A swim featuring the sports and TV celebrities along with future Paralympic athletes took place within the “Solidarity Games” international competitions in Kazan. Teams named “Sport”, “World”, “Solidarity”, and “Legends” raced in the mixed 4x50m freestyle relay, giving the audience a lot of smiles and positive emotions. As its main objectives the swim set the development of inclusion in swimming and promotion of this sport in Russia.
The teams’ composition turned out truly starry. Alongside the famous swimmers, Olympic medalists Stanislava Komarova and Andrey Grechin, the swimming pool of the Aquatics Palace hosted the London Olympics champion Yury Postrigay, Zenit-Kazan volleyball players Denis Zemchenok and Aleksey Kononov, UNICS basketball player Sergey Tomashevsky, former figure skater and present-day Match TV host Emma Gadzhieva, first Russian female high diver Leyla Salyamova, artistic swimmer Milena Maretich, director of the Kazan marathon series Vadim Yangirov, winner of the All-Russian complex of the GTO festival (“Ready for Labour and Defense” sports complex) Andrey Zuev, and well-known commentator Dmitry Guberniev.
But children were certainly the main swim heroes – Master of Sport of Russia Kseniya Ilyina, Candidate Master of Sport Maksim Voytenko, second-class swimmer Radmir Fatkhullin, and third-class swimmer Sergey Podzhivotov – who represented the Republican adaptive school.
“Sport” team casting Postrigay, Zuev, Salyamova, and Fatkhullin claimed the first place but star swim had no losers, as everyone enjoyed it – both participants and spectators.
“I really liked it. I had some fear before the swim but the team supported and helped me,” Radmir Fatkhullin shared his impressions.
“Sport should unite. I am always happy to introduce children to sport, to bring something good, bright, and sporting to the youth. I did like it! I’ve never taken up swimming but it is probably the most involved sport in my life. If there are daredevils, then we are ready to give master classes in volleyball. Many thanks to the organisers for such a show. We need to introduce this format into other sports,” Zenit player Denis Zemchenok commented.
“We need to do such things more often within the framework of competitions in various sports – be it skiing, be it biathlon. This draws fans’ attention and it’s a huge thrill!” Dmitry Guberniev declared.
Press Office of the ANO “Directorate for Sports and Social Projects”