Former Ukrainian star Olga Teslenko recently was spotted in Berlin at a competition between the teams of Berlin and Cottbus in the German men's gymnastics league. She accompanied boyfriend Roman Zozulia, who competes for the Cottbus team. Olga happily chatted about her current life in Kiev where she now after having finished her sports studies works as a gymnastics choreographer. Olga joined Cirque du Soleil for a while after quitting competitive gymnastics, but left saying she would feel happier at home in Ukraine. "Of course, I missed Roman as well, that was one of the main reasons I decided to leave Cirque." She liked the short trip to Germany very much but was sorry that - as so many times before in cities also during her own career - she didn't get to see much more of Berlin than the competition venue. The Cottbus team easily won the meet and to celebrate the victory and an overall good season they provided themselves with some cool bottles of beer for the trip home and Roman made sure to get a can of the typical Berlin speciality of white beer mixed with a shot of raspberry syrup for his Olga!

Olga, who represented Ukraine at botht the 1996 and 2000 Olympics, is now working with the Ukrainian national team on their beam routines as well as studying at the Kiev University of Physical Culture and Sports. She lives at the national training centre Koncha Zaspa and commutes to central Kiev for her studies. "I used to think that training as much as we did really took it out of you, but now with university I can see how strenuous a day's work can be," she jokes. Starting university was a new experience for Olga, who says she struggled with some subjects. "Things like anatomy etc are ok, because I could relate to that from my career in gymnastics. But we have to study stuff like politics. Come on - politics, what do I know about politics? Catching up on that was hard." However, she says her work with the team has changed her outlook on coaching. "When I was a gymnast and got tired, I used to think 'Oh why can't I stop now'? But now I see that as a coach you have to push the girls, even when they want to quit for the day. Otherwise, they will achieve nothing."

lisa