OlympRusUs

I was a kid back then and didn't know any better. You know the 90's before computers and cell phones we could run around all day and explore. Do all the things kids did back then. I had a pretty good childhood and wouldn't have it any other way.

The weather in the winter, of course, is harsh. In the ages 10-14 I'd wake up at 5 am to go to morning practice. Sometimes I'd have to literally crawl through the snow to make it to our tiny pool. If your eyelashes were still a bit wet after they would often freeze together when you blink. So in general you can't be outside for more than 20 minutes. That's about how far the pool was from my home.

My meal of the day was often two packs of ramen noodles with ketchup. Each cost 10 cents back then. Economical crisis was felt strongly for years after the Soviet Union fell apart. But I think I had it better than most.

As harsh as it could have been for a kid I remember all of it with a smile on my face now :)

Hey there fellow sprinter! Thank you for the kind words. As I explained in a post above I learned how to use that momentum energy instead of slowing down and generating it again. My "short" height 6'1 gives an advantage in terms of explosiveness of the start and quickness on the turn. Sometimes you can turn your weaknesses into strengths.

I wouldn't like to talk about other athletes on the subject, it's not mine to do. But I can assure you that Dave Salo has no connection to these incidents. One time I took creatine post weight workout in front of him and he completely flipped out. He said something along the lines that I don't need it to be great. I believe and trust him.

Underwater dolphin kick is the fastest way to swim of all so far. That is why we have a rule in place now that you cannot kick underwater for more than 15 meters off each wall. There was a great Russian Butterfly Olympic Champion Denis Pankratov who would swim most of his race underwater. Check him out: http://youtu.be/Zp2NTFjeXQQ

One of the nicest things in Siberia is it's nature. Beautiful thick forests, lakes and rivers, wildlife. And it always changes since there are all four seasons with the winter being dominant. In the winter it's blinding how perfectly white everything is - the ground, the trees and so quiet that you only hear own breathing. It's a feeling hard to describe it brings peace to your soul.

I have mixed feelings about the first years because the training that I have done back then is the hardest I've done ever. There were times we'd swim 8km morning and 10km evening practice. As a comparison now I do around 5-7 km a day. So you can imagine how drained out of a kid I was even though I have a lot of energy naturally (the reason I started doing sports). But of course that is a base that will not go away and maybe I wouldn't be where I am today if I haven't done that. On the other side I would bring home medals from every competition, the biggest of them was Siberian Region Championships. Also the friendships that we've built with teammates are so strong that we still see each other every year.

To answer your last question I need to explain how things were in the 90's. After the Soviet Union fell apart it was a free for all in the whole country. The state could no longer support jails therefore everyone freed. Eventually, very quickly, numerous gangs formed to gain power and seize businesses/property/personal savings and bigger gangs-government owned factories/land. As you may imagine chaos took over. We call that period the dark 90s. My mother tells me stories from back then but they are not very PG-13. So it happened that my mothers small business (selling kitchen equipment such as pans forks and plates) was a target to one of the local bandits. they wanted a percentage of profit but the profit itself was nearly enough to make ends meet. There was nothing you could do about it legally so she had to close it down. Was it a more serious "organisation" or a bigger business, sacry to imagine what could've happened.