A FLOTILLA’S CAPITAIN

Russian national team has been the favorite at international wrestling competitions for years now. This world championship is no exception. As you probably know more than half of the Russian wrestlers are champions or prize winners of the Deaflympic Games, World and Euro Championships. This is no guarantee of victory, or course, but they are the ones most likely to win the team event along with Turkey, Iran, Ukraine and probably Bulgaria. Our guest today is the main coach of one of the headliners of this tournament: Vladimir Gorinov.

- Vladimir, I’m not going to ask you questions about your team. I know you haven’t gone without a prize for years. I’m wondering if I’m right and your team is going through a period of generational change right now. Tell me, what is it like for all of you?
- The change of generations is pretty normal for a large team. New talented wrestlers become a part of it and veterans leave their places to get the well-deserved rest or start as coaches. We do our best to make this process smooth and gradual but it’s not that easy. We have brought several young wrestlers here. They will find the experience of international competition very useful, they will see its specificity and really feel – how shall we put it? - the fighting get under their skin. It’s not the best way to train young athletes, of course – I mean, making them go through tournaments of this level – but we don’t really have much choice. There are still no competitions for the deaf juniors even though we’ve been trying to change that for several years.

- This is a pressing problem, indeed. By the way, the first world junior championship was supposed to take place here, in Armenia, just after the adult one but it was cancelled because there were not enough applications…
- Yes, yes, I know! We were ready to bring full team here but I must admit I’ve been skeptic about this enterprise all along. It’s just too complicated to organize several tournaments all in the same spot at the same time. It’s hard for both organizers and participants. It would have been much more sensible to hold junior championships separately, and we’d proposed that. For example, we could have the cadets tournament in one country in spring, then the junior championship in another one in summer and at the end of the year we could finish it all off with the adult competition. That would be fair. We can’t make one single country manage everything.

- I know it’s much too early to talk about this but how do you feel about this championship in Armenia? Do you think it has the chance to go really well?
- I’ve been working with deaf wrestlers since 1996, you know. I’ve been to many international competitions but I’ve never seen anything like this one before. All the organizing, the hall, the reception are perfect. What’s most important, I see that it’s all coming from the heart; it’s not done just for the money or out of duty. It’s all been a really good surprise so far. If the refereeing is going to be just as good I will have to say that the organizing team is just perfect. No, more than perfect.

- There is always been much talking about refereeing and it's usually far from praise. How do you think we should handle this issue?
- It’s not as complicated as it seems. Firstly, one of the most important points of international competitions should be that every full team is to bring at least one FILA licensed referee. Right now this is optional, we don’t have the funds for this and if we wish to do it we are the ones who are supposed to pay. If this point is made obligatory we will have at least five or six umpires of this class at every competition of the deaf. This should help a lot. Secondly, we must get a FILA commissioner for every important tournament of the deaf to inspect the refereeing. This will stop any foolishness from the referees; they don’t want to loose their license, do they? We should get FILA to be more involved at this point – and many others as well.

- The refereeing might not always be perfect but it doesn’t stop the Russian team from get plenty of medals et every competition. I mean both Deaflympics and World and Euro Championships. How do you do that?
- I talk a lot to my athletes about this. I explain: “A competition of this level is not a date and no one is going to flirt here. It’s all the opposite. The referees will put you down, judge you unfairly. They won’t hesitate to do that. You should be ready for that and still win. This will make your victory even more precious to you”.

- This is an excellent philosophy. Let’s hope it will help you at this championship if something goes wrong. I’m sure we shall see each other again and get a chance to talk more.
- Thank you. We’ll do our best.