Former Soviet gymnastics legend and current Vice President of FIG and President of the Ambassadors’ Commission, Nellie Kim, gave her perspectives in regard to the current COVID-19 pandemic and the Tokyo Olympics postponement to 2021.

IG: How are you experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic?

NK: It is very sad that countries were not prepared for such a pandemic. In the past if something was happening somewhere in the world, it was not affecting us directly. It is the first time when humanity experiences the same trouble in every corner of our planet.

It affected every person’s life, no matter if this is an adult, or kid, famous, or not, poor or rich. We are all locked down at our homes.

I miss the possibility to meet my friends, my colleagues, to visit my relatives. I miss my job, I miss gymnastics and the life which we call normal.

On the other side, we can find something positive even in such a bad situation. Now we spend more time with our families, we have plenty of time to read books, to do something we have never had time for before. We stopped running and now we have the chance to reflect on our life in the past and think what it should be in the future.

I think our planet needed this pause to have a rest, clean the nature and heal its wounds. One can now see dolphins in Venice. The pollution in the cities has harshly diminished. So, now there is a lot to think about the future of humanity.