From acrobatics to refusal to jump without insurance: how Love Cherkashin came to rhythmic gymnastics at 9 years

The path of the future medalist of the Games in rhythmic gymnastics began not with ribbons and clubs, but with acrobatics and three years of heavy training on bars and logs. On the show "Markov". Nothing personal" on ONT Lyubov Cherkashin candidly told how a chance meeting in the nineties determined her fate and why at the age of 9 she had to make the first adult decision - to say a firm "no" to a gymnastics coach.

Lyubov Cherkashin: I generally love the case of chance in life. We probably don’t all appreciate meeting certain people. This is what ultimately shapes destiny. Then, when you’re somewhere, you go back and think, ‘That’s what I did right!’ My journey in rhythmic gymnastics began with acrobatics. My mother worked in the nineties and had nowhere to go. I, as the third, the youngest, studied the ponytail everywhere where my mother works. And one of the additions was that my mom worked as an insurance agent. And then, you know, there was a time when you could walk around the apartments, and you were opened. Knocked, you were opened. You could even insure a man

Love Cherkashin: And we knocked, came in. I'm hanging out with my mom, and there's an acrobatics coach. That's how I ended up in acrobatics. Tell me what she wanted. Tired man... We went at night when people were home. And she says, "Let him come, come to school." She's here. I really liked it, by the way. I only knew that if my future was in acrobatics, it was at the bottom. I think, ‘Wow, keep everyone on your own!’ But then Irina Petrovna went somewhere, I don’t know, maybe under the contract, I don’t remember the details. And there was gymnastics in the same room. So I ended up there for three years. For three years she was engaged in gymnastics, and one day, standing on a log ..

Lyubov Nikolaevna remembered how she had to make a strong-willed decision, which ultimately determined her fate.

Lyubov Cherkashin: “Not all gymnasts love this story, which I tell, because they think: ‘Why does Lyuba say this about our sport?’” So I wasn't made for him, and the log was extremely dangerous to me. When I was told to make a certain element there without insurance, it was probably my first childish volitional decision. That's nine years old. That is, from the age of six I was in sports, in acrobatics, and at the age of nine I made such a strong-willed decision and said: “Well, no,” and I did not. That is, for me, raised in a large family, where the elder is always right and you have to do everything, to say no was a step. And I jump off that log, come home. It's clear there are tears, snot. And my mother pulls out the Evening Brest, and then all the news was in the newspapers, looks and says: "Look, there is gymnastics, everything is as you like." No logs, no bars. Just a ribbon, a mace. Let's try it. And at the age of 9, I came to rhythmic gymnastics and fell into the golden hands of Zolotnitskaya Evgenia Nikolaevna, my first coach. Only I was old, 9-year-old. I still don't know why she took me, what she looked at, but she saw something in my eyes. And she put me right in front of the older group, because I looked really bad with the kids, like an elephant. And that's how my journey began. And then everything shot very quickly, of course, and literally a couple of years later I was already in Minsk, in a hostel.

See also:

Love Cherkashin explained why rhythmic gymnastics can not often change coaches

“Don’t throw everything into yourself at once!” Love Cherkashin spoke about weight and body positivity in professional sports

"The price of the medal is huge!" Lyubov Cherkashin answered whether “hothouse” children can become champions