Yana Batyrshina

It all started when a woman came up to my dad at a bus stop and asked: ‘How old is your piglet?’ That was my first rhythmic gymnastics coach (laughs).

I knew that it was only during competitions that I was one of the best in the world. My coach, Irina Aleksandrovna Viner, once pointed it out to me, “As soon as you get off the victory stand, everything starts from the very beginning, from scratch”. Meaning that a minute ago you were a world champion, and just a few seconds later you turn into nobody.

It’s always nice to see people you don’t know holding banners with your name written on them, or to know that there are plenty of your fan-clubs in Japan, for example.

I’ve never been able to understand, how you can possibly not be kind to your husband or your own kids, your own family. It’s the reaction you get automatically, it naturally happens that way.

I like practical things, presents that are useful. I like it when people call and ask what they should give me, and I feel comfortable answering this question.

I’m a fan of presents that don’t just stand on a shelf.

I can’t stay in the same place for too long, I start feeling cornered. My husband books me into a hotel suit every now and again, to give me a bit of a change of scenery, some more room. In just a couple of days, when I’m back to my normal self, we return home.

If Heaven is anything like a place we go to in Spain, I’m ready to get there right now.

I’m addicted to photo frames, photos and photo albums, my whole flat is covered in that stuff. It takes a lot of time, because I like to add different notes to different pictures, I’ve got a separate album for every kid, and there’s another one for when they’re together, and another one for my husband and me, and one more for the whole family. Meaning that I’m very fussy about keeping it all in order.

Working on television is my childhood dream, that’s why a lot of work-related troubles and complications just don’t get to me. By the way, if it wasn’t for this work, I wouldn’t have had a chance to meet my husband, and that’s another reason to be grateful.

I am, actually, what they call a lone wolf. I don’t need anyone, except for my husband, kids, mum, dad, mother-in-law. I can just stay at home with kids and wait for the husband, and I will be happy with that.

I don’t like it when people share their wearies with me, and there’s nothing

I can do to help them. It makes me feel ill at ease, especially when there’s something wrong with someone, I want everyone to be fine. I am, actually, not that much of a fan of “women’s talk”, I use my husband for that.

I don’t believe that after you die your life just ends. I’m convinced that it’s simply the beginning of a new life in some other dimension. And I would love to see the End of the world (laughs).

It’s not the USSR that I miss, but that period in my life, my school years, my friends, my hometown Tashkent…

In the past, I used to be very cruel, I never compromised and there were a lot of things I didn’t understand. Back then there was only one thing that mattered to me — “Me”. But when my husband came along, I realized that there’s also “us”, we’re family. It’s my husband who taught me all that, and I’m very grateful to him.