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“I am harvesting the fruits of my stubbornness”

Vladimir Slavskiy is something like the great gray eminence in Russian, or more precisely: Eastern European Nordic winter sports. He has seen states come and go, he was alive when Tschaikowsky, today a town of 120,000 inhabitants, existed only on the draft boards of Soviet-Russian architects, and today he is Vice President for Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined in the Russian Ski Association.

But above all, Slavskiy is happy today. “I am harvesting the fruits of my stubbornness,” and in his clear, definite, hard Russian voice there is also the melancholy and pride that characterize his country.

While the international ski jumping circuit in Central Europe and Scandinavia hurries from one station to the next, with some Russian jumpers in the field, something revolutionary is happening in Tschaikowsky. “You have to imagine it,” says Slavskiy. “There exists a state like Russia, large, prominent, wealthy – and it cannot even offer its own athletes training facilities at home.”

In addition, the veteran expert continues, all this has happened before. In Tschaikowsky there was a Winter Sports Institute, experts worked and researched here, and all ski athletes – whether Alpine or Nordic – had a reliable contact point here. Athletes and coaches of the former USSR were at home in Tschaikowsky.

The backward glance is tinged with melancholy: “That was 30 years ago, and not a lot has happened since then. There were no modern equipment anymore, because the sports themselves were given less and less importance. And after the dissolution of the USSR, almost everything old was ruined.”

But now everything is different, and Slavskiy’s voice shifts from sad to euphoric. “The award of the Winter Olympics to Sochi gave a big impulse to the rebirth of winter sports in the region,” he says. “The Perm region turned to the Minister of Sport, who approved the project, ensuring funding. Characteristic is the name under which the Nordic Winter Sports Initiative (which also involves other sites) runs: Success.” Success in Sochi.

Since 2009 there were plans to recruit foreign experts such as the company Rehau or SKI-LINE from Peter Riedel GmbH for the construction of the jumps. “And now, in February 2012, we can say: the first jumps have, even in front of Vladimir Putin, succeeded!” exults Slavskiy. “On March 20 the Russian championships will take place here, that will be another milestone for the facilities named ‘Snowflake’. Finally, the Russian skiers have train­ing facilities at home again, and Tchaikovsky is the pioneer!”

Slavskiy hopes for women ski jumpers in Sochi, for eight men and for the skijumper Ivan Panin – “something tangible should come out of it,” he says. But besides the desirable sporting success, he sees Tschaikowsky’s future in rosy colors. “There are not only the jumps, but also a biathlon complex, freestyle facilities and much more. It can be used effectively and profitably. Tschaikowsky should become a sports and tourist town because the landscape is picturesque and certainly worth seeing. Here the region has received a beautiful gift – now it just has to make more of it.”

Whether Nordic World Ski Championships will ever be held in Tschaikowsky, in 2021 or 2023 or so, Slavskiy cannot answer. “Let’s proceed step by step – summer GP in autumn, COC next winter, more international competitions if the FIS grants us the bid. And as far as a World Championship is concerned: it would certainly be a dream for the region, the city, and for me. But many Russian towns will vie for this world championship…,”

What remains is not the history that must be achieved, but the history that has already been created. “We are rewriting the history of ski jumping in Russia. In the next five to ten years we will catch up a lot on an international level, what was missed in the past. My personal dream is coming true.”

Slavskiy smiles and is satisfied. As he already said: “I am harvesting the fruits of my stubbornness.”