A Proud Father - 3

Being Russian, I am just as proud with my children as  any father in the world can be.

On June 15 my younger son turned 18. That means, for us Russians, he reached the full age.

I was unbelievably happy to see the congratulation prepared by his team.

I say even more: I am happy he has a team that can do such a congratulation to its member.

Congrats, son! No retreat, no surrender!

I wish you many more big yellowish medals. 

Sing our Anthem as many times as the world allows -- and you reach.

Good luck to you, my proudness, my happiness, my (our) life and future!

A Proud Father - 2

I am again!

I doubt you can realize the deepness (or height) of feelings I experienced late in the evening of October 9 having finally seen this table displayed before my eyes:

My son Alexander performed his free skating really outstanding!

Russian Beauty is the Queen of Ice!

Liza Tuktamysheva

My sincere congratulations go to Elizaveta Tuktamysheva who won gold at the Figure Skating World Championship in Shanghai!

Her great effort was supported by still younger Elena Radionova, who became third after the free skating.

If my memory does not fail me, no Russian girl has taken the world's gold since 2005; so, glory to beautiful Liza now!

BTW, just FYI: Liza Tuktamysheva is a Russian Udmurt (or Votyak) from Glazovo, now living in St. Petersburg. Lena Radionova was born in Moscow to Russian parents, coming from Donetsk (this fact in no case makes the Ukrainians).

No doubt, one of the organic features of Mother Russia that make her invincible is her multi-ethnical composition: one our great Russian nation includes more than 180 'nationalities' (with Russian being just one, albeit the first one, in the list).

Beautiful Glories of Russia

Well, one more good reason — or, formally, three beautiful reasons! — to be a proud Russian!

Here is what I call a perfect (well, as close to as possible) free skating:

Meanwhile in Russia: A Proud Father...

I am!

On Sunday authorities presented the name of Stanislav Zhuk, the legendary Soviet figure skating (well, I promised I would touch this theme as well) coach, to the Figure Skating Specialized Children and Youth School of the Olympic Reserve at CSKA in Moscow.

My younger son Alexander has been attending this school for about 10 years (and practising figure skating since 4 in general) with a certain success — anyhow, he has been in the Wikipedia for years already, and I am not :-), — so the news is kind of special for me as well.

Here is my photo from the official ceremony.

From left to right: Alexander Zaytsev, unknown woman, Irina Rodnina, unknown girl, Nina Zhuk, unknown woman (behind), Elena Vodorezova; all supervised from the banner behind by my son Alexander (name signed in Cyrillic).
Photo © Vladimir Samarin