I spent the last two weeks in an incredible place that I wish all my readers to visit: Kislovodsk. I think you yourself know the Narzan Gallery or the Valley of Roses. But few people know that at the top of the park there is a sports base.
I correct myself: the best sports center not only in the country, but perhaps in the world.
SOK Vershina 1240 is a place where the state has invested hundreds of millions of rubles, creating all the necessary conditions for training. This is no exaggeration – the stadium, the sports fields, the gymnasiums, the swimming pool, the huge athletics arena – everything is great. Not just delicious meals from the canteen: the menu was clearly developed by a nutritionist who knows what athletes need and what they shouldn’t eat, on the contrary. Even a road with an excellent surface directly leading to the Center was built last year and herds of cycling athletes now travel there from dawn to dusk.
I particularly liked the attitude of the people who work at the Center. They care, they also try to reach new heights in their work. Such dedication to success is impressive.
This is truly the place where after training you feel a noticeable improvement in your fitness. And objective tests confirm it.
And now about the fly in the ointment in such a huge barrel of mountain honey. No, I’m not talking about the fact that the beautiful road from the base ends in the most rugged section I’ve ever seen – and I’m from Kamchatka, you won’t surprise us with bad roads. It is said that a good section was built with federal funds, but the “management” is under the jurisdiction of the city and the city does not have the money to build/repair literally a mile of railroad track.
And the problem isn’t even that, in the worst places, grazing cows like to cross the same road. I think a hundred generations of cows have crossed the road there, and cyclists have just appeared. It’s okay, let’s rub against each other!
My sadness comes from something else. It seems that none of the vacationers in Kislovodsk know what kind of place it is or have the slightest idea who trains there. No contact, except that people behind the fence regularly ask: “What is that?” Are you really sporty? Professionals? Wow! Which sport?
I’m not suggesting opening the base gates to everyone who walks in and is interested. Alas, we do not yet live in such a wonderful world; we need to cultivate a little more awareness and respect for the rules.
But what stops you from choosing a day and organizing a meeting with fans at the right place in the same park? What is stopping you from organizing open training there? Six 2022 Olympic champions (Stupak and Ustyugov train independently, as is known) were simultaneously in Kislovodsk at the end of May – beginning of June.
“Who needs this?” – I hear.
Absurdity. Our country is moving forward and developing precisely because many good people “don’t care.”
These people created both the park and the sports center in Kislovodsk, which I am talking about. In my hometown of Elizovo, the construction of a new airport is being completed, which will become the pearl of Kamchatka and a worthy gateway to it. Because they care, because they want to make tomorrow better than today.
I’m an athlete, I don’t know how to maintain parks or build airports. But I want and I can give more than a minute at the start and a minute at the finish.
And open training, and meeting with young athletes, and photo session, and this column too – this is part of the process that I call media. You work with large groups of audiences and expect results.
Today, I offer nothing to the State or to the sponsors. I agitate my colleagues at the store.
Is media exposure easy? In theory, it’s easier for a professional athlete than others. The very essence of professional sport is that both in training and in competition, you constantly have to do things that you absolutely don’t want to do. Constantly surpass yourself and optimize your time.
This is where a significant number of my colleagues fail. Look, you don’t need to convince me that lying on the bed with your phone or playing CS:GO for an hour or two is much easier than preparing a speech in front of an audience. So we get what we get…
I remember a conversation in the Spartakiade canteen last winter. We have gathered a dozen Olympic champions and medalists in an excellent ski stadium, provides high-quality coverage of our competitions, but in commercials and breaks there is not a single athlete. The fact that Bolshunov or Terentyeva are not there is bad enough. Johaug, at the height of her fame, was already being watched from every corner of Oslo Airport. But it’s not just female skiers who are missing from the ad: there are neither the Averin sisters nor any of the famous figure skaters. It’s been a long time since I’ve even seen our most popular athlete of the last decade, Khabib Nurmagomedov, in a commercial. Solid actors and stand-up comedians.
We ourselves gave up this market and lost this match. It’s easier for advertisers to promote their products with the help of actors, singers and social media stars, because there they are, already promoted, already at the door and ready to get to work. You still have to find the athletes, explain to them what to do and coordinate schedules when they are in Moscow.
Hey, it’s time to wake up! The situation in which we spent ten months a year in sports centers only to come out once a year and win the Olympics or the world championships and instantly become a star is over.
Unfortunately, the reality is that the vast majority of the target audience doesn’t get excited when they hear “Spartakiad champion” or “Championship Heights winner.” Who will remember you a year from now, besides the most devoted fans?
Some fans scold my Beijing relay colleague, Yulia Stupak.
Narrow, primitive, backward! We all owe it and owe it to Yulia: she, using her honestly won sports glory, brings our sport to the masses. In the TNT show she participated in, the main prize was 10 million. This is much more than all the awards from the federation for all the races I won last season.
And the promotion of the show is carried out professionally, and not in such a way that the taxi driver who took me to the “Pearl of Siberia”, who introduced himself as a “sports fan”, had no no idea about the Spartakiad.
Almost all athletes now have social media. How and why they are conducted is another matter. I have never hidden it: I do not want to be perceived as a skier, or even an Olympic champion. If you’re interested in ski racing, you already know my last name. My goal is to interest people who still confuse cross-country skiing and alpine skiing. And those, especially young people, who don’t play any sport and aren’t interested. Get them off the couch and give them a break from their smartphone and gaming console for at least a few hours a day. I’m willing to trade half of my wins from last season for this.
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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.
