The pole vault is a very complicated event, there are many things involved.

I have spoken with many former athletes, and they tell me the best time they had was in sports. I listen to them and use their experience in my career.

Often you need to take some risk, but it must be a realistic risk, you can't take a crazy risk.

The strategy of my coach and me was that we looked at pictures of all the best pole vaulters from around the world, and we took the best parts from them, and we created a person that had never existed. We then started to work toward being such a person.

You need to work very hard, you have to spend a lot of time practicing your sport - six to seven hours daily.

I decided to create a sports club during the Soviet times. It was my dream.

And, of course, method is very important as is a high-quality specialist (trainer) working with you to keep you going in the right direction for your improvement and to help create results.