LIFE IN SPORTS
SUCH AN ATTRACTIVE, MYSTERIOUS WORLD Rhythmic gymnastics is love. In the case of Belarusian gymnastics we can say that it is also Lyubov Cherkashina. In 2012 she was an Olympic bronze medalist, and now she is a judge, a coach, and the head of the athletes’ commission of the International Gymnastics Federation. Lyubov Cherkashina has let correspondents of “Zviazda” into the attractive and mysterious world of rhythmic gymnastics, as well as into her own. technique, which gave a big boost to the sport. In the 2000s, when Alina Kabaeva “made a hit”, she showed the limitless possibilities of her body, and everyone started to repeat after her, to continue… So rhythmic gymnastics is changing and developing. — How difficult is it for you, as a judge, to evaluate perfor‑ mances with changing requirements? T WIT TER.COM
— Lyubov, rhythmic gymnastics is a sport where every year counts. How did the girls gymnasts spend the year with‑ out competing? — For the gymnasts who were planning to finish their careers with the Olympics in Tokyo, the postponement was a big blow, while for the young girls it was a good opportunity to improve their physical and psychological fitness. We tried to look for the pluses as much as possible. For example, I was finally able to spend a lot of time with my daughter, who is growing up so quickly, and do the things I love. Irina Yuryevna Leparskaya, the team’s head coach, figured out an ingenious way for the girls not to lose their form and their love of gymnastics during the enforced quarantine. First, they made up their own exercises, and then watched previous years’ performances and repeated them at improvised competitions. This project has proved that any generation of gymnasts should have a passion for gymnastics, because champions do not just become the ones, there are always unique elements and a lot of hard work behind them. — Is the rhythmic gymnastics you performed in 2012 sig‑ nificantly different from the today’s one? — Rhythmic gymnastics evolves in cycles and there have always been different requirements. At one time more beauty was required and there was a time when physical training prevailed. Nowadays, more emphasis is placed on the complexity of the accessory. In my days a gymnast would appear on the floor and no one knew her set of elements. Now we can roughly predict what elements she repeatedly uses in her performances. Before, gymnasts were more plastic and graceful, there was incredible harmony between the body and the accessory. The complexity of the accessory is super, for one and a half minutes of a solo’s performance, people constantly admire, but they get tired of it, they need to relax their minds. — What, in your opinion, is the reason for such a change? — Rhythmic gymnastics is a whole world where everything is interconnected: the athletes, the federation, the audience. There is something new with every cycle. Margarita Mamun and Yana Kudryavtseva from Russia showed incredible
БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021
21
