“Judging by the estimates, the gap between our synchronized swimmers and their competitors has increased several times,” said Russian national team coach Danchenko.

Senior coach of the Russian synchronized swimming team Tatiana Danchenko summarized the results of the International Federation Cup, saying that the gap between Russian synchronized swimmers and their foreign correspondence competitors has increased several times.

The tournament took place in Kazan; teams from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Serbia also participated in the competition. Svetlana Kolesnichenko and Maya Doroshko became winners in technical and free programs.

— How satisfied are you with the performance of Kolesnichenko and Doroshko in Kazan?

– Very! It was important for me, as a coach, to see during these competitions if our programs were a success. Due to the new rules of synchronized swimming, we cannot, as before, completely immerse ourselves in creativity, look for new choreographies and come up with highlights. Let’s go. Programs place a heavy emphasis on complexity, technology and expensive items. At the same time, the choice of elements is very limited. The ligaments are similar to each other. We had to somehow manage to keep these connections interesting and appropriate for the music. It was important for me to see how we tackled the task – to make it both difficult and watchable.

Everyone really liked the programs, including, judging by the reviews of the head coach of the national team Tatyana Nikolaevna Pokrovskaya and other specialists, as well as their own feelings. When I watch a program in front of a large crowd, I can change the subject and, as it were, see it through someone else’s eyes.

— As far as we know, the duo started mastering the new programs “Charlie Chaplin” and “Light and Darkness” six months ago. Who proposed these topics?

— The theme “Charlie Chaplin” based on the composition of the musical “City Lights” was proposed by Elena Voronova, and “Light and Darkness” was my idea. I turned to the composer Mikhail Ekimyan and, after listening to me, he wrote music for us.

Usually we showed new programs at main startup only after a year. And the Russian championship 8-9 months later served as a kind of test of the pen. We never played in December. We were still in the preparatory period at this time of year. Therefore, I was worried whether we would have time to fine-tune the programs to shine before the Federation Cup. As a result, the girls performed the long program almost perfectly. And we will continue to work on the technical aspects. It is necessary to polish some complex elements and ligaments. We will also think about how to further decorate “Charlie Chaplin” by adding artistic flair.

Do the new rules hamper creativity? The creative side suffered a lot. Previously, our strong point was bright images and new finds. We have always distinguished ourselves by not repeating ourselves. At the same time, the elements were not borrowed from anyone. Now you need to create something interesting from a minimum number of the most expensive elements, which are the same for everyone.

But our creativity is still not wasted. Having clearly understood the new rules, we tried to make the programs as complex and “expensive” as possible, as well as spectacular. And our complexity has always been at its best. We are now simply looking for new approaches, new flagship elements.

— Due to the new rules and the absence of major international competitions for Russians, is the gap between them and foreign synchronized swimmers not narrowing?

— It is not difficult to compare the scores of the winners of the July World Championship held according to the new rules with the scores obtained by Kolesnichenko and Doroshko in Kazan. In both programs, our athletes outperformed their match competitors by approximately 50 points. Meanwhile, at the 2019 World Championships, Svetlana Kolesnichenko and Svetlana Romashina in both cases were ahead of the Chinese women by less than two points, and at the Tokyo Olympics they beat them in the sum of two programs by a little more of three points. . It turns out that the gap has widened! And repeatedly,” Danchenko was quoted as saying by the press service of the Russian Olympic Committee.