“I wrapped my finger in 33 layers and went to skip the finale.” Konanykhina about participating in the Russian Cup with injury

Anna Konanykhina and Yulia Timoshinina won the synchronized platform diving at the BetBoom Russian Cup, but Anna did not start the individual competition. It turns out the 19-year-old competed with an injury. Jumpers practice a very traumatic sport; they often compete in pain. Some may think that a finger injury is a minor thing, but now imagine how you fly at a height of 10 meters and the pain you feel when entering the water.

Anna told us how everything happened this time, in Saratov, when she decided to perform with an injured finger.

— For us, fingers are a very sensitive subject because the load goes directly to the hands. And in principle, the load on the fingers is huge. And the thumb of my right hand connects my hand, and at one point I couldn’t even lift the fork or squeeze it in my hands. This is a common injury among divers. You can see how many guys play with taped fingers. And I also wrapped 33 layers and went into battle, all the way to the final.

– How did all this happen?

— I skipped the 10 meter program a week and a half before the Russian Cup. Everything was fine, I did the fourth jump 3.5 turns back and didn’t unscrew it. I didn’t have time to remove my hands and the hand came to my head. I broke my finger badly. In fact, at that time I didn’t know if it had fallen or broken. There was a very strong, sharp pain in the arm – it was floating on one, to be honest. I immediately removed the patch. I thought it would pass now and everything would be fine. There you go, I remove the patch, and my finger is already slightly blue. I said I wasn’t going to jump too far and went to the doctor. There is no fracture, but a doctor said my finger was broken and badly bruised. Another doctor told me I had a joint capsule injury, which is much worse than a fracture because it takes longer to heal. We still don’t know what’s there. We thought everything would pass quickly, but it turned out that it didn’t happen.

I went to Moscow. We thought I would do synchronized jumping there – tickets were already purchased. I tried to jump from the “five” and realized I couldn’t. There was a week left before the Russian Cup. I came home, continued to jump on my feet and until the Cup I practically didn’t jump on my hands. It got a little better, but when I went up to “ten” I realized it was a real nightmare. There was nowhere to retreat! With my fighting nature, I decided I had to jump. And in principle, I myself first said that no matter what happens to my finger – I will return “synchronously”, that’s for sure. I didn’t want to let Yulia Timoshinina down. It was important for me and for her.

During the preliminary rounds, I realized that it was already terribly painful – in the compulsory program, registrations are much more difficult than in the free program. I was kicked very hard in the hand, I swam holding back tears, but I endured it. Before the final, Yulia supported me a lot and I especially thank her and the coaches, who said that everything was fine and that I had to endure five jumps.

She curled her finger further. In the end, it was also hard and painful, but, to be honest, it has already had moral and voluntary consequences. It’s the final, after all, there were spectators, and somehow I didn’t want to upset them with my sad expression… I didn’t want the judges to notice something, for the audience to notice something.

— How did you make the decision regarding the individual jumps?

“Then we decided to look into the situation, find out how I would get up the next morning and if my finger would hurt more. Actually, during the preliminary rounds, something happened that I didn’t expect. For me, it cracked really hard twice. Of course, I didn’t tell the coaches that so they wouldn’t be afraid. And just like that, through the pain, I leapt.

The next morning we discussed with the coach and the head coach, with the doctors, whether I should continue the performance. We came to the unanimous opinion that it was now better to slow down, because, knowing myself, I could say: “No, I’m going to jump.” But they stopped me and told me that if something went wrong, this injury would get worse and it would be much harder to recover from. It is better now to give yourself the opportunity to recover in 2-3 weeks rather than having to take care of that finger much longer later.

I went to the doctor in Saratov. They fixed my joint and showed me which bracelet to buy. The finger hurts very much, so far we can only save ourselves by repairing it.

You never know when you’re going to get injured, so I don’t regret anything. I am happy that I was able to push myself, overcome the pain and perform. It made me realize how many kind people surround me, ready to help and support me. And I am incredibly grateful to the people who were by my side, who helped me in this difficult moment, when I wanted to give up.

Now is the time to recover. This means that it must be so, this means that fate has provided such a path. I believe it, all this is not easy for us. So it could have been worse. This means that God has provided me with this current life setup.

Watch BetBoom live broadcasts of the Russian Cup on the TV channels of the Match holding company, as well as on the sites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.