According to the laws of wartime: why difficulties before the Tokyo Games should help Russian athletes

Olympic gold is worth the sacrifice.

With regard to Tokyo, this is felt especially acutely, although even now, when before the official opening of the Games one wants to count not even days, but hours, debate continues on both sides of the ocean: does the world really need these Games?

This question is mostly asked by journalists, but it is just not difficult to understand them: the last segment before the start of the competition is the most thankless time for information services: athletes and coaches are too much focused on their own tasks, immersed in themselves, get from someone from They have a slightly intelligible sports commentary - great luck, so you have to waste time on the same topics: lack of comfort, disruptions in transport, adverse weather conditions, tasteless food and exorbitant prices.

Perhaps we all waited too long for this Olympics and, in this regard, managed to forget that all of the above, or almost everything, has always been in one way or another. Games in Atlanta 25 years ago were accompanied by wild heat and completely ugly transport and volunteer work. Games in Athens - the general disorder of the organization. In London, the air conditioners at the facilities worked with such power that they were blown away from their seats, but in Rio, guests were simply not recommended to leave the Olympic perimeter, because behind it began a completely different life, not very welcoming to a foreigner. As in Beijing 2008, by the way. Although those Games from the point of view of organization were definitely the best in the history of the Olympics.

As for the prices, at the Olympics, they are always exorbitant.

In cute, homely Norwegian Lillehammer, a cup of espresso at the press center cost eight euros, and no one grumbled about it.

Actually, even the absence of spectators in the stands of Olympic venues is not a topic that is worth worrying about now: all major sporting events, and not only sports ones, have long been focused primarily on the television picture, rather than on “live” perception.

So now, paradoxically, all the accompanying inconveniences no longer have any meaning for the main characters. The peculiarity of the Olympic success - and this too. In readiness for any tests, no matter how pathetic it may sound, in the ability to mentally isolate oneself from the world, focusing exclusively on one's own tasks and feelings. The finish line in this entourage is not a straight line at all. Rather, the complex fairway of a boat making its way to the shore through the reefs in stormy weather. Indeed, in order to lose the chance to fight for a medal, there is enough sheer nonsense. For example, sit in a T-shirt under the air conditioner, as Alexei Yagudin sat down in Olympic Nagano. And all the previous work of the athlete, like his coach, immediately went to dust.

The current Games - strange, with a lot of restrictions and prohibitions, which have become a heavy cross for the Japanese and too "chamber" due to the lack of spectators, in fact, are not too different from all the previous ones, if you look at them through the eyes of an athlete. Those who fight for Olympic medals and do not share the well-known slogan “The main thing is not victory, but participation” are rarely interested in what is happening around. People, on the contrary, have an increased need to get away from other people's attention altogether, not to waste emotions.

“The first days of any Games are always accompanied by everyone's crazy excitement. Journalists, service personnel, passers-by on the streets, completely strangers to each other - get to know each other, exchange souvenirs, opinions, business cards. Emotions are overflowing: a calm tone is rare. Everything is hypertrophied loud: the conversation turns into a scream, laughter - into a Homeric, hysterical, laughter, a step - into a run. As if inside everyone has a tight thin string twisted to the limit. Experienced coaches fear this most of all: the whirlpool of human emotions, where apathy always follows the climax, cannot but affect the athletes themselves. And it is extremely important to be able to resist it, ”I wrote in one of the materials more than 20 years ago, when I arrived at the Olympic Games in Sydney.

In Olympic Salt Lake City, national flags were even temporarily removed from the houses where Russian skiers and biathletes were located - just so as not to attract excessive press attention to the athletes.

His - including.

It has now become easier to obtain information in a certain sense: there is enough of it in the personal social networks of athletes.

But even in their posts, one can feel how great the reluctance of the participants in the Games to share their thoughts about the upcoming starts with anyone.

What can we expect from the Tokyo Olympics?

The same as always: sudden victories and crushing defeats.

The courage of little girls and the powerlessness of giants.

Broken to smithereens stereotypes and desires to smithereens and immediately smash the TV screen, if footage of the defeat of your idol flashes there.

Russian athletes, oddly enough, can become much more successful in Tokyo than their rivals. Firstly, it is very Russian: to renounce everything and mobilize as much as possible when everything around prevents it. And besides, there is another reason: during the pandemic in Russia, unlike many other countries, everything possible was done to ensure that representatives of both summer and winter sports continued to train and perform. Yes, it really required sacrifices: prolonged isolation at training bases, the associated psychological discomfort, but the game was worth the candle: Russian athletes did not just wait for the Games, but in many respects became even stronger than a year ago.

Well, the Japanese, who introduced a very strictly organized - in fact, military - regime in Olympic Tokyo, unwittingly took on that part of the work that usually falls on the shoulders of personal trainers: after all, from the point of view of sports, it was they who gave the athletes the opportunity to approach their starts in atmosphere of maximum clarity and tranquility.

Well, what will come of all this, we will see very soon.