Interview to the twins and their coach
- Vera Shatalina: sisters Averina - a reliable
back our leaders.
- Arina and Dina Averina - a team - said Vera
Shatalina - Without one and another they reach nothing. And at this Grand Prix
it turned out: Dina made a mistake in a very complex element, and then Arina
acted brilliantly. The success of the girls - the work of the team. Dina made a
mistake but I did not scold - the program we have are very complicated. But I
can assure you that from the intended plan, we will not leave, we will
"finish off" the program.
- Tell me more about the sisters Averina. How
do they grow?
- First of all, I want to mention their
parents. Dina and Arina grew up in a very respectable family. Mom and Dad
invested a lot in their children - in school, in sports, their lives. Their
mother was a former gymnast and their dad was a former football player and is
now a businessman. The older sister was also involved in gymnastics. She learns
very perfectly, she already has higher education. So, very small family in
sport (laughs).
- Dina and Arina are very similar. What are
their differences?
- Dina is 100 percent athlete. It is very hard
going through mistakes, she does not like to lose. But at the same time - more
light. Arisha is more closed. I call them my daughter (laughs). Arina treats me
like a mother - can sometimes shake her nerves. Dina himself never allows.
- And who is the most powerful gymnast?
- In Moscow, Arina was stable, but the girls
are constantly changing the results. I do not even know which of them is
better. They are both good. Generally speaking, rarely something is dropped.
But there were things that did not go well.
- Dina and Arina are always together. Are they
somewhere without each other?
- No. They are twins who are very self-sufficient,
which do not need anyone. Let me tell you an interesting story. Once I told
them to walk. And they called me and said: "Vera, can we skate?" I
was so touched: because I did not see them, did not know what they are doing.
But they know it's traumatic!
- And you allowed them?
- Of course I allowed. It is better to let them
do it with my permission, than without it, right? So: Dina and Arina - always
together! Even if they go to bed they need to be together.
- You were the second coach of the legendary
Alina Kabaeva. At these competitions she handed sisters Averina special prize
for artistry.
- Alina's fate is not the last part, and I am
doubly delighted that she said that to Averina. I emphasize - Averina! Not one,
but two! This was a consolation for the heart. Alina herself has always been
very artistic, but for Averina, I often made remarks. Irina Viner said, if we
do not change the style of work we will not be able to add some artistry to the
girls - it will be very difficult. We were lucky with the director - Irina
Zenovka she's simply genius! When the girls grew up, Irina not only puts our
program, but also fulfils them. Thanks to the symbiosis of regular comments
from Irina and Irina Alexandrovna we regrouped. The stars were on our side, so
today we have a result.
- What are your immediate plans?
- In the Olympic season we have competitions
every week. But I want to keep girls.
- That means that, in the World Cup in Finland
Averina sisters will not go?
- I hope not. There will perform with our
leaders - Sasha Soldatova and Margarita Mamun. But I told Irina Alexandrovna
that they are always ready. Therefore, if someone cannot go or refuses to go or
something like that to somewhere - there we are.
- At the Olympic Games will top two athletes from
team Russia. There is a chance that in the Rio will perform one of the sisters
Averina?
- I do not know, I swear! Life is so arranged
that we do not know what will happen tomorrow. If it will be necessary for the
country - we are always ready to go. But this is a very big burden - both
physical and moral. And a big responsibility. And we want, first, patience and
health on our leaders - Yana Kudryavtseva, Rita Mamun, Sasha Soldatova. They
deserve to go to Rio! And we are here if they need. And ready to help.
- In a competition with the same team, does
sisters Averina stronger?
- Of course! We were always in the shade, we
were not interested, but today it happened that they were able to express
themselves in full voice. You know what I most pleased? In the Moscow Grand
Prix Arina was in the podium with Sasha Soldatova. And what's the difference
between the first and the second place? In the first you are able to raise the
Russian flag and sing the Russian national anthem! Irina Viner teaches us this.
I'm with her for 38 years - first as a pupil and now as an assistant. And I
absorbed this philosophy.
- Dina Averina - When Arisha acts, my heart
goes to the heel!
- I'm rarely satisfied with my performances -
said Dina Averina - A lot has happened. There is a lot of work. It is necessary
to correct mistakes, take the time to everything that did not work.
- Arina Averina performances at the Grand Prix
were very successful - she was the winner in the all-around and won the
individual championship with ribbon. What do you think about the success of the
sisters?
- When she speaks, my heart goes to the heel.
Arisha performed well all three days, and I'm very pleased that she was able to
perform so well.
- In the course of your career, which one of
you has performed better?
- We have no one better. We change every
competition. Here she was successful, then the next start should be mine
(laughs). We always support each other, no matter what.
- Which one is the older?
- Arisha, 20 minutes (laughs).
- Dina in this Grand Prix took sixth place in
the all-around. How do you assess your performances?
- I am very glad that I managed to get into the
top six gymnasts. We have had the Grand Prix and the small World Cup.
- Tell me when did you make mistakes?
- I lost my clubs at the end of the performance
and it is a gross error.
- How do you know that you will get a prize for
artistry from Alina Kabaeva?
- When it was rewarding all-rounders, they told
me to put on a swimsuit. I asked: Why? Maybe we should not? But we were told
that my sister and I will have a surprise. I could not understand why because I
took the sixth place. But we were given the prize by Alina Kabaeva, and I still
cannot believe it! (Laughs).
- Alina Kabaeva said she wanted to see the
competitions with someone similar to her. Do you think that you and your sister
are similar to her?
- If the prize was given to us, then perhaps we
really are somewhat similar (laughs).
- Vera Shatalina was the second coach of Alina
Kabaeva. It spurs that your mentor has trained an Olympic champion?
- Of course. Vera passed through Olympics,
countless World and European championships. We really like to train with her.
- Head coach Irina Viner said that you were not
taken seriously and you were her secret weapon until this year. Do you feel
that you put on a par with all the main favourites of the competition?
- Yes, it feels like we have already considered
worthy rivals (laughs).
- Arina Averina: I wanted to do everything for
two!
- I have something to work and it's hard -
admitted Arina Averina - Not everything I had today was perfect, although there
were no mistakes. Two medals - very nice (smiling).
- How much of free time do you have?
- I think the coach will give us a day or two
to rest - and then start working again.
- What type of performance you like more than
others?
- In those apparatus where I went to the finals
- clubs and ribbon. I do not think this are my most powerful apparatus, I did
not expect to be able to go to the finals. But it happened that I turned out to
be better than others.
- Your sister Dina Averina had one mistake
after another. At this point it appeared sports rage. Do you wanted to win for
two?
- Yes. I wanted to do everything for two!
- Before the performance with the ribbon, did
you know that you have taken the second place in the exercise with clubs?
- I did not know about it, even after the
performance. I do not even guess that'll be on the podium.
- You are now standing on a pedestal with
Margarita Mamun and Alexsandra Soldatova. Do you support each other?
- Of course, we wished each other success.
- What are your immediate plans?
- Our coach Vera Shatalina did not tell us yet.
Thank you to our translator person for this amazing job!
Interview to Vera N. Shatalina
Vera, Dina and Arina Averin this year,
started the season as part of the main team of Russia. Tell us, please, which
way is behind this.
In previous seasons, they were still small,
were in juniors, and only on the second year the girls stand on the workshop
program. A junior, you know, is "the cat in the bag" when the child
is only growing, formed when puberty begins, it happens that everything
changes, so it was hard to tell. But I do not think that before they were in
the shadow of the leaders. They were not included in the Youth European Championship due to the
fact that there was a huge competition. After this tournament all the girls
from 1999 were dropped out, in general, all the girls were injured. Some
supposedly had a cursed year and has turned out simply everyone was injured:
someone's leg or arm, someone has appendicitis, and this has been an endless
series... And so at this time just Arina and Dina stepped forward. But, you
know, they still had to "swim to the surface," because in fact they
were very good. Firstly, they are smart, and secondly, such executive! For four
Olympic cycles - and I have 30 years of coaching time! - No offense to any of
my famous disciples I need to say I did not have such children.
- What sets among the sisters Averina?
- The sum of these children that like any
coach. Obedience is not perfect. I know that, coming out on the carpet, they
will do their best and maybe even more. When even mistakes happen, I cannot
blame them, because I know the sport - it's not dressmaking and sewing, then
enormous congestion. And besides, we have a very sophisticated kind, represent,
then the unprotected foot, jumping, flexibility, stretching, plus the need to
listen to music, have some unique elements... But it is necessary to do
something interesting, and not just a school choreography show. And they
believe in me, literally they trust. All this together these children
developed.
When they got to me, the girls were very
reticent, unsmiling, they were like two old ladies are right: do everything,
but did not speak. We have a very good psychologist in the team, Evgenia
Kuzminova that I once said, "Look, if you do not teach them to say a word,
you will not have good results." I began to ask Dina and Arina and why
there are so, and random things like "how do you sleep", "what
do you eat"? They were shocked, because, apparently, before nobody would
talk to them. Just need to put love in the child, then you will get everything.
- It's true... But it all began, perhaps not so
perfect, right?
- I once said to them: girls, wait - and we
will succeed. We started with the by going to
the doctors. Head coach Irina (Irina Viner) said: Check the
endocrinologist. When the twins were born, children are small in stature and
Dina and Arina were very. We have a very demanding sport: not only that it is
necessary to have a physical presence, you need to be more beautiful. In
Averina - face figurines - all good, but they were very small. And the doctor
told me that it is necessary to remove the 50% load. Agree, not every coach
will go to it! But I realized that there are children who do not have a lot of
work, which should be just all "over his head", they are well taught.
And we with them have decided that we will
follow the diet. And you know, they began to grow! Two years, they never grow
up, even when they were not with me. And when we began to work again, then five
growth. They were 138 cm and now they are 161 cm - this is our common victory.
- What kind of relationship do you have with
Dina and Arina?
- I trust a lot on them: they are not traitors.
And they also have complete trust in me: if I say that it should be, they
always do. I always explain to them how to behave, what to be thankful: you got
up today, and tomorrow you can fall, so you need to appreciate every day.
Morning got up - thank you very much that sunshine, that’s from this day
begins.
So everything came together: trust on the
ability to work and, of course, a unique knowledge of the subject. Even if you
tell them, so to speak, climbed in the right ear, and climbed through the left
leg, they can do all this and to carry out! We are changing the program
sometimes the day before the start, and it does not affect the performance.
For example, before the Moscow Grand Prix (less
than a week), when we changed the music in the routine, Irina said she was not
correspond to the program, and I know that she does not wish bad things, from
the outside it is more visible. And we changed the music - indeed, exercise has
become even better! But it is not what every child can do...
Therefore, even when the girls are small whims,
I do not pay attention. I never saw dirty socks, torn slippers, from Averina
always ideal objects. They remind me more and, in the evening send text
messages: "Vera, you have to bring something, do not forget to do
something!". I do not know why the cards do not communicate with the
electronics, so that all children can do it. And I always say, "What am I
going to do after they threw the gym?" This is when something happens, it
will be very difficult period, because I'm very comfortable with them, and now
want more, that has developed in the future. I do not know if they will achieve
very good results in rhythmic gymnastics, but what I feel good with them, I
know 100%.
- You get a whole team, and not just the coach
and gymnast, how does it works?
- It's true. Since its one person is always
very hard but I am always very sorry for coaches who have only one athlete. I
have never had one pupil! I always had a lot, and even now not just Dina and
Arina, I also work with Olesya Petrova, twice a European champion for juniors,
which then had an injurie... And I've got a pretty little girl, she just turned
9 years old. I want to grow it to these children to Averina, because what they
are able, no one knows how, is coordination at this level!
And I began to notice that when this little
athlete is next to them, it adds considerably. She had for his age is able to
do unique things, it has already the best in his age in Russia. She is born in
2007 - it seems that it is still almost a child chest, but in fact she was able
to do so much! I'm raising it especially on Dina and Arina Averina, said to
learn while they are alive (in, in sports, of course)! In general, we are a
real family.
- Probably among twins have developed strong
sisterhood?
- Dina and Arina are so self-sufficient, you
cannot imagine! They have their own little world, and they will not let anyone
go in. And I am very glad of it, because if there is somebody else in their
world, they would collapse. Plus they have a very good family, there is Mom and
Dad, who live entirely for these children. The sisters brought up properly.
They are after training every day with teachers engaged on Skype. I once told
them: "I do not need it." They passed the exams very well in the
senior class last year, enrolled in a sports institute. Averina went to school
when they were six years. Mom told them: "Vera, we just do not know where
to go from them". They still have a third sister, the eldest, Polina, who
had also engaged in gymnastics. There's a loving family, children grow in love,
in abundance, all for them.
- It's on the court immediately obvious, right?
- This is the mentality, because you cannot
work with disadvantaged kid so that he became the world champion in the Olympic
Games. Believe me, all the same it will affect the most inopportune moment!
Disadvantaged children, they can be the champions of the world in some other
sports, but if the child is not in love, if the child has a family and there is
to it ... are not in rhythmic gymnastics. Family - it's always a sequel, and I
always look where the child is. But, by the way, Averina came to me by chance
and I said that there is nothing accidental. Just once I arrived in 2011, the
year for a week in the Olympic Village and they were there, came out of his
Nizhny Novgorod on 10 days to try. They said that if there nobody will take,
they will end up with gymnastics, because growth has not been much, and they
have learnt in school is very good; they said that if a gym does not work out,
they will learn better. I saw them and I say - let's try. After I was trained
with them, I immediately asked myself the question: "And if I can have
without them?" And I realized that actually I can't. It will be a good
judge? - will not, but I get great pleasure from our everyday spent together.
- In the Olympic season, with two 17-year-old
talented gymnasts, you think about the prospects of whether to go to Rio de
Janeiro? Or aiming more at the next Olympic cycle?
- Do not think, honestly. I have
this year will be an anniversary - 50 years old, I started to work very early,
just 19 years old, and I can say that it is better not to think, how to please
God. A lot of things have changed for this year, but I still did not think they
want. They will represent the country, we can even get up at night and make
your exercise and we treat those athletes who are always ready. Minimum
injuries, a minimum of ambition and maximum diligence. That's what I can say
about Averina, so I do not think anything about any Olympics, and I wish only
the health of Yana Kudryavtseva, because it is a unique athlete. I'm very sick
of it, and Rita Mamun! This is a very interesting girl, and not just in life,
but it is "curiosity" in rhythmic gymnastics. I wish them the
Olympics from the heart but we all still have time. I have only to these girls
turned everything, but if all of a sudden, God forbid, and we will say (that we
should go), then why not. But no more, no. I'd like to see Yana, Rita, they are
worthy and they work very hard. A gold medal - no matter what the name will be
there - the main thing that our country was good.
Thank you to our translator person for this amazing job!
Dina and Arina's 2016 interview
Arina and
Dina Averina came to RG by influence of their older sister.
19-21
February in Moscow will host the first stage in the Olympic season, the Grand
Prix of Rhythmic Gymnastics. The competition will be attended by 17-year-old
twin sisters Dina and Arina Averina. Statement and its path in the rhythmic
gymnastics Arina and Dina Averina told the special correspondent of the Agency
of sport informatsii "Allsport" Tigran Avagyan.
Dina Averina:
I am glad that we had the opportunity to take part in the Moscow Grand Prix. We
are actively working on all of our mistakes, and we are trying to correct them.
Also recently we paid a lot of attention to the expression.
Arina
Averina: We are trying to train the maximum to Grand Prix in order to not to
let down our coaches, family and friends.
- How did you
come to rhythmic gymnastics?
Dina Averina:
It is clear that we came together to the sport (laughs). Our mom brought us to
gymnastics and, after her, our older sister Polina. We always liked the sport
and we just went for it. But Polina didn't go to the sport itself, she chose to
study after graduating from school with a gold medal.
- Do you
remember your first success?
Arina
Averina: In the junior championship of Russia in St. Petersburg. I took the
second place.
Dina Averina:
At the championship of Russia I took third place (laughs).
Arina
Averina: It was after the performances in St. Petersburg that the judges paid
attention to us.
Dina Averina:
We started to do gymnastics with four years old and when we were 12 years old,
we arrived in Moscow. We invited Vera Shatalina. We worked out in Novogorske -
and we are so pleased that we have even more love for this sport.
- What did
your parents think about that?
Dina Averina:
At first it was very hard, because we were very small when we left home.
Arina
Averina: It was hard, but it was worth it!
- Have you
always acted together?
Dina Averina:
I think we were lucky. Because if Arisha is on the first place - I'm always
happy for her as for myself.
Arina
Averina: Similarly, I rejoice the success of my sister. Sometimes Dina made it
to the podium, and I was fourth or fifth - but I was glad for her.
- Are you
often confused by people?
Dina Averina:
We're almost never confused.
Arina
Averina: And if confused - only when we first meet. With all the girls from the
team we've been together, they have learned to distinguish us.
- What in
your life is present in addition to gymnastics?
Arina
Averina: I love to draw, I do it for fun
Dina Averina:
And I only have one hobby - gymnastics.
Thank you to our translator person for this amazing job!
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