Gullu Aghalarzade, an athlete of Azerbaijan's rhythmic gymnastics team, gave an interview to the federation's press service.
Idman.biz reports, she spoke about her arrival to this sport, her path and goals.
- What does gymnastics mean to you?
- Gymnastics means difference for me. Gymnastics is the sport that completes me. More than that, it's my lifestyle. Gymnastics itself is an art.
- What is the most valuable lesson that gymnastics has taught you?
- There were many lessons. It taught me to fight in difficult situations. It taught me to fight until the end, both in competitions and in training. It seems to me that I will need all these lessons in my future life.
- Can you share a moment in your career when you wanted to give up, but later found the strength to continue?
- It actually happened. It was not possible to perform so successfully in the last World Championship held in Valencia last year. After the World Cup, I experienced depression for a month. I was down psychologically, I was ready to give up. Then I gathered strength, remembered my goal, regrouped myself and tried to do even better exercises.
- How did you feel when you found out that you qualified for Paris 2024?
- It is difficult to express these feelings in words. We first performed a composition with 5 rings, and then we performed our second composition and did them technically flawlessly. After performing in our 3-ribbon and 2-ball composition, before we even knew the results, there was already a feeling that we had made it. We tried to show our best. We sincerely believed that this license would be ours. It was done. This license was a great way. We worked on this license step by step. It was the last chance. We are very happy that the last license is ours.
- How do you hope to inspire and motivate the next generation of gymnasts?
- The most important thing is that they should work hard on themselves. If talent is 1 percent, hard work is 99 percent. Let them work on themselves. You have to love this sport. If they are engaged in love, they will get everything.
- Any legacy you would like to leave in the world of gymnastics?
- Our team made a lot of history in a few years. I think that's a legacy in itself. I would like to be remembered as a different athlete after my career.
Idman.biz
