The most emotional athlete of the Russian swimming team Pierre Zhkharev illuminated this season. He has two long course victories in the 100m butterfly.
Towards the end of the season, Peter gave an interview to , in which he admitted that he sometimes wanted to get out of the world of sports, but the current level of results was too difficult for him to finish it now .
– Petya, are you a cheerful person?
— In general, yes, probably.
– Are you making a joke, can you also laugh?
— Yes, I am a fairly self-critical person. And in general, I think you have to smile, life in general is a complicated thing and there is a big lack of smiles.
— I look at your social networks, there are funny collages. Is that how you had fun on the junior team?
— When I was a child, I loved photoshopping and doing something interesting with my photographs. And in the national team too, Clément and I were able to Photoshop something on each other. It was funny.
— These collages date from the time of the World Championships in Indianapolis. Your first important departure?
– Maybe yes. The more responsible, the greater. Before that, there were the European Championships. The first was in Hungary, I went there as a junior, barely qualified for the relay, I was very lucky. And it was not easy to bear such a responsibility, such a burden. It was from there that my serious sporting journey began. Then there was the European Championship in Israel. And only then – Indianapolis.
—You said “carrying such a burden.” Do people get so angry when they’re young?
“I think they’re getting even more confused.” Of course, it depends on how each person feels. But still, at this age, children realize the seriousness and importance of such a start, there is a very strict selection process, it is difficult to get into the team, few people are accepted. This is why everyone is worried. It’s very scary.
—If you hadn’t succeeded, would you have continued doing this?
– Certainly. This is just an important step in your career: you need to get to the championship, and from there a long journey in sports begins. I would continue anyway. But I am a maximalist and I understood that if such a chance presented itself, I had to take it. I should have gotten there.
—At the start of your career, were you considered a super talent?
– I’ve always been average. I had good coordination and technical skills, but I wasn’t super gifted in terms of physiology. It showed a stable result, which gradually progressed and improved every year. I achieved everything through hard work and perseverance.
— You speak so calmly, even if after swimming it’s just a storm of emotions! Why is that?
“I’m quite emotional myself, but at the same time I always think about life and I always take everything very seriously. When I arrive at the starting line, the emotions really overwhelm me. I’m swimming in a kind of sporting anger, rage. This helps a lot. This is starting to make me sick. Then I can’t sleep at night after the race. Covers hard. I can’t even gather my thoughts normally during an interview or talk to anyone. I think it’s some kind of physiological characteristic.
— What state are you in before the competition? What happens if I approach you before departure?
– Nothing will happen. I am all myself. I communicate quite well, even if I am worried. Maybe I should work on controlling these emotions, but I don’t have enough time for that yet.
– Or maybe it’s not necessary? Maybe this is something that benefits you?
– Maybe. But at some point it still gets in the way. Let’s see, we have to think about it.
— You said you struggled as a junior. How now?
“Now I perceive everything much more easily.” Previously, there was more maximalism. Now I have more experience and little by little I began to understand that everything can be done for fun – giving yourself weight, but also taking the time to rest. It is important to understand that if you work constantly, it can lead to depression and everything will go wrong. You can show results, but you will achieve yourself mentally and physically.
I regret not having come to this perception sooner, but it is important that I did it myself. We understand how work can be structured. In this regard, Russian sport is not ideal: everyone is obsessed with the realities of the 80s, looking to the West, trying to change something and not finding much of their own. But I think we have enough resources and experience to make everything more interesting, productive and efficient.
— In terms of training, organization of competitions?
– Total! Including the way our sport is presented to people, in terms of technology. Russia is still at the stage of discovering all this, but we are gradually moving forward, especially now with these restrictions, it seems to me that we will add to it.
— You really don’t look at the results of the world championships, as they used to say in the mixed zone?
— I then said that I don’t specifically track the results, but I subscribe to all public pages and, of course, I see who swam and how, in what seconds. I just won’t go somewhere specifically to check how and what. Focus on yourself.
—Are rivals in Russia a good irritant?
— I love all my rivals. I am friends with them and communicate. We grew up with them, we are like a big family, we support each other, we have warm relationships. But I’m an irritant to myself, I look for this motivation in myself, I tell myself why I do all this.
— Your first coach was your mother?
— I grew up in a sports family, my mother is the director of the Moscow Youth Sports School. I started swimming thanks to her being in that area. I swam myself and went to the championship. I didn’t follow in her footsteps, but because she simply worked there and I was next to my mother. It happened like that and it’s for the best. But my first coach was Tatyana Alexandrovna Lazareva.
— Have you always been a good “dolphinist” or is this not your first specialization?
“The Dolphin always accompanied me, but at the beginning, I swam the long crawl, like most of them. Then he moved on to middle distances. The 200m butterfly was a distance for me, you know, just for fun. I liked the pain, not everyone was able to psychologically digest this distance. So the “dolphin” always went well, but I tried the “hundred” later. In short course, I remember I was eighth in the final, it was very emotional, I shouted something, they even made a meme.
— What do you want to get out of sport right now? Great emotions? Technical problems?
— Really, I no longer expect anything from sport. I turned 24 and it was as if I had already seen everything in this sport. I want to live differently, to experience some sort of normal life. I believe that athletes still live in another world, which exists like another planet. Tired of not being able to afford much. I want to live. A quarter of my life has already passed, it makes me sad. You do not have the time.
– It looks sad. Are you going to finish?
— I thought about it a lot, but I had just reached a high standard for myself. But it was so hard to achieve everything and still, it was so hard, I achieved everything with hard work. Difficult. Without such talents, scratching, eating away at a place to be appreciated… I don’t know yet if it’s worth the effort I’ve put in. I haven’t found a clear answer to this question yet.
There are times, there are advantages. First of all, it is the society around you, the people who are nearby. But at 24, I feel like I’m 70. I don’t want anything anymore. I want peace, tranquility.
I’m not going to finish it, but this whole international departures situation is really bothering me. I have never participated in the senior world championships. I hope that something will be implemented, that Russia will find something for us in this situation and it is doing it. Cool. I’m glad there’s an opportunity to start and show myself. It’s like that. We need to reach more meaningful heights and make it strong and bold.
— Would you like to move away from sport after your career?
– I don’t know. Many will say “how can you finish if you don’t know what you want to do later”…
— Sometimes you won’t know until you stop, which takes 90% of your time. Would you like to try yourself as a commentator?
– They are public people, they generally say what they want to hear. I wouldn’t want to please anyone. This is not mine.
– Do you have any passions?
— I always wanted to make music. I’d like to try it on. But it’s more of a hobby. Maybe he would open some kind of business. I live for today – life has taught me. Constantly planning is a good thing, but often things don’t go as planned and setting myself high expectations is not my way of doing things. This doesn’t seem right to me.
Source : MatchTV
I’m John White and I’m an experienced journalist working in the news industry. My specialty is covering sports news, which I’ve been doing for over 6 years now. During this time, I have worked as an author with Athletistic, a popular online news website focusing on sports topics.
