How are you, girls?

Lucia: I'm fine, thank you.

Jonna: I am fine. I'm loading for this upcoming weekends matches.

How did you like this year Nemiroff? Do you like your results?

Jonna: It was my first Nemiroff ever and I think it was good. I made a few mistakes so I am not totally satisfied with my result. But I am such new in the sport compared against the others so I should be happy. The best for me was to meet everyone and the opportunity to get good sparring.

Lucia: I absolutely love this tournament! Mr. Mazurenko and his team did an awesome competition; we can see high level of our sport. And yes I'm satisfied with my results! What was the best on it for you? What did you like and dislike? The best as for me was competing against Olga Gavrilova (Rus). My dream was to fight against her. I enjoy all moment with her on stage. I won left hand but she killed me on the right hand. Her hand was like stone.

Who made a show, as for you?

Jonna: The greatest show was when Chaffee met Tsyplenkov!

Lucia: Americans made a big show. I'm wondering when people say American are not good armwrestlers. I know them personally and must say that they are amazing! I have spoken with Tim Bresnan, we had a discussion about his sun glasses (he use them for every match, many years) something like psychology. Oponents could not see his eyes and his face is like stone. You have no chance to see any emotion on his face. After tournament give me Mr. Bresnan his sun glasses as a gift for me. It was very nice. Its a most beautiful present for me, it means a lot for me!

Is it a question of taking doping important for you? (For example, when I asked Heidi Andersson why she wouldn’t come for N.

she told – because of no doping control)

Jonna: I train a lot with Heidi and I share her opinion against doping. Nemiroff is not something we train specifically for like the European and the World Championships. But Nemiroff is a great training competition with good sparring for me when many in my class was the ones that I compete against at the Worlds.

Lucia: Very good question. I would like to answer to same like Heidi, but Nemiroff and A1 Tournament are the only competitions for greater money. These competitions are high levels not only for men, also women are very great. And my dream was fighting against the best. Trust me, I was not in the best shape on Nemiroff, my weight was 63kg, I had a pain in my hands, but anyway I decided to go. No matter if I win or loose, I believe that every such competitions will move me up.

How do you think, why there were not many girls on Cup?

Lucia:  I have no idea, maybe it was very close from World championship. Or?

Jonna: I don't know why we were not more women competing. Maybe because it is so much focus at the men.

What we can do to make armwrestling more popular among girls?

Lucia: Women's armwrestling is growing! I can see it on every European or World championships and not only in my weightclass! What we can do? Work with young people. Armwestling is a popular sport all over world. It’s easy to learn technique and you don’t need expensive equipment.

Jonna: In Sweden we don't separate armwrestling between the sexes. We have separate classes but it's all armwrestling. We have a lot of girls who arm-wrestle. But to get more girls to the sport we might have to have more female role models, like Heidi Andersson which has done a lot for this sport. And let the girls take more space!

Anastazja Kisilyova