Yarden Gerbi: Learn from each loss and improve

Current World silver medalist and 2013 World Champion won bronze at the IJF Grand Prix in Croatia. A difficult day for her she said, but in the end Gerbi won bronze.

Can you define a good and bad day? Is a good day when you win a medal or when you give everything and leave everything on the mat and you don't win a medal?

I think in perspective, I can say I was good or not only at the end of the day. So at the moment when you finish with a medal it's much better than to finish without a medal, this is the first thing. But again, I wasn't good, but the medal for me proved something.

We spoke earlier with Travis Stevens about praising or criticizing the athletes about their results. What is your opinion? Do we over react sometimes? For ex. "SHOCKER - Yarden Gerbi is out in first round!"

We fight a lot during the year and we fight so much, and to win everything is really hard. I don't think there is an athlete who can win everything, the best way to learn is when you lose. In Tbilisi I lost in the first round and here in Zagreb I almost lost again in the first round, but I've learned from those losses and today, I was at the podium. I'm still learning, no matter how much experience I have so far, I always need to learn. There is no shocker, everyone wants to win which is normal and sometimes you are up, sometimes you are down, the most important thing is to win when you need it, such as the Olympic Games, World Championships, Europeans, but you know, I'm still happy after yesterday.

You picked up elbow injury in bronze medal fight. How serious it is?

No, I don't think it's serious, just at this moment and it was pain like everywhere. The day was just like that. I had a cut on my finger then my elbow, it is just the part of the game. In few days I'll be ok.

We've read the Israeli newspaper, which was an interview with Alice Schlesinger. She said "It's not like whar people think, there are no bad feelings between Yarden and me". How do you comment on this situation?

Alice is a very good athlete, she is like any other athlete for me, if we fight we'll fight. It's good for sport. And no, we're not hating each other like people thought we do. Both of us are athletes, we're professional, this is what we do.