The popular website Judo Inside had a long interview with Daria Mezhetskaia. The European Games winner talks about her practices, her guilty pleasure and social media approach.
Daria, we can say that your judo career has been quite successful so far, including those results from various age competitions. But each time there was some obstacle and you could not win the gold. How do you feel today about that? Has last year’s success made you more confident?
I think everything goes in its due course. I am very patient, self-confident and I feel that big successes are yet to come. I have not yet fully revealed my potential. I just keep working hard and waiting for the gold medals.
Other girls we asked the same, because we truly believe that your weight category -57kg is arguably the most competitive in the world as well as in Russia with many capable players. Who do you think are your main rivals? Who are your toughest opponents you find the most difficult to defeat?
To be honest I cannot single out anyone. It is interesting to fight against everyone of them and the difficulties you might be experiencing could be different with everyone as well. But I prefer to be focused on myself – to what extent I am ready and determined to fight.
As we mentioned above a lot of girls are practicing judo in Russia. Yet still are there enough sparing partners in your club? Or do you get more quality randories during the trainings with your national team? How about the camps abroad?
Since then when I was selected for the national team, almost the whole years I spent being on camps. Mainly we are based in Sochi, Because of this I hardly ever train in my club “Olimp” of Samara these days. But in the past there were more than enough quality randori partners for me in that club, such as Zabludina, Kondratieva, Rumiantseva and many others.
Which club do you represent? Big one? How successful? How many judokas train there approximately?
I represent Sergei Gerasimov’s club “Olimp” from Samara. As for the women this club is one of the most successful in Russia. If we look back at history 3 players at the Olympic games, also medalists of senior European Championships and many high quality junior and cadet judokas of international level all came from my club.
Generally what is a typical training day like for you?
At 8 am stand up and stretching
10:30 am tatami – about 2 hours
dinner and rest
16:30 pm physical training – about 1.5 hours
