|
|
Athletic Figures
The ratings of the best sportsmen of the year have a traditional distinctive feature: it is hard to compare the participants by their results because often they perform on different fields. They can be compared only by the intensity of fan love.
Maria Sharapova
A rare case: in the Olympic year the sportswoman that ranked as No1 did not even participate in the Olympics in Athens. It is not just our readers that have conferred the title of the best sportswoman of the year to Sharapova (many colleagues have given a similar evaluation of her sports achievements) but also the journalists of specialized sports periodicals.
At present anyone can study Maria Sharapova's biography in detail – down to the archetypical episode with Yevgeny Kafelnikov giving a racket to Masha. The latter was small back then but was viewed as a promising tennis player. We can trace her route to fame: Gomel, which her parents left after the Chernobyl disaster, the Siberian Nyagan city, Sochi, the USA.
Like many Russian tennis players she trains in the American courts but wins for Russia. Her victories in Wimbledon, the WTA world championship and the fourth rank in the world tennis rating by the end of the season are already on the list of her achievements.
Konstantin Tszyu
Another sportsman that did not participate in the Olympics ranked second in our rating (actually he had retained the position since the previous year). However, there is nothing unusual about that taking into account the growing popularity of the professional box in Russia.
The year began most unsuccessfully for Konstantin Tszyu: he partially ruptured a tendon at the time of the sparring session. This happened at the least convenient time – shortly before the bout for the WBC and WBA super lightweight titles and IBF junior welterweight crown against Sharmba Mitchell in Moscow. (This fight was twice as important for Tszyu who had lived in Australia for more than ten years: it was to be his first performance on the Russian professional ring.) The injury was followed by an operation, the bout was cancelled, two organizations - WBC and WBA - decided to strip him of his titles, and there was talk that the 35-year-old boxer considered the possibility of quitting…
Suddenly it was announced that Konstantin Tszyu would fight in November. In Phoenix (not in Moscow) but still against Mitchell – a very dangerous rival. However, despite the fresh injury Tszyu was not over-cautious: his only remaining IBF title was at stake.
The bout was over in the third round when Konstantin Tszyu's punches sent Sharmba Mitchell - who had been radiating self-assurance prior to the bout - down for the fourth time. When the referee announced an early knockout, which had been predicted by nobody, Johnny Lewis, the victor's coach, said: “I think this was Kostya's best fight in his whole career.” Apparently not the last one: a whole row of famous boxers have lined up to fight one of the best welterweights in the history of box.
Aleksey Nemov
Another laureate of the poll did participate in the Olympics however won no medal there. It was thanks to his defeat that Aleksey Nemov – probably the best gymnast of the latest decade – ranked third.
The horizontal bar (Nemov's favorite) was our last hope to get at least one gold medal in the gymnastics in Athens. The four-time Olympic champion performed flawlessly – the jump dismount was not ideal and that was the only shortcoming. The score on the panel (9,725) and the place he got at that point (the third) after the not bad (but not more than that) Isao Yoneda and Morgan Hamm seemed strikingly low.
Something unheard of happened next. The audience whistled and jeered. The noise grew louder with every second. Like one, fifteen thousand people stood to their feet booing (the gesture that denoted their verdict to the judges). The judges from Malaysia and Canada (whose points for Nemov were simply humiliating) wavered and the total score went up to 9,762. However, the audience would not quiet down, which did not let American Paul Hamm start his performance.
Aleksey Nemov's triumph continued for approximately 15 minutes. It would not end despite the official pleas for silence. It was only the triumpher himself that could silence the audience.
Yuri Borzakovsky
The 800-meter distance, which Yuri Borzakovsky won in Athens, is one of the specially loved by the public. Those who understand track-and-field athletics know that this distance is very complicated because it requires an exceptional combination of qualities from the runner: endurance, a sprinter spurt and a lucid mind – the skill to resort to the tactical planning of the round. It was the latter that Borzakovsky used to lack. For example, last year in the world championship in Paris he was in excellent form however failed to notice the spurt made by Algerian Said-Guerni and yielded just some centimeters to him.
In Athens the group of participants in the 800-meter distance was most even and strong. It included world champion Wilson Kipketer from Denmark, Said-Guerni, the famous Wilfred Bungei from Kenya and several other great stayers. Afterwards Borzakovsky honestly admitted that he had not pursued the goal of being the first one – he thought it would be impossible in a group like that. However, he did win and this was a spectacular victory (exactly thanks to his lucid mind). He left no chance to any of his famous rivals. “I did not try to catch up with the leading group like I had done in Paris. They began coming in too early. I saved my strength for the last hundred meters. I knew that with the pace they had chosen they would not last long. They got exhausted whereas I came in.” It sounded so simple in the interpretation of Borzakovsky half an hour after he joined the list of the world's greatest stayers.
 |
| Photo: Ilya Pitalev |
| Yelena Isinbayeva – the best pole vaulter of 2004. |
Yelena Isinbayeva
Just recently women's pole vault has been viewed as track-and-field exotics of its type. Few people took it seriously. However, in Athens it became as outstanding an event as the 800-meter distance. And all that was thanks to two Russian sportswomen – Yelena Isinbayeva and Svetlana Feofanova who had fought against each other in the past two seasons and had set one world record after another in this struggle. Their main, Olympic, duel exceeded all expectations.
It did not even occur to any of the 60 thousand spectators in the Olympic stadium to leave earlier than midnight – the time when the competition was over: the developments were that interesting and the outcome of the struggle was that unpredictable. At first Feofanova was winning. Isinbayeva failed at 4.70 and put up the bar to 4.75. She failed again… “I understood that the main moment of my life was approaching: either I clear 4.80 and pretend to victory or I fail and get the bronze,” Yelena Isinbayeva remembered the minutes, which preceded her third attempt. According to Isinbayeva, right before the start she thought that bronze would not do – only gold. Being on the verge of failure she cleared 4,80.
After that nothing could stop her. And as one can guess it all ended with the world record. She cleared 4,91 against the background of applause of the public, which fell in love with the 22-year-old sportswoman from Volgograd.
All in all Yelena Isinbayeva has set eight world records this season (and quite naturally she has been recognized as the sportswoman of the year by the International Association of Athletics Federation). Prior to her there was only one person – also a pole vaulter - that accumulated world records at the same rate: Sergey Bubka.
 |
| Photo: Dmitry Azarov |
| Anastasya Myskina – the best (after Maria Sharapova) tennis player of 2004. |
Anastasya Myskina
Properly speaking, if we consider tennis success alone Anastasya Myskina does not yield to Maria Sharapova at all. Sharapova won Wimbledon and the World Championship. However, it was with Myskina's victory at Roland Garros that the “Russian tennis breakthrough” began. Later on she paid her shot to it by her victories in the Kremlin Cup and - as the leader of the Russian national team - in the Federation Cup (by the way Maria Sharapova did not participate in it). She could have won the Olympic gold. It seemed that Myskina had ensured her victory in the decisive set in the semi-finals against Justine Henin-Hardenne. However, suddenly she began yielding in one game after another until she lost. She ranks third in the rating, which is higher than Sharapova.
Maybe fewer fans have given their votes for Myskina because she has been in the elite for several years and people have somewhat got accustomed to her. Which cannot be said of her rivals – they cannot get used to the manner of the game demonstrated by the Russian woman. She looks fragile and has no mighty shots but there is not a single tennis-player in the world wiser than her. Nobody can make the rival run from one corner of the court to the other in vain attempts to get the ball whereas it seems that Myskina herself is doing nothing special.
 |
| Photo: Ilya Pitalev |
| Alina Kabayeva – the best gymnast of 2004. |
Alina Kabayeva
One cannot imagine the top-ten (in any poll) of Russia's best sportsmen and sportswomen without this girl. Just like it is hard to imagine a glossy magazine that has not placed the picture of her smiling face on the cover of a single issue and has not shared the story of Alina Kabayeva's defeat in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney when she dropped her hoop (which must not have happened). However, having lost she decided to stay in rhythmic gymnastics for another four years to get the gold medal.
During these four years there have appeared several gymnasts in the world who are said to have excelled Kabayeva. However, as the Athens Olympics demonstrated unlike the evil tongues the judges at the competitions were still assured that neither Alina's compatriot Irina Chashchina nor the Ukrainian, Anna Bessonova, could surpass Alina and she could still lose only if she dropped something. Kabayeva dropped nothing in Greece and she can now quit with a clear conscience because she has attained everything she was after: the love of the people and the Olympic gold medal.
Andrei Lavrov
At the Olympic games in Sydney Andrei Lavrov carried the banner of the Russian Olympic team. To a greater extent it was thanks to him – the 38-year-old goalkeeper – that our handball team won the Olympic gold medal back then in Australia. It was Lavrov's third gold medal. Everybody thought that having won the medal he - the legend of the sports - would quit.
Andrei Lavrov did not quit. He stayed until Athens where despite his age (42 years) he was irreplaceable again. In quarter-finals he defeated the French team (No1 favorite of the tournament) almost alone. Had it not been for this man, the French would have easily finished off the Russian team. Lavrov stopped all the balls that were directed towards him, whatever the speed or the precision of the shot. In the semi-finals the Germans did not know what to do about him either. Time and again they got the right to penalty shots but the goalkeeper calmly stopped them.
No second miracle happened – Russia lost to Germany. The great goalkeeper failed to bring the team to the first place on his own. He did bring them to the third one, which - taking into account what he accomplished in Athens - could be equaled to the three higher awards earlier received by Lavrov.
 |
| Photo: Yury Martyanov |
| Andrei Kirilenko – the best basketball player of 2004. |
Andrei Kirilenko
In October, Andrei Kirilenko signed a record contract in the history of the Russian sports – a contract for $ 86 million dollars for six years. You won't find a single person in his Utah Jazz and in general in the NBA who would say that the Russian gets such big money in vain.
On the eve of the past season it turned out that Utah was doomed: it had been abandoned by Karl Malone and John Stockton (the team's leaders in the course of two decades). However, there was a man that managed to become its new leader - as reliable as the two great American basketball players. This is Kirilenko who enthuses the experts because he possesses a unique quality – the skill to do just anything on the floor: he can score a lot of points, do a lot of rebounds, block the rival throws, play in defense.
Still, Utah failed to get into the play-off in the latest NBA championship: it was short of a couple of victories. However, Kirilenko – the first Russian that participated in the All-Star Game of the world's main basketball league – can without a doubt enter this season on his credit side.
 |
| Photo: Dmitry Azarov |
| Yevgeny Plyushchenko – the best figure skater of 2004. |
Yevgeny Plyushchenko
A figure skater is the only representative of the winter sports that has made it to our top-ten. Yevgeny Plyushchenko is on the top-ten of the best sportsmen the second year running. In general against the background of stable regress in other winter types of sports Russia's constant success in figure skating looks somewhat strange.
Yevgeny Plyushchenko's constant success also seems strange: since 2003 when his compatriot Olympic champion Aleksey Yagudin quit sports there have not been any more or less equal rivals for Plyushchenko despite the fact that men's figure skating is extremely popular in the world and its geography is quite wide: there are strong figure skaters in Europe, in America and in Asia. However, Plyushchenko did lose in the European Championship to Brian Joubert. Soon after that though in the World Figure Skating Championship in Dortmund he gained a more that convincing revenge over the Frenchman and became a three-time world champion.
| Best Sportsmen and Sportswomen, 2004 (fans' version*). Top-10 |
| Rank (Last Year) |
Name |
Sports |
| 1 (-) |
Sharapova Maria |
Tennis |
| 2 (2) |
Tszyu Konstantin |
Box |
| 3 (-) |
Nemov Aleksey |
Gymnastics |
| 4 (-) |
Borzakovsky Yuri |
Track-and-field athletics |
| 5 (-) |
Isinbayeva Yelena |
Track-and-field athletics |
| 6 (-) |
Myskina Anastasya |
Tennis |
| 7 (-) |
Kabayeva Alina |
Rhythmic Gymnastics |
| 8 (-) |
Lavrov Andrei |
Handball |
| 9 (4) |
Kirilenko Andrei |
Basketball |
| 10 (8) |
Plyushchenko Yevgeny |
Figure Skating |
* The rating was compiled on the basis of the poll held at the site during November 11-25, 2004. Around 800 people participated in the poll. |
by
Aleksey Dospekhov
All the Article in Russian as of Jan. 10, 2005
|
|
|
