swimming world championships Daria Ustinova said that ahead of his Olympics debut, it was difficult for him to deal with the pressure that was put on him on social media, particularly because of admissions issues.
At the 2016 Games, 17-year-old Ustinova placed fourth in the 200-meter backstroke.
– A question that has been waiting for an answer for more than six years. In Rio, you were the last swimmer to qualify for the Olympics. Literally at the start. And you were the youngest. What was going on in your head then?
– I had high expectations before the first Olympic Games of my career. I was at the top of the standings, third. I was determined to fight for medals, for gold. I knew perfectly well that I had every chance. The fact that I didn’t train normally with all this litigation history is still acceptable,” Ustinova told .
But I was still inexperienced. I couldn’t cope with all this pressure on social networks – all this news was spinning on TV, they were writing messages to me on VKontakte, they were writing that if I was suspended, “well, it’s clear that I pissed me off”…
I read all of this and it really impressed me. I started to lose weight – I lost five kilos during this period. The coach told me to pull myself together, and I think I managed to do that to some extent – it’s good that the start of the 200 meters was not at the start.
Source : MatchTV
