“I’m more of a hard worker, I don’t have any particularly notable skills. » Who is Egor Kornev

Russian swimmer Yegor Kornev wins the highest positions in the Russian crawl. Friday, he won the 100m freestyle and does not intend to stop there. Granted, it definitely won’t float like a complex. We’ll tell you why in this interview.

— Was the previous Russian Short Course Championship your biggest success so far?

— For the moment, yes, even if there was a victory in the 100m medley in 2022.

— What did the coach say (Kornev trains with Olga Baidalova and Elena Kuznetsova. — Note from )?

– “Nothing, okay, it’ll be fine.”

— What type of swimming pool do you have?

— Swimming center in St. Petersburg.

—Is there enough water?

– Yes, that’s enough, we don’t complain about thirst. Seriously, we have a pretty large group, but we don’t have incredible difficulty with it. It is clear that when we arrive in Krugloye the conditions are better.

— When did you first join the main team?

— When I left junior school, in January 2023.

— What are your main distances?

– Freestyle – 50 and 100 m The next style will be “dolphin”, but each new style takes time, it takes work, you have to lie down on the water. It’s not as fast as it seems.

— You have had a meme hanging on your “wall” since 2018: “Butterfly – when your body says no, your mind says no and your coach says yes. »

— In six years, nothing has changed in this regard, to be honest (laughs). It’s better, but it’s still hard. For now, I’m just mastering the ‘batta’.

— Let’s continue studying memes… 2019. “The reason I like the 400m medley is because I don’t swim the 400m medley.”

– There is such a time. My coach Elena Yuryevna Kuznetsova, an Olympic medalist, had a record in this distance which lasted for a very long time. When I was little, I often swam this distance. I really didn’t like it. It is very painful. You have to be a hard worker, a plowman, it’s the distance of a horse. Non-humans are swimming around, non-humans in the good sense of the word – angry guys with incredible health.

– “Inhuman in the good sense of the word” and “crazy” – is this Ilya Borodin?

– Well, really, the 400m complex as a specialization is beyond my understanding, in general.

— There is a stereotype that 50/100 m tracks work less.

– On eyeliner – yes. But we have busy work that will give a “light” to middle-aged people, but we don’t do it so often. Our scope is lighter, the tasks are simpler, but when the foundations are laid, you need to endure and work, because without this there will simply be no result.

— How much time do you spend at the gym?

— It depends on the preparation period. Before the championship, the gym was reduced to 2-3 times a week for 1.5-2 hours. And this reached up to five times a week. Our gym is not only about strength training with dumbbells, but also about working with your own weight – static, dynamic.

— How many calories do you consume per day?

– I never counted. I eat what I want, I don’t particularly limit myself, before starting I eat less heavy food, more vegetables. I eat three large meals a day and the fourth in the evening. There was a moment when the coach controlled me in terms of nutrition, but we moved away from that. I talked about my feelings, how much more convenient it was for me, they decided that there was no need to limit me.

– You are twenty years old. How did you experience the changes in your body?

— Recently, he has grown a lot, even his facial features have changed. There was a moment, at 16-17 years old, when I grew up a lot, and I had to adapt my technique. Then everything calmed down, in recent years there have been no more problems.

— The 100m freestyle world record lasted quite a long time and was broken twice in a short time. Do you think we should expect a new record in the near future?

– Hard to say. It happens that strong guys appear and the race for records begins. David Popovich is simply very technical, with minimal resistance. The Chinese are ardent workers.

– And you? A hard worker, a talented worker or a lazy talent?

— I consider myself more of a hard worker. I don’t have any exceptional data. My result was made easier by the confidence I had working with my coach.

— Did you have a good time at the “Jolly Dolphins”?

– In general, according to personal results, he practically overtook me – it looks like he didn’t even get into the top 8. I swam well, I was not far away, somewhere at a level average, nothing special. The results, more or less significant, came after leaving school.