For several Olympic cycles in a row, the Russian women's synchronized swimming team has methodically collected all the first awards at the world's largest tournaments. One of the “golden” mermaids of this team was Maria Gromova, who successfully performed at a high level for more than ten years. During this time, she managed to win three Olympics, become a multiple world and European champion.
Pool Life
Maria Igorevna Gromova was born in Moscow in 1984. Her parents sought to ensure that their daughter went in for sports, tried to attach her to the section on rhythmic gymnastics, figure skating. However, for these kinds of sports, little Masha was a bit large, so I had to look for other ways. So synchronized swimming appeared in the biography of Maria Gromova. An important role in the final decision was played by the fact that it was the least traumatic sport, and the risk of harm to health was minimized here.
Masha came to the pool at the age of six, like all children, she first learned to stay on the water, swim. Gradually, the girls of her group began to fulfill some elements, to reveal their abilities to mentors. The first coach of Maria was Elena Piskareva, who remained with her throughout her career.
Gromova herself at first did not burn with a special desire to overcome herself, to do tedious stretching exercises. Like all children, she wanted to play, walk with friends. However, it so happened that she unsuccessfully performed at some children's competitions, being in the tail of the group. Here the character has already leaped up, and the girl began to reach out to her friends, trying to become the best. The results went by themselves, she began to get into the youth teams of the country, being a year younger than the girls of her age category.
Transition to an adult level
Already at the age of sixteen, Maria Gromova got into the main team of the country, falling into the subordination of the head coach for synchronized swimming Tatyana Pokrovskaya. The orders in the team were pretty tough. Being a maximalist in fact, Pokrovskaya tried to hone every element of the program to the ideal level, many times forcing her pupils to repeat the same movements.
The pool where the synchronized synchronists trained was empty after evening, swimmers and high jumpers left the tower, however, Maria Gromova and her teammates trained to exhaustion, sometimes delaying until twelve in the morning. In such circumstances, there was not even a need for tight control over young girls outside of training, since they themselves did not experience any other needs, except for rest and sleep.
These titanic efforts were not in vain, the wards of Pokrovskaya invariably took all the first places in big tournaments. In 2001, Maria Gromova for the first time in her life became the world champion in group exercises, then in the same year she took the European Cup.
Collecting medals
For her first Olympics in 2004, a Moscow athlete approached as a repeated world champion. In 2003, the next gold medal of the world championships was obtained, the European Cup was won. However, the Olympic Games were a special tournament, during which sports fans forgot about hockey and football and discovered other sports, including synchronized swimming.
During the preparation period, a stop at the national team became truly barracks. Every day there were two workouts, each of which lasted at least five hours. After such a drill, the girls ’movements in the tournament themselves were worked out to be automatic, and they performed the most complicated cascades of jumps and supports with a smile on their faces.
Rivals from China and Spain tried to catch up with the Russians, but this was impossible. So in 2004, Maria Gromova for the first time in her life became an Olympic champion.
The competition inside the team was very tough, talented juniors were breathing in the back, but Maria found her niche in the team. Being a relatively large girl (height 172 cm, weight 61 kg), she played the role of “Atlanta” in the team. That is, during the supports, she was downstairs and held a teammate on her shoulders, being a kind of springboard for jumping. At the same time, it was still strictly forbidden to touch the bottom with the feet, she did this athletic work, keeping herself in the water.
Going into the shadows and returning
In 2008, after winning her second Olympics, Maria Gromova decided to pause her career. After winning all possible tournaments, it was difficult to find further motivation for the performances, and the athlete left the pool.
She spent her free time, devoting it to her education. Unlike many athletes, she chose not a gymnasium, but the Institute of Economics, Management and Law.
However, it is always difficult to complete a career in just twenty-four years. Two years later, Maria Gromova, along with several other friends for group exercises, returns to the team and begins to prepare for the London 2012 Olympics.
Tatyana Pokrovskaya prepared the Lost World program for the main four-year tournament, the preparation of which took place in strict secrecy. Rivals from other teams more than once borrowed especially spectacular tricks from the Russian team, and tried to avoid repeating excesses.
The new program was replete with the most complex technical elements, there were about ten emissions and supports alone. Particular responsibility fell on Mary, who, with such elements, was a peculiar foundation of a complex construction. However, she did her job perfectly and helped the team win another victory, thus becoming a three-time Olympic champion.
In 2012, Maria Gromova made the final decision to leave the sport and left an active career.