watched the team all-around many times - the moment when Simona performs the vault.

There was clearly a loss in space, and this is a damn dangerous thing.

Fortunately, Biles is so physically developed and so coordinated that she landed on her feet.

- From my own experience I know that a jump never happens all of a sudden, there are always prerequisites.

- There were prerequisites.

I once noticed that Biles quite successfully began to perform a new vault with approximately the same difficulty, and then she began to have some kind of failures, and she did not jump it again.

That is, it was clear that something went wrong with the girl, although otherwise at all pre-Olympic competitions she worked perfectly on the apparatus.

I repeat, Simona is not a robot, but a person.

After all, they began to weight it with gold medals in advance, for all types of the Olympic program at once.

You also need to be able to endure this kind of pressure.

- You seem to be talking about yourself now ...

- Partly yes.

I was also in her shoes.

It is scary to tell someone about your problems, because they will be considered weak.

On the one hand, it was, of course, a mistake to enter the team tournament: it would be more correct to abandon it right away if Simone felt that something was going wrong.

On the other hand, she behaved quite correctly, refusing to continue performing.

If Biles began to wallow on the remaining shells, the US team could generally be left without medals.

- Then a question arises for the American coaches.

Why was it necessary to release the leader on the platform in such a state?

“Perhaps they were confident that Simone could handle anything.

But now I must say that they acted very competently in the US team.

Simona was removed from the "absolute", where she was potentially supposed to take gold, and continue to prepare for the finals on separate shells.

From there, as far as I know, she has not yet withdrawn.

I think the Americans are building such a combination that Biles will become the heroine of these Games anyway.

Although I am sorry that she will not be in the all-around.

Someone will probably think that this plays into the hands of rivals, including Russian ones, but personally, I have always loved to fight with really strong gymnasts.

When the level of opponents is lower, winning is not so sweet.

- I'm afraid that now many will say that Russia won the team all-around in Tokyo only due to the absence of Biles.

- This is partly the way it was.

But the opportunity presented itself still had to be used, and it is not as easy as it might seem at first glance.

Our people seized their chance - and they did the right thing.

Although the same Chinese women had no less chance of winning.

I don’t understand at all what happened to them.

The Olympic Games are, after all, a monstrously wonderful competition in this regard.

I liked how Vlada Urazova said in an interview: "Well, I have talent, that's why I won."

The girl has the correct character: sporty, impudent, good bitchy, and has her own opinion.

Do not put your finger in your mouth.

Thanks to the girls, by the way, my old dream has come true.

I once wanted Russia to win the "team" at the Olympics, and this finally happened.

There is still a dream that one of our gymnasts will get gold in the "absolute".

Now there is every chance for this.

- In your opinion, will Biles be able to return to the previous level, or is it heading towards the end of his career?

- Difficult question.

This is a very deep jump.

I am afraid that Simone will always have a subconscious fear that at an important moment the problem will return again.

I don’t know if he’ll make it.

I have doubts about this.

- Have you ever had such overshoots?

- Fortunately, no. Once there was an unpleasant situation when I went to the jump without concentrating, and I also got slightly lost in the air. I got scared then very much. But I worked with a very cool coach who built the technique so perfectly that I could not have any overshoot in principle. Boris Vasilievich (Pilkin.

- RT

) very carefully monitored any deviations and immediately corrected them. This is a very long job. In this regard, our sport is not the easiest one: the more you “screw up” the elements, the more you fold your head.

Biles, one might say, fell into the trap of her own talent: from the very childhood, everything was very easy for her thanks to natural data.

Therefore, she immediately began to master the most complex elements and her mind was sharpened for many years to the maximum complexity.

Now it has "jumped in", but there is simply no opportunity to unscrew everything back, replacing a complex element with a weaker one.

Biles has no such option at all.

And the gymnast should always have it.

So is the excitement.

If it is, it is a kind of guarantee that you will not miss anything important on the platform.

It's not only about ultra-si elements: you can perfectly perform a triple somersault, and make a mistake on a somersault.

- The famous sports doctor Nikolai Durmanov suggested that Biles could simply break down due to the most severe moral and physical exploitation.

- I readily believe.

I am now on vacation in Italy, so here, in connection with Simone's refusal to perform, the first thing they started to remember was all those sexual scandals that had taken place in American gymnastics in the past few years.

This is all they say on television.

So it could well have affected.

- Let's switch to nicer topics.

What feelings did you have in the men's team and individual all-around?

- Bronze of Nikita Nagorny in the absolute superiority is a very good strong bronze medal with a gold sheen. Everything was very dignified and beautiful, as befits an Olympic champion. Arthur Dalaloyan is also great. In general, the soul rejoices for the men, I'm terribly proud of them. After all, we have been waiting for this team for a long time, and it has been slowly taking shape since the World Championships in Doha. There I had the opportunity to communicate with the guys, and I remember that we were sitting in the pool, sunbathing and talking. About sports, about life. It was then that I realized that our guys are not just reasonable and responsible, but with very correct goals. They know why they came to gymnastics.

If we talk about competitions, I somehow very much thought, watching what is happening in Tokyo, that all artistic gymnastics came close to a very serious turning point.

The complexity is just beyond the limit.

The Japanese are turning four screws.

Here, not only the heads do not stand, but the Achilles are torn, and the lower limbs fly, and the upper ones.

So much for Biles' problems and Dalaloyan's injury.

Plus a tremendous competitive load, especially for the guys.

The same Nagorny is actually performing for the third day in the all-around: qualification, team, individual championship ...

- The men's team competition with an incredible victory for Russia made me think that it is quite wrong for all of us to downgrade the value of the team medal.

Indeed, in fact, the main award of the Games is this one.

- I totally agree. It's not even that fighting for your team is a very special feeling. When Olympic champions appear on the national team, this also affects the judges. Although, Nikita Nagorny in personal all-around could be assessed softer.