Karolina Tarasova and Ksenia Savinova share their impressions after Evgeniya Kanaeva's master class in Valdai

After the master class by two-time Olympic champion Evgeniya Kanaeva at the Christmas camp, the Academy's students Karolina Tarasova from Donetsk and Ksenia Savinova from Gatchina shared their impressions.

Karolina told what the lesson was made up of.

"I really liked the master class, because we did not only do apparatus preparation, but also taught skills. We did general physical training with ribbons, ropes. I really liked it. We are very glad that Evgeniya comes to us often and shares her experience with us," Karolina said.

Ksenia noted that what she remembers most was working with apparatuses. 

"I liked the very apparatus preparation, because Evgeniya explained everything very well, and almost everything worked out right away. I liked how she told her stories about the Olympics. A great big thanks to her," she said.

The gymnasts also recalled the stories about the Olympic Games that Evgeniya Kanaeva shared with them. Karolina talked about the difficulties that the two-time Olympic champion went through before winning her first Olympics in Beijing in 2008. 

"She told how she experienced it all. It was difficult for her mentally, because the girls were older than her. As she said, they had better results. But when they were taken to the Olympics, she showed better results and went to the Olympics with the team. She made a mistake in the first event, but then she pulled herself together, did everything as she should, and won first place," she said.

And Ksenia added that winning gold at the second Olympic Games in London in 2012 also did not come easy for the gymnast. 

"At the second Olympics, it was also morally difficult for her because she was already the eldest, and the younger gymnasts also wanted to win. And she had to pull herself together, she did it, and she took first place," she said. 

The training camp for athletes was organized by the founders of the Alina Kabaeva Sky Grace Rhythmic Gymnastics Academy.