Petr Gumennik: “I can honestly admit to myself: I really want to go to the Olympics. Now, not in four years.”

Petr Gumennik about the Olympics.

original source: RT

In the interview with RT, Peter Gumennik spoke about the Olympics. Here’s a translation of his comments.

Russian Figure skating federation hasn’t named a candidate in men’s single skating for a neutral status to participate in Olympic qualifier event yet. Gumennik won the recent Russian Grand Prix Final.

“Q: I can’t avoid discussing the topic of Olympic qualification and the reactions of potential contenders for the qualifying competition. Vlad Dikidji approached his own prospects very lightly and almost naively: if it happens, great; if not, it’s not the time yet. For Evgeni Semenenko, his less successful performance, on the contrary, was a terrible blow. What does the possibility of attending the Games mean to you?

Petr Gumennik: Before going to Krasnoyarsk (Russian Grand Prix Final) and right up until the competition itself, I thought about it somewhat like Vlad: if the Olympics don’t happen in my life this time, it’s not a big deal — I’ll go to the next one. That was probably partly a defensive reaction of my own psyche to convince myself that I wasn’t too worried about it, so that I could approach the performance more calmly, without extra thoughts to throw me off.

But then, after I won, I realized, I can honestly admit to myself: I really want to go to the Olympics. Now, not in four years.

Q: If you were in the place of the president of the Russian Figure Skating Federation right now, who among the skaters would you choose?

Petr Gumennik: I would try to approach this question with the utmost honesty. I don’t know all the background information that our federation might have, but if they asked me, I am ready to present arguments in my favor. I think every athlete would do the same. I hope that the federation makes the most objective decision.

Q: Since we’re talking about arguments, what would you present in your favor?

Petr Gumennik: Well, you see: in the last competition, several athletes performed cleanly in two programs or were very close to it. So the competition was quite fierce. And amidst such high competition, I managed to score not just the best, but a very high total score. At the beginning of the season, I wasn’t performing as confidently, but I was working towards this.

Q: At the beginning of the season, it seems that no skater had the goal to outperform themselves.

Petr Gumennik: I did. To get into shape right away, I would have had to accelerate my preparation. I had an injury during the summer, and it took me quite a while to recover and work very methodically. So, the level I reached by February was not accidental.”

Related topics: Petr Gumennik