TOKYO -- Like Sui Lu, a very, very happy Ksenia Afanasyeva spent a good deal of time chatting to the media in the mixed zone after winning gold on floor. Here's the translation I got afterward:
"The coach told her yesterday that maybe she would compete. Again, Viktoria Komova had some trouble with her foot, but they decided to let Komova compete on the beam, but she was not going to take part on floor. But officially it was decided just two hours before the competition started, that Afanasyeva will take part in the competition. She's extremely happy, of course, and of course she was disappointed after the qualification round when she was short of the chance [to compete in floor finals]. And yet she said that yes, I made a mistake there and I expected that the score would be higher, but she was disappointed when she saw the judges score in the qualification. She decided to do her best tonight.
"She said: 'I've been on the Russian team for so many years, but I've only had team medals. I've never had any individual medals, and so I decided maybe this was my last chance,' and it was very difficult for her to be the last girl in the group [to compete]. After her last tumbling pass she realized that everything went very well and she realized it would probably be a medal, but she didn't know which medal it would be. And she said those were horrible moments awaiting the mark, but the moment she saw it, it was, 'wow'!"
"It's quite a hard competition -- qualification round, team round, all-around, and she is just very tired. Her exercise was not as difficult as Afanasyeva's. That's why it was a wise decision of the Russian coaches to change Komova for Afanasyeva. Actually Komova didn't have a chance for the gold medal on floor, but Afanasyeva had. That's why they decided to make the change."
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