The magnificent “Alina” sports festival was held on 20^th May, on the eve of Child Protection Day, in the Rossiya concert hall in Luzhniki. This year the festival had a much wider geographical reach.

It involved child and youth teams not only from Russia and the CIS, but even from Cuba, Israel, Bulgaria and Germany. The festival was organized by the Alina Kabaeva charity foundation, and Alina herself – it’s founder and head – got up on to the stage not only to welcome the participants, but also to sing and even perform her “gold medal” number.

Alina Kabaeva is one of those people known as “energizers”. For them, quietly resting on their laurels – no matter how much they have achieved – is simply unthinkable. They are always moving forward, inspiring respect by the apparent ease with which they manage to master new activities. Kabaeva, whose sporting titles alone would fill half a page, has long been famous within Russia as an active public figure: she’s a people’s deputy for the United Russia Party in the State Duma, she chairs the National Media Group’s public council and she’s also the founder and head of a charitable foundation.

Things go well when the people doing them are really enjoying themselves. Alina creates the impression of someone with a genuine interest in everything she does.

“The charity foundation was initially set up to work in the field of sport”, recalls Alina, “but then it became obvious that I just couldn’t limit myself to sport alone. And so now we’re working in several different areas – the Young Journalists’ School, the USE Hotline, the Rural Libraries project, and lots of other things. As far as sport is concerned, one of our main aims, for example, is to build a modern sports complex in the war-ravaged town of Tskhinval.

During one of her trips to Tskhinval Alina invited the local rhythmic gymnastics team to take part in the festival. At first, the kids didn’t even believe it would be possible.

“For us this trip is a huge event”, says Lyudmila Gabaraeva, the team’s coach. “We have no opportunity at all to travel anywhere and take part in competitions. In fact, we don’t even have our own training base as such! But we practice all the same. And for the little girls this trip is an opportunity to meet other teams and even some from other countries, to learn from others’ experience and to show what they can do. It’s a real gift, especially since the foundation is paying for our trip.

“Our big hope is the sports complex being built by the Alina Kabaeva foundation in Tskhinval”, says the mother of 8 year-old Diana Kokoeva, the youngest member of the team. “We’re looking forward to practicing there soon”.

The team from South Osetia shared a training hall and their hotel with the competitors from Cuba. On the one hand, the little girls got a good look at one another and tried to decide who was best, and on the other, they made friends, of course.

Our girls got the impression that the Cubans were really friendly and kind. They seem to bring out warmth and genuine liking in everyone they meet, and they were welcomed with open arms.

“We had such a good trip around Moscow” says 12 year-old Doraida Remon. “We especially enjoyed the zoo, and we bought so many souvenirs!”.

“What impresses me about the Cuban gymnasts is their incredible plasticity and flexibility. With them it’s not so much their training as their natural talent that wins the day. I met them during a trip to Cuba last year – our Committee was there on an official visit – and I couldn’t resist inviting the little girls to our festival”, says Alina.

Kabaeva and her colleagues from the Duma Youth Affairs Committee also invited some young Cuban people’s deputies to Moscow for an exchange of experience. The Cubans arrived not long before the festival and spent just over a week in Russia…Nine days, to be more precise, each of which was packed not only with lots of high-level meetings with representatives of the Federation Council, the State Duma, government ministries and departments, but also with trips to the theatre and the opera and excursions around Moscow. The Cuban people’s deputies represented various provinces. Incidentally, Cuba has one of the “youngest’ parliaments in the world – around 80% of its members are young people. And young Cubans have the greatest respect for Russia.

“For us this is our first visit here” said Luis Morlote Rivas, a member of the National Union of Communist Youth. “It’s is a real opportunity to see a country that we know and love from afar. You just can’t imagine how much Russia means for Cubans. Many Cubans have studied in your country and many speak Russian. We even sing Russian songs, and one of the most popular names in our country is Katya. So Cuba lives with the image of Russia in its heart…”

The German team likewise got a great deal of pleasure from the festival, which isn’t surprising, because Germany has some very strong coaches, many of whom emigrated from Russia. And the top star in the German team is Lyubov Barykina – Russian champion and daughter of the famous coach Vera Silaeva.

“This festival is for us both a celebration and a sporting event”, says Lyuba. “Alina’s actually doing a very important thing and bringing a lot of joy to the kids. I’d like to thank her sincerely for this. Incidentally, she and I are the same age and great friends.”

Indeed, it was hard to decide which was the more important aspect of the festival – the holiday atmosphere or the spirit of sporting competition. There was an amazing show on the stage, and the gymnasts performed together with Russian stars such as Iosif Kobzon, Tamara Gverdtsiteli and Lyubov Uspenskaya; Shtar performed “Bamboeleo” and there were fashionable songs from Fabrika and Dima Bilan. But I would say the spectators saved their loudest applause for Kabaeva herself. She came out onto the stage to perform a number to the music of Carmen – the one she once performed with the hoop at the Athens Olympics and won a gold medal. When Alina threw the hoop up into the dome at the end of the dance the hall held its breath. But the hoop obediently returned to its owner and performed an intricate movement around her -  it was virtually impossible to follow its trajectory.

“And you know, I wasn’t afraid it would fall or that I’d miss it. It didn’t matter, laughs Alina, because I’m amongst friends here and I think the spectators would be understanding and supportive. If I’d lost control of the hoop, I would simply have repeated it. I don’t think anybody would have gloated – on the contrary, they would have supported me. This is my stage and I feel good here.

There were also some very rare guests in the hall, because disabled people confined to a wheelchair don’t often get to attend entertainment events in our country. But there were lots of them – both adults and children accompanied by their mothers.

“We were given our tickets free in the rehabilitation centre,” said the mother of 8 year-old Dima. ”My child is unable to walk, and we very rarely get out anywhere with him. But he really wanted to see…Dima Bilan and suddenly here we were given the opportunity. It’s a rare joy in our secluded life.

So we had competitors performing tricks at the limits of human capability, literally flying above the earth, while being applauded by children with cerebral palsy in the hall – a contrast that really makes you think.

“You shouldn’t forget that this can happen in anyone’s life”, says Alina. “Things like that happen. But it doesn’t mean that’s the end, that life is over, or that these people have to hide away from society with their misfortune. Each human being has his own life, you know, and in their lives there are also joys and successes.

Sport is one of the Alina Kabaeva foundation’s main areas of activity. At this festival nobody awards points and nobody comes first or last. This is the type of sport that really brings people close.

“There are no boundaries in sport, beauty and childhood. And there are no boundaries in friendship or love. And I am so happy that our festival brings together thousands of people from different countries and of different nationalities, different cultures and even different sports”, says Alina Kabaeva

Our festival is a gift to children, and the more gifts like this there are, the better chance we have of living in peace and harmony in the future.

 (Photo: Vladimir Suvorov / “Izvestiya”)

“Izvestiya” newspaper

Yekaterina Pryakhina

23 May 2011