Source: Cosmopolitan July issue 2012
Originally written in Russian, translated and edited by catts
http://zhenyakanaevagymnasium.com/
Evgenia Kanaeva, OG Champion in 2008 and in London 2012, the pride of the Russian National Team and the goddess of RG talks about beauty, success, dreams and the most important issues in life.
To achieve success, the most important of all, is to love what you do.
Q: How did you end up in the big sport?
A: I was chubby when I was a kid. The grandmother and my mom decided that gymnastics could help correct it and keep my body slim. Back then no one thought about serious sporting career.
Q: You were about 7-8 years old when more serious training started. How did the little Zhenya spend her day?
A: I trained 5-6 hours everyday depending on the school schedule. Upon returning home, my grandmother would ask me to show her what I learned that day. And I would jump at her command and gladly repeated the whole training routine in front of her.
Q: Have you never thought about running away from training to play with your peers?
A: My training schedule was never a problem to me. I received a lot of pleasure from it which felt like fascinating games for me. And I never even thought about it. I shared life with the girls in training at the gym. They were my idols. I watched what they did and could not have imagined that one day I would be able to do likewise.
Q: What motivated you to go forward?
A: My main target was to get into the national team. I dreamed of performing on international arena. When I watched the well known gymnasts on TV, for me they were like rock stars from another world – such was my dream.
Q: What occupies your time these days?
A: I train twice a day. I wake up at 7.30 and by 8.30 I am already in the gym. From 9.00 to 10.30 it is choreography, and then it will be a 2-hours training session. The second part of the training starts with 90 minutes warm-up and then 3 hours of intensive exercises. Afterwards, the only thing that I can do is to sleep. During the weekend, I spend some time with mz friends ie. going out, watching movies and having fun.
Q: Do you feel proud of any achievements?
A: My main achievement at this current moment is my participation in the Olympic Games. The moment you walk out onto the arena, the feelings is just incomparable to anything else, which makes it impossible to forget. During the actual performance, I want to show all that I am capable of doing and I feel like a goddess.
Q: Is this what is called success?
A: Success is satisfaction from something that you achieve. This does not only come through the professional plan. It is my career and my private life that are now my new goals. However I still think that the best achievements are still to come.
Q: Which?
A: To become a mother.
Q: What advice you would like to give to the young girls who dream of success?
A: To achieve success, the most important of all is to love what you do. Without it nothing will come together. Never give up. Cast out negative thoughts from yourself and apply all efforts to obtain best results.
Q: Speaking about authority, whose opinion do you value? Who is your role model?
A: Opinions of my mum, grandmother and people who I work with such as my coach matter a lot to me. This is basically what sport is all about. Generally, I know about the acts of Princess Diana and I am sure she was like an angel! Audrey Hepburn, in my opinion, was also very beautiful.
Q: As we talked about beauty, which parts of your life need beauty rituals?
A: In Rhythmic Gymnastics, beauty and good beauty treatment are very important. I always allocate some time for myself – for things like beauty salon or skin care every morning and evening. Because of the wonderful appointment as the messenger of ‘Venus’ company, which is about hair removal, this is also a part of my daily beauty rituals and I always use razors from Venus as well as their shaving gel because I don’t feel irritation and the skin stays very smooth and tender. As for many other gymnasts, beautiful legs have special value – they attract most of the attention.
Beauty secrets from Evgenia Kanaeva
In order to feel like a goddess, it is necessary to be sure that you have a wonderful appearance!
Beautiful legs guarantee success not only in RG. To test this, put on short-enough skirt and go outside. On this basis, leg care should be given attention no less than care than face or hair.
In beauty treatment, just like sport, you always need to strive for excellence. This means, legs should be ideally smooth and skin – tender.
Always spare time for yourself and the procedure of beauty treatment. Beauty treatment is a discipline. Devote yourself to correct morning and evening skincare and see for yourself – the result will be tremendous.
Be loyal – especially toward cosmetic brands. If you manage to pick up a series which is ideally suitable for your skin, why would you need new experiments?
Smile more – a natural smile has a much better attraction than professional make-up. Unlike cosmetic make-up, your smile is always handy.
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