At the same time, the athlete turned out to be such a sincere and interesting interlocutor that at some point the conversation with the AiF journalist moved away from the script and turned into a heart-to-heart conversation.
Nadezhda, the biathlon season was very successful, congratulations from the readers of AiF and thanks for the Olympic medal! Now - on a well-deserved rest?
Half of the vacation was gone: I spent on recovery, treatment. Planned with Nastya ( Anastasia Duborezova, member of the Belarusian national biathlon team. – approx. ed.) to climb Elbrus, but now it will not work. So I'll go to the sea.
- Tourism, if I'm not mistaken, is not the last place among your hobbies?
My dream is to visit all the capitals of the world. Unfortunately, all year round- trainings and performances, and while on vacation I want to be with my family, so I often can't leave for a long time. I love tourism, I have been doing it for a long time. I remember when I was a child I went to tourist rallies, learned to put up a tent in one minute, to disinfect the water taken from the river ...
- Are you one of those who can light a fire with one match?
The skills disappeared over time, although I still remember a few things. For example, how to bandage a broken arm: this knowledge can come in handy on a hike.
- What else are you fond of?
My sister is climbing. I tried to climb the rocks with her. There are Big and Small rocks in St. Petersburg. But it turned out to be quite difficult. I love beach volleyball. After all, I do not live in St. Petersburg itself, but in the resort town of Sestroretsk, which is on the shores of the Gulf of Finland. In summer, half of Sestroretsk plays volleyball.
I like to knit, for example soft toys. For some reason in recent times I make them in pairs. For big things, however, patience is not enough. Recently, she gave Dasha Domracheva a knitted hare. At the last stage of the World Cup, I got sick and stayed in the room, while the girls were running. Dasha did not shoot very well, and it was necessary to cheer her up, although she is not inclined to get upset. Dasha thinks so: if today it turned out badly, tomorrow I will do it well. I got the idea to give her a hare with a clover petal - for good luck.
- Why a hare?
On a whim. And there was only thread left for something small.
Popularity
- Do you often visit St. Petersburg?
I live in two cities: I come to St. Petersburg, where my family is left: brothers and sisters, and I start to miss Minsk. I come to Minsk - I am drawn to Petersburg. After the cultural capital of Russia, the Belarusian capital seems free and spacious. There are fewer people, less cars in Minsk, wider avenues and streets. Although the same St. Petersburg seems spacious in comparison, for example, with Moscow. For me, Peter is the most beautiful and beloved city, but I tell everyone that I have two homelands and two houses. I do not share them.
- Where are they more often recognized: in Minsk or St. Petersburg?
In Minsk people are more often recognized by sight. In Russia - more by last name, they say, somewhere heard.
A family
- Your mother raised seven children. Yes, she should be given a medal for this!
She has! The Mother Heroine Medal: in my opinion, it is given after the birth of five children. In our family it was like this: a brother was born first, three years later - a sister, two years later - my brother and I, two years later - another sister, two years later - another sister, and five years later - again a sister ...
- Do you have a friendly family?
I don’t remember any conflicts. Unless you count the skirmishes over who should clean the house, or something like that. As a child, I took the younger ones from the kindergarten, walked with them, because the parents did not have time. Dad worked, and mom turned around the house.
All my brothers and sisters have already grown up, have left, but we still see each other, correspond and call each other, help each other.
- What did your parents teach you?
They gave the most important thing - love. There were difficulties with money. Dad, the Kingdom of Heaven to him, said: “If you want a beautiful life - achieve it! You can, I believe in you, daughter, you are strong for me. " He was always with me at competitions, supported me. Such moments from childhood give strength to reach the top.
Dad worked in an orphanage for many years. We often spent time at his place of work. When you see children who are left without parents, it instills love for people. They called my father their dad, it was very touching. Since then, I have a dream - I don’t know if it will be possible to implement it - to bring up a child from an orphanage. When my acquaintances hear about this, they say that the idea is crazy, but I do not see anything wrong with it. Of course, I also want my own children: four.
Purpose in life
- Why don't you know if your dream will come true?
Depends on what my future husband will think about this.
- How do you imagine him - your future spouse?
I would like him to have similar views on pastime. If I sit at the computer for twelve hours, and I want an active holiday with the children, we will probably not get along. It is important that a person is fond of sports.
I like people who have goals in life and try to achieve them. At the same time, if something doesn’t suit, they don’t sit still, hands down: they say, life is like that, but they are looking for opportunities, they change something. It is also important that the future husband loves children. I need a big family!
- You have many brothers and sisters, so you are definitely not selfish?
I think not, although all people are selfish.
- Can you be called an emotional person?
Yes, I am very emotional. This manifests itself in some incontinence when talking to someone or even quarreling. Of course, I can restrain emotions depending on who I communicate with, but more often they spill out of me. I won't say that it is easy to piss me off, but if they did pissed me off ...
- What hooked you the most?
I don’t remember any situations that made me very angry. It was different: a feeling of hopelessness when dad died. We were then in Komsomolsk-on-Amur at the training camp before the World Cup in Korea. I had to train and at the same time be close to my family. This moment, when the heart was torn between one and the other, was the most difficult in life.
- How about happy moments?
Of the latter, of course, the Olympic medal in Sochi. I did everything to get it, and I am very glad that I succeeded.
- Do you feel the strength to claim the highest standard medals in the future?
Honestly, I didn't think about what would happen next. After all, we must separate sports and personal life. After Olympic medal you find yourself at a crossroads. But I promise to run for another four years. I believe that I am developing every season, achieving more and more results.
"Dry" series
Hope your marksmanship has already become legendary. Never before in either masculine or in women's biathlon no one has carried out such a long "dry" series. What's the secret? Maybe there were hunters in your family?
I really enjoy doing this. I practically never get tired of shooting, I enjoy it. Maybe the ancestors were really shooters, who knows!
- Judging by the last name, the Italians in your family were for sure ...
My father's great-grandfather is Italian. My mother’s great-grandfather, by the way, was German. Mom's maiden name is Cyber. Such is the international family.
- After your outstanding performance at the Olympics, did you receive offers to move to Russia?
There were no offers, but there were questions: why did you change the country? And I did not change the country or, say, the Russian national team for the Belarusian one - I changed skiing, in which I started my career, to biathlon. They offered to try to shoot - I liked it. No one thought then that I would have to perform at the world championships and Olympic Games.
For me, both countries are native, I like Belarus, and I'm not going to move anywhere.
Country: Belarus
Date of birth: 03/27/1985
Biathlete Nadezhda Skardino is one of the most accurate and stable female shooters in modern biathlon. She has a bronze medal won at the 2011 World Championships in the relay. Nadezhda Skardino is the European champion, twice winner and silver medalist of the 2007 Universiade. The athlete has repeatedly climbed the podiums at various stages of the World Cup.
Nadezhda was born in a large family (except for her mother and father, she has two brothers and four sisters) in the city of St. Petersburg (then still Leningrad). From the age of seven she began to study in the section skiing, but in 2005 she switched to the biathlon that captivated her. But there was no opportunity to break into the Russian national team, and only because of this she agreed to the invitation to play for the biathlon national team of Belarus. Currently Skardino lives in Minsk. The biathlete spends all her free time from training camps and competitions actively - playing volleyball, climbing and traveling.
Nadezhda Skardino has repeatedly won prizes in various competitions. She played for the junior team of Belarus at the World Championship. Skardino took part in all races of the European Championship. She won the first prizes at the World Championship in the summer of 2005 year - first a place in the mass start race and was twice second in the pursuit and sprint. In the 2005-2006 season, she competed in the IBU Cup, where she managed to win in her very first "individual" race. Due to consistently high results, she was selected as the basis of the Belarusian biathlon squad to participate in the World Cup.
At the start of her participation in the World Cup, the 2006-2007 season, the athlete scored only eleven points and became the 70th overall. Nadezhda Skardino got into the top ten for the first time in the 2009-2010 season. She finished eighth in the sprint at the World Cup in Pokljuka. And in the 2010-2011 season, as part of the women's national team of Belarus, she won two relay bronze medals at the stage in Oberhof and at the World Championships in the city of Khanty-Mansiysk. We emphasize that at the World Championships Nadezhda won a wooden medal in the individual race, taking fourth place, just a step away from the podium. And at the end of the entire season, she was 24th overall, and for the first time in her entire career, she rose so high.
In the 2011-2012 season, indicators Hope Skardino decreased significantly in comparison with the previous ones, even despite the fact that at the stage in Antholz the Belarusian team won silver medals. Skardino ran in the first stage and was the only one of the team to make only one mistake on the shooting range. The reason for the decline in performance was the problems that the biathlete had with vision. In the off-season, the athlete underwent a successful vision correction operation. After that, Nadezhda Skardino very quickly regained the title of one of the most accurate biathletes in the world of our time.
Thanks to accurate shooting and pretty good skiing in the sprint in the 2012-2013 season at the stage in Pokljuka, an athlete from Belarus managed to win her first personal bronze medal at the World Cup. It was then that Nadezhda Skardino felt the strength and willingness to fight for high places at the upcoming Olympics in Sochi!
Belarusian national biathlon team in last years is different successful performances, regularly wins medals at various championships. It is impossible to imagine this team without the eminent Nadezhda Skardino, who has been part of the main team for many years. We will tell you about it.
short biography
Sportswoman Nadezhda Skardino was born in St. Petersburg on 03/27/1985. In addition to her, the family had two more brothers and four sisters. Parents saw the girl as a future skier, so at the age of seven they sent her to the section. There were no particular successes in sports, Nadezhda was thinking about ending her career, but the case changed everything.
Once at a training camp, a girl trained with a team from Belarus. Athletes-biathletes offered Skardino to try to shoot. Nadezhda liked it, she had a natural talent for this. So she switched to biathlon. Too much competition did not allow the girl to get into the Russian national team, so the athlete gladly accepted the offer from the Belarusian coaching staff and moved to Minsk.
It was from this that Nadezhda Skardino began her performances in the top division. The biography of the former skier has since been inextricably linked with biathlon.
Achievements
The first major success came to Skardino in 2007. As part of the women's relay team, she won. 2011 was remembered by the fans of the athlete for two high results at once - the third place at the stage of the world cup and the bronze medal of the world championship in similar races. In 2012, Nadezhda Skardino won the first individual medal - bronze in the sprint, as well as the second place in the relay.
The most successful was for a biathlete in 2014 olympic year... The athlete was four times on the podium at the World Cup stages, and also became the bronze medalist of the Sochi Olympics in the individual race.
Nadezhda Skardino, whose photo was spread all over the media after that, in 2015 continued to prove that she is an irreplaceable relay fighter. At the stages of the World Cup, the Belarusian team won the silver and
2016 began for the biathlete with a victory in the European Championship, held in Tyumen. The athlete did not leave her rivals a chance in the ten-kilometer pursuit race.
Biathlete facts
Nadezhda Skardino has repeatedly admitted in an interview that she considers two states to be native at once - Belarus and Russia. And although, as mentioned above, the athlete was born in the northern capital of the Russian Federation, she has been playing for the Belarusian team for more than nine years.
Nadezhda Skardino, whose photo was printed many times in various magazines, was recognized as one of the world. This list also includes her teammate - Olympic champion and the leader of the Belarusian team
The native of St. Petersburg has been repeatedly recognized as the best sniper in the world biathlon. She even set a record without missing a single shot in 17 races. Against the background of such results, it is difficult to believe that the athlete previously suffered from an eye disease - astigmatism. Subsequently, the racer underwent surgery, but there is no guarantee that the disease will not return again.
Interests and preferences
Nadezhda Skardino is a very versatile girl. The biathlete loves outdoor activities: various hikes, volleyball and rock climbing.
He prefers to take part in mass starts and relay races. She succeeds especially well in the latter, because the athlete is by nature a team fighter. More confident in standing shooting.
Skardino considers the start at the 2005 World Junior Championships the most memorable race. Then she managed to approach the final segment of the distance with such a comfortable advantage that she managed to finish with the flag.
Nadezhda advises novice biathletes to look only forward and never look back. For her it became
Nadezhda Skardino is a biathlete who managed to achieve fame as the most marked woman of our time. The athlete not only won the titles of European and world champion, but also proved by her own example: nothing is impossible. Due to problems with her right eye, Nadezhda has to shoot from a rifle with a special butt, created especially for her. However, this did not become an obstacle for the purposeful biathlete.
Childhood and youth
The future champion was born in St. Petersburg on March 27, 1985. The girl grew up in a large family: Nadezhda has four sisters and two brothers. Skardino developed an interest in sports at an early age - at the age of seven she was seriously engaged in cross-country skiing and was planning sports career... However, as it turned out later, life had prepared a little different for Nadezhda.
In 2004 during sports camps Nadezhda met Belarusian biathletes. The sportswomen jokingly suggested that the girl try to shoot. The offer turned out to be fateful: Nadezhda Skardino no longer let go of the rifle and changed the sport, starting to engage in biathlon.
However, on the way to the Olympic peaks, the girl was in for a surprise. It turned out that there are too many biathletes in Russia who want to get into the national team. Therefore, Nadezhda, without hesitation, accepted the invitation of the Belarusian coaches to join the national team of Belarus. The athlete moved to Minsk, and a completely new page was opened in her biography.
Biathlon
A biathlete's career for Skardino began with youth competitions. The girl showed excellent results and already in 2005 brought the first medals to the national team's piggy bank: Nadezhda won a prize in the mass start race and two silver medals (in the sprint and pursuit). The 2005-2006 season was marked for Skardino with a victory in the IBU Cup, which allowed the athlete to take a place at the base of the Belarusian national team.
Biathlete Nadezhda Skardino on the track However, the first World Cup did not live up to Nadezhda's expectations: the girl managed to score only 11 points and take 70th place in the overall standings. The failure did not upset the athlete, on the contrary, it forced her to train and improve. And two years later, in the 2009-2010 season, Nadezhda Skardino took 8th place at the World Cup stage (that year the competition was held in Slovenian Pokljuka). And a year later, the girl brought two bronze medals to the Belarusian national team.
The next sports season was unsuccessful for Nadezhda: the biathlete started having vision problems. The girl had to undergo surgery. Fortunately, everything went smoothly, and already in the sprint of the 2012-2013 season, Nadezhda Skardino won a bronze medal at the World Cup.
The flourishing career for the biathlete was 2014 - the year of the Sochi Olympic Games. This season, the girl four times ascended the honorary podium of the World Cup and took the Olympic "bronze", becoming the third in the individual race. The name of Nadezhda Skardino became famous even outside the sports community, and a photo of the athlete appeared, perhaps, in every sports publication.
In 2015, the Belarusian national team won silver and bronze at the World Cup, and a year later, in 2016, Nadezhda Skardino received gold medal, becoming the best in the pursuit at the European Championships, which took place in Tyumen. In addition, the athlete won the title best sniper in the women's biathlon, having skated 17 races without a single miss.
2017 added to the collection of Nadezhda Skardino's awards: in the first stage of the World Cup (the competition took place in the Swedish city of Ostersund), the athlete won gold, leaving behind her rivals in the individual race. Let's remind: "silver" went to the Norwegian biathlete Syunneva Sulemdal, and the third place was taken by the representative of Ukraine.
Personal life
A miniature athlete (Nadezhda Skardino's height is 160 cm, and her weight is 51 kg) has not yet married. The girl admits that now the priority place in her life is sports, and not her personal life. However, for the future, Nadezhda has planned a large family: the athlete dreams of at least four children.
V free time Nadezhda Skardino loves to travel the world, discovering foreign countries. In addition, the girl is fond of knitting, however, laughing, she admits that she has enough patience for a maximum of a week. Nevertheless, Nadezhda knitted mittens in the colors of the Belarusian flag.
Nadezhda does not forget about charity either: the athlete devotes a lot of time to the public organization “Children. Autism. Parents ”, communicating with“ special ”children and helping the parents of such babies.
In addition to knitting, Nadezhda Skardino considers reading books, painting, as well as a bathhouse and relaxing massage the best rest. The biathlete admits in an interview that she is no different from ordinary people: the girl loves to devote time to family and friends, watch films and walk in nature.
Nadezhda Skardino now
Now Nadezhda Skardino is preparing to participate in the 2018 Olympic Games, which will be held in Korean Pyeongchang.
In an interview, the athlete said that perhaps this season will be the final one in her career. Nadezhda stressed that she has reached the borderline age for professional sports and is already thinking about a decent retirement from biathlon.
In the meantime, fans of Nadezhda can only wait for the start of the Olympic competitions and hope that their favorite athlete will show enviable results, as well as follow the news in the media and on Nadezhda's personal page on Instagram.
Awards and achievements
- 2007 - first hit in the points zone, 27th in the sprint race in Pokljuka
- 2009 - the first hit in the "flowers" (4-8 places) - 8th place in the sprint race
- 2010 - 2011 - the first "podium" in the relay (3rd place) in Oberhof; the first "podium" at the World Championship (in relay)
- 2012 - 2013 - the first "podium" in personal races (3rd place) in the sprint race in Pokljuka
- 2013 - 2014 - second place in the pursuit in Anterselva (Antholz), third place in the individual race at the Olympic Games in Sochi; world record for accuracy
- 2017 - 2018 - first place in the individual race of the first stage of the World Cup
Olympic champion - 2018 biathlete Nadezhda Skardino at the age of 33 announced that she had completed professional career, according to the TV channel "Belarus 1".
- I would like to say a big thank you to Belarus, biathlon for giving me such an opportunity. For the fact that I can feel myself Belarusian, my man here. Very important to me.
Belarus will forever remain my country, I hope that I am your biathlete for you as well. I just want to say thank you very much and explain why. Because I understand that some steps need to be taken on time, not after. And I think that this day has come for me. I decided that it is very difficult for me, because I love biathlon, I love competitions, but, unfortunately, I cannot find the motivation and strength to continue. And I understand to show nice results, first of all, motivation is needed and, of course, strength for everyday training. But at the moment I understand that I do not have ...
There were many factors, I thought for two months, the most important factor is that I just want to relax. And thank you very much for being rooted for me, supporting me. And all these 13 years that I have been here, I will remember with great love. And I will always root for our team. I wish her good luck and, of course, victories.
I understand that now is a very difficult time for our team, there will be girls. I think if I leave, I will make room for some young promising athlete who will find motivation and strength in herself and will want and will win. And I think this is the best thing that I can do now, - said Nadezhda Skardino.
On Pyeongchang Olympics 2018 Nadezhda Skardino won olympic gold as part of the women's relay team of Belarus.
On Games in Sochi-2014 Nadezhda Skardino won the bronze medal in the individual race.
Bronze medalist 2011 World Cup as part of the relay team of Belarus.
At the stage World Cup 2017/18 in the Swedish Östersund won gold in the individual race. This is her only personal victory in the World Cup. Owner of a small Crystal globe v individual races at the end of the 2017/18 season.
In Antholz, in the 2013/14 season, she won silver in the pursuit at the World Cup.
Three more times Nadezhda Skardino became the bronze medalist of the World Cup stages in individual races (sprint in Pokljuka in the seasons 2012/13 and 2013/14, as well as the mass start in Pokljuka-2014/15).
In the relay races of the World Cup as part of the national team of Belarus, Nadezhda Skardino won 2 silver medals (Hochfilzen 2014/15 and Ruhpolding 2014/15), two more times became a bronze medalist (Oberhof 2010/11 and Oberhof 2014/15).
In the 2013/14 season, Nadezhda Skardino set a world record for shooting accuracy. She passed 22 firing lines in a row without fail. Statistics on this criterion have been conducted in biathlon since 1988. And the result of Skardino has not yet been surpassed or at least repeated by either women or men.
She twice became the European champion - in 2007 in the relay, in 2016 - in the pursuit.
Two-time champion of the 2007 Universiade (mass start and relay).
A native of the Russian Sestroretsk has played for Belarus since 2006.