Polina Shchennikova of the University of Michigan is taking part in the FIFA World Cup in Russia this summer and she was interviewed by RIA Novosti about this experience. Below is the translation of the original article.
Even though Polina Shchennikova has a Russian name, she’s been living in America almost since birth. Her family moved to Texas when Polina’s father, an artistic gymnast, was offered a job there. Throughout her life she only spent two months in Russia – she came to visit her relatives in Moscow. Over time, Polina followed in the footsteps of her entire athletic family and became a gymnast, too. She was a US national team member and tried to make the 2016 Olympic team but couldn’t because of a shoulder surgery. She is currently a student at the University of Michigan studying sports management.
Nevertheless, much still connects Polina to Russia. For example, in the beginning of the interview, she told that the next day she would go to meet her grandfather’s teammate Leonid Arkayev, the honored USSR artistic gymnastics coach. Saransk even has a gymnastics center named after him where he worked for a long time.
Polina tells who she ended up in Saransk:
“Once my professor said that five students from our university have an opportunity to go to the World Cup as volunteers. I paid attention to it right away because the Mundial was supposed to be in Russia and I haven’t been here in a long time”.
She was also interested in working with a sport other than gymnastics since her future profession would require it.
“At first, I was afraid to go to Saransk because I didn’t know anything about it. But when I arrived, my first impression was that it was very clean and the people here are very kind. When I got out of the train, one woman, seeing my confusion, even offered to give me a ride” – she shared her first impressions of the city.
At the 2018 World Cup, Polina is working in the broadcasting, she’s helping an American broadcasting coordinator to communicate with the rest of the team at the stadium since she speaks Russian:
“In the future, I also want to work in broadcasting and my volunteering at the World Cup revealed to me how hard it is and how fast you need to think so that the viewers wouldn’t notice any problems. It’s the first step towards my dream job”.
In addition, according to Polina, in the future, she would be happy to volunteer at other sporting events. For now, in her spare time, the American is walking around the city a lot and noticing the hospitality of the local residents:
“At the store, I could not choose the right t-shirt size – for a gift for my uncle – and one man, seeing that I’m having trouble, started trying t-shirts on and this helped me to choose”.
“Saransk keeps its unique culture. Those who come here will see how people love their city and they will take this love home”.
