During the interview Deryugina talked about:
- myself in rhythmic gymnastics (“I trained under pianists, at night they played in restaurants and came to training drunk”);
- sports injuries (“If I wake up in the morning and nothing hurts, then I’m dead”);
- awards (“I gave my medal”);
- political career;
- Ukrainians and Russians in sports (“Ukrainians were never liked at competitions because we were strong”);
- the most talented students (“All our gymnasts are not alike, but in Rush they are like McDonald’s”);
- Russia’s war against Ukraine (“The war changed everyone”);
- sports without judges from the Russian Federation (“Over these four years it has become better without Russians”);
- to his daughter Irisha (“My greatest victory is my daughter!”);
- Russian rhythmic gymnastics coach Irina Viner-Usmanova (“Viner was also a mother in her gymnastics, for Russians”);
- the acquaintance of the illegitimate President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin with ex-gymnast Alina Kabaeva, who is called his new wife (“Mama Viner introduced everyone”);
- ex-husband Blokhin (“For him, I removed stars from the sky”);
- meeting Blokhin (“We danced to Celentano for nine hours, and on the fourth day he proposed to me”);
- parting with Blokhin (“At some point I regretted that we broke up”);
- Putin (“Ugh! I don’t want to see this! This is terrible!”);
- fans (“Crowds of fans weren’t chasing – they were being chased by crazy people”);
- diet.
“Irisha loved Oleg very much, but he hurt her very much. I take care of the good things we had. I have photographs with Oleg in my house,” she said.
Irina Deryugina was born on January 11, 1958 in Kyiv. She was engaged in rhythmic gymnastics, in which she achieved significant success, in particular, she was twice the absolute world champion (in 1977 and 1979).
In 1982, she completed her sports career, worked as a judge and coach, including for the Ukrainian national rhythmic gymnastics team. Since October 2024, he has headed the Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation of Ukraine.
From 1979 to 2000 she was Blokhin’s wife, they have a daughter, Irina (born in 1983).
