“The United States sometimes underestimates the impact of gasoline on what happens domestically.” Vic Wild – on a trip to his mother and his love for Moscow

June 10 wild vic became a participant in the Golden Race on Sprint Day as part of Luzhniki Athletics Week. In the 100 meters, Vic finished fourth with a time of 13.48 seconds behind Yuri Borzakovsky (12.38), Nikita Nagorny (12.53) and Alexander Legkov (13.32). He overtook Denis Glushakov (he ran in 14.62), as well as Alexei Savrasenko and Dmitry Guberniev.

It’s clear that the race was just one element of the show, and that show happened, but after the finish, Vic was the only one willing to talk about serious matters, especially since his point of view , given Wild’s American background, was, of course, very interesting. We started, however, after all with the “Golden Race”.

– What are the emotions after the race?

– Serious, competitive emotions, no, pure pleasure. It’s much more interesting to watch these girls, they’re so cool,” Vic said, looking at the girls’ 400m hurdles that just ended, “just amazing, that’s all I can say.

– Looking at the athletes, during these competitions, don’t you feel seen already, because in the USA athletics is the main cyclical sport, which is very popular, gathering full stands?

– In the United States there is a university system and through it tens of billions of dollars are invested in athletics, unlike winter sports, which do not have such a financial base. Athletics, swimming are sports that are in a completely different situation, since they are developed in universities. Skiing, snowboarding are more a private affair and they have more difficulty.

– Also, there is no funding from the state, club or federation money, if you are the first or second number in the national team, right?

– The advantage and at the same time the disadvantage of the United States is that private funding goes into sport, the money from sponsorship. And if you know how to present yourself, then you will make a lot of money, millions of dollars, like Michael Phelps did, for example. But if you don’t win all the time, if you’re not very well known and don’t attract interest, then very big financing problems arise. In Russia, the situation is different, at least if we talk about my experience. Even if you are an excellent athlete, you will not earn as much money as in the United States, but you have financial stability thanks to the salaries and rates that you regularly receive from the same Ministry of Sports.

They are completely different systems, and the American one didn’t work in my case. When I came to Russia, I didn’t raise the issue of money, it was important for me to have training conditions to become the best in the world. And after becoming the best, I considered it possible to talk about money. In fact, that’s what happened: first I did my job, I won two gold medals in Sochi-2014, finally, then another bronze in Beijing-2022.

– Closing the subject of athletics – do snowboarders usually run?

– Maybe, yes, but I very rarely, now my body already hurts.

– What is the preparation of a snowboarder of your specialization apart from, in fact, the training already on the track?

— My sport is different from others and of course you have to be in good physical shape, but these are very specific requirements. You need physical stability to last all the outings in order to avoid fatigue injuries that accumulate over the season, because snowboarding is a very asymmetrical sport in terms of the demands on the parts of the body. We don’t need the explosion, the nervousness that you can see here in sprinters who have very fast muscle fibers and look very, very impressive. We are talking more about the ability to withstand power loads, to have power endurance. So I basically worked on the overall strength and then acted like, you might say, a mechanic – I set up the inventory, some seemingly insignificant moments, for myself. It is somewhat different from what people invest in the concept of “athlete”. For example, before the Beijing Olympics, I didn’t go to the gym for six weeks. Never, due to quarantine. I sat in my room, and when I left it, I just snowboarded and did recovery training.

– Is it normal not to go to the gym for so long during the season?

– No, I usually go there, but not in the situation that developed during the Olympic winter. In China, everything was closed, all that remained was to recover from snowboarding.

– What do you usually do, if we talk about developing energy potential?

– In my case, all the exercises are done on one leg, asymmetrically, because during the winter, during the season, the body just twists, so I bring it back to normal in the summer, and the next winter it twist again. So I do a lot of single leg squats, deadlifts, also single leg. If I’m healthy, I jump, but now I can’t. In general, the work in the hall is aimed at asymmetrical loads and the development of power stability.

– Due to constant twisting, lower back injuries are a profile for snowboarders?

– Exactly. The lower back and shoulders are the main areas that suffered during my snowboarding career.

– Given the injury, what are your plans for the future, will you continue to perform?

I don’t know, I don’t think about it. Now Russian athletes can’t compete abroad, so it doesn’t matter if I compete or not.

– Friends, acquaintances from the United States have not written lately: “Vic, what are you still doing in Russia?”

– Not really. I think most people are just afraid to communicate with me (laughs). In general, usually, people don’t talk about scandalous subjects when communicating with me. Even when I flew to the United States this spring, no one in person spoke to me negatively.

– When was – a trip to the USA?

In April, I visited my mother. I think people in the United States have enough of their own problems right now, especially on the West Coast. I come from a small village myself, and problems that arise thousands of miles away don’t really excite the locals, they don’t settle in their heads.

– In Russia, they constantly spread information about rising gasoline prices in the United States.

“And that’s exactly what everyone is talking about. One way to piss off America is to charge them five or six dollars for a gallon of gas, they get pissed off real quick. Americans need gas, they drive cars all the time, everywhere, all day. They don’t walk, ride bikes, or drive cars. And the United States sometimes underestimates the impact of gasoline on what happens inside the country.

– You have been in Russia for a long time, in Moscow. At the Olympics, they said it was one of the best cities in the world for you. Has your opinion changed?

– Not. The city has changed a lot since the first time I saw it. I love Moscow, now I only travel by bicycle, I no longer use the metro, taxis. I ride my bike everywhere and love it.