At the press conference before the Russian Championships, Russian national team head coach Andrei Rodionenko was asked why the competition doesn’t gather big crowds. Rodionenko believes that gymnastics doesn’t have heroes anymore who would gather big crowds:
“The whole problem of Russian artistic gymnastics is that it stopped being exemplary. It stopped being the kind of sport that people would crowd to watch. It was impossible to buy a ticket to the USSR championships. Nowadays, if we hold the competition in another place, not in Kazan, there won’t be any spectators. And thanks to Kazan for agreeing to host the championships”.
“The problem of the diminishing number of artistic gymnastic spectators is a complex issue, don’t look for someone to blame here. As a member of the executive committee of the European Gymnastics Union, I can say: they see the problem and are solving it at the highest level. Before selecting a country that will host European Championships, the president pays attention to the number of spectators it will gather. Why don’t people attend gymnastics? Because there are now heroes. Usain Bolt alone was gathering stadium but in gymnastics, the time of the heroes is over. We’ver survived very hard times but right now Russian artistic gymnastics is being reborn, that’s obvious. You can see a new generation of male and female gymnasts after Nemov and Khorkina who represents the country well on the international scene. And I believe that Russian Championships will become as high-level as Worlds and Olympic Games – with the spectators who give their sympathies to one or another athlete, with noise in the stands. I hope to see it already here, in Kazan”.
Photo: Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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