Clement Kolesnikov, the leader of the Russian national swimming team, showed the best result of the season in the world at a distance of 100 on Wednesday meters on the back as part of the Russian Cup. In an interview with the Sports Athlete, he spoke about the decline in the status of the Olympic Games, the short-sightedness of the new State Duma bill and the interest in Artyom Dzyuba's trash current.
«I would definitely have been faster at the World Championships»
— You broke the Russian record, showed a better result than the winner at the World Championships in Fukuoka. Are the emotions similar to those when you win a big tournament?- There are two moments at the World Championships. This is a result for which you rejoice or are upset, and your place among the foreign guys who play there. An important part emotionally. Now I am happy for my time, the result, for showing that I can do even better. Of course, there are not enough emotions from winning the competition with foreigners, but the feelings are similar. world championship, the result could be better?
— Definitely would be better. Maybe a couple of hundredths. The result is better when there is competition, excitement, adrenaline. At the World Championships, the atmosphere is less friendly, more combative.
— Have children's dreams come true in sports, if you do not think about the Olympic gold medal, which you have yet to win failed?- It has always been like this since childhood — everyone has a dream to win Olympic gold, it is even an obsessive thought. But when you start practicing professionally, successes in swimming appear, you build a certain chain for yourself, steps that you climb, and make the Olympic Games more real.
«I will not finish my career, even if I won't get to Paris»
— Will you be preparing for Paris, and is it already difficult for the Games in the USA because of your age? If you are not allowed to the next Olympics, will your career be over?
— No, there are no such thoughts due to the fact that we have more and more alternatives. On the one hand, I want to compete with foreigners, to compete in exactly one place and at one time, but if everything goes like this … There are more than one number of alternative competitions where you can perform, show yourself. There, the results will be equated with foreign ones and entered into the world protocols.
— From your lips it sounds like the Olympics ceases to matter.
— The Olympics no longer have the same as before, because all political movements have begun. The most important principle loses its meaning. I simply did not initially have such an idea of the Olympics as something sacred. When I was little, yes, I considered it something unreal. When you get there, you understand that there is nothing so special. Just an obsessive stereotype that the Olympic Games are something important. Everything rests on political schemes.
— Not an Olympic champion, but a world record holder — does it warm the soul now during the suspension?
— Good question. This is one of the reasons why the Olympics is not something for me. The world record holder will be one step higher than the Olympic champion.
— But the Olympic champion is forever, and the record can be broken.
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— Yes, I understand. But it’s much cooler when your record stands for 8-10 years, no one can beat it, everyone strives. For example, someone wins the Olympic Games, but they don’t go to the next ones with the idea of overtaking the one who won the last time. Everyone is trying to show records, chasing time. Almost all of my records have now been broken, 50 meters backstroke, 100 backstroke. I have the only one left — 50 meters on the back in a short pool.
— Are you worried that he will be beaten in the near future?
— I'll be happy about it.
< strong>— Why?
— When I set the first record, I thought it was forever. Once he was beaten, it was frustrating for me because I tried so hard and he was so easily outclassed. Then the following records were also immediately broken. The race is always after time, everyone competes for seconds. It is they who decide, nothing else.
If my record is broken, it will be an indicator that I am not the best. Excitement appears. When your record is broken, you realize that this is not the speed limit.
—Many records are broken at the World Championships in Fukuoka. Do you contact any of the guys who are there?
Yes, I congratulate you, I am writing. I communicate with Italians, with Thomas Chekkon, with Hungarians, Romanians, Spaniards. We write off in social networks.
— I wrote to them myself, threw off our protocol.
«Do not judge those who change sports citizenship, and you will not be judged»
— There are already those in swimming who have changed the national team. Do you understand them?
— I can easily put myself in the place of another person and, based on his position, think about why this happened. I have everything converges calmly, if you look from the point of view of a particular person. Do not judge and you will not be judged. Nothing so terrible happened. Unless, of course, you look from a different point of view, more extensive, without delving into it, it looks bad. But everyone has different situations and life. Why force a person to do what he does not want to do? Maybe tomorrow I don’t want to swim anymore, I’ll come and say that I’m tying it up, and everyone will persuade me and then condemn me. Why all this?
— In what case would you decide to do this yourself?
— I did not think about it, because me a different life and other priorities.
— I am doing everything to the maximum so that we can show everyone that we do not stand still and achieve results outside of competitions that take place abroad.
— Now the State Duma is thinking about the law, according to which athletes who have changed their citizenship will be obliged to pay the entire amount that was spent on them from the state budget. What do you think about this?
— And if a child leaves the family at the age of 18 and no longer wants to communicate with his parents, will he also need to reimburse the costs? This is weird. I'm not «against» and not «for». I noticed that every year they want to do something faster and faster and are in a hurry somewhere. You need to think well. Well, they will accept and accept, the law is the law, where will we go. The country is a family. She invested in the child, but then continues to invest.
«Isinbayeva will cope with the hate»
— The IOC decided not to set deadlines for international federations for admission to the Games. Do you think we'll get a decision this year? Will it be too late?
— Yes, at least a week before the Olympics they will make a selection competition, in any case we will swim, participate. You can't go anywhere — if you want to participate, you will do it. In any case, we are preparing for the Olympics. We have a cycle and a final start — the Olympics. Our guys will try to show results. If not at the Olympics, then at alternative competitions at this time.
— Yesterday, in a conversation with reporters, Martin Malyutin said that he set himself up for competitions through force. How are you with the mood?
— I do not set myself up through force, because there is no burnout. There are goals and priorities, there is something to strive for.
How do you feel about the idea to speak at the Asian Games?
— I think that I would not like to take part with the conditions that they can offer us. It is strange to act on those recommendations of the IOC.
On the other hand, I have no right to decide this. We are of the opinion that this will be decided by the Ministry of Sports.
—Two-time Olympic champion in track and field athletics Yelena Isinbayeva recently announced that she would continue to work for the IOC. She, having the rank of major, said that the military ranks received while playing for CSKA were nominal. Is it fair that a wave of hate hit her?
— Heit has always been. A lot of people have been hated before, anyway, everything ends up switching to something else. I have no right to judge, because I don’t know the person, I can’t put myself in her place. I think, in any case, he will find a way out, no one has died because of the hate.
— What do you, a cool swimmer, need to do to become more popular than Artem Dziuba?
— Do you study somewhere?
< br>— I just received my diploma in mid-July. I have a specialty «Sports manager». I did not go to the coach, because such an activity does not attract me, and sports management, I think, will come in handy. Career is short. I will probably finish it when I feel burned out. Yes, and there are still many other factors.