In His Own Words: Nikolai Kolesnikov

In His Own Words: Nikolai Kolesnikov

By The Inside Gymnastics Team
Editorial Contributor

Nikolai Kolesnikov seems like the last guy who would voluntarily call it quits on his senior season. Growing up the son of a coach, he’s spent most of his life in one gym or another. Nikolai’s father, Kostya, was a Russian National Team member who began coaching in the 1990s, and eventually brought his talents to the U.S.

Nikolai was born in Wisconsin, where Kostya coached at several top clubs, including working with Olympic Champ Paul Hamm. The family moved to Minnesota when Nikolai was still a toddler, after Kostya got the opportunity to join the men’s gymnastics staff at the University of Minnesota. Nikolai wanted to be just like the college guys his dad trained and becoming an NCAA gymnast quickly became his goal. 

Kolesnikov worked hard to make that dream a reality, earning a spot at the University of Oklahoma. But last December, with two seasons of eligibility remaining, Nikolai found himself making the unexpected and difficult decision to hang up his grips and pick up a camera. 

After completing his B.A. in Creative Media Production, Kolesnikov weighed his options, and did the cost benefit analysis of continuing versus starting his career and, at least in part due to decreased competitive opportunities, eventually came down on the side of saying goodbye.

“I’m not mad, or resentful of anything—I’ve loved being a part of Oklahoma gymnastics, and am thankful for that opportunity every day,” Kolesnikov said. “In the end, it just came down to cost—just the financial reality put up against the opportunities I would have.”

Kolesnikov talked to Inside Gymnastics about his decision, how it was impacted by the NCAA’s new 4-up, 4-count format and 12-man competitive roster, and the perspective he has on the sport he’s loved his entire life. 

Nikolai’s story, in his own words…

“My dad got the assistant job and we moved to Minnesota when I was three, so I was visiting Cooke Hall two or three times a week for, basically, my entire life. Seeing those guys was my initial inspiration to want to do gymnastics. 

“My mom tells this story about how, when I was maybe four, I walked into my little gymnastics class and just immediately took my shirt off, and all the other kids were looking at me and I’m like, What? My mom had to explain to the coach how I was always around the college guys, and they trained with their shirts off…Yeah, they made me put my shirt back on.

“My goal was always to be a collegiate gymnast. I know most people say they want to go to the Olympics, but I wanted to go to the NCAA and compete in college. That was the big dream for me. 

“When I was a senior in high school, Minnesota dropped their program. My dad was a coach there and it had been pretty set that I’d go to Minnesota. I was accepted, I had some scholarship money and then, boom, the program was cut, and my options became very limited. I thought I’d probably join a GymAct program before Mark (Williams) called me and, honestly, I was kind of in shock. I’d reached out to him, but didn’t really expect anything to come of it. I had heard great things about his program. I was impressed with the reputation of OU and what their alumni had done and, at the level I was, it just wasn’t an opportunity I expected to come along. It was an unreal feeling to be offered that spot.

“Pretty much from the moment I committed, I started working, because I knew I wasn’t at that level the guys at OU had. I asked Mark to send me what they do, and tried to replicate, as best I could, what the guys were doing while I was still at home. But, you know, you can never be truly ready, so when I got here, I’ll be the first to admit I struggled. Well, not just at first. For two years I worked to try to catch up—and I wasn’t surprised because I knew coming in that would be my reality. That I needed to improve my gymnastics to make the competitive roster of a team that, every year, is fighting to win a National Championship. 

“There’s a big difference between just being part of a team and being somebody who is making an impact. I knew that I wasn’t necessarily going to be the guy who was putting up the biggest scores every week, that I’d always be fighting for a spot, so I tried to make my impact in other ways. And I worked hard to never stop developing, to keep learning things, really, right up until the end.

“My sophomore season I got to compete for the first time, at home, and it was an unbelievable experience. I’ll remember and treasure it for the rest of my life. My junior year—last season—I competed more and was just getting to that point where I felt like I would be able to compete a decent amount, where I’d be in a position to go in more often. I think every gymnast has had that moment where you just look at all the time, and effort, and pain, and think that it was hard, but that also makes everything feel sweeter when you get there. This year felt like that.

“The day they voted to reduce the competitive roster to 12 and go to 4-up, 4-count Mark told us in lineup, and we just kind of said, ‘All right,’ and my thought was: Just keep working, because we have a task at hand. I don’t really think it changed anything, or demotivated anyone, but we also understood quickly that it would have an impact. That it would mean less opportunity, less chances, but also that it was something bigger than us, so we took it in stride and just continued. 

“Looking back, it was kind of devastating. I felt it from some of my teammates, too. I’m not the only one at Oklahoma, or anywhere else, working really hard to get one of those competitive spots. 

“Mark is very big on earning your spot, every single week. He wants to know how you’re going to perform in that competitive environment, under pressure. That means you need to be able to salute and compete your routines consistently. Not just be in the top 5—now, top 4—once or twice, but day after day. When your lineup is a hard one to make, you really can’t have off days. And I think that’s even more true now in a 4-count situation, because the impact of your score is even greater, going from 30 to 24 routines. Every score is so significant. You have to be able to show you’re able to deliver when it comes down to it. Every single turn counts. You must have that mindset, where you’re doing everything with purpose, especially if you’re trying to earn a spot. 

“There’s a lot of talk right now about student-athletes getting paid, but I know for a lot of us, the guys on small or no scholarship, we’re paying out of pocket for just that chance to compete in college. We’re choosing a school because they support men’s gymnastics, and paying our own way, because that’s how much we value that opportunity. How much we want to be a part of NCAA gymnastics.

“As the reality of everything hit, and graduation got closer, I started to have this feeling that everything might come to an end in December, but I didn’t want to tell anybody. I didn’t even want to think about it myself for a long time. So, I just kept going, making sure I was giving 100%. And, you know, I fully believe I did that. That I gave everything to this team that I possibly could, and now that I’m transitioning to a new role, working with gymnastics and other teams to create content for social media and TV, I still believe I’m giving 100%, just in a different way.

“I want to say I’m thankful for everything that the program taught me and everything being a part of Oklahoma Gymnastics has given me. I wouldn’t change being a part of this team for anything to the world.

“I was never really upset [about the format changes,] it was more just the frustration that, as athletes, we are never consulted in that decision making process. We are always just sort of left in the dark when it comes to solutions for our sport. We weren’t asked about the potential changes we would like to see for the upcoming season, or if we agreed with these ideas. 

“I think the root of gymnastics’ problem is much deeper than the solutions we keep coming up with. I think, first and foremost, we have a marketing problem. We need to get more people in the doors, and once we do, we need to present them with an incentive to want to come back. I think the biggest part of fixing that is targeting the local community, and promoting, promoting, promoting. And I realize that comes at a cost. It’s not free. But I think every bit of budget you can spend on marketing—if you do it well—creates the environment where we can succeed. 

“We have to be offering something more than just gymnastics. Our meets need to be somewhere that people want to come and hang out, see their friends, and have a great time. We must focus on kids, because not only are kids the ones who most enjoy and want to participate in gymnastics—the flipping and flying—but they also bring their parents, their siblings. If you can get the youth interested in attending, that’s not just one person in the door, it’s three or four people, and that can fill out an arena very quickly.

“Our biggest hurdle is getting young boys interested in gymnastics and showing them that, you know, you can basically become like a superhero if you do this sport. That’s what drew me in as a kid, and I think one of the most rewarding things in my NCAA journey has been being able to talk to kids and seeing in them that same excitement and wonder I once had. 

“I think engaging youth is one of the most impactful things we can do as a sport. Here at Oklahoma, we partner with a local elementary school, Cleveland, and every athlete visits the school once a week, volunteers with a specific classroom, and we really get to know the kids and have fun with them, and in return they come out and support us. 

“That’s honestly one of the most meaningful and rewarding things I’ve experienced as an athlete, and it’s had a huge impact on our program. We’ve been doing it for, like, 20 years now, and I’d say every single program should be looking to do that same thing. Forge a lasting relationship with the community, because it’s very valuable to both the program, and us as athletes.

“It’s an interesting time for our sport. We must maintain our relevance as an Olympic sport, because that’s our biggest shot at survival—showing that we’re important on that global scale. I think we, collectively, have to come up with unique solutions, not just fall back on things that have been done before. We need to push the boundaries and create many solutions. It’s not going to come from one thing. We can never make ourselves so small we won’t be in financial danger. We can’t change the scoring system and suddenly become as popular as the women. We need to make our sport more accessible—there are too many paywalls—and we need to produce gymnastics so that it’s something people want to watch. And that has to come from all of us, not just one team, or one meet.

“My efforts now are focused on showcasing how cool this sport is from behind a camera. I’m excited that I get to continue to support the team this way, and I think it’s made this transition a lot easier. But I definitely miss training, miss competing. I try not to wonder what if and instead look at it like I’ve gone from working to make an impact in the line-up, to making an impact on the sport with the content I create.”

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