Olympic cross-country ski champion Veronica Stepanova in her column on , she proposed limiting the number of participants in the Spartakiad and the Russian Championship to 30 of the strongest athletes.
131 skiers took part in the women’s free race at the Spartakiad of the Strongest in Tyumen and 68 at the Russian Championship in Malinovka.
— Probably the most popular distance in women’s skiing is the “ten” freestyle at the Spartakiad in Tyumen. Yes, the same one where I lost that day against the brilliant Kuleshova. But she won against more than 130 other girls. Let me remind you that the competition is called the “Spartakiad of the Strongest”. The name itself contains the idea: a competition between the best. What were these girls doing that day on the ski slope who ended up losing half a minute to the winners over every kilometer of distance? Maybe after talking with us they noticed some important elements of preparation and in the next race they will be much closer, and maybe even overtake? Of course not. There is no interaction between, so to speak, the top ten leaders and the bottom hundred. We don’t meet at all, except that sometimes we meet during training, by chance.
I propose to make the system similar to the one that works successfully, for example, in football. At the start you race exclusively in the regional league. You collect prizes and become the idol of local fans. We have a sport where there are no records, and it is possible to understand who is better – Klebo, Bolshunov or Pushkin – only during a face-to-face meeting. In the meantime, let the fans grind their teeth in their arguments over who is stronger.
Won in regional competitions and scored the required number of points? Only then do you reach the “major league”. May the very fact of selection for the country’s main competitions become a motivation, a symbol of success. As it was before: getting into the “team at large” and into the “team for the Olympics” is a whole new height of barrier that must be overcome. Indeed, there are 20 to 25 girls on the national team, but only eight are allowed to participate in the Olympics.
I am not proposing that only the top eight take part in the Spartakiad of the Strongest, in the national championship (although such a tournament would also be worth considering). Let 20 “collectors” run – we’re already the best, that’s why we were selected, right? Plus ten winners of regional competitions. 30 and 130 – is there a difference? “I only see that costs will decrease and it will become more convenient for everyone: from television to judges,” Stepanova wrote in a column on .
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Source : MatchTV
I am Sandra Jackson, a journalist and content creator with extensive experience in the news industry. I have been working in the news media for over five years. During this time, I have worked as an author and editor at various outlets producing high-quality content that attracts readers from different demographics.
