Numerous interviews and reports are available in our "Features" section.
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 Dear Sveta!
So this is the third time I send my birthday greetings to you. I'm glad that my spontaneous sympathy for a newcomer in women's biathlon turned into a lasting internet project, which seems to give fun to many of your fans. And it gives fun to me, too - otherwise I certainly wouldn't put so much effort into it. It has become a part of my everyday life, and I don't want to miss it anymore.
It's a pity that I really don't know much about you. Well, OK, taking into account that I'm a total stranger, I probably know pretty much, but it's still relatively few on an absolute measure. No common language, thousands of kilometers of distance, 28 years of age difference - all of that isn't really helpful in getting to know each other somewhat better. Actually, everything I know about you I've drawn from your words that I read on the Internet or hear on Russian TV. However, those words are enough for me to realize that you're a special person, of which just a few can be found in a million.
So the most important wish I want to send to you on your birthday is to stay yourself and nothing but yourself, like you did in the past few years since you appeared on the big Biathlon stage. You know that I always enjoyed your open and sincere way of saying what's on your mind. Your words express the truth of your heart, and I think that's what your huge fan community would like to experience once again in the next season. It's rare enough in this modern world, which ranks illusion higher than reality. There's always some danger of getting badly hurt if you open your heart - but on the other hand, you will be rewarded by making TRUE friends. |
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 When people of my age use the words Close to the edge, they usually talk about a 19-minute music track done by the English rock band Yes back in 1972, which achieved iconic status in the rock music business and kept on influencing other bands for decades to come, until today. However, I don't have that in mind right now. The edge I'm talking about is a quite different one - it's the one between "to be or not to be". I've been really "close to the edge" in terms of "informational existence", because I lost the entire contents of two hard disks in my PC a week ago.
Such a data loss can easily erase the entire history of a human in today's society, which relies heavily on data stored on computer systems. Actually, almost everything I have produced or collected in the past decades is stored on computer hard disks - my music, my writings, my photos, my communication, my contacts... losing that is almost like being born again without a past. Fortunately, the term "close to the edge" also implies that I didn't jump "over the edge", so the story has got a happy ending. But anyway, I was really close, because I might have lost much more if the disk crash had occurred a couple of days earlier, before I did my last backup.
Essentially, the main loss are the emails I've written and received since the World Cup in Antholz-Anterselva, because I was too lazy to synchonize my PC and my notebook after this trip. However, that's not a big problem, because I can get the real important emails again from their originators, who hopefully have archived them on their own machines. The most important thing is that I didn't lose any data related to this site. My enourmous photo collection is fully intact, and everything I've written here is safe on my server and in my database backup files. The worst pain after such a crash is to reinstall all software and data until everything works as smoothly as before. I'm still working on that.
Getting back to the bright side of life, I can tell you now that Sveta will participate in the 2010 City Biathlon at Püttlingen (GER). Don't be worried if this information is still missing in the official list of athletes - the City Biathlon site is well known for being updated lazily. However, Sveta announced her participation herself on her official site, so it's already sort of carved in stone. That's about the best news I could possibly get this month! The only drawback is that the evolution of my Russian language skills is proceeding much slower than I had hoped for, so I guess I won't be able to get into a nice philosophical conversation with Sveta at Püttlingen. At least I hope that I'll manage to ask her for another big stack of autograph cards without stuttering.
Meanwhile I've also extended my Biathlon travel schedule of the current season. I've added the IBU Roller Cup 2 at Nové Město na Moravě (CZE), and once again I'll visit the jolly IBU Cup 5 at Altenberg-Zinnwald (GER) with my friend Thomas Höppner, who lives in this region of Germany. Besides that, the location of the 2010 Summer World Championships is still "to be announced" - Bansko (BUL) had to withdraw due to a flood disaster, and Ufa (RUS) declined as well, stating limited financial capability as the reason. Who will jump in? Time's running out... Anyway, if it happens to be somewhere near me, be sure that I'll add it to my schedule. |
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 The unsatisfactory results of the Russian athletes at the 2010 Olympic Games - at least unsatisfactory with respect to the high expectations they have met beforehand - led to some changes in Russia's coaching system to be employed in the next season. You probably remember the harsh words of President Dmitry Medvedev on March 1, 2010: "Those who are responsible for training for the Olympics must take responsibility. They must have the courage to submit their resignation. And if they do not have this resolve, we will help them", Medvedev is quoted by The New York Times. In this context, it's good to see that Sveta's own analysis of the causes seems to have been taken seriously. For instance, Sveta heavily criticized the system of leveling down all athletes to a common training plan as early as on April 17, 2010:
 "I think it's necessary for me to change the system of preparation, and generally for the team it's necessary to find a more individual approach to the training of each athlete. Now we prepare all together and effectively by a single plan. Judging by the results, this wasn't suitable for me." [Translation: SBS] Source: SkiSport.ru.
It seems that her words have been heard by the management of the Russian Biathlon Union (RBU). For instance, the Executive Director Sergey Kushchenko expressed the future guideline of coaching the athletes this way: "We can't make all of them equal, we need an individual approach to each of them." [Translation: SBS] Biathlon head coach Vladimir Barnashov got even more explicit, according to Dmitry Vasilyev: "At the coaching conference, everyone agreed with the opinion that one of the basic mistakes preventing many athletes from showing their best results has been the absence of plans of individual preparation. As a priority guideline, the new coaches want to renew the individual approach to each athlete." [Translation: SBS] It's quite obvious that both quotes are analogous repetitions of Sveta's claim.
After a couple of weeks of post-seasonal recreation, Sveta's Biathlon training has restarted in mid-June, and as a first practical consequence of the new training approach, she did the first training sessions scheduled for the preparation of the next season at home with her personal coach Valery Zakharov, rather than attending the official camp at Ostrov. You can read Sveta's extensive comments on that in her own words on her official site. This is a notable departure from the preparation practice of the last season, when she did all training sessions with the national team.
You might have noticed the words "new coaches" in Barnashov's quote above. Well, regarding the "call for rolling heads" of president Medvedev on the side of the coaching staff, this message has been understood by the RBU as well. In the next season, we won't see Alexander Selifonov and Vladimir Alikin anymore. Both will continue to work for the RBU, but in new work areas. On the other hand, Vladimir Barnashov keeps the head coach seat of both national teams. The new boss of the women's team will be Anatoly Khovantsev, assisted by Sergey Konovalov. Fans of the Russian team already know Sergey Efimov, who will continue his work as functional trainer. Dmitry Shukalovich is another new face in the team, hired as scientific expert. In the men's team, the new boss is named Evgeny Kolokolnikov. He's assisted by Olga Medvedtseva's husband Valery Medvedtsev, plus Mikhail Tkachenko and Yury Preobrazhentsev. And finally, Nikolay Zagurskiy will head the scientific group of both teams. Those are the upcoming changes in a nutshell, drawn from a blog entry from Dmitry Vasilyev on Sports.ru, published on June 5, 2010.
As a special bonus, I've recently uploaded a new photo series of a training camp held by the US women's team at Fort Kent, where the World Cup #8 will take place in February 2011. The photos have been supplied by my US American friend Ross A. Burton, who is a loyal supporter of many athletes from various countries, including Russian ones. Most of the young biathladies in these photos might be unknown to you, but that's actually the main reason why I want to present them here. You know - it's my declared policy not to support the "rich and famous" only.
June 2, 2010, training camp of the US women's team, Fort Kent (USA) - Ross A. Burton |
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| Sven Boris Schreiber ♦ 06-20-2010 |
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 You know that one of my favorite topics in this news section is the promotion of Russian-German friendship. Hence I didn't hesitate a second after I read about a highly interesting event in my daily newspaper, Neues Deutschland (New Germany). The title 4th German-Russian Festival sounded quite appealing to me, so I booked a hotel room for three nights at Berlin immediately. As an aside, Neues Deutschland is a socialist newspaper, which emerged from the Zentralorgan of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), located in the North-Eastern part of today's Germany. Due to this historic background, it's one of the very few papers in Germany, which exhibit a disctinctly friendly attitude towards Russia, and I think it's obvious that I never would have subscribed to it otherwise. Neues Deutschland still is one of the most popular daily newspapers in East Germany, as the former territory of the GDR is called nowadays. However, in West Germany, its existence is hardly noticed. This constitutes just one of several indicators that, even more than 20 years after the German reunification, Germany still is sort of a split nation in many respects.
Try the following test. Pick some arbitrary guy on a street in Germany, and show him a card with the inscription: "Эс гыбт нох зо филе захен, ди ду нимальс ферштеен вырсть!" If he laughs out loud, he's certainly from East Germany. If he says "I don't speak Russian", or if he seems to be able to read the text, but doesn't laugh, he's probably from the West. Actually, the text isn't real Russian - it's just a Cyrillic transcription of the German phrase "Es gibt noch so viele Sachen, die du nie verstehen wirst!" ("Still there are so many things that you 'll never understand!") People born in the former GDR, having acquired some basic knowledge of the Russian language at school, can laugh about a joke like that - especially because people from West Germany, who sometimes think they are "better Germans" than their Eastern fellow citizens, usually fail to understand it due to their lack of Russian language skills.
Back to the topic. The German-Russian Festival is organized by a registered association called Deutsch Russische Festtage e.V., whose main purpose is the promotion of German-Russian relations, especially in culture and sport. That's pretty much the same intention that I have with this site, isn't it? So it was a must for me to attend the 4th edition of their annual festival, thoughtfully arranged on the weekend around Russia Day on June 12 - a contemporary Russian holiday in celebration of the adoption of the Declaration of State Sovereignty in 1990. I really wonder how I was able to miss the preceding three events in 2007-2009, but well... we all make mistakes.
In order to experience the festival at full length, I had to take a day off work and take up temporary residence in a hotel room, but since I've become quite accustomed to that due to my frequent Biathlon trips, it was just a snap. And I don't regret it by any means. Besides eating lots of Pelmeni and drinking enormous amounts of Kvas, I've watched many great cultural presentations on various stages, distributed on the vast area of the Karlshorst trotting course - most notably three highly popular Russian rock bands: Запрещённые барабанщики (Zapreshchyonnyye barabanshchiki - The Banned Drummers), Чиж & Co (Chizh & Co - Siskin & Co.), and Город 312 (Gorod 312 - City 312). Raisa, my Russian language teacher, almost fell to coma when I told her about Чиж & Co, because it's one of her top favorite bands. Moreover, some great German live acts were on stage - from young and promising (Fireflies, Ronya, and F.A.L.E) to experienced and famous (Münchener Freiheit).
Besides the exceptionally vivid German Crossover band Fireflies, I enjoyed Город 312 most. Its members originate from the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek, the telephone area code of which is 312 - hence the name. However, the band resides in Moscow for several years now, and has become an integral part of the Russian rock scene. Their greatest hit so far certainly was Останусь (I'll stay), featured by the original soundtrack of the quite unusual movie Day Watch, directed by Timur Bekmambetov. The live performance of this band is most stunning - they sound live even better than on CD. With many others, it's just the other way round.
When the musicians entered the stage, I thought: Hey - they've got Dmitri Yaroshenko on keyboards! And when he was introduced as "Dima", I thought: No - it can't be possible... Actually, his real name is Dima Pritula, so it's really just a visual similarity. Incidentally, the real first name of the female singer nicknamed Aya is Svetlana - in this case, however, there's not the least visual match with "our" Sveta. Anyway, I always like to read this beautiful name somewhere. However, I was most intrigued by the performance of the Город 312 guitar player Masha Ileyeva. Besides the extraordinary richness of sounds she was able to get out of her blue Ibanez, I especially liked her unstoppable way of moving on stage. A true thoroughbred rocker!
Of course, I didn't go to Berlin without Anastasiya, and she did a great job again. Hence I can provide you with a very extensive collection of visual impressions from this memorable 3-day celebration of Russian-German friendship.
06-11-2010 - Ludmila Rumina & Rusy
06-11-2010 - Münchener Freiheit
06-11-2010 - Other performances
06-12-2010 - Jazzfamily
06-12-2010 - Ecumenical prayer
06-12-2010 - Model school 'Grata'
06-12-2010 - Alexander Zlochevsky
06-12-2010 - Malenki Fun Orchestra
06-12-2010 - Fireflies
06-12-2010 - Запрещённые барабанщики
06-12-2010 - Чиж & Co
06-13-2010 - Vocal and dance schools
06-13-2010 - Malenki Fun Orchestra
06-13-2010 - Kleene Bigband
06-13-2010 - Youth festival 'New Wind'
06-13-2010 - Folk ensemble 'Mladushka'
06-13-2010 - F.A.L.E
06-13-2010 - Ronya
06-13-2010 - Город 312
Links to various German-Russian institutions and topics |
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 June 2, 2010 - really a bad day. On this day, my last standing favorite player had to leave the courts of the 2010 Roland Garros tennis tournament after losing her quarterfinal. Oddly enough, she was exactly the one among my seven favorites, whom hardly anyone had on the list of the best eight: Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan. The official Roland Garros site even calls her "a surprise quarter-finalist". However, I'm in the comfortable position of being able to say "I knew it before that she can do it", because I wrote it down right here almost two weeks ago, after Slava advanced to the 2nd round. In my opinion, it's not quite a surprise that she entered the quarterfinals as the only unseeded player, defeating #8 seed Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) and #28 Alisa Kleybanova (RUS) along her way. I still remember well her performance at last year's US Open, where she upset the current #4 of the world, Jelena Jankovic (SRB). What an odd coincidence - it was exactly this one Jelena Jankovic who ended Slava's run to the semifinals yesterday!
Actually, Slava is not a native Kazakh. She's born in Moscow, and still resides there to date. Since she was born at a time when Kazachstan was an integral part of the Soviet Union, it was easy for her to assume the Kazakh citizenship. Slava frankly admits that her main motivation was the excellent support she could expect from the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation (KTF): "I feel good there, and I have fantastic working conditions. I get a lot of support there, I get loads of encouragement." So it was a wise decision. In fact, Slava isn't by any means the only Russian tennis player who accepted an invitation to Kazakhstan, and one journalist even asks jokingly: "Is Kazakhstan playing 'Rent-a-Russian'?" With Slava, Russia quite obviously lost a highly talented player.
What I especially like about Slava is that she appears so peaceful and at rest on the court. I like to watch her face when she prepares for the next rally, and it always makes me smile. I've never seen her smashing a racket, nor shouting a nasty word, after failing to score, like so many others do. Along with that, I've never seen her make those exaggerated gestures of triumph, which some love to demonstrate after every point they win. Slava just appears to enjoy herself, and even manages to smile every now and then - which generally is amazingly rare on the tennis court. And finally, she's one of the - apparently very few - players who are able to express pure and sincere joy after winning a match. Yes, of course I'm aware that many players have something like a smile on their faces in this situation, but in most cases it doesn't touch me in any way - quite contrary to Slava. Well, in my opinion, she's someone special.
Unfortunately, the general public didn't pay much attention to Slava's performances at Roland Garros until recently. I didn't see her on EuroSport TV, and even the nice EuroSport video on demand player provided me with her most recent matches only. This certainly would have changed if she had defeated Jelena Jankovic once more, but alas, it didn't work out. Anyway, Slava played great tennis at Roland Garros, and proved again that she has the potential for the top 10. After all, she's still 22 years old and has got plenty of time for improving her skills. "I want to be world No. 1", she's quoted in an interview. Doesn't that sound familiar to us? I guess that's the best attitude an athlete can have, and it's exactly the same one that keeps on driving Sveta to excellence, too.
As sort of a compensation for the missing presence of Slava on TV, I've prepered a 12-piece photo special of her, taken in May at the match against Sybille Bammer (AUT) at the 2010 Mutua Madrileña tournament in Madrid (ESP). I'm indebted to Ralf Reinecke for kindly allowing me to use his terrific work on my site.
Portrait special by Ralf Reinecke: Yaroslava Shvedova at the Mutua Madrileña, May 8, 2010
Official homepage of Yaroslava Shvedova
Yaroslava Shvedova on Facebook
Roland Garros: Player Profile of Yaroslava Shvedova
Roland Garros: Getting to know... Yaroslava Shvedova (Feature)
Roland Garros: Yaroslava Shvedova, who are you? (Video)
Roland Garros: Press conference after advancing to the quarterfinals (Video)
Roland Garros: Press conference after falling against Jelena Jankovic (Video) |
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 My recent thoughts about the science of eating camera battery packs has aroused much attention on the readers' side. One of them noted, for instance, that if an athlete swallows such a pack, it is considered a violation of the anti-doping rules. Moreover he added he had heard that the WADA has developed a new test for lithium ions. Wow... I've really pondered a lot on this topic, but I completely missed this special issue! It's obvious, however - a battery pack is highly concentrated, pure energy, so ingesting it orally clearly is doping. I wonder how many top athletes already practice it today! Maybe a profound abyss is yawning there...
Another reader informed me that he doesn't bother anymore with those mingy camera batteries. Rather he sticks with the "real thing" - notebook battery packs! Gulp... well, I admit that I didn't dare to ask how he does it. I mean, those packs are really humongous! Maybe he sizzles them in the pan like a Viennese Schnitzel? Or blends them in a mixer with milk and sugar? I don't know, but his words gave me another completely different idea. Certainly the most powerful battery ever is found almost anywhere on the streets - in every car! Exactly, I'm talking about the big lead acid battery required to start up the motor. It contains delicious sulfuric acid with vast amounts of tasty massive lead. Now that would be a real power meal! For the time being, however, it remains an open question how to get it onto the plate.
But let's get back to our favorite sport. I can happily announce today that my personal biathlon travel schedule of the next season has settled by now. So these are the planned time windows of my voyages:
August 7-8, 2010: ODLO City Biathlon, Püttlingen, Germany.
August 11-15, 2010: IBU Open European Championships, Brezno-Osrblie, Slovakia.
December 7-12, 2010: IBU World Cup 2, Hochfilzen, Austria.
December 14-19, 2010: IBU World Cup 3, Pokljuka, Slovenia.
January 18-23, 2011: IBU World Cup 6, Antholz-Anterselva, Italy.
If there will be an IBU Cup in January 2011 at Altenberg, I'll add it to the list as well, and maybe I'll do another one-day "fun happening" with Dani Fichter at Ruhpolding, like early this year.
All hotel rooms for the time intervals above are already booked:
In Slovakia, I'm going to reside again in the excellent Hotel Pol'ana at Zvolen. It's 60 km away from Osrblie, but that's not a problem to me. I prefer nice hotels with at least three stars and Internet access in the rooms, which drastically reduces the possible alternatives. Since I regard those few days abroad as a vacation, the hotel should be cozy and comfortable. The Pol'ana hotel rooms are just what I need, and the staff is very friendly - some even speak German. I wonder what the rebuilt arena in Osrblie will look like. Last year, it was a big construction lot - see the photo above.
In Austria, I've selected the same hotel as last year near Hochfilzen as well. I won't tell the name, because it might be that the Russian team resides there again, and I don't want millions of autograph hunters to be lurking in the hotel lobby all day long. I hope to get another huge stack of autograph cards from Sveta there, or maybe already at Püttlingen, because the pile she gave me last year is almost exhausted. Just eight cards are left today, and the autograph requests keep on rushing in - especially those from Germany and Austria, after Sveta's name appeared next to my address in the category "2010 Olympic Games - Adresses of the medalists" of the Autograph Journal "STARS". For a couple of weeks, this triggered several fan letters each day in my mailbox.
Things are quite different in Slovenia. Although my previous room in the Hotel Krek at Lesce was just perfect, I chose a quite different option for the next season. Last year I've been there with my friend Thomas "Hörni" Höppner, who runs the German fanpage of Pauline Macabies, and we weren't much happy with the shuttle service to the arena. It's a long, steep, and winding road from the city of Bled, where the athletes and fans usually reside, to the Pokljuka plateau. Although basically possible, it's not a good idea to climb it by car, but on the other hand, the shuttle bus service is not as extensive as at, say, Oberhof or Antholz-Anterselva. On some days, we would have preferred to drive back to Bled after the women's competitions, but were stuck in the arena without a shuttle. Thanks to the giant burgers sold in the tent it was yet still acceptable. Somewhat accidentally we found the Šport Hotel Pokljuka at the end of a small sideway of the main road, about 3 km away from the arena. It looked just fine, and I wondered if it would be possible to book a reasonably affordable room there. I can tell you now: Yes, it is, and acually I'll reside there this year in December! I'm quite happy with this choice, because I won't be dependent on the shuttle service anymore. It's even possible to walk to the arena, which usually is my favorite means of transportation.
Traditionally, Italy has been my "testing ground" so far. In 2009 I've been residing in the Hotel Alpin Royal at St. Johann, located in the beautiful Valle Aurina. Actually, this hotel is too expensive for me, and I had booked a different one, but due to a booking error of the hotel chain I was "shunted off" there for about half the usual fee. That was great, but of course this mistake was a singular event. This year I've explored the opposite direction - the Hotel Boite at Borca di Cadore, near the Alpine Ski World Cup location Cortina d'Ampezzo. It was a nice stay, because this spot already is part of the Veneto region, not Alto Adige, so it's sort of "real Italy", where you can't expect everyone to speak German. Actually, most of the hotel staff spoke Italian only, but since this is a language I speak well, it wasn't a problem at all. Next year I'm trying yet another direction, namely Brixen-Bressanone. The name Hotel Grüner Baum ("Green Tree") sounds quite inviting, the distance to the biathlon shuttle station is roughly 50 km.
So you see - everything is set for another extensive live coverage of various future biathlon events!
[Thanks a bunch to Alexey Grekov and Ross A. Burton for the basic ideas to the introductory section!] |
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 Recently I've bought a pair of new lithium ion battery packs for my camera Anastasia. Yes, it looks like we're going to do another season together! Anastasia - a CASIO Exilim EX-F1 bridge camera, named after the most talented Russian Backstroke swimmer Anastasia Zueva - has proved to be a good choice. Well, actually she's somewhat bitchy sometimes, going into an undefined software state during important competition phases, just when she really shouldn't. During a flower ceremony, for instance. But otherwise, she's very reliable, and so I condone her occasional failures. I think this is the first time I'm using a camera for another consecutive year, so Anastasia really can be proud of herself. And hence it's certainly not a bad idea to buy some additional battery packs for her.
Usually I don't read orperator's manuals and instruction leaflets. However, for unknown reasons, I did this time, after unpacking one of the new battery packs - and found an important warning there (translated from German):
Swallowing the battery pack is very dangerous. If a battery pack has been swallowed, contact a physician / emergency physician immediately.
Geez! Frankly, I've never thought about swallowing such a big brick-shaped battery pack in my whole lifetime, but from now on I wasn't able anymore to stop pondering on that. What might people seduce to swallow such a monster? It's a big edged block in an ugly gray plastic cover. It really doesn't look delicious and inviting, and probably it's completely flavorless - except maybe for some chemical by-products of electrolysis that might emerge while sucking it for some time. If it was raspberry-red and looked like a big sweet jellybaby - well, then maybe I'd try to take a bite. But even then, I'd never think of swallowing it in a single go. Oh my... let's hope that I can get rid of those thoughts eventually!
So what's up next? There's not much to report these days, except that Sveta has returned from a short trip to Bali, visually documented on her official site. The next biathlon event I'm going to attend seems to be the 2010 City Biathlon at Püttlingen, Germany, on August 8. Let's hope that Sveta will be there once more. This is almost immediately followed by the IBU Open European Championships Summer Biathlon at Brezno-Osrblie, Slovakia. I enjoyed my first stay in Slovakia so much, so that I decided to return there whenever possible.
In the meantime I'm going to burrow into my virtual drawer again. I've still got lots of nice unpublished photos taken by some kind people at Oestersund, Hochfilzen, and Oslo, who allowed me to publish them on my site. So be sure to visit the Gallery Section every now and then. Last week for instance, I've uploaded an extensive series of pictures from Khanty courtesy of my dear friend Dani Fichter, who runs the wonderful olga-zaitseva.de site.
And don't miss the current top sport event in France - 2010 Roland Garros! I've got a powerful packet of seven favorites from seven countries there, led by the fantastic trio of Miss "She's-Going-To-Be-The-Number-One-Just-Wait-And-See" Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia), Miss "Always-Got-Time-To-Give-A-Beautiful-Smile" Yaroslava Shvedova (Kazakhstan), and Miss "With-Giant-Steps-Straight-Back-To-The-Top" Justine Henin (Belgium) - plus Lucie Safarova (Czech Republic), Alexandra Dulgheru (Romania), Aravane Rezai (France), and Kateryna Bondarenko (Ukraine). All but Justine already have advanced to the second round, but I don't think that "Juju" will have problems surpassing her next opponent, Tsvetana Pironkova (Bulgaria).
March 23, 2010, World Cup 9, Khanty-Mansiysk (RUS) - Training
March 24, 2010, World Cup 9, Khanty-Mansiysk (RUS) - Training
March 25, 2010, World Cup 9, Khanty-Mansiysk (RUS) - Sprint
March 27, 2010, World Cup 9, Khanty-Mansiysk (RUS) - Mass Start
March 28, 2010, World Cup 9, Khanty-Mansiysk (RUS) - Award ceremony |
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 If you ask people in Germany if there's something special about today's date, May 9, they are likely to respond: "Of course - it's Mother's Day!" You will find very few only, who associate it with the capitulation of Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union in 1945, which marked the end of World War II. In contrast to that, this Victory Day is an important holiday in Russia and some former Soviet republics until today. Moreover, a variant of it called V-E Day (Victory in Europe Day) is celebrated in some European countries on May 8, and it was known as the "Day of liberation" in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). However, after the reunion of Germany, this holiday was dropped, and today most Germans don't care anymore about this day, and even have forgotten its exact date.
Of course, the reason is obvious: From the German point of view, neither "Victory Day" nor "V-E Day" are days of victory. They are days of defeat. Apparently, at least. In fact, it really shouldn't be regarded this way. Yes, it was a military defeat, that's evident - yet still it was no less than a victory for humanity. It ended a long episode of tyranny and holocaust in Germany. It ended a senseless and misanthropic war. It truly was a "day of liberation", like it was called appropriately in the GDR. We should keep this important event in good memory, rather than trying to sweep it under the mat as something embarrassing, even if thinking about it might hurt at times.
"Hurt" is a convenient cue, because one of my favorite rock music groups resides in Sweden, and it chose the remarkable name Pain of Salvation. I think this name is an excellent metaphor for today. True freedom isn't free. It's always hard-earned, and sometimes you even need to bleed for it. Does this sound familiar to you? Sure - that's exactly what Jesus Christ did on the cross in place of all humanity. I've found it to be true in many situations of everyday life. Salvation comes with pain, but beyond the pain, there's unconditional freedom. So I want to encourage my German fellow citizens to face the pain of admitting that our nation has caused a real dark chapter of human history, in order to get free from this heavy legacy. Those who live today are responsible that history doesn't repeat, and the best way there is accepting a painful truth, rather than pushing it to the back of the mind.
But wait... regarding painful truth, I have to be true myself. I admit that I didn't always live by the insights I'm promoting above. To be honest, until two years ago, I was myself one of those who didn't care much about May 8 or 9. It changed only when I started to develop an interest for the Russian culture, and that's rather late! Hopefully not too late. I'm glad that my Russian language teacher Raisa Trofimenko doesn't teach me the mere language only. She also dedicates much time to explaining the Russian soul to her students, and I gratefully take this opportunity of learning. That's why I'm always participating in the annual Victory Day celebrations now, which are organized in my home town by the emigrants from Russia and other ex-Soviet countries on the largest local cemetery, where several thousands of Soviet prisoners of war are buried. You can view a couple of photos of this year's celebration in my photo album. Yes, it causes pain to face those memorial monuments, which tell a long story about senseless death, but it cleans up my heart and soul.
So I feel fortunate that I wasn't born into a political system, whose economic foundations were misanthropy and genocide. However, this doesn't mean that I agree with everything the political leaders of the western part of Germany did after World War II. Especially, I think that taking over the US American attitude of establishing the Soviet Union as sort of a "center of all evil" wasn't too clever an idea. In the "cold war" era, young people in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) were taught from the ground up that everyone residing east of the republic is a potential enemy. What a bunch of bullshit! And the worst thing about it is that parts of this enemy stereotype still live on today in the heads of German people.
Frankly, I don't think that Russians and Germans are that different. Rather I've found that we've got many things in common. You can see it in our languages too, which are much more similar in structure than it seems on first look. Maybe the German people even have more in common with the Russian people than with those in the neighbouring countries. Why not give it a whirl? We should start no later than today, on this 65th anniversary of Victory Day, to get free from old cold suspiciousness. Let's leave all pain behind, let's walk towards salvation, which is sure to come with international friendship. It might not be an easy way to go, but let's not be fooled - it's the ONLY way to go! |
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 This week it turned out that advertising for my site originating from Sveta clearly is the most effective one. I've already told you briefly what Sveta said about my site at a fan meeting organized by the CRAFT company. If you examine my site statistics of April 2010, it's obvious that something unusual must have happened on April 26: I've recorded no less than 23,357 clicks on this day - about six times the usual daily average! Actually, this is a new click record in the 2+ years of the lifetime of my site - by far surpassing the previous record of 16,455 on November 21, 2009, which occurred after sports.ru reported about my site.
But why on April 26? The meeting was held four days before that! Well, the reason is that it was filmed by a very kind guy, who attended the event, and a 17-part series of video clips appeared on YouTube on this very Monday. So I'm very indebted both to Sveta for giving my site a huge promotional boost by her kind words, as well as to the author of the videos for making the material available to the world. If you want to hear Sveta's direct quote, just watch part #6 of the video series. You need to know the Russian language well in order to understand her words, because Sveta is speaking really fast at times. However, if you don't, the video series still is a pleasure to watch. Just listen to the beautiful music of Sveta's voice, while observing the immense richness of her facial expressions. Very rewarding indeed!
I'm really glad that this video sequence appeared in public, but actually not just because of Sveta's comments about my site, but mainly because it's a rare occasion to Sveta's fans, including me, to see her live in a relaxed and friendly setting. It's much different from interviews and features on national TV. At this meeting, Sveta was sitting among lots of kind people who really like her, who really appreciate every word she says, rather than twisting and turning them, right when they leave her mouth, like some journalists prefer to do. So it was almost a family-like setting, and in such a positive atmosphere Sveta can show much more of her inner self than otherwise. And you can see that she does it with pleasure.
While watching the clips, I remembered very well the feeling I had two years ago, when I registered the domain for this site. It's difficult to explain why I did it at that time, because I knew next to nothing about Sveta then. I've just seen her a couple of times on sports TV. However, I've received some very pleasant vibes from her through the screen, and this was enough for me to know that I had to start this project by all means. Those hardly explainable vibes are even more prominent on those videos from Moscow. I guess anyone of Sveta's loyal fans can feel it clearly. It's a very touching positive radiation that emanates from her face, most notably from her famous eyes that are as rich as the deep blue sea. "Charismatic" might be a word to describe it, but in fact, all words necessarily fail to name a mystery like that.
I feel much relief that Sveta looked so relaxed at this event. It's just a pleasure when she's happy, and it hasn't always been this way in the past season. Talk about Vancouver. I'm archiving most of the photos of Sveta that I can spot on the Internet, but I omit those where she isn't pictured favorably. Frankly speaking, I've skipped most photos from Vancouver, because it was a completely different Sveta that I've seen there most of the time. I think there's hardly any athlete whose face expresses more clearly how she feels inside. Of course, that's once again due to the fact that Sveta herself is unable to tell lies, and so is her face. Obviously, she had a very hard time at Vancouver - her face tells long unpleasant stories. Hence it's just great to see that Sveta obviously has regained her inner balance after the end of the season.
May the next season give much more fun to Sveta! |
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 Maybe you have read in Sveta's official guestbook or somewhere else that Sveta held an autograph session on April 22 in Moscow for the sports gear manufacturer and sponsor CRAFT. This company is highly appreciated by the fans of Sveta, because it has produced her world famous "SEXY suit". Usually I don't report about autograph sessions, as long as I don't participate myself in them. However, there were two special things about that one, which I'm going to explain now.
First, a friend of mine, who was on the spot, reported to me that Sveta somehow got into talking about me and my web site in response to a question about fan clubs. I was very pleased to learn that Sveta likes my work, and especially my photo collections. Oy, thank you so much, Sveta! To be honest, I was starting to get a bit worried about Sveta's opinion, because I've never got any feedback from her in the past two years of this site's existence. I'm well aware that my highly emotional and enthusiastic writing style is not liked by everyone, so there was some probability of Sveta disliking my web project. Of course I know as well that she's a very busy person, and has got many things on her mind that are much more important than giving me feedback. But anyway, its clear that commending words from her are the best motivation to me for carrying on with this site, and I guess I've received enough fuel for several centuries now!
Second, the same friend of mine, who was on the spot, had taken her camera with her. You've certainly noticed that I have published a couple of classy photo collections courtesy of Elena Zhulidova in recent times - for instance, from the Russian Championships in Summer 2009 and Winter 2010, and from the decoration of the Olympic Champions on the Red Square in Moscow, where Sveta proudly presented her new Audi Q7. I really can't say when I met Elena for the first time, but I remember very well our first real conversation at the Pokljuka World Cup in Slovenia by the end of 2009. It's a pleasure to communicate with her by email, because she's a very kind and thoughtful person, and writes excellent English. I hope Elena will keep on providing me with her high-quality photos from locations that are out of reach for me.
Today I'm glad to present to you Elena's most recent photo collection from the CRAFT autograph session mentioned above. Fasten your seat belts, because you will face unearthly delights there. What kind of delights? Well... one of them starts with "s" and ends with "mile". The other ones always appear in pairs, start with "e", and end with "yes". Got it? OK, now you know that it's really VERY important to fasten seat belts!
April 22, 2010, CRAFT autograph session, Moscow (RUS) - Elena Zhulidova |
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 Results of the Commemoration Prize of "Vitaly Fatyanov" at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy.
04-16-2010 - 7.5 km Sprint
Source: International Biathlon Union (IBU)
Final results (PDF)
04-17-2010 - 10 km Pursuit
Source: International Biathlon Union (IBU)
Final results (PDF) |
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| | Спасибо! |
| Sven Boris Schreiber ♦ 03-28-2010 |
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 My own World Cup season already ended in January. Sports tourism is an expensive hobby, and after visiting Hochfilzen (AUT), Pokljuka (SLO), Altenberg (GER), Antholz-Anterselva (ITA), and a little bit of Ruhpolding (GER), my Biathlon budget was completely exhausted. I guess I've spent more than 1,000 € for gasoline, hotel rooms, tickets, and restaurants in those two months. But I don't want to complain, because I had a lot of fun. I really enjoyed standing in icy or wet snow with frozen feet, getting soaked by rain or covered by snow, and having a spanking breeze in my face. Oh, and besides that, I've seen many thrilling sports events!
Fortunately, I've recently found a big pile of about 70 years old Russian shares in the legacy of my grandfather Boris, like the one pictured in the upper right corner of this article. Yes, exactly, it's THE Boris, the father of my mother, from whom I've inherited my second given name. So I consider myself a rich man now! I just wonder what the inscription "СССР" on the shares is supposed to mean... (Oh, er, no explanatory emails please - I'm just kidding!)
Sveta's World Cup season already ended yesterday. How disappointing it must appear to her - missing the World Championship Relay in her home town. As far as I remember, Sveta never has left her Relay team out in the rain, regardless of her respective form, and I'm sure she would have been a reliable lead runner today as well. On the other hand, from a purely rational point of view, the selected team composition can be considered quite logical. Olga Zaitseva clearly is the season's top scorer of the women's team, and Iana Romanova has proved her recent top form more than once. It's difficult to estimate if the somewhat disappointing fourth rank might have been avoided with Sveta on the lead position, but in any case, Iana wasn't the problem part in today's competition.
Competition analysis of the 1st Relay leg
Competition analysis of the 2nd Relay leg
Competition analysis of the 3rd Relay leg
Competition analysis of the 4th Relay leg
However, Sveta's season isn't generally over yet. The World Cup touring has come to an end now, but there are still some big events ahead. Like the Russian Championships at Uvat, for instance, which will follow immediately after the last World Cup stage, just like last year. Moreover, there will be another edition of the Grand Prix Biathlon Stars On Kamchatka in memory of the Russian coach Vitaly Nikolayevich Fatyanov in mid-April, just like last year. You probably remember that Sveta scored two pleasant #3 ranks there. Frankly, the Kamchatka Peninsula is a part of the world that I'd really like to travel to at least once in my lifetime. It must be an overwhelming sight, with all of its volcanos and geysers. One fine day, I'll be there.
Despite those upcoming events, the official end of the season is sort of a milestone, which I want to use for saying СПАСИБО - SPASIBO - THANK YOU. First of all, СПАСИБО to Alexey Grekov, my friend and most reliable co-worker on this web site, who writes all of the faithful Russian translations of my articles. It's really hard to find someone who gets so much great work done so fast and over such a long period of time - and for free. So I'm certainly a lucky guy. СПАСИБО to all contributors of this site, who have provided me with terrific photos from various locations, which I was unable to travel to myself. СПАСИБО to all visitors - it's your continued interest, concern, and feedback that keeps on motivating me to research material about sports and its athletes, and developing long articles around them. Studying my click statistics of 2009 and 2010 makes me very happy, because it's obvious that there are lots of loyal readers out there, even during the summer months.
And finally - СПАСИБО to Sveta for being the wonderful person she is. Sveta, you're an exceptional sportswoman, no matter what any malevolent critics might say. Some seem to forget that you're still young, and still in the course of learning how to cope with extraordinary load and excessive expectations. There's no doubt that you will master it soon. СПАСИБО for being so open-minded to the fans and the press, and for always saying honestly what's on your mind, even at the risk of being bashed verbally in turn. Well, unfortunately, some people don't seem to appreciate sincerity. Please don't let you be discouraged by that! СПАСИБО for taking some of your scarce time to talk to me at Hochfilzen. It was a pleasure to me - although I was slightly disappointed that I'm still speaking and understanding the Russian language quite poorly. I'll keep on working on that this summer.
And to end this article, here's my favorite topic once more: СПАСИБО for giving us your smile - the most beautiful smile ever seen on the sports stage. Love and truth are shining from your blue eyes when you smile, and everyone who witnessed it with open eyes for the first time will be a loyal fan of yours... for all times.
Спасибо! |
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