Alina Zagitova: “In any endeavor, you have to sacrifice something. I sacrificed friends, food. I believe it was absolutely justified in my case. I have no right to complain because I succeeded.”
Alina Zagitova about her Olympic victory and sacrifices it took.
original source: Sovsport dd. Feb 21st by Pavel Burov
In the comments to Sovsport, Alina Zagitova recalled her feeling after winning the gold medal at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic Games and shared what she had to sacrifice for the sake of sport. Here’s a translation of her comments.
“I felt exhausted. My energy was completely depleted. Previous Olympic champions had said that there comes a moment of absolute emptiness, and joy may only come years later. I didn’t believe it. How could that be possible? You are standing on the Olympic podium. How could there not be joy? But I experienced it myself; it’s true. You are completely drained—physically, psychologically, mentally. You just try to remember these moments while standing on the podium, with so many people watching you. It’s really worth working towards this,” told Alina Zagitova.
Alina Zagitova shared what she had to sacrifice for the sake of sport. “In any endeavor, you have to sacrifice something. I sacrificed friends, food,” she laughs. “I believe it was absolutely justified in my case. I have no right to complain because I succeeded. But in any case, you need to sacrifice something if you want to achieve anything. Now I can indulge in fast food and ice cream at night. Of course, I have to run afterward, but it’s no longer forbidden, and I have made friends.
Were there any restrictions on interacting with other skaters at competitions? No, it’s just that I’m the type of person who needed to delve into myself, my emotions, and focus entirely on the task at hand, and that generally helped me. So, I developed such a strategy for myself. Everyone has their own. Some people just need to laugh and talk to others. I would retreat into myself and listen only to myself and my coaches. In fact, I didn’t even talk to my parents.”
She also gave advice to a young figure skater on how to achieve success in figure skating.
“Discipline, as we know, is the key to success. It’s always an important, integral part. I think it’s really about having a set goal, something you are striving towards. You simply understand every day why you wake up in the morning and do the same work. I think having a goal is the most important thing.”
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