On being a part of the New York Breakers, she said, “It’s a great honor for me to be a part of the New York Breakers Team. We have an amazing roster and I’m sure that together we’ll only become stronger to compete with other teams and win the ISL title. Breakers don’t break and we will try to prove this.”
She complimented Tina Andrew for being a “wonderful manager.” “Tina helps us all the time. She has gathered the best team of assistants, who are always near us and are ready to help with all the questions in any situation. They’re unbelievable and I’m really happy to be here, in the New York Breakers team.”
“I won’t surprise anyone if I say that all swimmers love to win. Victories on competitions inspire us to do our best or even more. It doesn’t matter which kind of swimming you prefer,” she said.
“The freestyle is supposed to be the fastest kind of swimming and I really like my attempts to increase my maximum speed here,” she added.
Regarding her use of technology in her daily routine as a swimmer, she said, “The Russian National Swimming Team has a training campus near the Moscow. We spend a lot of time at this place, and there is a wide diversity of complicated technologies that we can use there: streaming channels, underwater shooting, lots of physical tests, etc. These technologies make us better every day.”
For young and aspiring swimmers, she said, “It might sound corny but you shouldn’t give up in any situation if you really love swimming. Just enjoy. When I had a hard period in my swimming life, my coach said to me: ‘Belief in yourself is the most powerful thing.’ I should say that he was right. And I’m really happy to have everything that I have now.”
“Trust your coach and surround yourself with people who makes you better. Love your job and then you will have a desire for every day improvements,” she added.
Ustinova also opened up about life during quarantine. “My quarantine took about 2.5 months. I spent it on my dacha with my family and friends. My grandpa is a coach in athletics (his speciality was pole vaulting) so I had a lot of outdoor workouts with him. I ran, did a lot of exercises in the gym to support my physical form out of the pool. When it became a little warmer I took some trainings in a small swimming pool and swam in it with the elastic rope,” she said.
She continued, “I spent a lot of time with my family and we became even closer than before. I read and cooked a lot, learned to cook a lot kinds of sweets and had some time to improve my English skills. It was really difficult period for all the athletes, but I think it was a momentous experience for us. We should draw conclusions about the situation that happened, about the fragility of the whole world.”
For her fans and supporters, she said, “I would like to say a huge thanks for all of my fans for the amazing support that I really need. I always feel it and it helps me to win and to get stronger.”
Ustinova defined the word success as follows: “Success, for me, means the proud and support of my closest people: my family and my friends. I think that really successful people realize themselves at all the kinds of his life (family relations, job, and hobbies) and becomes better every day. I try to live in a similar way: I enjoy what I do and try to realize my goals and dreams.”
To learn more about Russian swimmer Daria Ustinova, follow her on Instagram.
