At the end of last year, Artur Dalaloyan gave a long interview to Dynamo, the official magazine of his sports club. …
Q: Where did you start doing gymnastics?
A: In Novosibirsk, at a local children center. I took classes in pottery, judo and artistic gymnastics. This was where my parents were told that I had a natural talent for gymnastics and needed to train seriously.
(His Dad is Armenian, his mom Moldovan.)
Q: When you got to Dynamo, did you start training with Alexander Kalinin right away?
A: I was put into his group on the very first day.
Q: You’ve been together for many years. Were there any serious disagreements?
A: There were disagreements and at some point, I even switched coaches. …
Q: You have a cross tattoo. When did you get it?
A: This tattoo is personal. I can only say that I got it during a difficult period in my life when there was a lot of failures and stuff that I didn’t want to happen. I found this specific cross, read about it and put my own meaning into it. And I can say that it’s working.
Q: The head coaches said that the year 2019 is for preparation. What does it mean? You’ll still participate in championships, right?
A: If we didn’t qualify to the Olympics, we would spend the year doing the routines that are consistent and that we are confident about. And we wouldn’t be able to upgrade or to take risks anywhere because we would need to qualify. Now that we did, next year, we can try new routines in competitions and raise the difficulty.
One of the gymnasts that inspired me most in my life, Carol Johnston, died of complications from Early On-set Alzheimers. We trained together as kids at Altadore Gymnastics.
Julie Knight Bowse posted in Gymnastics – A Golden Era
“It is with a heavy heart that I let all of you know that Carol Johnston-Koniar [“Lefty”] passed away on Saturday, May 11, 2019 ….
Carol and I were teammates and roommates at Cal State Fullerton and remained lifelong friends. Her husband called me Saturday and asked that I inform the gymnastics community. He is grateful that she is no longer suffering.” 😥
Sam Cerio is walking down the aisle at her wedding this summer.
That’s the plan, anyway. …
“It’s definitely not something that I’m going to let define me,” she said.
“I don’t want people to remember me as the girl that got injured, because that’s not what I’ve done here. I’ve done so much more, and I feel like I’ve done so much more, at Auburn. …