Course : Russian language and culture Popular sports and famous athletes in Russia Russia is the successor of the Soviet Union (USSR), which was the dominant Olympic team during the Soviet Era whereby, Russia SFSR was the largest nation in the Soviet Union with the main athletes of the Soviet team. Nowadays, Russia is one the most successful countries at a variety of sports and continuously ending in the top rankings (never below the third place since 1952) in number of medals and gold medals collected at the Olympic Games. Moreover, since 1994, Russia always finished in the top five ranking at the Paralympic Games.
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Top five popular sports in Russia Russia’s most popular sports include football (soccer), Ice hockey, basketball, volleyball and tennis. But these are not the only sports played in Russia; many other sports are played like handball, weightlifting, gymnastics, boxing, wrestling, and so on. But I will talk mainly about the most popular ones. One thing for sure Russia and America has in common is Football which is the most played sport in both countries, but football in Russia is soccer meanwhile football in America is American football.
Russia’s football team was the first European Champion in the history of the game since 1960. Football fan in Russia are only interested mainly on the national team competing in the world cup and European championship, the Russian premier league and less important competitions like the Russian cup. During the Soviet Era, football was the number one sport and it is still the number one sport in Russia today. A very high proportion is interested in it to a certain extent and women join men when it comes to the national team.
The Russian league (Russia’s main football championship) is regaining its former strength due to huge sponsorship deals and the league consist of 16 clubs whereby 4 clubs are from Moscow in the new season 2012-2013 (Spartak Moscow, Lokomotiv Moscow, CSKA Moscow, Dynamo Moscow) which are the oldest clubs in the league and Zenit St. Petersbourg won the last championship. The Russian national team is gaining strength and attention especially when they defeated The Netherlands 3-1 in the Euro 2008 quarterfinals.
Russia also has talented football players like Andrei Arshavin and Roman Palvyuchenko which are the main strikers of their national team and are both playing in the English premier league. Thus now, the Russian premier league is among the best in Eastern Europe and the seventh in Europe. Ice Hockey comes second as the popular sports in Russia. The national ice hockey team of Russia is rated first in IIHF (international ice hockey federation) world rankings. They have been competing internationally since 1993 and follow a long tradition of soviet teams mostly composed of Russian players.
They were the successor of the Unified team (of the Soviet Union) of the ice hockey at the 1992 Winter Olympics but they have not been dominant as the soviet team, winning the gold medal in the world championship just four times in 20 years, but it remains one of the top team in the world. Russia has a total of 77,702 ice hockey players, about 0. 05% of its population and today about 30 Russians play in the NHL. During the soviet era, ice hockey was one of the most dominant sports, and members of the national team were given the finest apartments and cars.
From 1956 to 1988 the Soviet Union team won seven gold medals, one silver medal, one bronze medal in nine appearances, and also won the gold medal at the 1992 Olympics. In recent years, starting in 2007, the Russian team has put a strong team on the ice for the World Championships. They had a record of 8-1-0 in the 2007 tournament, 9-0-0 in the 2008 tournament, 9-0-0 in 2009, 8-1-0 in 2010, and best of all 10-0-0 in 2012 and they are the winners of the last (2012) ice hockey championship. The Soviet Union team was traditionally very strong in basketball, winning various Olympic tournaments, World Championships and Eurobasket.
Its legal successor; the Russian national basketball team is considered as a worldwide basketball force. In 2007, Russia defeated world champions Spain to win EuroBasket 2007. Russian basketball clubs such as PBC CSKA Moscow (2006 and 2008 Euroleague Champions) have had great success in European competitions such as the Euroleague and the ULEB Cup. At the moment there are three Russian players in the NBA: Andrei Kirilenko and Alexey Shved of the Minnesota Timberwolves, and Denver Nuggets center Timofey Mozgov. Another dominant sport in Russia is volleyball. The Russia men’s national volleyball team is the national team of Russia.
It is governed by the Russian volleyball federation and takes part in several international volleyball competitions. They are considered as the inheritor of the records of the Soviet Union by the FIVB ( Federation internationalle de volleyball). In the past, the Soviet Union team was the dominant volleyball team wining 3 gold medals, 2 silver medals and 1 bronze medal at the Olympic Games and 12 gold medals in the European championship. Nowadays, the Russia men’s national volleyball team is one of the best in the world winning the gold medal at the last Olympics, and ending in the first position at the 2011 world league.
In addition to that, the Russia women volleyball team also takes part in international competition but are not performing as good as their predecessor, the Soviet Union team who won 4 gold medals and 2 silver medals at the Olympic Games and 13 gold medals at the European championship. On the other hand, the Russia women team won just 4 gold medals at the European championship and 2 silver medals at the Olympics. Tennis in Russia grew in popularity considerably after the Soviet Era. It is governed by the Russian tennis federation which is the successor of the All-Russia tennis federation and the USSR tennis federation.
Russia has produced a good number of famous tennis players. Recently, Russian women tennis players have increase in number considerably, with both Maria Sharapova and Dinara Safira reaching number one in the WTA (women’s tennis association) rankings. Some other international successful Russian women players include Svetlana Kuznetsova, Elena Dementieva, Nadia Petrova and Anna Kournikova. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Russia swept the women’s tennis podium with Demantieva winning the gold, Dinara Safira and Vera Zvonareva winning the silver and bronze respectively.
Men too achieved great performances with former number one players Marat Safin (Safina’s brother) and Yevgeny Kafelnikov. Russia men currently in the top 50 are Nikolay Davydenko and Mikhail Youzhny. The Russian men won the Davis cup two times in 2002 and 2006, and the Russian federation won the Fed cup four times, in 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008. Famous athletes in Russia Russia is one the most successful sport nation in the world and so are a variety of its athletes. The most popular athletes in Russia include: * Sergei Federov: He was an ice hockey player who primarily played for the Detroit Red wings of the National Hockey League.
He was also a member of Russian Olympic teams but he was known for leading the NHL in goals and points for several years and helping to guide the Red wings to Stanley cup championships in the 1990’s. * Anna Kournikova: who became legendary for her modeling talents but was first known for her skills as a tennis player. She was born in Moscow and received her first racket at the age of 5. This famous Russian athlete, who became an American citizen very recently, has consistently been among the world’s greatest tennis players since her career started in the late 1990’s, although she has never won a single title in professional championship. Maria Sharapova: She became famous with her victory at the 2004 Wimbledon Open, one of the professional tennis’ most prestigious tournaments. Since then she has being arguing the top tennis player in the world, with 22 tournament championships and several world number one rankings. Sharapova became the first Russian to reach number one in the WTA rankings. * Andrei Kirilenko: He is a professional basketball player for the Utah Jazz since 1999. He was a key Jazz player during the era of John Stockton and Karl Malone, and he is still a key player in the modern era.
Kirilenko has been named to an All-star team for an All-star game and has been part of several dynamic jazz seasons. * Evgeny Plushenko: Born in 1982 in Khabarovsk, Russia, he started skating at the age of 4 and by the age of 11, he could do all triples, which means that he was already a figure skater of high level. Evgeny is the only senior male figure skater in the world capable of doing the Biellmann Spin. This is all about the popular sports and famous athletes in Russia. thanks. References: http://answers. yahoo. com/question/index? id=20100710203325AArCNXv http://www. uwtledger. com/2. 13122/top-five-popular-sports-in-russia-1. 1701994#. UKe-54aRBTg http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Football_in_Russia http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Sport_in_Russia http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Russia_women%27s_national_volleyball_team http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Russia_men%27s_national_volleyball_team http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Russian_Tennis_Federation http://www. mademan. com/mm/10-famous-russian-athletes. html http://www. tristarmedia. com/bestofrussia/athletes. html
