“IN COMPETITIONS WEIGHT CAN FLY – THERE WAS A DIFFERENCE OF 76 TO 79 AT SPARTAKIAD”
– Zhenya, what did you think after the Friendship Games, when you were left without medals?
– As I have already said on the air, there were psychological difficulties with the fact that I fell back very strongly. It is morally difficult to accept somewhere that I cannot achieve my results as I would like. This is the second time this has happened to me in my career.
– When was the first time?
– After 2017, when he went through a three-month rehabilitation. Then I improved the 200, but the 100 was not the best, I was second in the European Championships, and Kliment (Kolesnikov) started to move me. It was morally difficult – I stalled, and it was at a time when I could shift the result very strongly due to body growth. But because of the breakdown, the coach just didn’t know what to do with me, I couldn’t adapt. Now the situation is about the same, but three months ago – a little easier. I was doing something else in Germany at the time, OFP, something like that. In January, in Tenerife, he swam with one foot, worked for a single function. This gave its advantages. Then he swam 1500 m in 15 minutes 27 seconds – he would have been in the strongest final in Russia. I finished the year then, there were difficulties, I lost weight.
Well, now after the Olympics I won – there was a lot of power, but there was no function. Now I am restoring function, I have removed all the fat, I have regained my weight. The muscle has grown relatively, but so far I can’t use it.
So the situation is pretty much the same, another thing is that I was 21 then. Now all this is not so easy.
– Weight gain – muscles or in general eaten?
– He ate, he was 92 kg. I came to the Olympics with a weight of 79 kg, there I lost weight at 75 – everything was burned out of the body, muscle mass burned. I couldn’t give top speed anymore – in the last hundred of the stint I just ran out.
– What is the working weight?
– From 79 to 81. My weight can fly at competitions – in Spartakiad there was a gap of 76 to 79.
– Do you have a nutritionist?
– Not.
— What products do you not buy at home?
– There’s nothing like that. But during heavy aerobic work, the first blocks up to six, I eat sugar in small amounts, and after six I completely cut it out.
“PERHAPS, SOMEWHERE I SAY SOMETHING UNDER – IT’S A PSYCHOLOGICAL COMPLEXITY”
– Have you assessed how difficult it is to move to a new cycle after a successful performance at the Olympic Games?
– I went through this hell after Rio.
But then it was not possible to take everything we wanted.
– Yes it is. Well, in addition the body is already different, on the health side it has become much harder. As a child, hormones skyrocket and you all swim in a row. You eat the load anyway. Now if you do the work you immediately feel that you are backing up for a few seconds at your mid ranges. It’s harder to work with, plus I haven’t done anything for six months. It would be nice if he did nothing, but even against this background he started, additionally ran out of steam. Everything he had accumulated over the years he cut. I cut myself in two pieces, and now I need to pull myself together.
– Was it difficult to decide to change coach? Emotionally, it’s probably not easy to work with your girlfriend (Oksana Logvinova).
Partly yes, partly no. At times it was more difficult for me to communicate with Andrey Gennadievich (Shishin. – “”). It’s easier for me to talk with Oksana, to talk about some of my difficulties. Maybe I’m saying too much somewhere – it’s psychological complexity.
As for the workout itself, Andrey Gennadievich liked to hammer me with technical moments about swimming itself. At 3000, the warm-up consists of exercises over 200 m. You are going crazy there. Now I have a standard warm-up for 2000, where I do the exercises I need. I try to fix everything on earth. I explained to him that if I didn’t build muscle on land, I wouldn’t swim properly no matter how badly I wanted to. So technically I can open more with Oksana on my own, charging my brain not in water, but on land.
– By working with Oksana, I found more of my weak muscles, which I could not find with Andrei Gennadievich. With him, we took on more extra rough work – more did it and endured it. But then the body allowed it. Now I found some muscles that I didn’t find with Andrei Gennadievich. I think it will help me improve my results with less training expense. At my age, it is very important.
Andrei Gennadievich, as he himself explained in an interview, would put pressure on me and not reduce work, because he knows how to get results from me. But I’m still 25. It’s the ripe age to swim.
– Can you swim in short water?
– After the Spartakiad, I will take a break out of the water, but I will work indoors, there will be a compulsory race and a compulsory functional load. Regarding short water, let’s review the competitions, then look at the competitions at the start of 2023.
– “Let’s review the competitions” – does this mean you will start anyway?
“It’s just not possible otherwise. The hardest thing is to come back, because the human body adapts to everything, it also adapts to good.
– To what good have you managed to adapt?
– Rest and eat sweets. It was just a very relaxed lifestyle. At one point he sacrificed his childhood to achieve a result. After the Olympics, he became a person who enjoyed himself as a child and achieved nothing. But that’s all, the riot lifestyle is behind us … Probably, it will sound bad – “riot”, rather, a relaxed lifestyle.
– But from a sporting point of view – tumultuous.
– Yes, probably (smiling).
“RIGHT NOW, THE REASONABLE ANSWER ABOUT THE FUTURE IS ‘LET’S LOOK’
– What are the discussions about you that exasperate the most?
– Regarding the change of coach, the fact that I have finished, probably too… But I understand that people see that I am swimming less well, when they are not in the subject, they do not know not how and what. You once asked me a question about emotional emptiness. And no matter how I say there is no such thing, in fact, sometimes it is difficult to pull yourself together for the next result, because you have already won everything. Especially after a break. We are all human.
At one point, I couldn’t turn on emotionally, or something. I went to training, but emotionally I wasn’t ready for it. It’s like going to the gym without knowing why – the effect will be much less. It has even been proven by scientists – there should be psychological focus. At that time, I had a disconnect between my head and the execution of the work in training.
In addition, my trainer has changed. Oksana and I had to adapt to each other in the training process, there were certain difficulties, we all have them. They were also with Andrei Gennadievich, they changed every year. It’s okay, that’s life.
I also couldn’t decide what to focus on – 100 or 200 meters. These are two different works. Now I partially regained the working potential on the 200m backstroke, the second half – the body let me down, everyone agrees with that. The speeds aren’t the same yet, but I haven’t done the necessary work to the fullest yet – I’ve only been physically trained for four months, and I’ve also been sick for two weeks.
You have won Olympic gold in the 200m backstroke. It’s hellish work. Why do you need 200 meters now? Do not let go ? Is it a kind of Stockholm syndrome?
— I love and hate this distance (laughing). As a child, I liked her more, I was not so bad with her. Then I started to like the 100 meters longer, now it’s 200 meters more comfortable again. I just love it on her. I don’t know how to live with this.
– What do you think of the statements – “Rylov is finished, now he will go to the deputies.”
— An assistant is a person who can develop this or that area. I can develop swimming.
– He’s more of a sports official.
– Well maybe. But in principle, I am able to keep what I promise, or at least I do everything to make it happen.
– We will have to answer a large number of questions, including correspondents.
– Well, I’ll block the phone for a while. I don’t know if I can take itlaughing). I think it will be easier emotionally to do that after I finish my career. Now I’m overflowing with a lot of emotions in training and it’s just hard for me to go somewhere for filming, interviews.
In general, there are many options for what to do with yourself after a career. But I can’t answer that question yet. I just don’t know what it will be, there are too many options for developing events. Maybe I’ll go crazy and decide to swim until I’m 32. Who knows! Anything can happen in this life.
I used to say, for example, that I didn’t like tattoos, but now I have a tattoo and I live with a girl who has ten. People change and I am proof of that. Maybe at an earlier age society influenced – society influences what is liked and what is not. Now I can say exactly what I personally like without that influence.
And in general, I realized – there is no need to promise. You make plans, then a pandemic, no Olympics. Right now the most reasonable answer about the future is “we’ll see”.
My goal is still a world record, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. I will definitely get closer to him, but if I beat him – again, we’ll see.
Source : MatchTV
