Long Jump Queen

Tatyana Lebedeva, 30, long jump Olympic champion and a multiple World gold medalist, dreams of winning two gold medals at the Beijing Olympics. Nikolai Dolgopolov recently sat down with her in Moscow. 

So, what’s next? 

I wanted very much to compete this winter season too, but, unfortunately, I was not able to. I needed just one more month to knock myself into the right shape. I started to practice hard… I was not fit for the gold, but would not settle for anything less. So I decided to miss the winter season and concentrate on the Beijing Olympics instead. The latter is more important to me.

What was the problem?

I had a problem with my foot nagging me for two years. It got inflamed from time to time, preventing me from doing what I wanted and what was needed.

The right foot?

Nope, the left, take-off one. The long jump is more or less O.K. – you take-off only once there. But the triple jump is a different story... 

Was your pain terrible?

It was, after each and every jump. More than that, each step was more painful than the previous one. The morning after competitions, I could hardly walk at all, and I couldn’t do anything, I was in such pain. True, I was able to control myself emotionally during competitions. In 2006, I somehow was able to brave the pain, but a year later it became impossible to practice and I had to suspend my training sessions altogether. That year I jumped only at competitions and did only the long jump.

Still, without any practice and braving all the pain, you nevertheless won the world long-jump gold and triple-jump silver last autumn.

And also I made up my mind to undergo surgery. I just imagined what kind of intensive practice I needed to be fully prepared for the forthcoming Olympics and how I was going to feel through all that with my injury… The surgery was performed in Finland on 27 October last year…

I wonder if you then thought that “enough is enough and it is about time to quit”? Or did that never occur to you?

Of course, I have thought that, especially after hard training sessions with all the moral and physical fatigue that goes with them. At such times you think, “Oh hell, do I really need all that?” But athletes, like drug addicts, have their own mentality: they are prepared to overcome any pain. It probably takes more than a year to develop such a mentality. But you can only experience such feelings and passions in competition. Or, perhaps one feels the same adrenaline and drive when skydiving. Despite all the jitters, you still feel deep within you that everything is going to be O.K. Yet still you’re afraid of something and can hardly breathe. Some great athletes, like [skater] Evgeni Plushenko, for example, quit and then want to return to competitive sport, so that they can experience such sensations again. In this respect, there is nothing like sport. You can’t find anything similar in ordinary life. 

But what is the attitude of Nikolai, your husband...?

Nikolai is a coach and knows a thing or two about life in sports. He does what he can to take over a lot of household chores. It’s only natural, it’s part of our lifestyle…

But do all the troubles, pains and medical treatment pay off? Is all that worthwhile?

They certainly do, and all that is 100 percent worthwhile.

Let’s be straight, what if at Beijing you are not so successful? Do you think about that?

Just imagine! It is going to be my third Olympics! What if I lose? What if something goes wrong? Such questions are hanging over me and I suspect they will continue to hang there. If you always win, you begin to think that you are a leader forever. You let down your guard, your emotions get dulled and you become kind of arrogant. But I think such developments do not wholly apply to me. I do get the jitters about my performance. Indeed, the more jitters I get, the better I perform. I think athletes always have some amount of fear as a driving force. The trick is to use your fear properly, to control it.  Fear and stress help an athlete progress, I would say. Provided, of course, you are a professional athlete. The higher your stress, the better are your results. So I hope everything will be fine. To do well, I need to have a hot heart and a cold mind…

Your physical condition is fine, but what about your mental preparedness? How long have you been in the sport?

I’ve been in the sport since I was 10. I turned professional in 1994, so it is my 14th year. It is not all a piece of cake, you know. There are hard moments now and then. Then I ask myself if I really need all this. But still, I think my work is fascinating. Indeed, most people work from nine to five and do not imagine life could be different in any way. So do I. Since my childhood, I have known what sport was about and how to be on friendly terms with it, and even with its unavoidable pains. Top athletes cannot avoid problems and injuries. But as soon as you are on your mark, your problems and injuries are no one’s concern. You are expected to produce the maximum results, and you are supposed to live with your problems and injuries. Or you are supposed to know how to reduce or mitigate them. To be successful in life, you need to use your head and be ready to face any hardship. You should know how to control, prevent or remove your problems or your injuries. That’s a professional approach to your job. There are many very talented athletes around, but some of them just squander their talents. I know many athletes who are much more talented than me.

Are you serious?

Absolutely.

Even jumpers? Even on the Russian national squad?

Basically, yes. Some jumpers have a better physique. They are taller. There are really talented girls who are lighter and have a better leaping ability. Take, for example, Oksana Udmurtova, a girl I practice with. She jumps better than me from a short run or from a standing position. But she still is not ready for top results, she has yet to develop a winner’s mentality, which is the essence of sport. It’s not an inborn quality – you need to feel it and nurture it within you. I believe that as soon as Oksana is successful in that respect and acquires more experience, she will jump farther.

And if not?

Then she will lose. I know many gifted athletes who prefer to invest their physical strength in nightclubs rather than to try hard in their training sessions. 

What about you? Do you visit nightclubs from time to time?

Yes, I do. But I also remember my morning practices, which are of prime importance to me. When I was 20, I used to visit nightclubs and felt pretty good the morning after. If I do the same thing now, I would need three days to come around. My opponents are on their alert, so I have no right to rest on my laurels. People say that Lebedeva always wins. The first thing I think about after any competition is the next tournament or championship. My opponents are not sitting on their hands, so I’m not going to relax, even internally. The entire season I keep myself in check. I cannot escape the fear that, “I have won this time, but they are all dreaming of beating me.” I am just one person, but there are dozens of them and each of them wants to come in first place. So I don’t want to give them a chance. I need to maintain my reputation.

How you are getting ready for China? Have you invented anything special?

No special training, because summer in Volgograd is also pretty hot. Fortunately, jumpers are not runners, and we are not going to have the same strain. Runners will have a hard time in Beijing, the poor things. As to us, we run for about 40 meters and then jump, that’s it. 

You’re not planning on setting any records, are you?

What I promise is to do my best, and then let’s see what happens. If I’m well prepared, why not try to set a record in the triple jump? At least, I’ve thought about that for a long time. I always hope and believe in myself, so the result can be right round the corner. I made a mistake in 2000 when, right before the Sydney Olympics, I jumped 15.32 meters [in the triple jump]. I had a feeling and I was sure I could set a world record without waiting for the games [the women’s world record is 15.5 meters, set in 1995]. But my coach told me to sit still and save my zeal for the games. But I failed at Sydney [Lebedeva took the silver medal in the triple jump] and was sorry about the missed opportunity to try setting a world record earlier, when I felt fully prepared for it... [In Sydney], my first attempt was not bad. Then it began to rain hard, and the competitions were suspended. It was very cold and my track shoes got wet and I melted along with them. The track was wet and I could not take off properly. Only then did I realize I was down on my luck. I have since started to believe in good luck.  RL