- Alina, why did you decide to leave big sport?

– The reason is the same as for many athletes who have completed sports career ahead of time is a trauma. I believe that the most important thing in life is health, which cannot be bought for any money, which is why I decided to leave big-time sports.

Is the injury that serious?

- Yes, but I try not to think about it, I hope that I will get better. Health problems did not arise suddenly, she received injuries before. During the Olympic Games, I just gathered all my will and endured the pain. But now that the main goal has been achieved, why not take care of your health?

– How do you feel now?

- Sport taught me that no matter how bad you feel, you should not give up.

– What are your future plans?

- There are a lot of them. I plan to develop rhythmic gymnastics in Kalmykia and will make every effort to do so. This, in particular, was discussed at a recent meeting with the head of the republic Alexei Orlov.

The level of development of rhythmic gymnastics in Kalmykia is not bad, but we cannot develop further, since we do not have the appropriate sports base- own hall, carpet and other things. As soon as we get the hall, I'm sure the results will go uphill.

Alina Makarenko with her mother

Was it hard to qualify for the Olympics?

“Everything in sports is very difficult. The main thing is to work, and then everything will be rewarded. I believed in God and he helped me.

- Master of Sports international class You became already at the age of 14, and soon - well-deserved ...

- I don’t consider this a super-merit, in rhythmic gymnastics this is absolutely normal. Although, of course, few reach this level.

When I was four years old, my mother brought me to the rhythmic gymnastics hall. The first coach Lyudmila Galchenko worked with me for a very long time, put me on my feet, as they say. Then Lyudmila Vladimirovna decided to show me to more high level in Moscow, where I performed unsuccessfully.

I was not taken to the Center Olympic training to Moscow, but was accepted in Dmitrov. I began to train, and the process began. At first, in the Moscow region, I took 4th place, but few believed in my success. And when I began to show the results, everyone was surprised.

On the qualifying round National Championship "Hope of Russia" I took 1st place. I was noticed and invited to the Novogorsk Training Center. Irina Viner and other trainers worked with me. Then I became the third number of the Russian national team, then I won gold at the tournament for the prizes of Alina Kabaeva. After this victory, an offer was received to enter the youth team in group exercises. Having won the European Championship in 2012, we qualified for the Olympics.

Alina Makarenko with coach Lyudmila Galchenko and gymnasts

- Why did you perform in group exercises?

- Who decides where to perform Main coach Irina Viner. But I like group performances. The girls and I were never bored, we always supported each other, and, most importantly, it was mentally easier to train.

- Would you like to perform individually?

- I used to perform individually, and for me that was enough.

How does a gymnast usually spend her day?

– Rise at 6.30 am, at 7.00 am you should already be fully equipped on the field: we run, we develop breathing. At 7.30 we go to the weigh-in, then breakfast and training. At 14.00 - lunch, then from 16.00 to 21.00 training and dinner. But someone was not allowed to have dinner at all. And it also happened that from nine in the morning until 11 in the evening they did not leave the hall.

What diet do gymnasts follow?

- When we trained at Novogorsk, we didn’t follow any diets. During training, they lost three kilograms a day, so they ate what they wanted so as not to lose their weight.

- Is it true that after winning the Olympics in Dmitrov, a park was opened in your honor?

– It really is. Immediately after the Olympics, the park named after Alina Makarenko was opened in Dmitrov. Its territory is very beautiful, landscaped, nearby are Sport halls. Not only athletes, but also residents of the city have a rest in the park. An obelisk is installed here, on which it is written that the square is named after Alina Makarenko.

Alina Makarova with Kalmyk gymnasts

- What feelings did you have when you were awarded the title of Hero of Kalmykia?

“Sometimes I feel like none of this happened to me. I have been training for a long time. Preparing for the Olympic Games, I set myself up, as for ordinary competitions. Still can't believe...

- Where are you studying?

– At the Faculty of Economics of the Kalmyk State University and at the Sports Faculty of the National State University physical culture, sports and health named after Lesgaft. I want to become a coach, so I need a sports education. Whether I will apply an economic specialty, I will decide later.

Alina Makarenko with bronze medalist of the 2012 Olympics Mingiyan Semenov

- In the summer you entered the top 10 most beautiful Russian athletes ...

“There is no merit here. So decided the people of Russia.

- How do you spend your free time?

- It is practically non-existent. Now I go to bed at 2 am and get up at 8 am. But when I am in Moscow, I try to get enough sleep.

- Do you have any hobbies?

- I like to read books, for example, by Oleg Roy, detective stories by Daria Dontsova and classical works by Bulgakov, Dostoevsky. I like to listen to RnB music, rap, as well as such performers as Beyoncé, Riana. I also love shopping.

– What can you wish young gymnasts?

- Patience and diligence.

Russian gymnast. Honored Master of Sports. Olympic Champion 2012 in rhythmic gymnastics in group all-around. World Champion. Two-time European champion. Hero of Kalmykia. Trainer. President of the Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation of Kalmykia.

Alina Makarenko was born on January 14, 1995 in Elista, the Republic of Kalmykia. At the age of four, her mother brought her to the rhythmic gymnastics hall. In the city and in the region, the athlete showed very good results and was considered a strong gymnast. In 2007, after the tournament for the prizes of Amina Zaripova, her first coach Lyudmila Galchenko decided to try her pupil at a higher level.

Having learned that in Dmitrov there is a strong sport school, she contacted the head coach of rhythmic gymnastics at Dynamo-Dmitrov Anna Vyacheslavovna Shumilova and arranged a viewing. The gymnast successfully passed the selection and after a year and a half of training under the supervision of Shumilova, Alina got into the youth country. Since 2010, she began to train in the Russian national team.

As part of the group exercise team, Alina won gold at the First Summer Youth Olympic Games in Singapore, the World Championship in 2011, and the European Championship in 2012, for which she received the title of Honored Master of Sports.

One month before start Olympic Games the entire Russian rhythmic gymnastics team moved closer to London, to the city of Sheffield, which is located three hours from the British capital. Before the Olympics, the athlete studied under the guidance of Irina Viner, Tatyana Sergaeva and Inna Bystrova.

The Russian rhythmic gymnastics team won gold medals in the team all-around at the London Olympics.The champions of the 2012 Games were: Alina Makarenko, Anastasia Bliznyuk, Uliana Donskova, Ksenia Dudkina, Anastasia Nazarenko, Karolina Sevastyanova. According to the results of two exercises: with balls, with ribbons and hoops Russian team received 57,000 points.The silver was won by the gymnasts of the Belarusian national team (55.500), the bronze went to the Italians (55.450).

In 2013, Alina Makarenko completed her sports career. In the Republic of Kalmykia, she created a charitable foundation for the development of sports. She also joined the Green Party. Since 2016 Olympic champion holds the post of President of the Federation of Rhythmic Gymnastics of Kalmykia. In parallel, he is the coach of the national team of the Republic.

Alina Makarenko's awards

Order of Friendship (August 13, 2012) - for a great contribution to the development of physical culture and sports, high sports achivments at the Games of the XXX Olympiad 2012 in London (UK)

Hero of Kalmykia (August 12, 2012) - for outstanding sports achievements that glorified the Republic of Kalmykia

The Olympic champion in rhythmic gymnastics in group exercises, the Hero of Kalmykia, told R-Sport correspondent Maria Vorobyova about how she came to the sport, how difficult her career turned out to be, and why she decided to end it at just 18 years old.

- Alina, let's start with a banal question about how you came to gymnastics?

In general, my mother always wanted to be a gymnast, only this dream remained unfulfilled. Once her best friend took her daughter to the rhythmic gymnastics section. It's funny that at that moment the doctor advised my mother to send me either to gymnastics or aerobics - I had asthma and I needed to improve my health. So that's what happened. At first, I didn’t do anything at all in the hall, I just chatted with everyone (laughs). Don't feed me bread at all - just let me talk to someone. For this, I was constantly kicked out of training. But my first coach acted cunningly: she didn’t scold me, didn’t force me to work, but tried to attract me with the game, to show that it could be interesting. And then I got excited. Gradually, many began to disperse - the workload grew, it became more difficult to study, the majority made a choice in favor of studying, and I was drawn in. And my girlfriend, by the way, was weeded out (smiles).

- But at that time gymnastics was more entertainment than sport?

Right. I trained for fun until the age of 11. Then for the first time I competed - at the tournament of Amina Zaripova - where I showed up. And she said to turn to the coaches who work at the Olympic training center. But no one wanted to take me there. We then approached Amina, and she sent us to Dmitrov. They took me there, rather, for the sake of quantity, and not because they saw something in me. At that time, Olga Yurievna Chainikova was coaching in Dmitrov. Then there was a small coup - the director of our school kicked out the whole coaching staff, and Anna Vyacheslavovna Shumilova took the place of Chainikova. She already worked with me more than anyone else, laid big hopes, and after the departure of Chainikova, she began to work even more closely with me. I am very grateful to her for this, because it was she who made me a gymnast.

- Shumilova and brought you to the next screening to Viner-Usmanova?

Yes, it was her initiative. In fact, Anna Vyacheslavovna prepared me very well, and over time I began to take first places in the Russian championships, that is, I became the first number in the youth team. It turns out that two years after my arrival in Dmitrov, at the age of 13, I got into the Russian youth team in group exercises.

The question of whether a gymnast will be a “personal student” or a “group student” is always decided by Viner-Usmanova. Have you ever wanted to perform individually?

Everyone then asked this question, asked Irina Alexandrovna why she did not want to make a “personal” person out of me. But now I am immensely grateful to her, because I understand: I simply would not have made it to the national team if I had performed individually. And thanks to Irina Alexandrovna, I became an Olympic champion. Even twice (laughs).

Did we lose to the Italians on purpose? Maybe it's a joke?

- Do you mean the gold of the first Youth Olympics and the gold of London 2012?

Yes. We were preparing for the Olympics in Singapore with Tatyana Vladislavovna Sergaeva, whose group players won all the competitions for many years. When I came under her leadership, I didn’t even have a shadow of a doubt that we could lose to someone! We were like robots. Here, for example, it is quite difficult to make even one run of the program without a single mistake, but she forced us to do 16 runs! And after that, it was simply impossible to make a mistake at the competitions (smiles). In that season, we did not lose a single start, moreover, we never dropped an object at any tournament. Therefore, we arrived at the Olympics in Singapore so confident and charged to win that after our, I’m not afraid of this, smartly performed exercise, Irina Alexandrovna said that it would be a new Russian team.

And after in 2010 the group players lost the World Championship for the second time in a row, you joined the main team.

Yes, Irina Alexandrovna said that we were put in the main team. True, not all of our Olympic team went to the next World Championships, they took only me, Ksyusha Dudkina and Olya Ilyina. But at the 2011 World Championships, we were only second. Natasha Pichuzhkina was injured in our team - her knee hurt. She almost did not work out the elements, she thought she would go on the carpet and everything would work out by itself. But miracles do not happen: she dropped the object, and no one was surprised. Although we were upset, we somehow even expected then that we would lose.

Somewhere I read your comment about the defeat that at that time you supposedly “leaked” the Italians on purpose, since dissatisfaction was ripening in the world about the constant superiority of the Russian team.

Oh, I couldn't say that (laughs). Maybe I was misunderstood? Or was it some kind of prank? After all, I myself only competed at the last World Championship before the 2012 Olympics in 2011. But, including that championship, our team really lost the entire Olympic cycle. No one even expected that after the unsuccessful "hat-trick" in the performance of the Russian team in the form of three defeats in a row, we would be in the top three at the London Olympics.

I still start every morning with a prayer.

- It was then that Viner-Usmanova herself came to the rescue.

After the 2011 World Cup, she took a very strong hold on us. I completely changed the team, exercises - in general, I took full control of the situation! She sat with us in the hall from 9 am to 11 pm. Every day. I absolutely adore this woman! How much strength you need to have to sit like this for a whole year in the hall, when some girls also periodically shake your nerves (laughs).

- How did the year under the leadership of Wiener differ from the preparation that was before?

Everyone. Her tactics were completely different. For example, if earlier we did, as I said, 16 runs, now there are only three. But there was another nuance - we did countless repetitions of individual pieces of exercises, constantly honed throws. Only here the runs themselves most often turned out with errors, but Irina Aleksandrovna, the main thing was that we did everything emotionally and gave all our best. And when we went to competitions, for some reason everything turned out cleanly. Maybe God helped us?

- Viner-Usmanova is a very religious person, isn't she?

Yes. I will tell you such a story ... Before major competitions we always went to Klin to see one woman. I would generally call her a saint, she has a room with icons, and they stream myrrh. But myrrh is really healing - during the war, this oil from icons was applied to the wound, and it dragged on before our eyes. This woman read prayers to us, said that everything would be fine, gave us peace. Before the Olympics, we again went to her, and she gave us a seven-shot icon. Before leaving, we always kissed this icon. And when they left the last exercise satisfied and happy, Irina Alexandrovna looked at the icon, and she streamed myrrh! Myrrh oozed from her eyes, that is, she began to cry ...

God really helped us. We all really believed in him. I think if it were not for God, we would never have won the Olympics. Until now, every morning I start with a prayer.

I remember the words of Dasha Dmitrieva: everything will be fine, I learned

- Alina, do you have any memories from the Youth Olympics? Or London's emotions blocked everything?

First of all, I remember that in Singapore we lived in the Olympic village and it was just great (laughs)! We were the very first to perform in Singapore, so we didn’t go to the opening, we cherished our emotions. But by some miracle they let us go to watch the competition. We were rooting for Vika Komova, who lived with our "person" Sasha Merkulova. And when we returned from Singapore, everyone said about Vika that she would compete at the adult Olympics, she was the hope of our country, and we were so happy for her, and then we got there ourselves (laughs).

- And in London everything was already different?

In London, we did not live in the Olympic village. We arrived in Sheffield two weeks before the competition, we had our own gym, a hotel - in general, all the conditions were provided. In general, they didn’t even feel that they were competing at the Olympics. And this, I must admit, is very good. If it had been knocking on our brains what tournament we are in, we might not have coped. Still, we played on the last day of the Games, and we had to somehow hold out.

- What was the most difficult in London?

We were weighed there twice a day, and we just hated these scales (laughs)! For some reason, we all recovered a week before the Olympics, some by a hundred, some by two hundred grams. Then Irina Alexandrovna decided to weigh us five times a day! I lost four kilograms at the Olympics, I was just a feather. Probably, everyone has already heard this story, but we broke those scales immediately after the performance (laughs).

- Have you stopped experimenting with weight since then?

When I finished my career, the most important thing was that I could go in the evening and find something with the most calories in the refrigerator! I was so torn away ... For six months I ate everything in a row, in spite of what I had experienced before. I gained nine kilograms during this period. And now I have already lost six pounds and will not lose weight anymore. If necessary, everything will go away.

- And yet, returning to the difficulties that you encountered in London ...

I remember how we rejoiced for Zhenya Kanaeva and Dasha Dmitrieva, who retreated a day before us. They came to us, gave some parting words, and we just shook and repeated that we hope we will succeed too! And Dasha then said: "Everything will be fine, I found out!" I remember these words for a long time. And the most difficult were the minutes before entering the carpet. I remember very well that we started to warm up before all the teams - usually the warm-up began two hours before, and in London Irina Alexandrovna ordered us three hours before. At that time, our choreographer was Misha Pervykh, we did the choreography calmly, slowly, there was a whole lot of time! Then Irina Alexandrovna came and started shouting that we were doing everything very slowly, she started counting herself, and we couldn’t keep up with her (laughs). We have a well-established warm-up, and Irina Alexandrovna suddenly came up with some of her own. The worst thing is that everyone was sitting and looking at us then. She commanded to "take the balls", although the time before the start is still 2.5 hours, and this is very early. With balls, all our shots turned out perfect, everyone around was in shock.

So what is the difficulty then? It seems that everything is like clockwork - the work is in full swing, everything is working out ...

Personally, I started having difficulties with my back - the day before I had a blockade, eight injections. And my leg was pinched so that I just could not move. And after the balls it was painful for me even to walk. Having changed into a swimsuit for the second exercise with ribbons and hoops, I apparently came out with some kind of constricted face. Irina Alexandrovna ran up to me, began massaging my leg, asking me to be patient. And I just couldn’t - I understood that a redistribution had come, but there was no way out. We started to do a run, and we did not succeed at all. When we did the last run before entering the mat, it seemed that everyone was saving, but the throws were inaccurate. But this is half the trouble ...

We have such an element when Nastya Nazarenko did a combination with her feet, and we caught her legs, and she herself catches the ribbon. So she does this cascade and hits me on the head with her foot (laughs)! I fall on the carpet, lose consciousness, sit down and ... involuntarily begin to roar. Irina Alexandrovna asks what happened, Ulyana Donskova tells me to get up, and at the same second I get up sharply and say: "Everything is fine!" Then we stood in a circle in front of the exit to do our traditional set of actions: we always breathed in and out, and Ulyana commanded: "God bless! And ... Let's go!" And then she says: "Let's go! Oh ... God bless! Oh! In short ... Let's go!" We were just in shock, we thought we had signed our own death warrant. And they started the exercise and did everything perfectly.

Our door was always open - whoever wanted to could leave

- How soon did you start training after the Olympics?

Irina Alexandrovna told us that we can rest as much as we like and return to the hall as we ourselves want. She gave us a great vacation after the Games - Sardinia, Cannes, Monaco. And after this rest, she said: "Well, that's it, in a week in the hall." And, to be honest, it was a bit of a bummer. At that time, I personally did not want to go to the hall. If Uliana and Karolina Sevostyanova finished right away, then I, Ksyusha Dudkina, Nastya Bliznyuk and Nastya Nazarenko decided to stay, but didn’t want to start right away. Despite this, they came to the hall, slowly getting involved. And then my injuries worsened - my back and knees. I have bursitis in both knees. I was injected with antibiotics, pumped out the liquid. And I thought it was time to finish. After what we experienced during the preparation for the Olympics, there was no more strength or motivation left. I decided to keep my health.

- When did you make the final decision?

It was before the Universiade in 2013. We had a control training, on that day in the morning I again got bursitis on my knees, my legs simply did not bend. In training, I could not do anything, I went up to Irina Alexandrovna and said that I could no longer. She replied that it was my right and let me go, thanking me for everything.

And the story that the "group members" from Olympic squad conceited, is this a myth, like the one that you specifically lost to the Italians?

To be honest, I don't know where this story came from. Maybe the journalists fell under the bad mood of Irina Alexandrovna? We have never had this. Maybe after I left ... But I'm sure that nothing like that happened! Everyone told us that we are so simple that we have not changed at all. And why should we change? We still do not understand that we have become Olympic champions. If Irina Alexandrovna said so, then there were reasons for that, I did not discuss this story with her. She said what she saw fit. But in our work, no one has ever forced anyone, it's just that the door was always open - whoever wanted to could leave.

- Since there is no more sport in your life, what are you doing now?

In the Republic of Kalmykia, I created a charitable foundation for the development of sports. True, at first I thought that the development of sports, then I decided not to limit myself. After all, there are many people who need help. Recently, a boy Salavat Chedirov, who suffers from cerebral palsy, turned to me and asked me to come to him. We talked to him, I helped raise funds so that he could continue his treatment in St. Petersburg. We are still in touch with him, he wrote to me about improvements in treatment. He sings very well, and we hired a vocal teacher for him, Salavat even records his songs at the studio (smiles). There are other examples, even though they are so far isolated, but I really want to help people somehow!

- Any other hobbies after the sport appeared?

I also joined the Green Party. They didn’t take me to United Russia, I’ve been there since I was 21, and now I’m only 19. I hope that in the elections we will gain our 5.2% (in general, I’m sure that we will gain more) and we will be able to move on (laughs) ! Politics became interesting to me when I began to create my own charitable foundation, because everything needs to be thoroughly understood there. And I first plunged into this environment for a while, and now I live in it! This is exactly what I would like to do all the time. I will go to university with a degree in public administration.

- What is the main conclusion made on the basis of your sports career?

Gymnastics gave me a lot, but, let's say, it was enough for me, I don't want it anymore (smiles). Due to sports, my character was formed, I became more independent, a core appeared. I believe that gymnastics was my first life, and now my second one has begun!

Alina Makarenko was brought to sports by her mother, who herself wanted to become a gymnast, so with the help of her daughter, her dream came true. “At first, I didn’t do anything at all in the hall, I just chatted with everyone,” Alina herself laughs, recalling the first days in gym. - Do not feed me bread at all - just let me chat with someone. For this, I was constantly kicked out of training. But my first coach acted cunningly: she didn’t scold me, didn’t force me to work, but tried to attract me with the game, to show that it could be interesting. And then I got excited. "Alina was born in the capital of the Republic of Kalmykia - Elista. There she began to study under the guidance of her first coach Lyudmila Galchenko. "Little fragile Alina has naturally developed flexibility and efficiency, - says the coach. - For all the time that she trained, she did not find a single reason why she would miss training. Alina is an amazingly efficient person, with an iron will. She never gives up."

The gymnast was not immediately taken to the national team - the views did not allow the coaches of the main team to see the potential in Makarenko. And only the first victories at the junior level opened the way for Alina to a great future. Here is what the gymnast tells about training in the main team: “Wake up at 6.30 in the morning, at 7.00 you should be already fully equipped on the field: we run there, develop breathing. At 7.30 we go to the weigh-in, then breakfast and training. At 14.00 - lunch , then from 16.00 to 21.00 training and dinner. But someone was not allowed to have dinner at all. And it also happened that from nine in the morning to 11 in the evening they did not leave the hall. " But before getting into the base, Alina trained in Dmitrov. Together with their mother, Amina Zaripova, the coach of the Russian national team, sent them there. Moreover, the gymnast was taken to Dmitrov for the sake of quantity, and not because of some phenomenal data. But only two years of training and 13-year-old Makarenko gets into the main team.

From Dmitrov, she will have warm memories, and in the future - a beautiful two-room apartment in one of the new buildings - donated for winning the 2012 Olympics. “I love this city very much, I liked it as soon as I arrived, and I always dreamed that I had an apartment here. After all, at first I lived in a boarding school at the school for a long time,” recalls the gymnast. In memory of that victory, Alina was also awarded a higher honor: “Immediately after the Olympics, the Alina Makarenko Square was opened in Dmitrov. Its territory is very beautiful, landscaped, there are sports halls nearby. on which it is written that the square is named after Alina Makarenko.

Alina was invited to the youth team after winning the tournament for the prizes of Alina Kabaeva. And then the first Youth Olympics flashed on the horizon. Alina remembers her with pleasure. “We were preparing for the Olympics in Singapore with Tatyana Vladislavovna Sergaeva, whose group members won all competitions for many years. When I came under her leadership, I had not even a shadow of a doubt that we could lose to someone! We were like robots,” Makarenko shares his memories of preparing for the Games, “That season we didn’t lose a single start, moreover, we didn’t drop an object at any tournament. And after that, it was simply impossible to make a mistake at the competitions.”

The Russians really won that gold with brilliance - they were more than 10 points ahead of their closest rivals (even if it was not the strongest Egyptian team in rhythmic gymnastics). But basically, in the adult composition at that moment a sports crisis was brewing. In the same 2010, the adult group players lost the World Championship for the second time in a row, and this is a big blow for the Russian team that did not know defeat. And the head coach of the team, the legendary Irina Viner-Usmanova, makes a serious decision - she changes the composition of the group players, including very young girls, even if they won the Youth Olympics. The 2012 Games were exactly two years away.

NO ONE EVEN CAUSED THAT WE WILL BE IN THE TROIKA AT THE 2012 OLYMPIAD

“After the Olympics in Singapore, Irina Aleksandrovna said that we should be put in the main team,” recalls Makarenko. “True, not all of our Olympic team went to the next World Cup, where we became second, they took only me, Ksyusha Dudkina and Olya Ilyina. Including that championship, it turns out that our team really lost the entire Olympic cycle. Nobody even expected that after three defeats of the Russian team in a row, we would be at least in the top three at the London Olympics."

This was followed by another restructuring of the team, a change training plan- now there were no longer countless runs of programs, but the gymnasts from 9 am to 11 pm, over and over again honed individual pieces of productions, made throws again and again. According to Alina, they then turned out some elements brilliantly, but it was not always possible to work out the whole program cleanly in training: “Irina Aleksandrovna, the main thing was that we do everything emotionally and give it our all. And when we went to competitions, we for some reason everything turned out cleanly. Maybe God helped us?" For those who follow rhythmic gymnastics at least a little, it is known that Viner-Usmanova is a very religious person. And the gymnasts, who are under her guidance from early morning until late at night, could not help but begin to believe in some higher powers that help their team, lead them to new victories.

“Before major competitions, we always went to Klin to one woman,” Makarenko shares her most intimate story. “I would generally call her a saint, she has a room with icons, and they stream myrrh. they applied this oil from the icons, and it tightened up before our eyes. This woman read prayers to us, said that everything would be fine, gave us peace. Before the Olympics, we went to her again, and she gave us a seven-arrow icon. Before going out, we always kissed this icon And when they left the last exercise satisfied and happy, Irina Alexandrovna looked at the icon, and she was streaming myrrh! Myrrh oozed from her eyes - she began to cry ... "Probably, after such moments, life becomes a little easier, freer. That is why Alina still begins every morning with a prayer.

IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE OLYMPICS THE HATED SCALES WERE BROKEN

It so happened that at the Olympics in Singapore, the gymnasts were able to watch the competitions, live in the Olympic village - in general, to fully enjoy the atmosphere sports festival. But in London, I had to forget about the fun - a separate room, a personal hotel, complete isolation from the whole world. “This, admittedly, is very good. If it had been knocking on our brains what tournament we are in, we could not have coped. Still, we performed on the last day of the Games, and we had to somehow hold out,” Makarenko believes.

It's no secret that gymnasts have to limit themselves very strictly in food. And when it comes to the Olympics, the coaches become completely ruthless. “We were weighed in London twice a day, and we just hated those scales,” Alina laughs. “A week before the Olympics, for some reason, we all got better, some by a hundred, some by two hundred grams. Then Irina Alexandrovna decided to weigh us five times a day! I lost four kilograms at the Olympics, I was just a feather. Probably everyone has already heard this story, but we broke those scales immediately after the performance. "

On interruptions with weight, the troubles did not end - before going to the carpet, on the last run, our girls did not succeed at all. Her knees shook, objects fell out of her hands, and Alina, on one of the elements, got hit on the head so much that she lay in a faint for some time. The battle cry familiar to all of them, which their "captain" Uliana Donskova gives before entering the mat, also went wrong. “We stood in a circle before going out to do our traditional set of actions: we always breathed in and out, and Ulyana commanded: “God bless! And ... Let's go!" And then she says: "Let's go! Oh… With God! Ouch! In short ... Let's go! "We were just in shock, we thought that we had signed our own death warrant. And we started the exercise and did everything perfectly," the gymnast shares.

Having experienced this, any person is so exhausted that he needs a lot of time to rest. Well-deserved post-Olympic rest, of course, was. Only the gymnasts were invited to come to the hall almost immediately after it - already in the fall of 2012. Makarenko admits, it was difficult to force oneself, injuries received during a sports career more and more often made themselves felt. And therefore, a year after the victorious Olympics, she announces her retirement from the sport.

“It was before the Universiade in 2013,” says Alina. “We had a control training, that day in the morning I got bursitis on my knees again, my legs just didn’t bend. During training, I couldn’t do anything, I went up to Irina Aleksandrovna and said that I can no longer. She replied that it was my right, and let me go, thanking for everything. " Now the 19-year-old Olympic champion (we can even say that two-time) recognized as the Hero of her small homeland of Kalmykia, is fond of politics, is a member of the Green Party, helps sick children through a charitable foundation named after her. In his free time he likes to read books - Oleg Roy, detective stories by Daria Dontsova and classical works by Bulgakov, Dostoevsky. He likes to listen to music in the style of erenby, rap, as well as performers such as Beyoncé, Riana.

Makarenko recalls his sports career with a smile, gratitude, and does not regret anything. “Gymnastics gave me a lot, but, let’s say, it was enough for me, I don’t want it anymore,” Alina smiles. “Due to sports, my character was formed, I became more independent, a core appeared. I believe that gymnastics was my first life, And now I'm on my second!"

Always yours - Vorobyova Masha.