Semyon Pavlichenko, two-time world champion in luge, six-time winner of European championships, spoke about rehabilitation in an interview after a complex operation, unexpected reactions of the body, the joys of a person's life outside of sports, communication with foreigners after the start of SVO and work in a tire fitting.
In September 2022, an athlete injured his leg at a team gathering. On September 21, he underwent surgery in Moscow, and on September 26 he was discharged from the clinic. In March 2023, Pavlichenko won two gold medals at the Russian Championships in Sochi.
— Semyon, have you fully recovered after the operation?
br>
“Everything is going well, but I still can’t fully step on my foot. I do various exercises, but the strength has not yet returned. In the morning I can’t push off with my feet at all, only by lunchtime I gradually begin to walk around. Here you stand on the toe and stand on it. But I can’t do this — I step, and at the same time the heel itself goes down, as if there is no strength in the leg. What do doctors say?
— It happens, sometimes recovery takes up to a year. My condition is getting better, now at least there is no pain, as before. I don’t know why this happened, maybe when the wound was stitched together, the sural nerve was touched. I asked the guys who had such an injury, they say that nothing hurt. And I was in pain. I slept well, just had incomprehensible pain. They appeared incomprehensibly and just as incomprehensibly disappeared.
Plus, they were felt during loads, for a very long time I could not perform the exercises of rehabilitators with high quality. The leg hurt, although the load was minimal. And only now I can fully work normally, but two weeks ago I had pains.
— How did you train and perform?
— When I arrived at the first training camp, I couldn't even put on a racing boot, it hurt. I had to take shoes of a larger size, rolled up a little, kneaded my leg. Because if you perform not in the usual, but in a big boot, then the aerodynamics worsen. And by the start of the competition, you had to stretch your leg so much that you could put it in your boot.
The body itself turned on the defense
— Did you perform at the maximum strength at the Russian Championships?
— No, because I had a very small roll on the track. But I wanted to drive beautifully, I prepared well and showed good starting acceleration. But there were moments when, somewhere deep in my subconscious, I had some kind of blockage and it did not allow me to fully accelerate. br>And I felt a certain sense of fear for my health. In order not to hurt the leg, not to hit the board, not to get used to it. And he constantly worried because of this.
— Maybe the body's defense reaction was turned on?- Yes. At first I really wanted to go to the training camp in December. But the doctor and the team leader told me: «Recover calmly until January, and then you will start skating.» And when I started to ride, I said to myself that I feel calm. But inside I understood that I was driving constrainedly: I try to relax, but I can’t. I want to go to the maximum, I put all my strength and at the same time I clearly see and feel that the body simply does not allow me to turn on at full strength.
Can you imagine? Especially the legs. I thought — why, because the ankles are not involved at all. Well, Achilles broke and broke, but I'm not a bobsledder or skeletonist, where the run is so important. But it turned out that this is how our brain works and protects you.
— Did you think about the races during the pause? strong
— I wanted to skate so much that one day the moment came when I didn’t need anything. Overwhelmed, as they say, burned out. This happens when, for example, you dream of saving up for a house or cottage. And you think — I want, I want, I want, but you still can't. And at one moment you say to yourself — why do I need this house at all? (laughs)
That's how it was with the sled. But then, when I rode for the first time, I realized — no, I want to ride very much.
br>We do lessons with my son together
— Did you learn something new for yourself during treatment?
— Of course, I discovered the life of an ordinary person. Who gets up in the morning and sees his family, who is constantly at home. Went to practice and returned home. When you are busy with children every day: sometimes you can’t live without them, sometimes they bother you (with a smile). I just took part in the life of my family, and it's worth it.
— What was the brightest thing?
— When you go to training everything once a day (laughs). You know, I wanted to be at home so much that my family understood me. Three years ago, we were doing renovations, and I just wanted to sit on the couch, watch TV, do household chores. Everyday, which may not be very important, but in ordinary sports life you do not have such an opportunity.
— Ordinary joys of life.
— Yes, just fall on the sofa and lie down. So that (eight-year-old) Fedor and (five-year-old) Roman crawl over me. I'm lying, the children are trampling on me, the wife asks: «Does it hurt you?» And I enjoy this. Fedor recently broke his leg, he has been in a cast for three weeks, and I am dragging him up the stairs. I am very glad that I am at home, that the children are at home, we walk on the street and ride an ATV.
— Do you check the lessons?
— We do not check, we sit and do (laughs). And we listen to the constant roar. We seem to have a good time, then I ask: «Fedya, did you do your homework?» And then the roar begins: «Well, why do you need to do these lessons?» It is impossible to force him, he roars for an hour, and then sits down and quickly does everything. You tell him: «And why did you roar, this is the first class, you could do everything in 15 minutes, an hour earlier.» Yes, I remember myself at the same time, I did my homework at the last moment in the same way.
Was it interesting to watch the World and European Championships?
— Of course, I so wanted to see everything, watched and even congratulated the guys. Me and (multiple Olympic champion German) Felix Loch wrote: «Hello! How are you, how are you?» I was even surprised at first and thought: «Ah, hell, you're afraid of me, you want to sniff something out» (laughs). I understand that he does this out of good intentions.
— Do you still correspond with any of the foreign lugers?
— I communicate with the Italian Nick Fischnaller, with the Latvians, they are all our friends.
— As for the guys from abroad, it seems not. Only the Ukrainians suddenly began to say when communicating: «Come on, go outside!» I answer: “Guys, are you sick or not? I understand that you are now in a panic. But all the time there were wars in the world, and we didn’t get into it, we went in for sports. You have been doing this since 2014, but I don’t I have seen not a single post of yours against the constant bombing of Donbass. You are now spouting all sorts of nonsense at us, and we have never seen you say: «Stop the war, stop bombing the Donbass.» You did not ask your president to stop the military actions».
Ukrainians are our friends, and we always communicated well with them and helped. They had difficult situations with inventory, and we always helped them, and shared the sled. But you cannot put yourself in the place of another person until you find yourself there.
The fate of athletes is sacrificed for the sake of politics
— How do you assess the stringent requirements of the IOC for the admission of Russians?
— I haven’t been following this especially lately, after the Russian Championship I was completely immersed in the family. We have always said that it is not necessary to mix sports and politics. And now the fate of athletes is being sacrificed for the sake of politics. And everything rests on our shoulders, we must make decisions. And make the right decisions — so that they don't poke a finger at us later and don't call us scum.
Someone has learned to do everything with his own hands — to work on a machine tool or to glue wallpaper coolly. By the way, now I also learned how to glue wallpaper coolly (with a smile). And we, athletes, only know how to train, compete and recover.
And my attitude to all this is negative. Because there is such a situation that we, perhaps, will not go anywhere to international competitions. And in this situation, the leader of our country should help us make some decision.
— Do you allow participation as neutral athletes?
< br>
— I understand that neutral status does not change our belonging to our native country. But the fact is that this choice should not be hung on the shoulders of athletes. Do you know how it was when we went to the Olympic Games in Korea? The President of the country approved the decision to perform in a neutral status, and a lot of people splashed out a lot of negativity about our participation without a flag and an anthem.
And it was hard for me to hear when they said: «You were chasing money» . And I answered: «So I first need to win the Olympics to get this money. Go and try it yourself.»
If you just don't go to the Olympics, it means giving up. And if you went, then you still represent Russia. Albeit in a neutral state. And you have to do everything possible to win. Or you can say: «I'm not going anywhere», and admit — that's it, you've given up.
I won’t sign papers on condemnation
— If you are offered to sign a document condemning the SVO for admission to starts, will you go for it?
— No, of course, I am such papers Under no circumstances will I sign. I am sure that none of our athletes will sign anything like that.
— How do you feel about the change of citizenship in today's situation? Maybe you have received such an offer?
— No, I didn't. After all, many leave to play for another country in order to earn money. Let's say in some countries you can get more. For example, what we earn in our sport only helps to exist. And it is out of the question that we are some kind of rich people.
I live like a normal person. And, for example, the Italian Dominik Fischnaller earns around 150-200 thousand euros a year. That's good money in a regular season, without Olympic medals. And in all seasons, when he performs worse than me, he earns several times more. Our conditions are simply incomparable.
— Why are you not invited to other national teams?
— What's the point? All teams are already completed. I hope that someday we will also start paying well at home. Maybe someone will think that it would be nice to support their athletes. You work, and this is also a good motivation.
For example, after the end of the season, I decided to work with my own hands and opened a tire shop. I make some money. I used to have the equipment, and I decided to try something else to do, start changing the wheels. I can say that this season I didn’t earn money for vacation, so I’m thinking about how to find funds and take my family somewhere to the south, warm my bones in the sun.
— Opened on share with someone?
— No, one. But he is not in a passing place and really exists only to support his pants. I help only my relatives and friends. If the point is in a passing place, then more or less you can earn normally. But there you can die from loads (laughs), work out so many cars.
— Do you change the wheels yourself? br>
— Yes, I do it alone in the garage. Where can I recruit someone else, I myself have little left (with a smile). I only work for my own, it helps a little financially. But just in case, I put a mark on the «Yandex. Map». You know, it's nice to understand that you can at least do something with your own hands.
Of course, you want to learn how to do everything beautifully, whatever you take on. For example, I can polish cars and love this business very much. But in order to get good at this, you have to work constantly.
So now, before starting to seriously engage in tire fitting, I myself changed the cars for my wife and friend. To remember everything himself, and several times tossed the wheels back and forth. In order not to damage or spoil anything, I remembered how to do the same wheel balancing with high quality.
— In your opinion, is there any hope that we will be allowed to the Olympic Games?— You know, now the most important thing is just to survive until the Olympics. Therefore, I try not to think about it.
— But you participated in the Games three times, the dream of winning gold remains?
— Certainly. But there will be a day — there will be food. After all, in the middle of the season, after the operation, I didn’t even know whether I would compete at the Russian Championship or not. I wanted to compete and win, but at the same time I carefully thought — if we manage to come, we will work. If it doesn't work, then no. This season I watched how foreigners ride like our guys. But I don’t skate…
— Did something change in the world top ten during the season?
— All the former leaders remained, but there is one a comrade who accelerated very much is the German Max Langenhan. He began to drive very fast and it is no coincidence that he won five World Cups in a row. I came, I saw, I conquered (with a smile). After all, he missed several stages due to injury.
— You can also follow this path — you were injured, returned and won.
— I'm an optimist, but you know, there are times when I really don't understand what I want. And we do not have special and complete information from our superiors. Will our sport be funded and to what extent, for future competitions, will we have the same salaries or not. I hope that everything will be fine.