“A 40-year-old should not win against those who are half his age”: Chicherova - about the age, records and successes of Lasitskene

We talked with the Olympic champion in London the day after the sad event - the anniversary of the death of Evgeny Zagorulko.

Many of his famous students came to commemorate the coach, and Chicherova said: “We had different relations, especially at the very end of Yevgeny Petrovich’s life.

And yet he did not leave anyone indifferent.

Each of us has something to say thank you for.”

No guilt left?

For the fact that somewhere they did not take a step forward, did not communicate, when was it possible to communicate?

- Sometimes, of course, I scroll through some situations in my head, I think about how they could develop, but I don’t feel guilty from the point of view that I should have behaved differently.

I'm glad that I was able to dissolve all the previous grievances.

In this regard, I am generally not the kind of person who wears insults like a backpack with stones on his back.

Last year, when I organized my jumping festival in Belaya Kalitva, I even made several medallions with copies of all my awards since 2003.

One of these medals was intended for Evgeny Petrovich as a token of my gratitude for his contribution to my sports career.

I gave it to the coach's children, and they put this frame with medals on the wall at home.

- For several years now, Russian high jumps have been associated exclusively with the name of Maria Lasitskene.

At the same time, both Russian records (both winter and summer) belong to you.

Do you have an explanation why Maria did not jump higher during her performances?

- She could.

But height is a view where a centimeter really decides a lot.

In order to set a record, a set of conditions and qualities must match.

Often one does not match the other.

I went to my 2.07 for a very long time.

At that time I was almost 30 years old.

The uniqueness of Lasitskene, in my opinion, lies in the very approach to the process.

Masha managed to win two world championships in a row, and this is a very difficult task.

For example, I participated in five world championships from 2007 to 2015, all five times I was in prizes, but I won a gold medal only once.

Masha generally managed to go a very victorious path.

As a result, I think she still has a very big prospect.

Take, for example, the fact that immediately after the Olympics in Tokyo Lasitsken, already completing the most difficult season in all respects, she jumped 2.05.

Moreover, this whole story was preceded by a serious injury.

Of course, this is a man with a very strong character.

- What is considered a more trump achievement in your professional circle - a record result or a title?

— I always wanted to break the world record of Stefka Kostadinova.

These cherished 2.10 for some reason seemed to me much cooler than any victory.

The record is a really cool feeling.

A feeling of tremendous satisfaction from the fact that you have not worked so hard in vain.

That it was this work, sometimes completely unbearable, that resulted in your centimeters, seconds, meters.

It’s just that when you plunge into this ocean called “big sport” and live such a long career as I did, you begin to understand that the ability to not lose motivation, to be in shape when necessary, to go all this way, avoiding injuries as much as possible , and to go to every world championship, to every subsequent Olympics - this is also very difficult.

How to compare it, putting these or those achievements on the scales, I do not know.

If there was a world record in my life, I,

probably would have said: "Oh, I'm so happy, straight from earth to heaven."

On the other hand, even the coolest records do not last forever.

Someone else comes and shows that more, and higher, and faster is possible.

- Two-time Olympic champion Denis Pankratov once said that he dreamed of an Olympic gold medal all his life, but when he won it, he was terribly disappointed with some ordinary sensations.

Familiar feeling?

— It was different for me.

Some overwhelming feeling of emptiness.

It took me so long to win the Olympic victory, starting from the 2004 Games, there were so many difficulties, including just before the Games… a flood of tears flowed.

There was only one thought: is it all over?

And there was no energy even to rejoice.

I don’t even know where I got the strength to run a circle around the stadium.

But the realization of what happened came a year later - with a loss at the World Championships in Moscow.

Before the start of the competition, I remember thinking: “It’s so cool that there is an opportunity to jump at home, to win again in front of my loved ones!”

And when I became the third, it was a huge disappointment.

Only with this loss, it seems to me, I fully appreciated the scale of my Olympic victory.

- In June last year, you announced your retirement, and in February you won the Russian Championship, leaving Lasitskene behind.

What status are you in now?

- Officially, I really announced last summer that I was ending my career, and even held a festival in Belaya Kalitva, which was conceived as a farewell.

It was just then that the idea arose to go to the anniversary tournament in Chelyabinsk in January, where the organizers invited me, and immediately after it to perform at the music jumping tournament.

That is, I was already thinking about coming to these competitions not so much as a sportsman, but as a demonstration.

But after Chelyabinsk she fell ill.

And I decided that since I was getting ready for one more start, why not take part in the winter national championship?

And it turned out that not in vain.

- Do you mean another victory in the track record?

- More like a result.

1.94 is the norm of the master of sports of international class.

All these years, although I was in the prizes at the Russian championships, I was well aware that I didn’t have so much strength.

And I really wanted to reach at least this level in order to leave the sport without feeling that the end of my career had gone completely down the drain.

My victory in February is, of course, a balm for the soul, but it also shows that we have certain problems with the reserve.

A 40-year-old athlete should not win against those who are half his age and who have a lot of energy.

It is imperative to raise the overall level, to ensure that there is competition within the country, at least some kind of bench.

- If you now received an offer not to leave the sport and travel to tournaments as a guest star, would you agree?

“That’s exactly what I’ve been doing lately.

I would really like to do something like free master classes, so that the same girls who are just starting to jump could take note of something, use my experience, while I can still show something.

Most Russian athletes, with the exception of a very limited number of stars, did not have the opportunity to travel abroad for six years, to take part in international competitions.

And now we really lack motivation, we don’t have enough cool tournaments.

Why, in fact, I stayed: after my festival, we had the idea to make a cool large-scale tournament on the city square, with good stage lighting, with an interesting program, with good prizes, finally.

It is clear that this is not at all an alternative to playing in the Diamond League, receiving $ 200 thousand for the first place, but you have to start somewhere.

We need to attract sponsors, which, given the current events, is not at all easy: bookmakers, as it turns out, are not interested in our competitions, because it is difficult to build any lines, some banks are now withdrawing all their advertising from sports tournaments.

But still we try.

After the festival in Belaya Kalitva, I began to look at the organization of such events in a completely different way.

This is a huge and very difficult job, but it's worth it.

For me, for example, from the very beginning it was important that the performances of the masters were seen by children.

You can’t imagine how many of them then jumped on the platform and jumped in height.

The whole stream was: “Oh, we want that too!”

This is where we should start, at least so that our sport is no longer confused with gymnastics.

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- A purely feminine question.

As much as I watch high jumps, I never cease to be amazed at the figures of athletes.

You are all very thin, not to say skinny.

Is this achieved through constant violence against oneself or is such a physique formed due to the specifics of the sport?

- In rare cases, probably formed.

And, of course, there is a moment of selection.

Thin, long-legged, preferably a tall athlete, but, at the same time, physically strong.

This is exactly the model that Zagorulko has always idealized.

For me, the need to control weight went painlessly up to a certain point, but in adulthood it became the result of a lot of work, which over the years simply turned into a habit.

Sometimes I crave sweets.

My favorite "Napoleon", puff tubes with cream.

But, of course, as the season progresses, you immediately begin to think that every gram counts, because lightness for a high jumper is no less important quality than jumping ability.

At the age of 18, it seemed to me that I was all so light, fluttering, and when I came to Evgeny Petrovich, he first of all took me with two fingers by the side: “How much do you weigh?

59?

Need 55…”

- What weight gain is critical for a jumper?

- 2-2.5 kilograms is already catastrophically much.

You get so used to certain sensations in your body that any shift in one direction or another becomes a problem.

You can, of course, get used to something, which, in fact, I felt with age, but you immediately begin to feel that the recovery process begins to go on, as it were, in a delayed mode.

- Over the years, I have watched with great interest such athletes as Ole Einar Bjoerndalen in biathlon, Oksana Chusovitina in artistic gymnastics, American Dara Torres in swimming, and I got the feeling that with age, probably, something happens with the psychology of an athlete.

As if priorities are changing and something other than winning at any cost comes to the fore.

- Definitely.

Personally, at some point it became very interesting for me to find the limit of some of my capabilities.

This is such a study, a kind of challenge to oneself.

And, besides, you intuitively try to revive yourself through sports, to feel yourself on the same wave.

Where were you young and strong?

- Why not?

Motivation is not a constant value.

Every time you invent it anew, and every year it only becomes more difficult, because too much has already been lived, passed, won, or, conversely, lost.

I understand very well that I no longer have a real prospect of returning to the atmosphere of international tournaments, although I would very much like this, but at the same time, this feeling of being able to do this is also a motivation.

I enjoy going to training, and at the same time I understand that I would hardly be able to force myself to just go to the fitness room in order to look good.

For some reason it doesn't work for me.

- Who is watching your workouts now?

- Mostly by myself.

Sometimes I can ask my dad or brother to shoot my jumps on video.

If I continued to train in a group, it seems to me that it would be even more interesting and productive.

During the 12 years that I studied with Evgeny Petrovich, I got used to the fact that we always had a big team.

And it was so cool.

Even now, though, I like it.

I come to the gym, get my dose of endorphin, dopamine for an hour and a half of work, and in a great mood I go to do other things.

And the day is completely different.

- When you meet with Lasitskene, do you communicate as rivals, or as colleagues?

- I can’t say that we have close contact, but I’m always glad to Masha.

And, in fact, she also never felt negative towards herself.

We both train at CSKA, just at different times, and I have great respect for her, for her coach Gennady Gabrilyan, for the success they have achieved together.

Just because of the difference in age and taking into account all my history with the return, I no longer compete with either Masha or anyone else.

I compete with myself and with the bar.

- But there was no temptation to once say to Gabrilyan at a meeting: Gennady Garikovich, take me to the group.

- To continue to compete?

No.

I certainly have questions that I would very much like to ask this specialist.

Ask, for example, how exactly they and Masha came to this or that movement, by what exercise they achieved this.

This is what is really interesting to me.

In general, sometimes I think that the older you get, the more closely you begin to look at what you are doing.

Like an artist who does not look at his work from the position of “like it or dislike it”, but sees some touches that it would be nice to fix.

I, for example, could not do this at a younger age, and the result was born from some other qualities.

And now, for example, I understand how important the mission of the first coaches is in sports.

A lot depends on how well you were taught as a child.

Zagorulko once spent a lot of effort to correct some shortcomings in my technique, but could not remove any nuances that prevented me from being more effective in the sector.

- Elena Isinbayeva once said: "I want my record to stand for 100 years."

If we talk about your record in Russia, do you have a similar desire?

- It seems to me that I received my portion of satisfaction and glory at the very moment when I jumped 2.07.

And somehow I didn’t want my record to remain unsurpassed for a whole century.

— I'm just trying to simulate the situation.

You sit on the podium or in front of the TV screen, watch the competition, where one of the athletes raises the bar by 2.08.

What will prevail: the desire to see how your record falls, or that the height of a person does not submit?

Moments like this are exciting, yes.

But it seems to me that I will not experience any bitterness, resentment or insane frustration.

How much is my record worth already?

11 years?

That's a normal time frame for a sporting achievement.

In fact, I really wish Russian girls that someday they too will experience this feeling.

It is an indescribable pleasure to feel like a champion.