The BRICS Games in Kazan have become the most exciting sporting event of the year in Russia. And even if they were not initially positioned as a replacement for the Paris Olympics, where our country was not allowed, comparisons turned out to be unavoidable. Sports correspondent talks about what these Games need to do in the future in order to become the second Olympic Games.
“The organization is a cannon!” Considering the vague prospects regarding the Friendship Games scheduled (for now) for the fall, the BRICS Games automatically became the main sporting event of the year in our country. And for many — their entire career. For example, a whole generation of Russian athletes who have never competed in the uniform of their country. Since 2015, this sport in Russia has been under the yoke of the International Athletics Association. First, the performance of the selected ones at international tournaments, according to not always clear criteria, in a neutral status. Now Russia is in a total ban.
However, even if this may seem strange to many, it was from the central stadium of Kazan, where the athletics starts of the BRICS Games took place, that the loudest voices were heard, quite critically assessing the event. Thus, the winner in the sprint race, Kristina Makarenko, called the comparison of the Kazan tournament with the Olympics “nonsense.” True, she made a reservation that “no one was going to compare.” And pole skater Polina Knoroz said that gold at the BRICS Games and the European Championship, where she could have won with a jump of 4.80, which she achieved in the capital of Tatarstan, are two different things. To the clarifying question, which is cooler, she answered: “You know.” Then she deciphered: “It’s good that I jumped here, but I would like to do it at the European Championships.”
In general, one can argue about which is cooler in a purely theoretical sense: the European Championship in Athletics is far from a mighty tournament in terms of composition. The BRICS Games, if at least all the strongest countries encrypted in this abbreviation had attended, would have been no weaker. Adding the best participants from other members of the organization, as well as candidates for joining it, would almost be a second world championship. And this is not an exaggeration, because this list includes such powerful countries in athletics as Ethiopia, Morocco, Turkey… The list goes on.
But the strongest Russian hurdler-sprinter Sergei Shubenkov, unlike his colleague from the “smooth” running, was not afraid of loud comparisons.
““Excellent competition,” he said. “The organization is great. Of course, the scale is somewhat more modest than in Paris, this is a fundamental difference. But in all other respects, the differences are not visible. Our race united all the colors of BRICS, that’s cool , this hasn’t happened for a long time, I really missed this business.”
For a second, Sergei has something to compare with. He competed at two Olympics — London 2012 and Tokyo 2021. He has five world championships under his belt. From four he took away medals, including gold.
The fear of “henpecked” federations remains. Scale, of course, is an objective criterion. As for the rest, the term “second Olympics” is used unofficially in world sports. This title is constantly claimed by two multi-sport events that have been taking place for many years — the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games. At a minimum, the BRICS Games can definitely strive for this level. But something that was missing in Kazan will definitely need to be done in the future.
The most important thing: international competitions aspiring to be global — and more than 3,000 athletes from 90 countries were declared participants in the BRICS Games, that is, they, of course, corresponded to this status — need stars. There certainly were some in Kazan, but mostly Russian. The aforementioned Sergey Shubenkov, Olympic champions in artistic gymnastics Nikita Nagorny, Arthur Dalaloyan, Angelina Melnikova, Olympic fencing champions Sofia Velikaya and Yana Yegoryan, three-time Olympic champion in synchronized swimming Svetlana Kolesnichenko — it was incredibly pleasant to see them in Kazan.
But the audience likes it not just when our team wins, but when they do it in intense competition. There were problems with this in Kazan. There were no strong foreign participants at the BRICS Games. Yes, the Belarusian team performed with the optimal composition, but we still put them out of the brackets as comrades in misfortune in the form of sanctions from many international federations. But otherwise, those who could compete with the Russians in the capital of Tatarstan decided not to do so.
Of course, the objective reasons for this state of affairs are clear. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), although it did not express open negativity towards the BRICS Games in the same way that it “destroyed” the Friendship Games, clearly did not welcome the arrival of world stars to Russia.
Zagitova is the top! In the future, it is worth paying special attention to potential “headliners” and eliminating some instability in the sport programs. When, a few days before the start of the Games, competitions in three sports at once disappear from the schedule — and this happened with skateboarding, beach volleyball and beach handball — this does not add credibility.
Speaking of the headliners, it’s simply great that the organizers involved Alina Zagitova in promoting the Games. The Olympic champion, in the role of ambassador of the event, appeared in Kazan for two days and almost eclipsed the competition itself with her presence. The beautiful figure skater was chased by both spectators and journalists, she herself played ahead of the curve, moving from object to object, and how the volunteers looked at her, whom the figure skater met at various arenas of the Games! Zagitova’s presence will certainly be remembered by those winners of the BRICS Games whom she awarded medals. So here — unconditional respect for the idea.
But in the future the number of such ambassadors can be increased. We only have at least half a dozen skaters who will attract such attention. A clear confirmation of this is the participation of the same Zagitova, Kamila Valieva, Adelia Petrosyan and Sofia Akatieva in last year’s Athletics Week: then their fans jammed Nikolskaya Street, where the sprint races took place. And fans of Alexandra Trusova enjoyed cheering for her long jump at Luzhniki. Alina also regularly increases interest in summer sports by participating in Moscow Sports Day, either as a boxer or as a fencer. All this is additional, as they say now, hype — in our times, this is not a superfluous thing at all.
In short, more guests of honor could have been brought to Kazan to attract an audience. Not necessarily athletes — after all, there are also artists! And not only Olga Buzova, who has already become a regular guest at the same athletics. Create a stage in the city center and a constant celebration throughout the tournament is guaranteed. Here, too, you don’t have to look far for examples of “how it should be done”: at last year’s CIS Games in Minsk, a fan zone was organized in Nemiga, a traditional place of mass celebrations for residents of the Belarusian capital. The people are sheer joy: both to listen to “Pesnyary” and to find out that there is an event worthy of attention in your city.
Of course, Bauman Street in Kazan is a fan zone in itself. In the sense where “fan” is pleasure. These days, at times, it was reminiscent of Nikolskaya during the World Cup in Russia: when the heat of the day in the city was replaced by the cool of the evening, people in the national uniform of the countries participating in the tournament met in the stream here and there, and the locals socialized with them with all their might. But still, a separate space entirely dedicated to the BRICS Games would be useful for Kazan. After all, in our times this is an almost obligatory attribute of a major sporting event, which these Games certainly were.
But all these tips are in no way grumbling, but a desire to make an already excellent event better , which we have seen over the past two weeks. And the main proof that people liked it was the filled stands. Experiences, delight, genuine joy for the victories of Russian athletes — there was plenty of all this in Kazan these days. And the faces glowing with happiness compensated for everything that the organizers of the Games for some reason did not do now — but will certainly do in the future.