National Gymnastics Stars Make a Sadenning Confession: “Messed Up From the Very Beginning”

Illia Kovtun, Oleg Verniaiev, Nazar Chepurnyi, Ihor Radivilov, and Radomyr Stelmakh, under the guidance of their head coach Gennady Sartynskyi, went to Rimini, Italy, to claim the European championships in gymnastics. At the 2024 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships, Ukraine and Great Britain locked in for one last battle for the championships. The former, which was trailing until the final rotation, made a turnover. The hit a score of achieved a total score of 255.762, narrowly surpassing Great Britain by 0.333 points. Ukraine concluded the championships with a total of six medals – 3 Gold, 2 Silver, and 1 Bronze. Now, when the 2025 Championships came, the dynamics for the defending champions were changed. The team left a below-par performance. But what was the reason?

“The team, in my opinion, performed not excellently, but at its level. We didn’t have so many falls, although there were some. But considering the circumstances during the preparation, I think we didn’t do too badly,” Mr. Sartynskyi summed up. In Leipzig, Ukraine’s men’s team secured only one medal—a bronze in the vault event. Nazar Chepurnyi earned this bronze with a score of 14.583. On top of that, there was the scandal. In early May, the Ukrainian men’s national team wanted to boycott the European Championships due to Sartynskyi’s suspension. He had a conflict with the vice president of the Gymnastics Federation of Ukraine, Stella Zakharova.

It was only because of the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine that he was allowed to go to the tournament and at least help his gymnasts by phone. Olympic gold medalist and Ukrainian gymnast Oleg Verniaiev in a conversation with champion.com.ua. talked of how it impacted their preparation. “Firstly, in principle, the preparation was very difficult. For me, it was the most difficult preparation of all: both because of my health and because of all the factors that interfered,” he said.

The Olympian further said, “I’m preparing for the European Championship, the coach spends 3 hours on the phone out of 7 hours of training. Someone is constantly calling him, well, this is not preparation. Plus, this swing: we’re going, we’re not going. This is not preparation.” The Championship was added to Ukraine’s roster less than two weeks before the competition began. And he wasn’t the only one to voice out his frustrations against it. Nazar Chepurnyi also talked about the hardships in the interview with the Ukrainian website.

He said, “The preparation was messed up from the very beginning. You don’t know whether you’ll go or not, what you’ll do, or whether they’ll assign your coach. We’re used to it like this: we come from the competition, we analyze, we set a plan, the coach gives us a task, we work, and then we go to the competition. That’s always the case with us. But here, nothing was known right up until the last day.” Even the idea of the boycott was initially Nazar’s idea, which was supported by the others. However, the recurring rate of coaching scandals in the past few years shows how rampant issues are behind the scenes..

Gymnastics’ coaches find themselves in hot water

Mariana Vasileva, the long-time head coach of the Azerbaijani rhythmic gymnastics team, was handed a  8-year ban from participating in any FIG activities and a lifetime ban from serving as the head coach of any FIG-affiliated federation. Additionally, her FIG “Honorary Coach” diploma was revoked. All of this followed numerous allegations of psychological abuse, physical assault, and coercive control over athletes. Her daughter, Siyana Vasileva, was handed an 18-month ban and suspended for a probationary period of three years.

In early 2024, Dimitru Pop, one of the coaches of the French women’s artistic gymnastics team, was provisionally suspended following an investigation launched by the French Ministry of Sports into allegations of violence and mistreatment toward athletes. The suspension, confirmed by the French Gymnastics Federation, came less than five months before the Paris Olympics, disrupting the team’s preparation. As of now, the results of the investigation into Pop’s conduct have not been disclosed, and no final conclusions have been reported.

In March 2023, Irina Viner, Russia’s most decorated rhythmic gymnastics coach, was suspended for two years by the Gymnastics Ethics Foundation (GEF), acting on behalf of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG). The suspension followed her public criticism of judges after Israeli gymnast Linoy Ashram won gold over Russia’s Dina Averina in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Viner’s comments, which accused the judges of bias and called the outcome a “disgrace,” were deemed inappropriate and in violation of FIG’s code of ethics. She was also found to have retaliated against a Russian FIG official involved in the judging and failed to cooperate with the GEF’s inquiry.

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