Why fidgetal is currently the most promising path. Chronicle of Veronica Stepanova

Last weekend I went to Kazan for the Future Games finals.

You already know me well: I make no secret of the fact that the competition formats, invented and implemented in the 20th century, seem outdated to me in the 1920s of the 21st century. Desperately.

This applies to any sport, but I am a skier, so I have the right to talk about mine as an actress in this snow circus. I want my sport to live, change, develop at the rhythm of generations. To do this, you need to get the best out of others.

I have little free time, but I prefer to use what I have to see something useful. For example, a well-organized running marathon (hello Perm!). Or a triathlon. Or high-level football. The Legkov Race sets a new level in our sport.

But any results depend on the level the organization is at and the amount invested.

The “Games of the Future” were invented and produced by Dmitry Chernyshenko.

Almost twenty years ago, when I was still learning not to ski, but just to run, this man headed the committee responsible for preparing a bid for holding the Olympic Games in Russia. And together with his team he won the right to host the Winter Olympic Games, becoming chairman of the organizing committee of the XXII Games in Sochi and its main “producer”. I watched the Olympics themselves, not expecting to actively use their heritage: the ski slopes of Laura, the sports complex in Sirius, the halls and stadiums of Sochi and Adler. Probably, everything can be improved and modernized, but what was done was done wisely and for the future. There is no better sports center in our country. I think not worldwide – in any case, I have not seen or heard of such a concentration of sporting opportunities in one place, especially at sea.

Now you understand why I was so interested in studying and evaluating Future Games. Do they have a lot in common with more famous games? And what are the prospects?

Ten years have passed since the Sochi Olympics and Dmitry Nikolayevich Chernychenko is now a senior Russian government official, also responsible for sports. In all its manifestations. And his tasks are now at another level. Yes, politics too. Sport is inseparable from politics – the main thing is that politics does not interfere with the development of sport.

I think the idea of ​​games is clear to everyone, but I will try to formulate it in my own words: we need an alternative. The International Olympic Committee and virtually all major international sports federations are commercial enterprises, regardless of their name. The main revenues come from the sale of television rights in the United States and Europe, where most of the commercial partners also come. I had the illusion that world affairs would not allow our sport to be excluded, because in competitions with the participation of Russian athletes, much more can be won than without us. Unfortunately, not everyone has the rational thinking of UFC boss Dana White. It has now been two years since international competitions in Olympic sports have been closed to us. My forecast does not change: in two (incomplete) years, circumstances will change so much that we will still participate in the Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina, but there will be a lot of hysteria about this from various enemies. The atmosphere of endless scandal is bad.

We need something completely new, where the sport can really come together. At the same time, for the public to actually watch, it would make sense for companies to invest in such a sport.

There is another aspect. My generation didn’t just go online, they went away and forgot how to burn calories. According to American data, only 45% of young people of my generation (18-25 years old) practice a sport/physical activity at least once a week. Unfortunately, I don’t think things have improved much in this sense in Russia at the moment.

In general, agitation as a direction is, if not natural, then at least the most promising path. For those who haven’t yet memorized the term: this is when online games combine with physical activities. In Kazan, I saw how it works in practice: our physical footballers beat the Uruguayans online, but they equalized on the real field and scored the winning goal. As I understand it, several players from the Uruguay futsal team played for the Latin American team, which is just wonderful – in any case, the final match was magnificent.

And one more thing – the total prize money for physical football at the Games was more than a million dollars (I would prefer at least in yuan – but so far everyone understands dollars better). I still haven’t received an answer to the question of how much the winning team will receive, but it’s not bad in any case, you will agree.

In other types of Games programs, prize money is much more modest, but in total sponsors contributed ten million dollars. This, excuse me, is much more than at the Ski World Cup and corresponds approximately to all the prize money of the year in such a rich sport as world biathlon.

What I also liked about the Future Games was the overall “sport as spectacle” approach. Presentation of the teams, short interviews, highlights of all competitions, and instantly posted online. Well, Kazan, of course, is simply magnificent – how do they still know how to hold a competition at the highest level in Tatarstan – even the Games of the Future, even a relatively modest stage of the Russian Ski Cup!

I do not want to be misunderstood: the “Games of the future” are not yet the Olympic Games, but if we continue to develop this format, then the main thing should appear: real stars who will be admired, who will be admired and on which businesses can make money from. After the trip to Kazan, I’m sure the idea is great, everything will work out.