Yaroslav Bondarenko, leader of the Russian national team on the BMX flight, missed the Tokyo Games due to injuries, but she is not letting go of her dream of Paris, despite all that is happening around. This week she will perform at the Russian Championship in Maryino.
“The last two seasons have been poor in terms of health,” says Bondarenko. – I broke my arm, I did not play in the Olympics. Now in good shape, in good mode – two workouts a day. We were preparing for the Russian Championship and the Spartakiade, which will take place in my velodrome in Maryino.
Cursing the universe for the previous two seasons?
“But it doesn’t make sense anymore, I can’t help it. The moment was lost, but you have to live, you have to move on. Recently, such an idea has crept in – since it’s not fate to become an Olympic champion, it may be possible to prepare for it, but it’s true, it’s spinning in my head, time is still passing.
Even though I am still active myself! I train and I don’t need motivation.
– I heard that the velodrome in Maryino has been modernized.
– We made the first straight, enlarged the second. The start hill now meets standards, the start bar is now world class.
– Explain why it’s cool.
– The first straight is now quite fast. Just cool – good movement, good development. And now children will be able to see all this not only on TV and on the Internet, but they themselves will be able to ride such a slide, starting from the right bar. It’s a different speed, a different technique, it’s very cool. It is a step forward.
– Are there any problems with the components? With bikes?
– More or less everything. Everything was in stock: bikes, equipment, everything is there. There are no complaints.
Has internal competition developed in recent years? The mass character at your competitions is usually good.
– Sports develop, tracks are rebuilt, more children arrive. We have our own schedule. Yes, we are not going to foreign competitions now, but our schedule is quite busy. A decent number of competitions, a tight schedule. We are working on the mode: competitions, rest, two training sessions, two training sessions and more competitions.
– Is the competition always higher in women’s BMX than in men’s BMX?
– Men now also have decent competition. Eight people are at the start of the final, and you don’t know who will win. The fight is close, very interesting. In addition, everyone now trains under the same conditions, no one has any advantage from going abroad.
— But it can usually have a bad effect on the level.
“But time will tell.”
Where have you run this year?
– In addition to Maryino, in Penza, Bryansk, Saransk. The Supercross is being built in Saransk, we are looking forward to it.
– If you now name the top 5 women’s Russian BMX, who will participate?
– Bondarenko (laughs), Suvorova, Admakina, Varka (Ovchinnikova) are slowly joining us. So rather the top 3, if we talk about this start of the season.
– Wounds don’t bother?
I think of them every day, unfortunately. I’m working on it. For them to severely restrict me – no, but we still have to work on it.
What needs to be done to make your sport even more interesting?
– It’s so exciting! To make it more popular, you have to talk about it, you have to show it. It seems to me that at the Russian Championship there will be a real “wow” in terms of the number of participants and people on the podium.
Do you watch international competitions?
– We work within our schedule, so we don’t focus on what happens at foreign competitions. We need to set clear goals and not live in dreams.
– Has anyone written you any other teams?
– I don’t keep in touch with anyone in particular, I know that in general they treat us calmly. People continue to live their lives: well, we are – and we are, we are not – and we are not.
Is the dream of Paris still alive?
That’s why I keep training twice a day. I continue to live with the hope of the best that we can do in Paris, to compete for the podium.
Source : MatchTV
