The biathlete of the Ukrainian national team Anastasia Merkushina shared her views on how her sister Alexandra perceives criticism from the fans.
“Do not forget that Alexandra has been in sports almost from birth, just like me. And we have the same feelings. And just imagine, when a child of ten years old, who still does not know how to filter information, visits a profile site because he is proud of his sister and he wants to share his pride with others, because he thinks that her sister is the best, which may not be true, but she thinks so, and after all that she saw, how much effort I put in, how much I work in training, she reads about me, to put it mildly, not very pleasant things.
What is professional sports? At ten years old, this is already the beginning of preparation, at thirteen, this is two full-fledged workouts a day, the rest is sleep and a few hours in the evening for studying, first at school, then at the university.
In essence, I didn’t even have a childhood, I skipped my teenage years, I don’t have free time, I have two weeks of vacation a year, it’s hard to build a personal life, I don’t talk about any parties at all.
It was quite difficult for me, at least my sister saw it and understood what a difficult path must be overcome. And so she goes to the site or social network after some kind of race and instead of words of support she sees tons of hate. And she draws conclusions, which should be the primary motivation: to work hard and get a result that you and not only you can be proud of or the satisfaction of the fans.
I also saw how our Olympic champions were humiliated at one time. Today you are on a pedestal and you are a hero, but a few weeks pass and you are already insignificant. This is unpleasant and difficult for my sister to understand, as it was for me in my time. But on the other hand, she knows that there are fans who will support her no matter what, and she, of course, appreciates it very much, ”said Merkushina.
#Olympic #champions #humiliated #time
2023-02-23 14:40:00
