that it was precisely the difficult situation in which our athletes found themselves, and it bore fruit, the athletes were even more motivated and performed, you know, as they say with such sporting anger, they had something to prove, they had something to tear themselves apart for , something to perform for, because all the same, given the current situation, they understood perfectly well that they had come.

today, a sports functionary, the general secretary of the belarusian state, what is more difficult, to perform on the sports mat, or to take a blow for the country on the conditional mat of officials from sports, just honestly, so i'm basically going to answer honestly, of course, it's not easy in both places, yes, and these are very different areas, it's difficult to compare them, but if... try to answer this question, then we prepare for any negotiations, in sports , athletes, of course, also undergo serious preparation for competitions, and if you think about it, i understand that we come to negotiations, we have our own position, we have certain analytics, we are prepared, we have our theses, even if something somewhere goes wrong, you can always take a break, you can always... consult, if

something doesn't work out, try to approach from the other side, negotiations may not stop, if, well, of course, there is a mutual desire for that, and i think that almost always, almost always, well, you can find a way out or at least try to find it, in sports it's a little different, if you are perfectly prepared, it is very important that luck is on your side, and my biggest fear, when i was an athlete, when we were before the olympic games, the last night, it was it's very scary, not because you're not ready, we had training before this, we knew everything was ready, everything was good, everything was worked out, we prepared for 4 years and we once again came to the conclusion that everything was fine, the biggest fear is this, you know, the moment of surprise, suddenly the ball flies out by accident, a wet hand, or just something goes wrong, and you couldn't foresee it, so you're lying down, but... at night and

you want to sleep, and you're running the exercise through your head, over and over again and you lose it, you think, that's it, no need, i don't want to, i i don't want to do this exercise in my sleep, please, stop, but you still do it, somewhere a ball will accidentally roll out, for example, i was afraid of this most of all, because i understood that everything that flies, even if it flies a little with a mistake, can be rushed and caught anywhere in the field of the site, but if something accidentally flies out there and goes wrong, then... this scared me most of all, therefore in this regard , it is precisely that there is a moment of unpredictability, you have only one chance if you make a mistake, especially in our sport, if you make a mistake, that's it, you're out of the fight for medals and you have to wait for the next 4 years, in my work i know that it's a little bit, let's say, not going well, let's try it differently, so i probably

feel a little more comfortable in terms of this... the moments that i just explained to you, but again i repeat that these are completely different areas, and i get great pleasure from being an athlete and representing my country in the international arena, just as i do from working in this position and already defending it in this political vein. well, look, ksenia, you are a prize-winner of the olympic games in beijing and london. yeah, an honored master of sports, and what brought you to gymnastics at one point, and what didn’t allow you to leave the sport, even after a successful career, i’ve loved sports since childhood and well, since when, i started doing sports at the age of 5, it’s not because i myself loved it so much, of course, it was influenced by my parents and my coach, who found me in kindergarten, who walked around... kindergarten, looked

at how much there were more or less promising children, flexible, gave, father is an athlete, yes, father is an athlete, mother is an athlete, and my dad and i at one time went to... together to train, he to his, i to mine, that is, we basically had a sports environment, a sports family, i grew up in a sports environment, my parents, when they received this, you know, receipt, come to such-and-such an address, your daughter will try to do gymnastics, my parents were like, well, yes, great, let's try, why not, that is , the question was not even raised, should i or should i not, no, i would 100% go to some kind of sport, but it was just a coincidence turned up, and my parents... you could say, pushed them to the fact that let it be gymnastics, and in general, to be honest, i'll tell you that gymnastics for girls, especially it's a great sport, and for boys, by the way, too, i mean artistic gymnastics, here is general physical training, this will be

an excellent base in the future for any kind of sport, so i recommend everyone to send their children to gymnastics, well, i'll even emphasize, probably especially in belarus, because belarusian and russian gymnasts are actually a top brand, yes world gymnastics, this is objective, i can’t make anything up, and what was the difference between your two olympics as an athlete and the olympics as a general secretary, well, that’s exactly in terms of perception, in terms of feelings, as a general secretary i can look at the olympics in a broader sense, much more including organizational things, and in general at everything, when you are an athlete and many people talk about this, but this is the absolute truth, here they flew from the airport to the hotel, in this case to the olympic village, a very strict schedule, there must be maximum discipline, because what you also know, somebody will be late, for the bus, that's it, if you use the wrong

bus, for example, your car, something broke down, no one will wait for you there, you have to stick to the schedule very strictly, that's why athletes, they come to the village. they have a plan for training, lunch, training again , dinner, sleep, that's it, they don't see anything, that is, well, sometimes you manage to get out somewhere into the city on the last day, if you don't fly out the very next day, but most often, uh, you leave the country, i had the opportunity look at the olympics, at other sports, at olympic venues, talk to people, see what teams they have. how they prepare for the olympic games, how they decorate villages and so on, much, much broader. well, okay, here's senia, these were light questions, yes, let's move on a little to more difficult ones, how were you received in paris, how were our athletes received in paris, taking into account all these sanctions,

did you personally feel negativity or, on the contrary, warming, or maybe no difference at all, these are the feelings you had in this plan? well, you know, we were very well received, it's true, and i don't know how sincere it was, but we didn't feel any pressure, any negativity, and i read an interview, all the athletes confirmed this, there was absolutely no aggression or even, that is, they understood that it was the belarusian delegation, yes, they completely understood, they, and if they didn't understand, they asked where you were from, i said, belarus, and the reaction was excellent, yes, always, i don't know, it's or... such european politeness, but uh, all the same you feel, yes, when there is some kind of rejection towards you, well, really, there was nothing, and i was very happy, especially from the first days, because in fact we were all worried about this, how we would be accepted, i didn’t want the athletes to have even more pressure, because they have enough

different problems, and i wanted to protect them from this, so that they could focus only on the performance, that is, as i understand it, that relations between people, and not like... were normal, and remain normal, the problems are always in politics completely, 100%, between politicians mainly, yes, absolutely, yes, moreover, that is, no one refused to go out on the same carpet, there for the same training with you, no, no, no, what are you saying, no, well, it seems so, in fact, of course, on the contrary, everyone, sometimes even our acquaintances would come running to us, you know, hi, we are so glad to see you, how great it is that you came, well done and so on, when they already started winning medals, then they say: well , the guys came, the team is small, they haven’t performed for 2 years, the conditions are so difficult and you perform, well, just bravo, it’s not for nothing that they say, that normal life will still break through even through the asphalt, okay, despite the fact that they rolled it up, but we will break through, that

's the main task of the legs today, to return our athletes to the international arena, to find alternative sites, or are there any other options. these 2 years we have spent very close work with the russian federation, with our colleagues, friends, partners and we often talked, yes , about the fact that this... was a time of opportunity, we perceive it absolutely this way, because a russian athlete is the best athletes in the world, we had the opportunity to compete on equal terms in some places, and to learn from them in others, and it seems to me that it helped us a lot and did not allow us to lose our athletic form over these 2 years to show very good results today, including at the olympic games, but of course... it seems to me that all athletes would like to reach

the international level and prove that they are the best in the world, so such a task is before nok, after all, to fully recover in international sports as soon as possible, it is worth it, because it will come anyway... that the time when everything will fall into place will be as it should be, so why not do it earlier, now, and not put it off until later, well there is hope for los angeles 28, yes, there is hope, of course we are doing the work, it is too early to talk about the results, but we are making an effort, and i can say that it is moving in... ksenia, then remind our viewer, please, the main olympic principle, and i am not talking about faster,

higher, stronger, you know, if about the fact that sport is not politics, then politics, it has always been in sport, in other areas, in culture is the same, so i can't say that anything has changed much.

makes, to put it mildly, certain insinuations, so i, frankly speaking, really hope that finally the coubertin principle, which was once proclaimed about equality and tolerance regardless of political views, yes or religious, that it will still prevail, well, okay , hope, it still exists, and you know, i understand what you're talking about, especially about eurovision, especially when, as you said, some can, and some can't. and i do too i often think about this, maybe we are too modest, yes to some extent, maybe we need

to express our position more clearly in some moments, but somewhere i understand that i am proud that we, belarusians, somehow behave in a civilized manner, we always find civilized ways to beautifully declare our position, and i hope that the whole world in principle will be able to do this too. appreciate, notice , appreciate, and maybe be such a soft power, but in the end we will achieve our goals, well, four medals from 17 athletes - this is more than a good demonstration of our truly calm, peaceful, tolerant, yes, but this does not mean that we have come to terms with this and somehow agreed to continue to act like this, naturally, i really hope so.

the one who did it without mistakes, and as has already been written in many places, this is still considered a victory of the belarusian and russian schools, but to tell the truth, of course, i felt offended, because i know that our girls, alina gornasko and nastya salos among others...