Since returning to New Jersey from competing in the Tokyo Olympics, rhythmic gymnast Elizaveta Pletneva, formerly of Caldwell, has been teaching at the gym where she once was a student and considering a return to Team USA.
Heading into the Olympics, the 19-year-old had planned to retire from the sport after the games concluded.
But in an interview Tuesday, Aug. 24 at the Liberty Academy of Rhythmic Gymnastics in East Hanover, she said she had met many inspiring people who have prompted her to consider staying.
“It was super amazing, just the environment,” she said, referring to the Tokyo Olympics. “Just getting to meet so many different people was very cool, and they all just understand each other, so it was a very relatable environment to be in.”
Pletneva has been trying to figure out what she wants to do about college. If she does continue competition, the Paris Olympics in 2024 would be her next goal.
In the meantime, she has been taking a break from training while she helps her first coach, Nataliya Chernova-Greenberg, who owns Liberty Academy.
After her freshman year at James Caldwell High School, Pletneva moved to the Chicago area, where she had earned a spot at the North Shore Rhythmic Gymnastics Center and joined Team USA’s junior rhythmic gymnastics team. At age 16, she joined the senior team.
During the time that she was in Chicago, she stayed close to Chernova-Greenberg, who considers her to be like a daughter.
“She’s honestly the most supportive person I’ve ever had in my life,” Pletneva said. “We’re kind of like a duo. I think everyone in the gymnastics world knows us together.”
Group Competition
At the Olympics, rhythmic gymnasts compete in individual or group competitions, with teams of five. Pletneva represented the United States in a group, which consisted of North Shore athletes.
Both of the Americans in the individual competition also were from North Shore.
For the group members of Team USA, the qualification process started in 2018, when they were not in the top three seeds. They then finished 10th in the 2019 world championships, where the next five seeds qualified for the Olympics.
One of those teams was Japan, which automatically qualified in the host’s spot, so the next seed, Ukraine, got in. That left the U.S. team one seed away.
Team USA then competed in the continental rounds, where the highest-seeded team from each continent that hadn’t qualify gets a spot. That’s how the U.S. team earned its spot.
During the years, Pletneva and her teammates have become good at communicating with each other on good and bad practice days.
Among her strengths as a gymnast are her leadership skills even though she was the youngest member of her team, she said. “I’m also very coordinated. I’m not the most graceful or the most elegant gymnast, but I have good apparatus skills.”
She’s good at adapting to change, a skill she’s developed in part because of frequent changes in teammates and traveling for competitions.
Throughout her career, she’s competed in countries throughout Europe as well as in Peru, Brazil and Israel.
During most trips, she and her teammates have a day to explore the area, and she likes trying new food and learning about the culture of the place she’s visiting.
Even though Team USA finished 11th of 14 in the group rhythmic gymnastics competition in Tokyo, she and her teammates are happy with their results.
They knew they wouldn’t finish at the top because Eastern European countries dominate rhythmic gymnastics competitions. They went into the Olympics wanting to do some clean routines, which they accomplished.
When Pletneva’s family moved to Chicago, her father kept a place in Bloomfield to stay when he needed to work in the area. Since the Olympics, the family has moved into that house.
When she’s not teaching, Pletneva has been spending time with friends whom she hasn’t seen in a while.
Their reaction to her success has been great, she said, adding that it’s weird hearing from people she’s known since she was little that they saw her on television.
Chernova-Greenberg has ordered a new banner of Pletneva as an Olympian to update the one that the gym displays of her as a member of Team USA.
Pletneva said the young gymnasts she trains are excited to be trained by an Olympian. They gave her balloons and flowers the first day she was back.
However, they’re not starstruck because Pletneva has known many of them since before she left for Chicago.
“They treat me like a friend, but they also know what I’ve accomplished, so they respect me a lot, which I appreciate.”
Contact Brett Friedensohn at brettf@newjerseyhills.com
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