May 1998
In a sport with as much potential for glorious beauty as scandalous
melodrama, current world rhythmic champion Yelena Vitrichenko has emerged
an aesthetic and ethical paragon.
The 21-year-old Ukrainian (whose glowing 1996 Olympic performance was skeptically sealed in bronze) thoroughly convinced fans and judges at the 1997 worlds, where she took the all-around and three event golds. Compelling in their supple integration of her technical and creative powers, Vitrichenko's performances continue to justify her substantial competitive accolades and enormous global appeal.
Vitrichenko's personal views on sport and life are, like her routines, willfully seamless. Coached and often judged in competition by her mother, Vitrichenko offers tactful critiques of the policies and politics that alternately motivate and exasperate her.
Vitrichenko was cordial and direct in discussing rules, relationships and responsibilities during a chat with IG at the recent San Francisco International.
IG: What made the difference between your finishing third at the 1996 Olympics and winning the 1997 worlds?
YV: At the Olympics, there was a little bit of unfair judging, but I tried not to be disappointed and to do my best. I think the audience respected and loved what I did at the Olympics, and that helped me become the world champion in 1997.
IG: Have you noticed a significant change in judging since the Olympics?
YV: The rules have changed, and I think the FIG made these new rules according to the needs of the best gymnasts, after watching them. I like competing under the new rules. The judging is more objective.
IG: What would you recommend to the judges to make the sport even more equitable?
YV: I don't want to recommend anything to the judges. I try to prove with my performances that I am the best, so that when the judges evaluate me, they have no doubts.
IG: How much of an advantage is it to have your mother (Nina) as your coach?
YV: I couldn't work with a different coach, because my mom understands me the best. I'm very happy to train with her.
IG: Are there times when you find you take the gym home with you? Where do you draw the line?
YV: We split life. When we are in the gym, we are coach and student. After we leave the gym, she's just my mom - the dearest person in my life.
IG: Do you feel greater scrutiny because your mother is also a judge?
YV: I like it better because I feel I can pass the test in front of her. She judges how much my performance has improved, and how much more mature I've become as a person.
IG: Some people disagree -- they think it's unethical for the parent
of a gymnast to also serve on a judging panel...
YV: I don't know about other parents, but I know that my mom can judge me tougher than the other judges do. At the (1997) worlds, (Russia's) Natalia Lipkovskaya and I got similar scores in the hoop final, but because my mom gave me a lower score, Natalia got first place and I got second. That shows my mom judges me more strictly than other judges!
IG: The mother of one of your biggest rivals, (Olympic champion) Yekaterina Serebrianskaya, is also a judge. Do you ever feel she may be easier on her daughter and tougher on you - as her daughter's rival?
YV: I wouldn't want to talk about this because it's very complicated. I don't want people to read about unpleasant things. I want to tell people how beautiful rhythmic gymnastics can be, not that there could be bad people in gymnastics.
IG: There's an image some people have of rhythmic gymnasts - haughty and untouchable. How do you show that you are a person and not some kind of goddess?
YV: I try to communicate on the same level as everybody, not above them. I don't want to feel a difference. In a few years my gymnastics career will be over, and I will become an ordinary person. When I am no longer a gymnast, I want everyone to remember me as a good, positive person, not as a snob.
IG: Your performances have a lot of personal character. How do you construct your routines to show you are a woman and a performer as much as an athlete?
YV: In each exercise, I try to create a new personality, as an actress or ballerina would. But not always! It depends on the situation. If I need to be like a lion and bare my teeth, so to speak, I'll do it because I know how to personify this kind of image, too.
IG: Because you are an athlete in a performance sport, people feel they know you, and so they want to know all about you; for example, your relationship with (Russian gymnast) Alexei Nemov. How willing are you to reveal details of your personal life?
YV: I want to say that [Nemov and I] don't have anything in common. Our vision of life is different. Each person's life has to have a little mystery, and I want my life to be a little mysterious!
IG: How do you respond to views that gymnasts train too much, that they place themselves under too much pressure all the time?
YV: Life can't be without pressure. If gymnasts are going to surrender to pressure in gymnastics, they will surrender in life. If they overcome stress in gymnastics, they can overcome it in life.
IG: What is it that keeps you above all the pressure?
YV: Simply, I really love gymnastics. It's very hard work, the same as at the professional level of any sport. You should know how to work hard but also enjoy the work.
Also, I would like to say that since 1997 I've been a member of the club called Boris Savlokhov, and they really help me a lot. They assisted in my move to Kiev, and they help me prepare for all my competitions. I am very grateful to them.
IG: What do you view as rhythmic's biggest problem, and what would you suggest to correct it?
YV: I don't know what the biggest problem is, but I think audiences want to see mature gymnasts - not just little girls who quit when they're 15 or 16. I want to see gymnasts train until they're 22 or 23.
IG: Then, you hope to compete in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney (at age 23)?
YV: Yes. I think the audience would otherwise be disappointed, because they've been watching us (veterans) for so many years. The audience likes me and I like the audience, and I want to enjoy them as long as possible.
