“From now on, accountants are more important in synchronized swimming! It’s terrible how much the rules have changed. Frank interview with Pokrovskaya

The golden years of synchronized swimming are associated with Tatyana Pokrovskaya. The great coach has headed the Russian national team headquarters since 1998; under his leadership, our team won every gold medal at all six Olympic Games. And here, cross your fingers, they are Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio de Janeiro 2016 and Tokyo 2020. We are not talking about numerous awards at the World and European Championships, at the Cup stages of the world and other competitions.

On Sunday I met Tatiana Nikolaevna at the opening of the Synchronized Swimming Federation stand at VDNKh. It was striking how many children came to the event. Even in conditions of isolation, this golden sport is very popular in Russia.

“Some are happy that there are no more Russians”

— How is Russian synchronized swimming developing in conditions of international isolation?

— We are not experiencing an exodus of athletes. All our victories already indicate that many people want to get into synchronized swimming. All these years that we have won on the world stage, it has not happened by chance.

But we are currently experiencing a negative moment in the entire world of synchronized swimming. And this unfortunately happened without Russian influence. They don’t even ask us for our opinion! But the rules have changed radically, which does not adorn our sport in any way.

– What is the problem?

“Those who introduced these rules have abandoned the beauty of synchronized swimming. They deny that it is still a ballet. Which must come from art and beauty.

Now all compositions are similar. We were confined within a very strict framework, particularly the managers. Every time I put on a composition, I come out of the pool with a headache.

From now on, accountants are more important in synchronized swimming! Because girls start counting these bonuses and points in their performance. And we cannot avoid such frames, otherwise we will lose.

In general, unclear rules. We don’t know what will happen next. And that worries us a lot. But we have no words!

— This is similar to what happened in figure skating, which was radically reformed.

– Here! And the Canadian who manages our sport and heads our technical committee has nothing to do with synchronized swimming at all! And he just says we’re going the figure skating route.

But I think figure skating has also lost a lot of its beauty. We only count jumps, whether we made them or not. And everything else no longer matters.

— So synchronized swimming will now also become a sport for 14-year-old girls?

— You know, many countries are happy now. Those who were nothing can now become everything! After all, you can earn bonuses by greatly complicating the program. Even if technically you remain very weak! What’s more, they don’t even do these difficult elements very well. But they beat others.

-Who do this ?

— For example, Israel once considered it a chance to reach the final. And now he’s front and center. And many countries want to do it. But they don’t think about the future.

Some even say, “Well, the Russians are gone and now we can be back on the pedestal.” But it’s not because the Russian team no longer performs on the world stage! And because the rules are not clear.

– Horror.

– There is still a little hope. Maybe after the Olympics something will change. But otherwise, I don’t even know how to live in synchronized swimming now.

“There will be provocations, and the judges will do everything to put us under pressure.”

— Which competitions in 2024 do you consider the main ones for the Russian team?

— BRICS games and friendship games. The main thing for us is that more interesting countries come to us. But it turns out that strong countries will not participate in the BRICS Games (June 11-23), because they will be held just before the Olympics. And the strongest who played at Paris 2024 will not go to “L’Amitié” (September 15-29), because they are in the rest phase.

—Have strangers asked you about the Friendship Games? Are they interested in this competition? Big prize fund you can compete with Russia.

– Nowadays, the Internet is a good thing. Everyone is already looking at us through a microscope and a magnifying glass. And they discuss what we have become. So we absolutely cannot lower the bar.

But we do not follow the principle: “Despite the difficulties, we will show everyone!” No, we lowered it a little – and already the reasoning began: “Oh, the Russians have such easy compositions.” Note that they don’t say they’re ugly.

Why should we show all the hardest things in our internal competitions, revealing our strengths? We are gradually moving towards this.

— How to motivate athletes? What can we expect from synchronized swimmers at the Friendship Games?

— We now have a young team. They have to work hard to be at a good level. Take them to the World Cup now – they’ll give them a reason to rush them so you don’t go out later. So everyone works hard to look really good.

— Hockey players say if they return to the World Championship tomorrow, they are ready to defeat Canada and win gold. Do you have the same attitude in synchronized swimming?

“Even if we are ready, there will be provocations, and the judges will do everything to pressure us.” What is hockey? Score a goal – and everything is fine with you. But what type of arbitration can we have? According to the new rules, it is quite possible to humiliate the country out of the blue.

And there it was, China, which was the strongest after Russia. And now they were already sixth in some compositions. After all, how does it work now? I noted some complex elements in my application. The judges thought you didn’t finish something – so your connection isn’t considered at all. Thus, the Chinese rank in sixth place.

Do you understand? And everyone rejoices: they have finally overthrown the hegemons! But that’s not fair. If a country is technically strong, how can it operate in such a way that it loses to weaker countries? This is what is happening!

All that remains is to hope that after the Olympics things will change. It’s a shame that whoever runs synchronized swims has nothing to do with our sport. She doesn’t feel the situation. And behind his back, someone is creating intrigues, introducing these new rules. This is how we live…