Roman Mytyukov: “Imagine my rivals tearing up in training motivates me”

Roman, summer, does you happen to train outside?

Sometimes in Marignac, Lancy, but it doesn’t happen often. We spend most of our time in the inner basin with Vernets.

Outdoor, are you looking for more pleasure or enjoy leaving the heat wave?

The swimming pool, I avoid. Don’t tell me about pools, even on vacation! It’s a bit paradoxical, because other athletes practice their discipline during leave or after their season, like skiers for example. I happen to go to the lake, to Geneva, but not to swim, simply swim and sunbathe in the sun.

You found training in November after a postolympic break, how have gone in recent months?

Alright. My season was quite good, I had a good 200 meters back. I was quite surprised to get back into so quickly, that the return after the games takes place quite naturally, so I am quite confident.

Did you think that the return to water would be more complicated?

Yes, because I had this goal of making an Olympic medal, which I succeeded. There was the risk of decompression, but I was ultimately very motivated to return to training. Of course, there are sometimes more complicated sessions, but it was also the case in the preolympic preparation before Paris. I think that with my team, my coaches, we managed this period well and it was wise to cut, not to resume too quickly.

Have you found your Olympic sharpening?

Widely. I quickly lost the extra pounds. When you train four to five hours a day, you lose the pounds taken during a break very quickly (he smiles).

What have you worked specifically in recent months?

All underwater parts: ripples, turns, departures. Frankly, I worked a lot on my departure and I still improved it well, so I’m very happy. The flows are also a little better each season, I see some progressions. I will continue to work hard until the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.

What do your exercises underwater look like?

It is in particular an apnea work, with a little stress, as they say. That is to say that we chain the series with little break time. Without breathing, it becomes more difficult to make these flows. The goal is to accustom the body to be able to make this kind of effort, even under stress.

A year after your Olympic bronze medal in Paris, do you often think about this race?

I think about it from time to time, yes. We have a lot debrief with my coach, but I don’t necessarily have a lot of memories, as if the emotions had erased everything from my memory. The video obviously allows us to work on the next 200 m backs, improve certain elements and retain good things too. But it should not be done either forever on this, I have to move forward.

This medal has brought you into a new dimension. Financially too?

I manage to live swimming in Switzerland and I am therefore one of the “lucky”. The medal helped me a lot about this plan.

After your feat in Paris, you mentioned these moments of suffering to get this metal that you dreamed of. Where does this ability to hurt your training come from?

I have always been a competitor, whether in sport or next to it, in studies, everywhere in fact. This state of mind, even if it is not enough, helped me. You also need to want to work and tear yourself away every day. For me, it involves high goals that I set in my head. Last year, it was an Olympic medal at the Paris Olympics. I really wanted to look for it, I thought about it in the difficult series all the time, which allowed me to surpass myself each time. Because I knew that at the end, I was going to reach this goal.

When you have to make yourself violence in the basin in training, do you happen to think of your opponents?

I think a lot about my rivals and imagine them working as hard as I am, tearing themselves apart in training, so I tear myself a little more than them (He smiles). Before Paris, I also rethought my three fourth places (Editor’s note: 100 and 200 m back, 4x200m free) to Europeans from 2022: I wanted to fight so as not to relive these moments …

At the Singapore Worlds, do you already have gold in the viewfinder?

Honestly, I take things calmly. Everyone will be ready, it is a world championship, not a national competition, it will not be easy, as at the Games. The main thing, as every time in these major events is to qualify in the final, quite simply. The semi-final, often, is the hardest, where it goes fast too. I have my race strategy and will try to swim as quickly as possible: we will see what place I touch the edge of the basin.

This is your first major test in the face of competition after Paris 2024…

Exactly. And I am delighted. It’s been a year and I trained all season for this moment, so I can’t wait to swim.