“I thought things about Israel that in the end weren't really true, I didn't think I would connect like this to the country”

On Friday, 31-year-old gymnast Alex Myakinin will undergo his first fitness test, which will determine whether he makes the squad for the European Championships to be held in Zagreb next month. The Maccabi Tel Aviv gymnast, who won bronze in the horizontal bar at the 2020 European Championships, is recovering from a severe ACL injury—an injury that sidelined him for nearly a year and cut short his participation in seven consecutive European Championships.

Recalling the incident, he says: “I had already flown to the championships in Germany, and during one of the final training sessions, I missed the bar and landed on one leg. I immediately understood that I had torn my ACL; you just know it's that. I cursed every curse I knew in Russian in my head. I waited for Adam Badir, the team's physiotherapist, to arrive. He ran really fast. Everyone was in shock. I asked the team to continue as usual while they were evacuating me.” From the hospital, Myakinin sent his wife the bitter news that he would return in a different state than when he left. “At the hospital, they also told me I had torn my patella. That's worse than an ACL. I went straight back for surgery with Dr. Guy Morag, knowing I had a year of rehabilitation ahead. I competed in the Maccabiah at the end of June. The goal is to return to the European Championships.”

When asked how he plans to do it, he replies: “The championship is in three weeks, and the team has been selected. I spoke with Sergey Weisburg, the national team coach, about the preparation. He said I would train with the squad, but my chances of getting in are small. A small chance is also good for me, to push myself towards the World Championships in October. I have two more weeks to put up a fight, and I want to make the young ones nervous, to show that I'm here, not just some old guy here with them for fun. I will accept any decision the coaching staff makes.”

Regarding the possibility of participating in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, he says: “In gymnastics, it's enough to do your part and be close to the best results. Getting into the Olympics through World Cups is very tough, especially for someone who has a specific profession. I'm not an all-arounder, especially after five knee surgeries. I was close to Paris more than once.”

Myakinin, who was born in Russia, went through quite a journey before arriving in Israel. At 18, without many achievements, he realized that the doors to the strong Russian national team were closed. One of the coaches suggested he change countries and jokingly asked if he was Jewish. “I answered that my grandmother was Jewish. He worked for a short time in Israel with Sergey Weisburg and told me to go check what documents were needed.” After meeting Weisburg in Moscow and receiving a promise of help, Alex began collecting documents, but soon tore his ACL. The dream of a career in Israel faded, and he was accepted to a university in Moscow, coming to terms with retirement.

“When I started to get back to myself, almost a year later, I wanted to participate in the Moscow Championships, and he talked to me again about making Aliyah. I had to apologize to Sergey and tell him why I had disappeared,” he recalls. After an arduous process of collecting documents, he made Aliyah.

“What is your first memory of Israel? That it was very hot. From Moscow, I arrived at an apartment in Ramle, and I was in shock at first. In Moscow, everything is available 24/7, but here it wasn't like that. I thought things about Israel that in the end weren't really true. I lived with two older roommates who immigrated from Ukraine. I didn't think I would connect like this to the country, to the people. Very quickly I fell in love with the language. My roommates received books in the Ulpan, and there was one extra. I sat with it for a whole year and then I took a private teacher. I started to feel confident over time, watching series in Hebrew, I saw all of 'Pinat Lituf'.”

In 2017, Sergey invited him to his first training session, and within a year he was already representing Israel. “Everything was very fast because a gymnastics hall all over the world is the same, the same rules. It helped me a lot to integrate. I didn't know the language, but I knew gymnastics. I didn't have a license, I learned to drive in Israel and bought my first car here. When Sergey wouldn't take me, I would get to training in Tel Aviv by train. It happened to me a few times that I missed the university station and had to announce that I would be late for training because I was on my way to Haifa... It was accepted with laughter. That's how you learn.”