anglysky

Nearly 100 years ago Russians achieved their first big success in this sport. In 1908, Nikolai Panin-Kolomensky, a famous Russian figure skater and a world and European champion, won a gold medal at the Olympics in London. After the 1917 revolution, in early Soviet times, figure skating was overlooked in Russia. This sport was considered aristocratic and expensive primarily because of the need to construct rinks with artificial ice.

In the 1950s, the Soviet Union had developed into a world power in sport, and figure skating was promoted. Numerous children's figure skating clubs opened and ice skating rinks were built. As a result, in 1964, 56 years after PaninKolmenkin's victory, Soviet figure skaters Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov won the pairs title at the Olympics in Innsbruck. Four years later, they repeated their victory at the Grenoble Olympics. Since then, the laurels in figure skating have belonged to Soviet, and later Russian pairs. The glorious Irina Rodnina won Olympic gold three times (in 1972-1980) in pair skating. Soviet pairs, too, became trendsetters in the ice dance competition in the 1970s. The skills of the legendary couple - Lyudmila Pakhomova and Alexander Gorshkov - are still marveled by both experts and admirers all over the world.

Soviet sportsmen began to set individual skating records later than they did in pairs skating. Sergei Volkov's victory at the 1975 championship was the first Soviet victory. Two years later, Vladimir Kovalev became a champion. Since then, Soviet men's ice dancers have ranked among the best. In the 1990s and in the early 21st century, they dominated international events and won gold medals at three Olympics in a row - Alexei Urmanov in 1994, Ilya Kulik in 1998 and Alexei Yagudin in 2002. Russian women skaters - Maria Butyrskaya and Irina Slutskaya - have also caught up with the men, scoring victories in world and European championships in the past few years.

The Russian figure skating school re-affirmed its title as the best school in the world at the world championship in Dortmund, Germany. Russian figure skaters won three out of four gold medals. Tatiana Totmianina and Maksim Marinin became champions in the pair competition, Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov won the ice dance competition, and Yevgeny Plushenko won the men's event. This was the sixth time that Russians have accomplished the outstanding feat of winning three gold medals. They achieved the same results in 1975 (Colorado Springs), 1985 (Tokyo), 1992 (Oakland), 1998 (Minneapolis) and 2002 (Nagano). However, in 1999 in Helsinki, Russian figure skaters won four gold medals.

Russian figure skaters have won 72 gold medals in the world championships over the past 40 years! This phenomenal outcome is obviously the result of the efforts of gifted sportsmen and their coaches. The Russian coach school confirmed its prestige at the world championship in Dortmund. For example, the Japanese skater, Shizuka Arakawa, who won the women's event, is trained by Tatiana Tarasova, a Russian coach. The skaters Tarasova has trained - Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev, Irina Moiseyeva and Andrei Minenkov, Natalia Bes-

31

temyanova and Andrei Bukin, Alexei Yagudin and many others - have already won 16 gold medals at the world championships. Tatiana Tarasova is the first coach in the history of figure skating, whose sportsmen have won gold medals in all four events of the sport.

Many Russian specialists are now working abroad, helping foreign figure skaters to improve their skills and achieve high results in top-level events. Figure skating is so popular in our country that children's figure skating clubs are full. Moreover, there is no shortage of coaches either. Champions are replaced with other champions and former stars become coaches, join professional shows or, like Igor Bobrin and, recently, Maria Butyrskaya, create their own "ice ballets" reviews. The bright and striking shows performed by these outstanding figure skaters are the best promotion of their favourite sport.

When the USSR broke down into 15 different countries, the once renowned sports structure collapsed as well. Football was one of the most popular sports. While the national teams and the clubs used to be all under the wing of the Communist party, in 1991 they became private enterprises. Just like in many other spheres of business, corrupt and sometimes bloody division of power began. But most importantly, the Russian Premier League, which was once considered to be one of the strongest and was able to compete with those of England and Italy, lost many of its members (clubs). Many of the top brand names lost their financing from the government and were left to rot, waiting for any forms of sponsorship. Citizens of Russia are interested mostly in the national team that gets to compete in the World Cup and the European Championship, and in the Premier league, where clubs from different cities look to become champions of Russia.

Today, football is the number one sport in the country. A very high proportion of men are interested in it to a certain extent, many children play it regularly, and women also join men when it comes to the national team. The Russian league is rapidly regaining its former strength because of huge sponsorship deals, an influx of finances and a fairly high degree of competitiveness with roughly 10 teams capable of winning the title. Many notable talented foreign players have been and are playing in the Russian league as well as local talented players. The relegation battles are also competitive and considered very exciting.

The Russian national team gained attention when they beat traditional European powerhouses Holland with a score 3-1 in the Euro 2008 quarterfinals before losing to eventual champions of Spain. Nevertheless, four players made the Team of the Tournament. Some players such as Andrei Arshavin and Roman Pavlyuchenko earned big-money moves to the English Premier League after impressing at the tournament.

5.Project work. Choose one of the sportsmen/women mentioned in the text and make a presentation including the following points: a) coming into sport and early career; b) their career today, and c) achievements.

32

ɂɋɌɈɑɇɂɄɂ

1.Virginia Evans – Jenny Dooley. Enterprise 4 Intermediate: Coursebook, 2006.

2.Virginia Evans – Jenny Dooley. Enterprise 4 Intermediate: Workbook, 2006.

3.Virginia Evans – Jenny Dooley. Upstream Pre-intermediate B1: Student’s Book, 2009.

4.Virginia Evans – Jenny Dooley. Upstream Pre-intermediate B1: Workbook, 2009.

5.http://nova.rambler.ru/cache

6.http://www.tristarmedia.com/bestofrussia/scientists.html

7.http://www.studyrussian.com/MGU/russian-education-system.html

8.http://www.chagallpaintings.org/biography.html

9.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Chagall//

10.http://www.idc.nl/

11.http://www.russia-ic.com/

12.http://www.latrobe.edu.au

13.http://www.norway.mid.ru/

14.http://www.newizv.ru

33

ɍɱɟɛɧɨɟ ɢɡɞɚɧɢɟ

ə ɂ ɆɈə ɋɌɊȺɇȺ

ɍɱɟɛɧɨ-ɦɟɬɨɞɢɱɟɫɤɨɟ ɩɨɫɨɛɢɟ

ɋɨɫɬɚɜɢɬɟɥɶ Ȼɭɪɹɱɟɧɤɨ ȼɚɥɟɧɬɢɧɚ ȼɥɚɞɢɦɢɪɨɜɧɚ

ɉɨɞɩ. ɜ ɩɟɱ. 23.07.2010. Ɏɨɪɦɚɬ 60×84/16. ɍɫɥ. ɩɟɱ. ɥ. 2,03.

Ɍɢɪɚɠ 600 ɷɤɡ. Ɂɚɤɚɡ 1007.

ɂɡɞɚɬɟɥɶɫɤɨ-ɩɨɥɢɝɪɚɮɢɱɟɫɤɢɣ ɰɟɧɬɪ ȼɨɪɨɧɟɠɫɤɨɝɨ ɝɨɫɭɞɚɪɫɬɜɟɧɧɨɝɨ ɭɧɢɜɟɪɫɢɬɟɬɚ.

394000, ɝ. ȼɨɪɨɧɟɠ, ɩɥ. ɢɦ. Ʌɟɧɢɧɚ, 10. Ɍɟɥ. (ɮɚɤɫ): [phone] http://www.ppc.vsu.ru; e-mail: [e-mail]

Ɉɬɩɟɱɚɬɚɧɨ ɜ ɬɢɩɨɝɪɚɮɢɢ ɂɡɞɚɬɟɥɶɫɤɨ-ɩɨɥɢɝɪɚɮɢɱɟɫɤɨɝɨ ɰɟɧɬɪɚ ȼɨɪɨɧɟɠɫɤɨɝɨ ɝɨɫɭɞɚɪɫɬɜɟɧɧɨɝɨ ɭɧɢɜɟɪɫɢɬɟɬɚ.

394000, ɝ. ȼɨɪɨɧɟɠ, ɭɥ. ɉɭɲɤɢɧɫɤɚɹ, 3. Ɍɟɥ. 204-133