Aliya Mustafina and Viktoria Komova Interviews

Aliya Mustafina (L) and Viktoria Komova (R) pose with Kristina Goryunova at the Massilia Gym Cup. (photo: http://www.gymnasticsunited.com/)

Two interviews have recently been posted on Aliya Mustafina’s website, featuring her and teammate Viktoria Komova. They are in Russian, but I translated them using the google translator. Although it was a very rough translation, I was still able to understand most things. Here is what I found most interesting.

Aliya Mustafina seems to be less annoyed by all of the media than Viktoria Komova. It could just be their personalities. Komova is worried that it is distracting her from training, and says that all of the interviews are not easy. When asked if she has a plan for future competitions, Mustafina simply said “I would like to win.” The articles both mention Mustafina almost retiring from gymnastics when she was 14 years old. Her personal coach, Dina Kamalova “refused to coach” Mustafina, and a week later moved to the US. She is now coaching at WOGA. Mustafina wanted to quit, but eventually ended up training under Alexander Alexandrov. Komova says she is “complicating her program.” I wonder if that means upgrades. She plans to “show the new version” at the Voronin Cup in December. She has won this competition two years in a row and has always new skills there. I think, at the very least, her bars have room for upgrades. Komova’s idols are Svetlana Khorkina and Nastia Liukin. Both of the girls seem to be strongly influenced by their parents, who were involved in high level sports. Lastly, the interview with Aliya includes a small section about her sister, Nailya. I knew that Nailya had been out with an injury for most of 2009 and has not looked as great as she has in the past this year. The article says that the injury was a fractured femur, and that Nailya is afraid to preform difficult skills like her “flyak-screw” (backhandspring into tucked full on beam, I am assuming). I would be afraid to preform a “flyak-screw” as well! Despite this, Nailya remains optimistic. When asked if she also wants to be world champion, she responded “I want to win the Olympics.”

Sources:

Aliya Mustafina Interview (translated/russian)
Aliya Mustafina and Viktoria Komova Interview (translated/russian)