Legends of the National Sports – Anatoliy Isaev and Clara Nesterova – Shared their Memories

On Thursday, December 5, a regular meeting of the “Olympic legend” project was held. It was attended by a football player, an honorary coach and 1956 Olympic champion Anatoliy Isayev and 1960 Olympic skating champion Clara Nesterova (Guseva).

This time the legends of national sports were invited together with their hysbands/wives to an intimate restaurant “Neskuchniy Sad” on Frunzinskaya naberezhnaya. The event was held in a friendly atmosphere. During a pleasant conversation the guests discussed modern sports movement and shared their memories with the volunteers. The meeting was also attended by a three-time Olympic fencing champion and the President of the Russian Athletes Union  Galina Gorokhova.

Anatoliy Isayev recalled how, in his childhood, he had climbed over high fences to get to the stadium and watch the football match. In my dreams there has always been  only “Spartak”, that is why the “Spartak” uniform I longed for was the cause of personal pride and envy of friends. Speaking of the Olympic Games, in which an outstanding football player won a gold medal with the national team, Anatoliy remembered that it took him and his team a month to return back home – first 20 days on the boat from Australia to Vladivostok and then another 10 days by train across the country.

Clara Nesterova (Guseva) described how her love for skating started. The reason was simple – the house where tthe future Olympic champion lived, was not far from the “Spartak” stadium where a young Ryazan citizen liked to go skating after school. Now Clara Nesterova is an honorary citizen of  Ryazan. A childhood interest will later make Nesterova a XVII Olympic Games champion and the first woman in the world to win the gold medal in speed skating, as skating was included in the Winter Olympics is in 1960.

The “Olympic legend” project is being implemented by the Russian Olympic Committee, the Russian Athletes Union and the Visa company. Its purpose is to support the veterans of the national sports, to develop  the volunteer movement aimed at supporting the legends of the Olympic movement and to distribute the knowledge about the history of the Olympic Games  among the younger generation.

The project was also created to let the veterans of the national sports and the Olympians relive the best moments of their sporting careers, share their memories with the volunteers and the youngsters and to realize that they and their sporting achievements haven’t been forgotten by the younger generation of Russians. The project will run until December 2013.

Information about the Russian Olympic Committee

The All-Russian Union of Non-Governmental Associations “The Russian Olympic Committee” (ROC) constitutes a non-governmental association – a union of legal entities, which are non-governmental associations of physical culture and sport orientation. The ROC is an independent, voluntary, non-governmental, self-governed, non-profit association of physical culture and sports orientation, recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC ).

The official site of the Russian Olympic Committee is www.olympic.ru

Information about the Russian Athletes Union  

The Russian Athletes Union  (RAU) is an All-Russian public organization. There are fifty three regional offices from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok and Yakutsk  within its  structure. It unites more than three thousand champions and winners of the Olympic Games, of the World , of Europe, of the USSR and of Russia as well as outstanding coaches and masters of sports.

The RAU was established in December 1991 and is the same age as the new Russia.

That marks a new approach to social protection of outstanding athletes, massive innovative opportunities for Olympians’ participation in social life and  new forms of goodwill projects aimed at spiritual support of the sports movement veterans.

The RAU has realized more than five hundred projects, programs; outstanding events, such as the Olympic champions’ All-Russian car runs, Opening of the Veterans Spartakiad and  Olympians’ Forums. Thanks to the efforts of the RAU the champions and the winners of the Olympic Games, of the World and of Europe, who have reached retirement, receive additional scholarships. The RAU has the right to compose delegations of sports veterans to attend the Olympic Games as honorary guests.

The RAU is an open and warm house for all honored masters of sports and for those athletes who retire from sports and become veterans.

The RAU is a member of the Russian Olympic Committee, of the World Association of Olympic winners and of the World Olympians Association, which operates under the aegis of the IOC.

The Russian Olympic Committee and the Ministry of Sport of the Russian  Federation are the Union’s strategic partners.

Official site of the Russian Athletes Union  is www.rossouzsport.ru.

Information about Visa

Visa is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable digital currency. Underpinning digital currency is one of the world’s most advanced processing networks—VisaNet that is capable of handling more than 30,000 transactions a second, with fraud protection for consumers and guaranteed payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank, and does not issue payment cards, does not extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa’s innovations, however, enable financial institutions  to offer their customers  a wide range of financial instruments including debit, prepaid and credit card products .

 For more information, visit www.corporate.visa.com.