No lies. Sovetskiy Sport Talks With Viktoria Komova's parents Sovetskiy Sport learnt from the Artistic Gymnastics World Champion's parents how their daughter achieves success.

"Be able to laugh when you're sad, be able to be circumspect when things are funny and be able to appear indifferent when…" girls' diaries are often full of such admonitions, especially when they are still in school. They seem to find a certain joy in playing with their real feelings when all the delight of adult life is still ahead of them.

Vika Komova is nothing like that. And that's good. Everything inside of her is true — and there are no games. People will remember her tears at the world championships in Tokyo for a long time, like the tears of the Motherland. And her poor speech during the reception with the president — which Viktoria is apparently still worried about — reminds one of two other girls about whom the entire world talked — Katya Kychevaya and Samantha Smith. And it's not important that they laughed, while Vika turned red.

What's important is that she is real. Not everyone can be like that.

When talking about their daughter, Viktoria Komova's parents, the former gymnasts Vera Kolesnikova and Aleksandr Komov tell the truth just like Vika does. It seems to be passed on like an inheritance. Just like gymnastics was.

SHE LAUGHS…

Vera Kolesnikova: — … when she is happy, when everything is going the way she planned it. When she gets to buy that thing in the store that she has been looking for for a long time. Talking with her dad is always a sea of happiness! They are always joking with each other, leaving statuses on their social websites with inside jokes. Sometimes the statuses leave you wondering. You're thinking: she still so little…but they have such deep thoughts.

Aleksandr Komov: — Our statuses are usually quote we like a lot. But I can't remember anything specific, we keep moving on to the next ones, onto something new. A recent one was: "People who don't fall, can't get up". And during worlds my daughter wrote: "The USA are giving us such cocky looks, it makes your knees shake". And she stuck a :) smilie at the end. So she wanted to make it clear that not everyone was shaking from those cocky looks. She laughs a lot at the movies, especially comedies; we try to go and watch cartoons. Vika really liked the trilogy about the three bogatyrs — she laughed so much! The cartoon Rio is also a good one, it's funny. There are so many things in her life that are not childlike, that I guess I use cartoons to try to prolong her childhood…

SHE CRIES…

VK: — She cries because of you journalists! "Another interview? How many can there be! What do they need from me?!" After Vika had to speak in front of the president of the country, and she couldn't do it, she became afraid of public speaking. They asked her to speak at the recent Olympians' ball dedicated to the Russian Olympic Committee's 100-year anniversary. You can't even imagine what she was like the day before! "Why me? There are people older than me!" I calmed her down as much as I could, "Well, what can you do, they picked you…It's hard. I understand; I sometimes have to fight my fears, too, but you have to do it, you understand, you have to!" Vika had a hurricane of worry: "They'll dress me down for missing my speech! And the team'll make fun of me!" To be honest, we decided to invite over a specialist to teach her how to give a speech and handle the nerves of public speaking.

AK:— she cried when she feels for someone. When she sees a hurt pigeon on the road or a little dog with a hurt paw. She really loves animals…

SHE IS SAD…

VK: — Vika cried in Tokyo because she didn't win the all-around gold. But she's not upset about anything now. We talked to her a lot about it. She did make a lot of mistakes and wasn't in the best shape. In Singapore at the youth Olympics, she got much better scores, and what changed? Not really that much. She did a harder vault there, that's true. But she did a harder bar set in Tokyo. Overall I think, and I think I was able to convince Vika of this: if she had won in Tokyo, she'd have been as happy as a boa constrictor now and she would have kept working the same way. And she would not have stopped to ask herself like she does now: what am I doing wrong?

AK: — We try not have too many serious, grown-up conversations. Vera and I also experienced a lot in gymnastics… Let Vika be a kid for longer. The hurt and the regrets can't be avoided, but as long as I can protect her from them, I will.

SHE IS AFRAID…

VK: — of injuries. We're both so afraid of them! If you only knew… Vika comes home all happy and runs around and plays — with her brother and with her dog. And I'm all shaking on the inside. "Just be careful, you don't fall!". She jumps off the bed and I go weak inside. From the same thoughts. When I imagine her running in warm-up at seven in the morning at Round Lake from the hotel to the gym…You know how you run when you're tired: naturally, with your eyes half closed…On the phone, I'm always telling Vika: "Watch under your feet, what if there is a hole there, or a bump…".

AK: — She used to be afraid of flying in airplanes. But she's used to that now. And she's not afraid of anything!

SHE BELIEVES…

VK: — I teach Vika to believe first of all in her self. I don't really believe in luck. Maybe we are just the kind of people that fairy-tale luck just doesn't stick to. Everything in sport comes from hard work. You get as much out as you put in. I remember how it was for me: if you skip warming up a skill on the podium, that will inevitably come to the surface. And one more important thing is to believe in your coach! Vika knows that and I can tell from watching her perform. So, I justify myself with that. That's my position…

AK: No, I don't agree! Luck plays a big role in sport. Whether or not you believe in it, that's something else. But there have been so many times that something small, almost insignificant, made all the difference! So, for Vika's sake I have some rituals of my own. She doesn't have any herself, but I can't let such a serious thing just flow all by itself (laughs)! During worlds, I stopped shaving. For two weeks! It grew out so bad — it was a sight! It's a good thing my car is parked close to our door and I can run out to it with my collar up…Before the first day of worlds, I accidentally broke a plate. I said right away: for happiness! Well, I was right, wasn't I?

SHE DOES NOT FORGIVE…

VK: — When someone yells at her.

AK: — There's nothing she won't forgive. She already forgave the judges in Tokyo. A long time ago. That's in the past now…

SHE LOVES…

VK: — her dog and pizza. What?  Everybody has already written that? Well, it's not my fault she doesn't love anything else! Joking aside, you probably want to hear something new on the subject. Well, I got my famous pizza recipe from Gennadiy Yelfimov's wife, Vika's personal coach. Vika was one year old then. By the way, Gennadiy walked her in the stroller many times, we are very close families. And now when he gets mad at her during workout he yells: "I bottle fed you, sweat working with you and now you…"  "Sweat?!" — Vika comes back, "If I'd known then that you'd be my coach, I'd have done far more to you!"

AK: — I hope she loves her parents! And I hope she still loves her dog as much as her parents. I keep telling her, we bought the dog for you. It's your baby now! My son is saying from the next room: she left her dog! Well, she didn't run away from it, she's just on a business trip. That happens with all moms…

SHE HATES…

VK: — injustice! For example, when she takes the heat for someone else. Well, sometimes that happens, they dress everyone down without figuring out whose fault it is.

AK: — Lies. She never lies herself. And she tells the truth even when she knows that will get her in trouble.

SHE CAN'T…

VK: — hide her emotions. But is that even possible? That American in Tokyo, he cried. He was among the leaders and messed up his last event and didn't even medal! Oh, how he cried! A man was crying! So what can you say about Vika? We used to talk to her about that all the time. For not being able to contain her emotions in the gym. When she can't get a skill, she sits down on the bench with a crash. Gets mad, jumpy. That happens less now, but she hasn't been able to become completely calm.

AK: — She can't sew! Or cook. Well, not like my wife can, so there's soup and a main course and a third dish and everything else like in a restaurant. But life hasn't forced her to learn that. They have a great cafeteria at Round Lake.

SHE DREAMS…

VK: — She has one dream. The Olympics in London. And to have her own home. And a German shepherd.

 AK: — An Olympic gold medal! But we almost never talk to Vika about the Olympics. You have to live in the present. If you look into the future, then not very far. Because then your dreams get shattered — and that hurts too much…

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