Daria Melnik and Arina Lysenko talk about Academy's senior group exercise team tryouts

Daria Melnik from Ryazan and Arina Lysenko from Krasnodar, participants in the Academy's senior group exercise team tryouts, shared their excitement for the training sessions at Sirius. 

The athletes said that this was not the first time at the Academy: they took part in the second stage of the Cup of the Strongest in 2025, and Arina, while still in her individual program, competed for Sky Grace at the Crystal Rose and participated in the Alina festival.

Daria shared their current goal and thanked Olympic champion Alina Kabaeva and the Academy's management for the opportunity:

"We switched to the Master program at the beginning of this year, and before that, we spent two years together on the junior team. The goal is to join the team and move forward together. We want to express our deepest gratitude to Alina Maratovna and the entire Academy management for giving us a chance. We can continue our athletic careers here."

Arina also noted the task she sets for herself:

"The goal is to stay here and train with the girls."

The gymnasts also thanked the coaches who had worked with them earlier: Anna Olegovna Epifanova, Maria Yurievna Tolkacheva, Ekaterina Olegovna Osaulenko, Natalia Borisovna Tushina, Veronika Borisovna Shatkova, Anastasia Ivanovna Maksimova and Alina Andreevna Makarenko.

The athletes previously represented the Russian National team in group exercises. Arina also competed for the Academy at the international 2023 Crystal Rose competition.