"At least not to screw up": Ukrainian Olympic champion talks about the conflicts in gymnastics that hindered preparations for the 2024 Olympics

Oleh Verniaiev, Olympic champion and medalist of the 2016 Games in artistic gymnastics told how quarrels with the leadership of the Ukrainian federation hindered preparations for the competition in Paris. The titled athlete missed the Tokyo 2020 Olympics due to disqualification, but in a year and a half, he managed to get back in shape, helped the team reach the top 5 at the 2024 Olympics, and became eighth in the all-around and fifth in the pommel horse, although they tried to retire him.

In a conversation with journalists, Verniaiev summarized the results of the Olympics and described the challenges Ukrainian gymnasts are currently facing.

– Oleh, what happened during the performance on horseback? Did you run out of strength?

– No, I still had enough strength. My physical fitness was more or less the same. Of course, I was a little tired, because of the trials plus three days of all-around competitions. But I felt fine. It's been worse, much worse. Today, I probably made a mistake more because of a technical issue – I couldn't hold on to the uneven bars.

I was given the green signal to start a little faster than I expected. I thought that the first one would be given 20-30 seconds more, but no one was waiting, and I couldn't cover the bars as I needed to. It seems like such small things...

– But it all affects the result.

–  It has a full impact because we have half of the elements where you have to hang on your hands.  That's why it's important to cover them well. Sometimes, you know, it happens that it doesn't work in competitions. Sometimes you skip, sometimes you don't. But here, in Paris, I couldn't, I managed, it didn't work out. It happens.

– How satisfied are you with your performance at this Olympics in general?

– Listen, let's be honest. After two and a half years without training, first of all, few people believed that I would come back at all. Secondly, when I did return, everyone told me that I would not be able to reach a high level. But after a year and a half of training, I made it, I made it to the Olympics, I qualified for three finals, I did the all-around on the team, I did my best, and I did everything I could.

So I think that despite all the difficulties, the nuances of our preparation, and all the moments that we had there, I did my best. Of course, we will think about how to move forward and what to do. It's too early to say, we'll see.

– I think we have a lot of fighters in our team in Paris, of course, but Olia Harlan with her comeback after the failure in Tokyo is something incredible, and the fact that you were able to come back after being disqualified. Where do you get your resources and have you talked to Olia recently?

– Yes, of course, I visited her after the bronze medal and after the gold medal in the team, we talked. She is brilliant, what can I say? She just knows how to play this sport. She's been through it (smiles). Maybe she has some cheats, as they say. But I bow down, she is a brilliant athlete, and most importantly, she is a great person.

– If we go back to the all-around, did the judges not want to see us on the podium and withheld their scores for you and Illia Kovtun, who came fourth?

– And who do they want to see on the pedestal? Well, there is no such thing as Ukraine arriving and us wanting to or not wanting to. It's just that everyone there has their own judges, everyone works for themselves. Everyone is fighting for this medal. This is the Olympic Games.

And if you go back to the 2016 Olympics and my all-around in Rio, my difficulty was about a point and a half or two higher than the Japanese winner. Although his was one of the highest in the world. But I played and competed at the expense of mine. And here, when the competition is equal, those who have the strongest skills win. They come up and do their job. And if he had made a mistake, would the president of the federation have pulled him out for a medal? The guy came in, did the all-around, and his program, and the other Japanese and Chinese made mistakes. He just did it when it was right. That's it, he's an Olympic champion.

I'd like to say something else in a separate paragraph for all the fans because I'm often asked why our coaches don't file protests. Look, in gymnastics, a protest is only filed for difficulty. You do an element and it doesn't count. And you can appeal the difficulty and see if they counted it correctly or incorrectly. And this is one in a hundred cases when they didn't notice something or made a mistake somewhere.

But 99% of the time, they give us the difficulty that we have. But no protest is filed against the execution. This is the first thing. Second, a protest costs $300. If you justify it and they change the grade for you, you don't pay. If you file a protest and they say no, I'm sorry, you're wrong, you lose the $300.

Then there are international judges. Do you know how many international judges we have in Ukraine? We have a few young judges who live in Ukraine. But are they taken somewhere? Do they travel somewhere? Do we have competitions?

Next. We have the World Cup in September in Hungary. We went last year, me and Chepurnyi. This year, if I'm not mistaken, there were several guys there. And Chepurnyi should be going to this World Cup already. Because he has a desire to compete, to try. To try a new jump. That is, to work. Before the Olympic Games, Stella Zakharova, the president of the Gymnastics Federation, said that we were withdrawing from these competitions, we didn't need them, they were not rational. What does that mean?

And a month before the Olympics, I have to beg these Czechs. What is this? And then he writes to me, "Let's give you money for socks, for Czechs. I can buy them myself, it's not a problem. But we have sponsored Czechs who have been at our base all their lives. And the hardest thing was to get them, you had to get into the national team and deserve them. And now what? She says something about 30 Czechs she bought in three sizes.

Moving on. The World Cup in Cottbus, Germany. We arrive. I make a horse, and I'm 0.1 short of making it to the final. And according to my database, I think they took off 0.3 or 0.4 for the element. We file a protest. Then they explained to us that I have to do it this way, not that way. That is, the element itself does not change, but there should be a circle-turn, not a turn-circle. I immediately went to the gym and changed it, but it was too late. Where do we get this information? From whom?

You don't need to go to the World Cup! Why? We'll figure it out for ourselves here. And who paid 300 dollars for the protest? The coach, not the federation. We already train without light, or other difficulties arise, and we have to do it on our own. We all realize that our guys and girls on the front line have a much more difficult situation. And we all help them. But we are in Ukraine and we are working.

I worked out 105% of my training. And three weeks before the Olympics, I had, you know, such a moral overload that I just came to my coach and said I couldn't work and would take a few days off because my head was not thinking straight. I couldn't do a single element, because I just couldn't do it anymore. Because you work hard in the gym, it's a moral burden, because everyone is pressuring you.

All these quarrels within the federation, where they tell you for a year and a half that you are old and shouldn't be on the team. They were shouting in 2022 that I shouldn't be included anywhere.

– At a time when there should be unity...

– No, on Facebook, everyone writes that we are united by everyone. Instead of going with us, and finding us a doctor for the national team, they find something else. We haven't had a doctor since last year. I write there, I write here, I look there, I do everything myself.

– What happened to the previous doctor?

– He left for health reasons. We couldn't get a pharmacy for about six months because we didn't have a doctor. The ministry could not officially issue us medicines, because according to the papers, there must be a doctor. It's not me who has to look for one, and it's not you. And not the guys or girls on the front line. It's kind of strange, to be honest. And we are told that we are doing something wrong here, not preparing properly.

Believe me, despite all the squabbles, despite everything, we all united here, we were all on the same team. Illia supported me, and I supported him, and Radomyr, and Nazar, and Ihor. We were all one team, we all fought in this team to the end. By the way, I watched yesterday, only two teams from the qualifiers raised their scores in the final – we and the Americans. All the others performed worse.

We have worked hard, and done everything we could. It's just that instead of developing gymnastics, it's being killed.

– What kind of future is there? Yesterday Hennadii Sartynskyi said that there are no young gymnasts at all.

– We need to call the president of the federation and find out what they have in mind. Maybe fire half the team and find all the new, young, cool ones. And I don't even know the people who are on our technical committee. Do you understand? They decide who goes to competitions, who is put on the training camp, and what to do. People I don't know. Neither the head coach of the national team is included, nor the senior coach, nor international judges. And they are going to tell me, Kovtun, Radyvilov or Chepurnyi how to prepare for the Olympics?

Well, come to the gym. To be honest, I'd love to see them train one of us, and make a plan of what we should do. I'll even train for a month according to this plan, and we'll see what happens.

– Does such a toxic atmosphere and scandals keep your hands busy?

– Of course, it's very difficult. Because we go to compete and not to get high, not to fight, but with the thought "I don't want to shit myself, because they'll water me down again, or say something wrong."

I just talked to the Olympic Channel. The anchor there is supportive, she says: "All that you went through is so unreal. How you came back!". And now I'm going to come home and they're going to tell me what I'm doing wrong, why I came back without a medal? Like, that's it, kick him out. Well, that's the difference.

I didn't want this negativity at the Olympics, because it's a holiday. I'm very glad to be here, and we have done such a great job.

– And no one can influence it – the NOC or the Ministry of Sports?

– These are federal issues. It's up to us... But when you come and say that you want to do something, for example, I want to open a gymnastics school, they say to me: "You can't do anything, go away." We opened the school ourselves. And what do you think? They put spokes in the wheels so much that not only a car will not go with such people, but even a tank.

– Is there anyone from the federation in Paris to ask them about all this? Have you seen anyone?

– Have you seen them?

– No, that's why we're asking. Did Zakharova write you anything?

– She didn't even congratulate me, the only one in the team, on Europe. While there, she didn't even come up to me.

– So there is no contact at all?

– Judging by her social media, she doesn't forget me. But I didn't have time to fight with anyone. Because I came to the gym in the morning and left it at nine or half past ten in the evening. And while we were working with our massage therapist, while we were in the sauna, doing procedures, it happened that we left at ten. So I didn't have time for that.

I wanted to train. I wanted to either die or go and perform. Either I would break down and not go, or I would do everything and perform in Paris. Thank God that I persevered and prepared. On the uneven bars, I had my first fall in all the days. Well, not bad, I think. I did everything I could.

Again, all the treatments are done by ourselves. They don't ask me: "How many thousands of dollars did you spend on treatment?" Because I had a damaged hand, and a torn lip, I have old shoulders. But nobody asks me that. They only ask me: "Why do you post about Czech women?" Okay, you can say that I am so nasty. Well, even Nazar Chepurnyi told you that.

We are sitting in Ukraine, we are not going anywhere, we have been here since day one. We do everything to develop, to show that we are here. We talk to the media every day. I have already given hundreds of interviews about all this – about the war and our entire situation. But, you know, some of us do it, and some of us just anoint ourselves.

– But you could see how much you enjoyed being able to come back, being here again, inside.

– I'm grateful to everyone who helped me from the very beginning when I was still in the problem zone. Those who were there for me and did not turn away – friends, teammates, family, Oleksandr, coach. This is very important because at such moments many people turn their backs on you. And it is very difficult to go through everything alone, it is impossible. Only a team can do it.

But, as they say, my conscience was clear and so I hoped I could. Then after I returned, I just did everything in my power. We all worked and supported me. Now many people are writing and supporting me, both Ukrainians and foreigners. It's very cool. I feel that I did it all for a reason. And yes, being part of the Olympic Games is cool. It is very important.

I don't know if I'll see you in Los Angeles in 2028 or not. I don't want to say anything yet. But I have the strength and desire. We'll see what happens next. If there is some kind of normal attitude, everything will change into development, into what we want to do... It's not like in three years we won't have gymnastics. It will simply be destroyed. And everything is heading towards that.

Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!