Nikita Shleikher: ‘We are reaching our peak form, as before, at the usual time’
The best Russian diver successfully started at the Tatarstan Rais Cup
The Tatarstan Rais Cup in diving has ended at the Kazan Aquatic Palace. Initially, the tournament was designed for juniors. But now it is a combined competition — with the participation of foreign participants from the national teams of Uzbekistan and Ecuador, as well as the best divers of the country, including the main star of the tournament, member of the Sintez Sports Club Nikita Shleikher. The athlete talked with Realnoe Vremya after the competition.
“My next start will be in Kaluga at the Laryushkin Memorial”
Nikita, are you finishing the 2024 season by participating in the Tatarstan Rais Cup?
Not quite so, in fact, we are starting the new 2024-2025 season. If we talk about the closing of the season, then such competitions were the BRICS Games held in Kazan.
It turns out that now, after the summer vacation and recovery measures, you were preparing for the new season. And for what exactly?
My next start will be in Kaluga where we will perform according to a special programme at the Russian competitions in memory of the honoured coach of Russia Laryushkin. The special programme is competitions in the hall, acrobatics, special exercises, physical training. As for the water, a relatively easy program is performed there on 1-metre springboard. And in early February, we have the Russian Cup, this is already one of the official competitions.
The cancellation of the international official calendar has made changes to your calendar of preparation and participation in competitions. Did you plan the same competition at the Tatarstan Rais Cup before?
I had not previously participated in these competitions, they were more for the junior team, and there was no open section (open competitions for everyone), and I got involved in the season through performances at the Anatoly Laryushkin Memorial competition. Now the open is included in the programme of the Tatarstan Rais Cup competitions and, according to rumours, this will be in the future.
“Right now I am just at the beginning of gaining optimal form”
The training system in endurance sports is built in such a way that the athlete reaches the peak form two or three times in order to perform well at qualifying competitions, then at the main start of the season, be it the Olympics or the world and continental championships. How did things go for you in a sport that requires complex coordination?
No, the training program has not changed, since our domestic calendar is adjusted to the same dates that we would compete on if there was an international calendar. Accordingly, we did not rebuild our bodies, getting into shape in the usual time frame, and now I am only at the beginning of gaining optimal shape.
Back to the calendar of next year, after the Russian Cup, there will be the Eurasian Games in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in early March, then a competition in Saint Petersburg called Nevskaya Volna, this is in May. In June, the Russian Championship, and most likely this will be the last start of the next season. Some possible changes may occur, but they will become known closer to the starts.
The election of George Trump as US President has given rise to new talk about the return of Russian sports to the international arena. How do you feel about the prospect of Russia returning by the World Championship in Singapore?
To be honest, I don’t look that far ahead, preferring to live in the present. If they let us go to the competitions, we’ll go, it’s not a problem, we train and work for this.
The World Championships in Singapore replaced the World Championships in Russia in the calendar, which was supposed to complete a beautiful story — aquatic sports were back in Kazan, ten years later. That was when you made your debut at the adult level. Do you remember how you ended up here?
I moved here after the 2013 Universiade in a large group of my coach Pavel Muyakin. At first, we moved from our Stavropol to another city, something didn’t work out there, and in the end we chose Kazan, which I don’t regret. We needed training under the guidance of our coach, Mr Muyakin, a highly qualified mentor, I have achieved what I have achieved thanks to his knowledge, but Stavropol couldn’t provide the appropriate conditions for this. Kazan came up in our plans after we came here for the 2013 test competitions before the Kazan Universiade. For us, it was just another start at the Russian championship, but our coach managed to get acquainted with the conditions that Kazan had to offer. And it was undoubtedly the best water complex in Russia, if not all of Europe at that time. Modern, built using the latest technology, everyone was happy with everything, both in the training process and in general. Alas, sports life is such that out of several dozen juniors who moved here, only Sasha Belevtsev and I remained in sports, and Lev Sargsyan was here. But at first, we helped each other in the training process, when both Volodya Panchenko and Sasha Rumyantsev were jumping, they motivated each other.
“Every season without an international calendar, we got some kind of new competition”
But now you are not alone in the training group.
No, this does not mean that Sasha Belevtsev and I are training together now, we have a well-equipped training group of about ten people. There are all representatives of the adult Tatarstan team, including Maria Polyakova, everyone, like Belevtsev and me, is part of the Sintez water sports clu, plus Gleb Kasyanov and members of the junior teams of Russia and Tatarstan.
There was also Karina Shklyar.
She retired from sport, gave birth, now she is a young mother.
The Russian Figure Skating Cup stage, which ended in Kazan before the Tatarstan Rais Cup, involuntarily demonstrated that in the absence of an international calendar, figure skaters were overfed with competitions and shows. They are no longer ready to come to everything, for example, in Kazan there were no dancers, and only two participants performed in pairs with four announced. Has your calendar been greatly thinned out in the absence of international starts?
We also have a certain replacement, the same Eurasian Games, the BRICS Games, previously there was the Spartakiade of the Strongest, the Friendship Games, every season without an international calendar, we got some new start that replaced the selected competition allowing athletes to do their thing. Quantitatively, we have not lost anything.
This year, there was even a postponement of the Friendship Games planned for Yekaterinburg.
Yes, but now they are planning the World Friendship Games, which should be larger, in the same Yekaterinburg, in December 2025.