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“Rizatdinova has proven that Ukraine is one of the strongest in rhythmic gymnastics” – Anna Bessonova

By Natalka Tarasovska

(The original video is in Russian, the text version in the link is in Ukrainian).

Did you have a déjà vu while watching the Olympic rhythmic gymnastics final?

Absolutely no. I’m not getting tired of congratulating our Ganna, our team, our coaches, the Deriuginas, Albina Mykolayivna, Iryna Ivanivna, Ireesha Blokhina, and everyone involved. It’s a huge team, which has made an enormous effort to come to this victory. I didn’t have a déjà vu. The feelings were absolutely different, because when you’re competing yourself, you are the one responsible for your actions. It’s much harder to experience it from afar. You can’t get into an athlete’s head, you can’t know one’s condition, what a gymnast’s feeling, and what thoughts she has. I couldn’t know about Ganna’s state of mind, but I was sure that she’s surrounded by the world’s best coaches, which made me confident about her success, confident that they would prepare her properly, and that she would prepare herself as an experienced gymnast.

She’s done it, and, according to judges, it was enough for the bronze. We can judge it only as viewers influenced by emotions while you can analyze a performance and compare your impression with the judges’ scores. Do you agree with them?

I think I would rather agree with Ganna’s scores. They were correct and she was scored fairly. If she made a mistake, she got a deduction, if not, the scores were high. However, I wouldn’t agree with her rivals’ scores, meaning the Russians’. It’s a complicated matter. Of course, everyone saw that the only gymnast who hasn’t made a big mistake, a drop, during the Olympics was Ganna. Which, respectively, gives her a great advantage. In All-Around, as Iryna Ivanivna said, a gymnast who drops an apparatus can’t end up on the podium.

I’d agree, but it has nothing to do with a gymnast anymore. Rules are rules, a drop costs a 0.3 points deduction, and it’s not much. If it was a point or more, the podium would probably be different. I don’t want to complain, I don’t want to talk about bad things. After all, this bronze is a reward for Ukraine, a long-awaited reward. It’s been eight years since the last Olympics where we got a bronze. And Ganna managed to snatch it again, managed to prove that Ukraine is one of the strongest countries in rhythmic gymnastics.

At no point does Anna steal the spotlight but, rather, celebrates the victories of Ganna and the Ukraine team as their own AND for the country’s program.

When she talks about the judging, she makes her stance clear but doesn’t throw any shade either.

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