Zhurova assessed Guberniev’s words about Russians with the phrase “I wouldn’t call them not athletic”
It is necessary to develop domestic sports competitions in Russia, says Olympic champion, First Deputy Chair of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs Svetlana Zhurova. This is how the deputy responded to the statement of the famous sports journalist and TV presenter Dmitry Guberniev that Russia is not a sports country in a conversation with Lenta.ru.
“Dmitry, as always, can be extremely harsh in his assessments. I wouldn’t call us unsportsmanlike. We love sports, and we pay a lot of attention to it. But he probably meant, and by the way, I partly agree here, that the Americans have built their sports system in such a way that their internal competitions, for example, in swimming, are more interesting to them than the world champion in swimming,” Zhurova said.
According to the Olympic champion, in the USA they work with fans in such a way that domestic competitions are considered higher than world championships.
“Who’s stopping us from doing the same? Start with figure skating. I’ve been saying for a year now that we need to create a figure skating league, a rhythmic gymnastics league, where everyone will see that the level of performances here is significantly higher than at any world championship. Maybe this is what Dmitry meant, that it is in our hands to create such competitions,” she added.
Earlier, Guberniev wrote a post in which he called Russia a non-sports country. In the comments to the post, a subscriber asked Guberniev not to return to the country. “Idiot, I’m in Vologda,” the TV presenter responded to this call.
Source: Lenta
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