Autumn in Russian sports will be a new young family at the intersection of figure skating and rhythmic gymnastics. Four-time Russian champion Maxim Kovtun and five-time world champion Evgenia Levanova are preparing to get married.
In an interview with Sport, Levanova spoke about a serious injury that led her to miss the 2020 Olympics and end her career, a fateful acquaintance with Kovtun and about how the meeting has affected the lives of young people.
Evgenia now trains young gymnasts. Lives in Yerevan and develops his favorite sport in the country.
— How is the preparation for the wedding going and when is it planned?< /strong>
— The wedding will be in autumn. Preparations are going well, although we are constantly on the road — both me and Maxim. We have a team, we turned to wedding organizers and did not regret it at all. If you do everything yourself, you will not be able to enjoy the process, from the wedding day itself, be relaxed and enjoy the day.
We recently met with a decorator, we are looking at the hosts — in the process, they have not yet been approved. We decided on the site and booked everything. I bought myself three dresses — there will be different images. It was necessary to meet with a stylist, makeup artist, to discuss everything about make-up and hairstyles. This is important to me.
— Will the images be trendy or rather classic?
— I will not be a Barbie princess in a Disney dress, but I tend to classics. The images are different, not trendy.
— Judging by the scale of preparations, will there be a holiday for many guests?< br>
— Within a hundred people. Probably 70 to 90. It is difficult to say for sure now, because suddenly someone will not be able to come.
— Will there be more guests from the ice or from the carpet?
— And from the carpet, and from the ice. Related to our sports. We have been spinning in this all our lives, so the social circle is sporty. Well, relatives will also, of course, be the closest friends from childhood. /strong>
“It seems to me that this tradition is no longer very relevant. I did not choose anyone for this role.
— And what about the stag and hen parties? Will there be something cool?- There will be no 100% bachelor party, because Maxim works right up to the wedding itself, he has a big workload. We even have only four days left to prepare the wedding dance. I'll be busy too, but I have a week in Sochi. I will gather the girls, we will go to Krasnaya Polyana for a couple of days, we will ride on a yacht at sunset, we will go to the bathhouse. The weather will be just fine.
— Does Maxim somehow participate in the preparation? Men are often afraid of all this wedding marketing and withdraw themselves.
— He participates, helps as much as possible. But if he cannot go to some wedding meeting, he completely trusts me. We have similar tastes. «As you say, so be it, I agree with your decision,» so he says.
— By the way, about the bath. I heard that you and Maxim met in a bathhouse in Novogorsk. A very entourage place.
— When I tell everyone how we met, I specially pause between the words «bath» and «Novogorsk» (laughs). Everyone starts laughing and imagines a different picture.
— How did it really happen?
— You need to understand what a bath in Novogorsk is. It is located at the base where the national teams of Russia in different sports train. For example, today is the evening of fencing and rhythmic gymnastics. Tomorrow — trampoline and figure skating. There is a chic bath complex, a jacuzzi, a hammam, a huge pool, fonts, a Finnish sauna and a Russian bath — everything for recovery. A very important element of preparation. To unload the muscles, swim, relax. Gymnasts mainly go to the bathhouse to lose weight, drive off excess fluid. But since I never had problems with weight, I went rarely and at will. And that day she went with her teammate Ksyusha Polyakova so that she would not be bored.
Max, as he later told, went with his friend Jonathan Gureiro. They then had a team test in Novogorsk.
I never thought about boys, about relationships during my professional career. And even if someone was sitting there in the bath, I would not pay attention to him. As it happened, in principle, she didn’t even look at Max. Neither the right nor the left eye — I didn’t even remember the face.
And he saw me there. And he was without lenses, so I don’t know how he liked me — he has poor eyesight, and I sat wrapped in a towel from my chin to my knees (laughs). In general, I talked with another friend of mine, Anastasia Tatareva (Olympic champion in group exercises — ed.). They knew each other because both were from Yekaterinburg. «What kind of girl? I liked her. Can you give me some of her contacts?» Nastya showed him my social networks. He texted me the next day. And so it all began.
— Fate, it turns out — both of you did not prepare for this, but met by chance and have not parted for many years.
— You said that you didn't think about relationships at all during your career. It turns out that Maxim is your first love?
— Yes.
— Is it easier for an athlete to understand an athlete? There is no offense that everyone should devote a lot of time to their work.- It helped us a lot that we are both from sports. For example, I had free time only in the evening, after seven or eight hours and until ten. There is a mandatory weigh-in at ten, so you have to be at the base. Max could say: «Zhen, if today you need to go for a massage, for medical procedures in order to heal an injury, no problems at all — stay, of course, I'll wait. Career is important now.» And that's how we both treated each other. We'll wait, we won't run away and we'll always be there.
— How did you find time to communicate with such a schedule?
— We found time sometimes for thirty minutes. We drove an hour there and an hour back to spend half an hour together. Therefore, we are now accustomed to parting, this does not kill us, but, on the contrary, unites us. There are periods of boredom. When we are separated for some time, we have time to miss each other. We calmly meet deadlines of two or three weeks, if he works and I work.
— Maxim ended his career when you met. Remember how he experienced it all?- I remember, of course, I was very against it and dissuaded him. As he, by the way, dissuaded me. This was after the European Championship and the Universiade in 2019. I decided to finish even after Europe and went to the Universiade, knowing that this was his last start. There were big problems with his back.
It seemed to me that he just got in shape, he just won the Russian championship. Yes, the European Championship went badly. But failures happen, we must fight on. But I didn’t convince him, and now he says that he doesn’t regret it for a second. This is the most important thing.
strong>- After a couple of years, you already found yourself in a difficult situation when you could not go to the Olympics, and Maxim needed to support you. Nowhere is complete information about your injury, tell us about it.
— I have a bone in my leg shattered into several fragments. First in one leg, then in the other in the Achilles region. These fragments went into the ligaments, into the tendons, so it was very painful. And the leg is constantly working: high half-toes, a big load. When the fragment hit some unnecessary place, the leg got up in the so-called block and I could not move it. It was scary and dangerous. If this happened at the competition, I would not be able to continue to do anything and just wait to be carried away.
Irina Alexandrovna (Wiener — ed.), when I did the first operation, immediately offered me to operate on the second leg as well. And the doctors also suggested, because they knew that the same problem was on the way on the second leg. But I really hoped for the Olympics in six months and understood that if I make two legs at once, I’m guaranteed not to have time to recover. I will be in a wheelchair with these two casts — terrible.
So I refused the second operation and said that I would do everything for recovery.
The recovery was going well, I already I started to join the team when the second leg broke. Then it became clear that I would not endure. Well, it would be a week or a month before the Games, then I could somehow hold out on injections. But three or four months is impossible.
— How did you feel about it?
— I took it calmly. Didn't get depressed. I am a very positive person in life, I never regret what happened. I thought, that's how it should be. Fate saved me from something. It was and it was. This is my life, and I am the main builder in it.
So I didn't have to go there. If the Olympics were in 2020, I would go. But there was covid, it was rescheduled. It was like the whole world was against me. What am I — I worked, prepared sincerely, trained 10-12 hours a day.
I don't like to complain and I don't like to listen to people who complain about life. So, it was not mine, but the most important victories are yet to come.
— Irina Alexandrovna is famous for being able to find the right words in difficult moments. Did you have any conversation with her then?
— It was she who did both operations for me, helped with them. Helped at all times. But I'm not alone with her. On me, the light did not converge like a wedge. I understand everything perfectly, there are still many gymnasts in the national team. Yes, this stage has passed. I no longer train, I have completed my career, so our communication now concerns some life moments.
There is a cycle of athletes in sports. One left, another came. I always understood that we, no matter how ugly it may sound, are a product. Coaches «sculpt» us and then let us go free swimming. Nobody owes us anything in the future. I don’t understand, for example, when athletes, I won’t say from which sports, expose these sufferings to the public: “Yes, what was done to me, this is the attitude …” But we are not relatives. It's just our job. Didn't work — move on. The main thing is to end your career at the right time. Then life goes on, it is even more interesting and cooler. Nobody owes me anything in sports or in life.- You speak so grown-up about it. Athletes, especially young ones, rarely have such an attitude towards their career and life after it. Didn't you have a moment of confusion when you realized that everything was done with sports?
— I listened to smart adults and Maxim too. He explained a lot to me and helped me understand that adult life is completely different. In sports, everyone helped us to do everything, everything was decided for us. Even our passports were not stored with us — they were in the federation. They gave us visas, fed us, gave us drink, cleaned up after us. Our task was to train well and not worry about anything, not think about anything. It's cool that sports are so supported in Russia. But also because of this, many, going into adulthood after sports, are lost. We can be said to have been spoon-fed, and now we have to answer for everything ourselves. I'm glad that I realized this a long time ago, maybe that's why everything, pah-pah-pah, is developing for me.
— Today we talked a lot about the wedding, about sports, and these things and many other lies love. What is love?
— If we are talking about the love of life, then it is never to keep evil on people. Don't hold grudges. Try to always find a reason to smile. When I have a bad day or I’m upset about something, something doesn’t work out, I always say to myself: “Zhen, but some people have much more serious problems. Someone cannot see, hear, is born with serious diseases. Someone has no arms and legs. Look at the Paralympic champions — how much they train and try, despite the lack of opportunities. And you, because of some little thing, can lower your nose and not act further.» These attitudes help me fly forward with great speed.
And love for a person … You know, passion — it passes, like a momentary love that happens at the beginning of a relationship. But respect and insane support in all endeavors can and should remain. Love is not a restriction of freedom, not some kind of framework. It is important to support each other and strive forward. With love, you can take off both in your career and in your studies. Everything can be developed when there is love.