Translation by Liubov Baladzhaeva
Athletes are escorted throughout the airport so that they can get to the Olympic village without delays. There are a lot of soldiers with assault rifles for security reasons.
The first training for the gymnasts starts at 9:00, they usually take a bus to the gym although it’s walking distance from their accommodation. Journalists are not allowed into the Olympic village.
Aliya talks about their rooms and the village: they didn’t really have time to walk around, because they train twice a day and have to rest in between. The rooms are on the smaller side, but cozy. She’s happy with the living conditions, no complaints.
Denis Ablyazin will turn 24 in Rio. He’s one of the Russian MAG hopes for a gold medal, which they didn’t have since 2000. Asked about who are his main competitors, he says that he sees every single gymnast in Rio as a competitor. Other than that they just take everything one training at a time and try not to think about the competition yet. The Russian team shares the gym with the Japanese for the first hour of training, the reporter says that the Japanese are watching Ablyazin on vault.
Starkin says that for the MAG team the main competitors are US, Japan and China [weirdly, doesn’t mention GB) and the competition in MAG is extremely hard. It’s hard to get any kind of medal, not even talking about gold, but they are aiming high with Denis.
Alfosov says that EFs in MAG are going to be very interesting, because it’s a clash between European and Asian kinds of gymnastics