Meanwhile in Kazakhstan …
Ilya Ilyin gave an interview to a Kazakh news site.
In it he walks about how he experienced the time after worlds and his future plans.
Below are the main points translated by Sergiy:
- Being busy in the last two months with various events helped de-stress after Worlds.
- Preparation for Worlds lasted 11 months without any breaks or vacations. Ilya finished at 15% higher than what was planned. Unlike other athletes, his body parameters went straight up rather than fluctuate.
- Will compete once this year, for practice, but not at Worlds. Two very important competitions in two years is an injury risk. Rio is the goal.
- Added running to training last year that is that is very unusual for a weightlifter. In 2007 told that he could not run more than 1km. Now he can run 5-6+ km if needed.
- Ilya also started doing some boxing. Rustem Sybay’s older brother is national champion in boxing, so he is a boxing coach in Ilya’s gym. Ilya has many boxing friends, so he wants to have a good boxing technique as well.
- He swims for up to 2km and does little crossfit
- His motto is “A weightlifter should be able to do everything.” It is important to borrow from other sports what you can because it may help win against competitors.
- Once he did a speed test in a lab where he had to ride a stationary bike. Only 2 athletes in Kazakhstan got similar results.
- Regularly does blood tests and consults with dietitians.
- It is important to exercise not only the body, but also the mind. Last year Ilya read books about psychology, business, and “how to think properly.”
- It is important to study many things: business, management, and languages. So that you have something to do after retirement. Speaking about himself, Ilya thinks that he will work hard in his career after retirement. For example, his mom has a hair salon and he can help expand the business. He will start with something small and progress until he achieves something big. It also doesn’t have negative effect on training.
- If Ilya wins gold in Rio, his goal will be the 4th Olympic gold. Regarding motivation: “I lift for my country and get paid for it. Since the government is paying me, I must commit to my country. It needs my victories. I also have a team with many young guys who look at me. Thus, I don’t have a right to miss a lift even in training.”
- Regarding Zhassulan Kydyrbaev vs Vladimir Sedov: Ilya expected this outcome. Zhassulan is the first athlete who did Ilya’s volume and did not have training setbacks. Sedov also worked hard, but he did have setbacks. That’s why Zhassulan won.
- “I am a regular athlete who knows that a talented person is one who can sustain amount of work necessary to achieve the goals. If you can’t handle the work, you are not talented. I love work.”
- The worst injury was in 2011 (groin muscles). Ilya was at 115-116 kg bodyweight and went through very hard times to recover. Small pains and injuries are basically a part of weightlifting and you have to get used to it.
- About 2 months before a competition Ilya realizes how much he needs to lift to win. This time he remembers how he told his wife about 190+242. He knew that Nurudinov would lift a lot, no matter what anyone tells. Bedzhanyan surprised Ilya a little bit.
- Ilya never thinks badly about competitors. He knows that weightlifters would get more popular if they argue and talk badly about each other all the time, but prefers to show off on the platform. “I think it works for me pretty well.”
- Ilya likes sweets. He works hard enough not to worry about it.
- Would be cool to lift 200+250 one day in 105.
- “It would also be cool to get to about 125 kg bodyweight and compete as a superheavy. Who knows what I can do there? It is possible to clean 257, maybe, if my body can handle it. The main thing is to believe in yourself. Truly. And never fall back.”
Thanks for the translation, Sergiy. Much appreciated!
Ilya as a superheavy? hahaha That would be interesting, but I don’t think his body can be a champion against the giants, and his sinclair would be smaller :S
I would prefer to see him with 4 olympic golds, I hope he will be strong for long enough!
Wow. Two interviews back to back. Awesome.
Unfortunately just purchased the special access pass for the worlds for 105s yesterday to watch ilya in the training hall as well, Hopefully Nurudinov and Bedzhanyan will put on a show like last years
definitely a good chance for another clean and jerk world record!
Hmm I think Nurudinov and Bedzhanyan might do the same as Ilya and skip 2015 worlds. Hopefully Klokov bolts at the oppurtunity to win another Gold medal. if they do decide to skip Worlds.
Now that would be a plot twist!
10 years after becoming World Champion the first time haha.
That would be interesting indeed, but you can never know for sure. Klokov knew well before London that Akkaev was injured (the whole Russian team knew), and he knew well enough before London that Aramnau was injured, and Klokov was arguably in his peak form ever, but he still did not compete.
And thats because he himself got injured aswell.(If he did or didnt actually get injured is another story)
(Exactly.)
A friend sent me the following recent video in which Klokov returns to the Moscow gym where he began his weightlifting career. Other world champions came out of this small gym. It’s probably not particularly interesting to most of you, but I spent years in this gym so I am nostalgic and wanted to share. Incidentally, this gym is in the basement of the building that houses the theater that was seized by terrorists in 2002 and then gassed out by Russian troops, with many innocents dying in the gas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a75LSTyihqc
If the whole team knew he was injured why wasn’t his spot reallocated to another 105 or perhaps Oleg Chen?
The official reason is “injury risk”, but the real reason for not competing is probably the fear of failing a drug test.
LOL if these 3 all skip! Yang Zhe for gold! LOL
He is someone who tested clean at 2 olympics, multiple world championships. Do you really think he is afraid of just another test? He will be clean as a newborn should he step foot on US soil. This guy is no amateur.
Hahaha “clean”. If he does get “tested” his dirty piss/blood will never reach WADA. There’s so much $$$ protecting him that he won’t be touched. You’re naive if you think he’s actually clean…
Are you talking about Ilya?
of course it would be interesting to see ilya compete in shw, but i think he would rather not win a gold medal at world championships or olympics.
he certainly could bring up his clean&jerk to the level of the top guys (which means 255-260kg), but i cannot imagine him ever snatching significantly more than 200kg, no matter how much weight he gains. though this would be necessary to win a big international competition, when you look at all the strong competitors like albegov, lovchev, salami,… and so on.
besides this i would also love to see klokov going for gold in houston.
How would Ilya qualify for Rio? I assume he qualified automatically for London since he won in 2008, but will there be some internal Kazakhstan comp to determine the team?
I think the qualification is not by athlete, but by country. Kazakhstan earns the right to send x number of athletes based on placings in designated competitions. So if your country earns high placings at worlds, for instance, you are awarded so many spots. Obviously, Kazakhstan has a pretty good number of lifters so it is not required for Ilya to lift in order to get the maximum number of spots.
Once a country knows how many spots they have earned, I believe it is entirely their prerogative to send whoever they like. Meaning the coaches/sports administration.
To be able to compete at the Olympics, athletes have to compete at 2 competitions out of: 2014 commonwealth games, 2014 Asian Games, 2014 WWC, 2015 Pan Am Games, 2015 WWC, 2016 Regional Championships (Europeans, Oceania, Asia etc) and any IWF Grand Prix competition. It’s on the IWF website. This is on top of the countries qualifying team spots at the 2014 and 2015 WWC, or the 2016 regional qualifiers.
I’d imagine Ilya will compete at a Grand Prix competition, where the weights are down anyway, so there’s no pressure for him to go maximal.
There will definitely be internal “big Fridays” to figure out who can lift what. Ilya also stated that he will compete, just not at Worlds. He will compete at some competition that doesn’t require world records to be broken.
they’d be insane to not send him (unless injured of course)
hmm , I’m guessing it’ll be another one of those internal Kazakh test competitions like he did a few months before the WWC but who knows
From the context, is it made clear if he means an international competition or just a domestic one?
No, Ilya just mentioned that he will compete, but not at Worlds. Somewhere where they won’t push him that far.
I can understand his decision that he won’t start this year’s world champs. Probably that’s why he could avoid injury for many years and has been able to stretch his career longer. Of course I am disappointed too because I wanted to see him clashing with the other two again. He doesn’t give too many opportunities to his rivals to catch him..
About going up to superheavy – it’s absolutely nonsense.
Thank you. that was great
“Ilya finished at 15% higher than what was planned.”
What is that referring to? Weights hit in training? Body weight?
here you can see him swim 🙂
https://instagram.com/p/zg-YKiAKtT/
Are there any sources about whether he actually won the Worlds as a vegetarian?
He said it in the press conference.