"Not just painful, very painful": Kuznetsov about a tattoo on his head, the ability to save the entrance, the classic swoop and the greatness of Sautin

"It's up to the judges to judge jumps, not looks."

- I missed the moment when you decided to radically change your image, and for a long time I want to ask: what prompted you to do this?

- Well, as the pandemic was announced, I decided to experiment.

I tried to grow a beard before, but I was told to shave it off for the 2019 World Cup.

I had to obey.

Then he began to grow it again according to the principle: it grows - and let it go.

There was a desire to see if it would suit me.

The acquaintances were shocked at first, but then, apparently, got used to it.

Now, as far as I can tell, everyone likes it.

- Usually people strive to change their appearance when something radically changes in their life.

About your beard and the runes tattooed on your head, I've heard all sorts of versions.

One of them is that you are deeply involved in religion.

- In my case, we are definitely not talking about religion. 

- But something does your runes mean?

Although I'm more interested in something else: isn't it scary to put your head under the needles?

It hurts.

- Not just painful, but very painful.

About five hours after the start of the procedure, I began to regret that I went to it.

Apparently, by that time, the body was simply tired of fighting pain, with a continuous vibration that goes inside the skull, and the sensations became completely unbearable.

In fact, I thought for a long time before deciding.

That time there was no time, then it is impossible to wet the tattoo, but I have training.

In a pandemic, time has appeared.

So he went.

- And you were not sorry for your own head?

- And where else to get a tattoo?

On your arms or back?

So it is for everyone ... And I am not like everyone else.

- If they try to force you to shave off your beard again before the next World Cup, will it become a lot of stress?

- We live in a free country where no one is forbidden to wear a beard.

And why should I be forced?

- For example, for reasons of general aesthetics and, accordingly, judges' perception.

- It's up to the judges to judge my jumps, not my appearance.

“I'm afraid you only think it.

- I do not know.

They certainly didn't judge me worse.

Everyone likes.

And besides, if all over the world guys are already getting tattoos at the age of 14, why can't I grow a beard at 31?

"I did the right thing when I paired up with Schleicher before the Games."

- After the Olympic Games in Tokyo, where you and Nikita Schleikher took the last place in synchronized ski jumping, I really wanted to see you again paired with Ilya Zakharov, with whom you won gold at the 2017 World Championship.

Have you considered such an opportunity for yourself?

- We once parted with Ilya due to misfortune: first he had a knee injury, then - disqualification.

Now, it seems to me, it is wiser to think not about who can perform with whom in sync, but just train.

And closer to the competition to see which duet may be more promising in terms of the result.

- It seems to me that this is how you can reason at the beginning of your career.

But when you decide to continue it at over 30, it would be good to clearly understand why you stayed and what you want to achieve.

- In this regard, I reviewed many things a few years ago, even after the Games in Rio.

I realized that I still get tremendous pleasure from jumping into the water, that I want to stay in the team, go to competitions, perform, and experience the associated pleasure.

- It is unlikely that the Tokyo Olympics brought you pleasure.

- Nevertheless, I have no doubt that I did the right thing, having paired up with Schleicher before the Games.

The man honestly fought for the right to be in the team, won Olympic licenses, and qualified for the Games.

So why should I refuse to jump with him?

“I don’t mean that.

After all, you failed not only in synchronized jumping, where your partner made a gross mistake, but also in individual discipline, finishing in fifth place.

And they could not, as it seems to me, mentally not ask themselves the question: if you continue to train seriously, then for what?

- For the sake of having fun.

For the sake of continuing to win medals.

- What prevented you from doing this in Tokyo?

- In general, nothing.

One jump just didn't work out.

I tried very hard, but in competitions you start jumping differently than in training.

You start to make more efforts, you try to make the jump as effective as possible.

- But this is wrong!

It is no coincidence that coaches constantly insist that jumping in competitions should not be higher than your head, but the way you do it every day.

- Wrong, I agree.

But everyone subconsciously does this, including the Chinese.

We see how they train.

And then the competition starts, and everyone starts to take off half a meter higher.

So I tried.

I performed three and a half turns back, and it seemed to me that I was not twisting ...

- Probably, this is one of the signs that the form leaves much to be desired.

- I was in Tokyo in really good shape.

There was no excess weight, there were no exacerbated injuries, I felt pretty good in general.

But the sensations let me down a little.

- Do you plan to continue your career only in individual jumps or in sync too?

- Here and there.

I will also jump a one-meter springboard.

- Ten years ago you became the European champion in this sport.

- So why not try again?

I have enough strength for three types of programs.

- In terms of the complexity of the jumps, do you have to make any concessions to yourself due to age?

- Absolutely not.

For me, in this regard, three and a half turns back are very indicative.

In my opinion, this is the most difficult jump of all the existing ones, since it is not performed from a running start.

And since I'm still twisting it, then I can do the rest.

- Four and a half turns forward are given to you with less effort?

- Forward turns are easier to deploy.

There you can control and adjust the accuracy of the entry even at the moment when you are immersed in water.

- For the uninitiated, our conversation with you probably sounds like a Chinese letter.

I directly foresee the question: what can be corrected in time when the whole jump lasts less than one and a half seconds?

Is it a deliberate action or a developed reflex?

- I think 50 to 50. The vast majority of athletes jump with their eyes open, so you see a lot of things in the air.

When opened, it’s so accurate.

And, if you are wrong, the body reacts on its own, without additional commands.

It is simply that "backward" jumps leave a very limited opportunity to save a bad entry. 

- It's strange to hear.

I have always held the opposite opinion.

Especially when I watched how brilliantly the same Englishmen are able to save not very successful "back" entrances.

- Maybe yes.

Jack Lowe, Thomas Daly really know how to jerk themselves at the entrances with their hands and head, stretching the body up to the vertical.

We are trained differently: they teach us to open in a straight line and keep it until we are completely immersed in water.

I don’t know which is more correct.

At the last European Championships, the same Lowe had an overdose, and he generally stopped understanding how to open up - this also happens.

But I myself believe that the ability to save the entrance in our sport is not the main thing.

This is just a part of the jump and definitely not the main one.

- Some judges would disagree with you.

- Sometimes I also think about it, looking at the grades.

On the other hand, I don’t remember anyone getting maximum scores when rolling into the water.

In the jump, there should be lines, flight.

"The Chinese definitely didn't jump worse"

- You have been competing at the highest world level for over ten years.

Has anything changed globally over the years?

- If we count from 2009, when I first got to a major tournament, over the next five years, most free jumps have become more difficult by one revolution.

On this, everything stalled.

- Do you think it is realistic to add one turnover every five years?

- Quite.

Especially in jumps, which are performed from a modern swoop on the board - with a jump.

This really adds half a meter to the athlete.

- Why, then, you were not puzzled to learn such a swoop ten or at least five years ago?

Have you ever asked yourself such a question?

- Asked another: why this swoop was not banned immediately, as soon as it appeared?

It still seems to me that many judges like the classic swoop more.

- What does it have to do with it or not when it comes to legally adding half a meter of height to yourself?

- Well, to be honest, it would have been difficult for me to retrain even five years ago: after all, everything had already been jumped to automatism.

In cases like this, it can be difficult to change things.

Moreover, when we are talking about such a swoop.

- Is it that difficult?

- Rather, it is not very stable even among those who have been doing it for a long time.

If you remember, many even very high-class jumpers have zero jumps just because of the swoop.

I didn't catch the balance - that's all.

But from the classical one, I can perform a jump, even if I came to the board on my heels.

- Where is the line of complexity that would be unrealistic for you to step over? Say, could you perform four and a half forward turns from a three-meter height, but not in a tuck, but bent over?

- I did this jump about seven years ago. From a meter-long springboard, all tempo approach jumps turned out perfectly, including three and a half revolutions, but on a three-ruble jump, the height starts to press down, and the technique breaks down. You try to accelerate, quickly enter the rotation, and immediately burst in the air. Plus a couple of times it was not very pleasant to stick to the water. In such cases, you simply begin to weigh: how much effort will be spent on making the jump stable, how long it will take to jump, work on the swoop. We have people who find it easier to rotate in a bent over than in a tuck, but in my case it would mean a huge loss of time. In training, I tried to perform in a bent position three and a half turns back from a run, but everything again rests on a swoop: the slightest mistake, and the jump will not work. So for me thosewhich I perform are close to the limit.

- Returning to the topic of synchronized jumping, did you talk about this topic with Zakharov after the Tokyo Games?

- We wrote off before the Olympics, when Ilya tried to qualify for the team.

But he didn't succeed.

Now I don't even know if he plans to continue jumping.

He had some kind of black streak: first, knee surgery, then suspension due to a failed doping test.

When he was allowed to jump, there were three months left before the Olympic Games, which is too little to really prepare.

Theoretically it is possible, but, as they say, the stars must converge.

Now Ilya is again injured - a fracture in the metatarsal bone, due to which the leg is constantly inflamed.

But it seems to me that he can still return if he really wants to.

- It turns out that in the near future you do not have a partner at all on whom you can rely in synchronized jumping?

- To be honest, it doesn't bother me too much.

I can adapt to anyone.

This is not a problem, even when I don't coincide too much with the person in technique.

In general, I am used to constantly monitoring my partner in the air throughout the entire jump.

When hundreds and thousands are jumped together, it is not so difficult.

- Dmitry Sautin won his second Olympic gold in Sydney in synchronized platform diving after only a few joint training sessions with Igor Lukashin.

Do you see how this is possible?

- That's why, probably, Dima became really great.

- What, in your opinion, is his greatness as a diver into the water?

- We did not come into contact with him personally very much.

When I just started jumping, Dima was already finishing and almost never went to the training camp.

But I was told that Sautin's biggest secret has always been that he did a lot of jumps in training.

Accordingly, he was very stable and had a good command of the technique of entering the water.

Although, it seems to me, this is not the only point.

In our sport, it is very important, as we say, to have a magnet in your head.

When a person in any, even the most difficult jump, clearly understands where the tower is, and where is the water.

In fact, our species is primarily a show.

Like a circus, only on the water.

It's a pity that everything is too serious here.

After all, first of all, everyone needs medals.

- And against this background, high diving suddenly appears in the program of the big championships, on which the audience simply falls in droves.

- Well, yes, there is.

- Maybe you should retrain?

- I definitely don't want this.

In Abu Dhabi, I climbed 27 meters, looked down and realized: I don’t want to.

High divers are still very brave people.

This is a real extreme, on the verge of life and death.

With an unsuccessful entry into the water, you can no longer swim.

I think that's why people are so attracted to this sight.

- If we talk about the Chinese, who have dominated classical jumps for many years, have they become stronger or more accessible over the past ten years?

And can they be moved?

- They definitely did not jump worse.

Here is the moment: for example, now I am doing exactly those jumps with which I once came to the national team.

Tell me to add one turn, it will be an unrealistic task.

For the Chinese, the composition of the national team changes much more often than once every ten years, and the complexity of their jumps is also growing.

Although they made more mistakes, it is a fact.

Even the estimates are visible.

If earlier, competing with the Chinese, you did not complete your entire program with 9-9.5 points, there was nowhere to climb.

Now the situation sometimes allows you to make a mistake once.

Is it realistic to move China off the pedestal?

I think the whole world has been dreaming about this for the last couple of decades.