The first thing you notice about Andrei’s Gymnastics is the sheer size of the facility. Based in a large shed in the Batemans Bay industrial area, the gym has two large floor spaces, a trampoline, a tumbling pit, and a series of gymnastics equipment spread across the expansive building.
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Possibly more impressive than the facility is the man who runs it. Andrei Kravtsov is one of the most successful male gymnasts in Australian history, a man who won four gold medals at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur.
Kravtsov is about the height you’d expect a gymnast to be, but he still holds a physical presence that is hard to explain. His sinewy frame is the first hint at the strength he possesses, and despite a bandage on his right knee, he still looks ready to tackle any physical challenge thrown at him.
Kravtsov was born in 1971 in the city of Kursk, 530 kilometres south of the Russian capital Moscow.
He started his gymnastics career at the age of seven, originally to have fun with his school friends.
“In Russia, how it works is the coaches from the gym will go to schools and select the kids,” Kravtsov said.
“They do some tests; can you touch your toes, flexibility, some push ups, a bit of strength.
“Then they say ‘if you want, come to the gym and have some fun’. So a whole bunch of my friends went in and had fun.”
Kravtsov became a part of the Soviet junior sports system, which has a reputation for producing some of the finest athletes in the world.
“It was tough, but understanding the culture, if you wanted to get somewhere, you had to be tough,” he said.
“Training for 20-30 hours a week when you’re that little is hard, but when the going gets tough, the tough get going.”
Kravtsov didn’t set the world on fire in his first few years, but quickly showed his potential to be world class.
“I wasn’t the best in the class, but I was usually in the top three,” Kravtsov said.
“By the age of 10 I started getting better and better. Then at 11 I was selected to go to Moscow, and at 12 I left home to live there.”
Kravtsov had been selected for a specialist school that trained the best young athletes the Soviet Union had to offer.
“That school was specifically designed for the top-six athletes in every sport at every age,” he said.
“At the age of 14 I was starting to be paid for it, not a lot of money, but for a fourteen-year-old, all you’re doing is training.”
Kravtsov continued training at the Moscow school, pushing up into the top junior athletes in the country. But a series of injuries in his late teens led to a feeling of disillusion with the sport.
“My coach was a great coach, but he was a bit too tough for me,” he said.
“Every time there was a competition coming, he pushed me extra hard to win it, and then I’d get injured and miss out.
“The head coach was constantly on to him, telling him ‘you can’t push him too hard, otherwise he always gets injured’.
“When I wasn’t injured, I was in the top six juniors in all of Russia, but I’d just had enough.”
The next two years of Andrei’s life were spent with the circus, touring around both Europe and Asia. Meeting an Australian dancer would bring that chapter of his life to an end.
“I came here for a holiday, and really loved it,” Kravtsov said.
“The head coach back then (Warwick Forbes) spotted me. I went for a bit of training at a local gym on the Gold Coast, and he said ‘why don’t we have a try’.”
Kravtsov took the opportunity with both hands, as his time off had reignited a passion for the sport.
“Gymnastics was all my life. It’s all I knew, it’s all I’m good at,” he said. “The opportunity to become an Australian citizen and change my life, I just grabbed it and started training and competing for Australia.”
Kravtsov’s Australian career started brightly, as he qualified for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. However, a training mishap would cut that dream short.
“About three weeks before the Olympics, I snapped my right achilles tendon,” he said. “So that’s one year gone. No more training, nothing.
“It was more painful inside rather than physical pain, but I was young then, so I thought ‘just keep going’, there was no hesitation in my head, I knew I could do it again.”
Kravtsov’s best years would come after his injury rehabilitation, with a series of successful meets during 1998.
“I got back on track, and probably my best years were leading up to the 2000 Olympics at the Commonwealth Games, Pacific Alliance and World Cup series,” he said.
“I won them all, and I was looking pretty good.”
Kravtsov’s most iconic moment came at the Commonwealth Games, as he won four individual gold medals, and a silver medal in the men’s team event.
“I was very happy with my result,” he said. “I wasn’t happy with the team result, because we just missed out. Just one little mistake and we were second.
“You get a couple of days to unwind, then you have to think ‘OK, I’ve got a comp in Canada in a month, so back on track’.”
Unfortunately it wasn’t to be for Kravtsov at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, as another achilles injury prevented him from competing.
“I was looking forward to Sydney,” he said.
“I had a good medal chance in those games, but anything could happen when you go there.
“I went to the opening and closing ceremonies, but I wasn’t in the mood to be at the Olympics, so I watched it from the couch.”
Kravtsov retired just one year later in 2001, bring the curtain down on a glittering career.
“I was getting to the point where my body was getting older, and more injuries at training occurred,” he said.
“You’re never at 100 per cent, and trying to catch up. Then the younger fellas come through and are always ahead.”
In the years following his retirement, Kravtsov set up his gymnastics centre in Batemans Bay, and has been running it for 15 years.
At the beginning , Kravtsov found himself training the children as he had been trained as a junior.
“When I first started the gym, I was like a Russian coach, very tough and strict,” he said.
“But then I realised that my role here is to share my experience, not to make Olympic champions.
“So I stepped down, made it more fun and recreational, and taught all the life skills that you need from gymnastics that will last you forever.”
Kravtsov’s life hasn’t been easy over the past four years. His wife Anna fought a three-year battle with breast cancer, and lost last year. Kravtsov spent more time with his family during this difficult period.
“Going back to 2014 when my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, it was a pretty tough road with chemo, radiotherapy, hospital to hospital for three years,” he said.
“Looking after her and three kids, it was tough. But I had support from friends and family.”
Kravtsov recently participated in the Queen’s Baton Relay, being the last man to hold the baton before its trip to Tasmania. He said his wife was on his mind the whole time.
“When we found out I was doing the baton relay, she said ‘this’ll be great’ and started planning for us to be there, but she didn’t quite make it,” he said.
“I thought about her, about how she’d be so proud to be there. Take a picture of the four of us, and it would be awesome.
“Over the last three years, what she went through, I don’t wish it on anyone.”
Kravtsov has lived a varied, but amazing, life to this point, but says he’s proudest of one aspect.
“That I didn’t give up,” he said.
“It’s hard work, but the result is overwhelming. If you get to somewhere where I was, it’s rewarding. Not financially, but mentally you get pleasure out of it.”
