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Nikolai Tolkachev School of Gymnastics - past and present

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Coach to Nikolai Andrianov, Founder of the Vladimir School of Gymnastics, Nikolai Tolkachev

In the historic city of Vladimir, 200 km east of Moscow, the Nikolai Tolkachev School of Gymnastics has been home to many great Soviet and Russian champions.  Local press has provided a portrait of this famous school which is named after its founder.  In this piece the author, Viktoria Kononova, looks to the future as well as the past.  Gymnastics fans new and old will recognise some of the names and faces.

The Tolkachev School of Gymnastics creates champions.  The coaches tirelessly prepare athletes.

This Olympic Reserve School was established in 1961 and, by 1991, at the request of the team, it was named after Nikolai Tolkachev.

The School has developed many great gymnasts who have rocked the whole world: Nikolai Andrianov, Merited Master of Sports, a seven-time Olympic champion, multiple World and European champion, winner of the first World Cup in gymnastics; Vladimir Artemov, Honoured Master of Sports, winner of four Olympic medals, multiple world champion; Yuri Korolev, Merited Master of Sports, two-time absolute world champion; Yuri Ryazanov, Honored Master of Sports, winner of the 2006 World Cup and European Championship winner in 2007 and 2009, medallist at the 2009 World Championships,a competitor at the Beijing Olympic Games, the absolute champion of Russia in 2009.

Gymnasts from the School have won twenty Olympic medals, including eleven gold (pictured: Nikolai Andrianov)
 
Youngster Ekaterina Sokova has hopes for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro (Pictured - Ekaterina (centre) with her Russian team mates from this year's Gymnix International - Anastasia Dmitrieva, Daria Skrypnik and Maria Bondareva - courtesy of Ekaterina Sokova on VK.com)
 
To gain entrance to the School of Olympic Reserve is not easy. Typically, coaches go in search of future champions themselves. They go to kindergartens, looking at children from the age of five years, and then invite them to view the school.  The best are chosen and alongside their school work will eventually train six days a week.
 
Gymnastics is technically a difficult sport. Therefore, the child has to have a number of qualities: power and flexibility and mobility, and good coordination.  The child should be slender and slight - lists Vladimir Shakhov, deputy director of athletic performance at the School.
 
Not all children are suited to gymnastics and some choose other sports.  Sometimes also parents are against their child's sports involvement - they come and say that the child does not have time for training at school. And then the School needs to talk, to persuade, especially if the child has a future in gymnastics.  The gymnasts may travel to competitions when they are ready, beginning at about 10 or 11 years old.  Parents generally have to pay for these trips, but otherwise for nothing else.  The School has limited funding.

In the 1990s, many gymnasts left to train abroad. Thus, the world-class athlete Andrei Popov went to head up the senior UK gymnastics team, and Sergei Sizhanov took up a job as head coach of the youth team there.

Everything is good - they have good coaches and happy gymnasts - but they need more space and could do so much more with extra room.  Once the School is an established part of the Federal programme, a new hall could become a reality - but for now, the question remains open, sighed Shakhov.
 
Preparing for Rio de Janeiro
 
Despite the lack of space, gymnasts train tirelessly.  The Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro are ahead. The school hopes that three gymnasts will be able to compete there - Nikolai Kuksenkov, Kirill Prokopev and Ekaterina Sokova.  Prokopev will compete at the Russia Cup this year.

KEY FACTS
 
Nikolai Kuksenkov - master of sports of international class, three-time champion World Universiade in 2013, the three-time champion of Russia in 2013, European champion in 2014, silver medalist Russia in 2014, a member of the Russian national team in gymnastics.
 
Kirill Prokopev - world-class athlete, a champion of the European Championship in 2012, Russia in 2013, silver medalist Russia, a member of the Russian national team in gymnastics.

Yulia Tipaeva - world-class athlete, champion at the 2012 European Championship
 
Ilya Kibartas - Candidate Master of Sports, a member of the youth team of Russia.

Ekaterina Sokova - member of the youth team of Russia.

Anna Subbotina (dob 7.9.2002) - member of the junior team of Russia.



http://m.vladimir.kp.ru/daily/26249/3130133/
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