“This is still the hardest situation in my life so far. There was no competition at all, and the adults really did the wrong thing by distancing themselves from it and not finding the right words to inform about it in advance.” Anna Shcherbakova on not making it into Olympic team event
Anna Shcherbakova about not making it into the team event at the Olympics.
original source: Free Program podcast on Channel 1
Anna Shcherbakova spoke about her feelings after not making it into the team event at the Olympics in a podcast with Maxim Trankov. Here’s a translation of her comments.
“Q: There’s one competition where not everything depends solely on you. It’s the Olympic team eventt. And when you find out that you, the reigning world champion and three-time Russian national champion, didn’t make the team, what do you feel?
Anna Shcherbakova: This question is very difficult for me. It’s probably one of the toughest situations not only in my sports career but so far in life as well, personally.
I just think that accepting defeat is also part of an athlete’s job. That’s a good skill. Yes, a good skill to be able to accept one’s defeats. And I think sports taught me that. I can accept my defeats and am ready to accept them.
And when you’re not placed on the team, in my opinion, that’s your defeat as an athlete, because someone at that moment was stronger, better, more consistent. That means you fell short somewhere. That’s your defeat.
Why was it so hard? Because in my opinion, if they choose someone else over me, that means this is your defeat. Someone was better, someone was stronger. But when no one is chosen, it means there was no competition at all. It’s not your defeat, just that your overall fight turned out to be unnecessary. And that was very hard to accept. And precisely this was painful.
Q: And how do you choose from, say, three people, two, if it concerns you?
Anna Shcherbakova: This is sport. There aren’t two first places, two second places, two third places. Sport does not imply any such choice on a personal level, only based on results.
Q: And how did you find out that you wouldn’t be in the team?
Anna Shcherbakova: I found out at the same moment that everyone else did from the news. That was also very hard because, perhaps, it wasn’t clear why no one…
Q: Meaning there wasn’t a personal conversation?
Anna Shcherbakova: No talk, neither before nor after about it. We were all in the dark. Meaning, I understood that I could theoretically be in either program. I calmly found out about the short program. I had 100% confidence that either Sasha (Trusova) or I would skate in the free skate. I spent the whole evening tuned as if I were competing the next day. I knew that if they suddenly told me to skate, I had to be ready for it.
And I was tuned as if I had a competition tomorrow in the free skate. By then, I should have been getting ready to sleep. I just sat there and refreshed the news every second to find out whether it would be me or Sasha. So, I don’t really want to recall the emotions I went through after that.
Q: So, you had no doubt that it would be either you or Sasha?
Anna Shcherbakova: Yes, I was on… Well, that probably made it even more difficult. Why did you even bring up this topic? Honestly, this is still the hardest situation in my life so far.
Q: I’ll explain why I bring up this topic because I’m trying a bit to fight for the athletes’ rights in such situations. And I very much disagree, and the Federation is aware that I am very much against this decision. I will never agree with it.
Anna Shcherbakova: Me neither. If it had been my defeat, I would have accepted it. In my view, first, there was no competition at all, and second, the adults really did the wrong thing by distancing themselves from it and not finding the right words to inform about it in advance. That’s it.
Q: Did you and Sasha ever talk about this situation afterward?
Anna Shcherbakova: Yes, I think, in fact, at some point it even brought us closer, I would say, because we experienced these emotions together.
We were living together at the time. And we saw how hard it was for both of us. And it seemed like at that moment nobody else would understand, only we understood each other. Well, I’m speaking for my emotions.
It seemed to me then that as if nobody in this world would understand us. And only we understood each other, experiencing the same thing.
So, yes, we could initially be crying in separate rooms, and then there would be a knock on the door. “Well, shall we cry together?” – “Let’s cry together.”
So, it wasn’t so much support like “we’ll handle it.” It’s just easier because there is someone next to you who completely understands you, you can just vent.
Therefore, I think, yes, at some point we did vent a lot to each other. At least for me, at that moment it really helped and was very important, – said the Olympic champion from Beijing 2022, Anna Shcherbakova, in Maxim Trankov’s podcast “Free Program.”
Related topics: Anna Scherbakova
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