Sports in Russia

It's very important for people to have some regular exercises. In Russia a lot of people go in for sports. We can say that Russia is a nation of sports-lovers.

Many sports are popular in our country:
football
basketball
volleyball

hockey
figure skating
skiing

tennis
wrestling
shooting

All water sports are widely spread in our country :
swimming
diving sailing
water skiing

Some people are fond of extreme sports such as rock climbing, potholing or white-water rafting.
rock climbing
potholing
white-water rafting

Russia's ethnic minorities also have their own traditional forms of exercise.
The Yakuts of central Siberia are skilled reindeer-sled racers.
Archery is popular with the Buryats of eastern Siberia.
On the Amur River in southeastern Russia canoeing is also a popular sport.

Sports in Russia have traditionally been divided into amateur and professional. That's why there are different sports clubs in the country.
A lot of sportsmen take part in international competitions and win medals.
A great number of sportsmen take part in the Olympic Games and show excellent results. Hundreds of athletes have become Olympic medalists and record-setters. The names of Russian sportsmen are famous all over the world.

Yevgeniy
Plyushchenko
Irina
Slutskaya
Tatyana Navka and
Roman Kostomarov
Irina Rodnina and
Aleksander Zaytsev

Nikolay
Valuyev
Konstantin
Tszu
Maksim
Chudov
Ivan Cherezov

Lyaisan
Utyasheva
Alina
Kabayeva
Aleksey
Nemov
Yelena
Isimbayeva

Yevgeniy Kafelnikov
Marat Safin
Dinara Safina
Yelena Dementyeva
Maria Sharapova

Igor
Akinfeyev
Andrey
Arshavin
Roman
Pavlyuchenko

Vladislav Tretyak
and
Vyacheslav Fetisov
Aleksander
Ovechkin

During the last years there was a great increase in keeping fit and staying healthy in Russia.
A lot of people started jogging and going to fitness clubs in their spare time.
Aerobics classes and fitness clubs were opened in every town, and the number of recreation centres greatly increased.

Doing sports prevents us from getting too fat and helps to stay healthy.
But despite the increase in the number of people participating in sports, the majority of them still prefer to be spectators. Thousands of people go to the stadiums to support their favourite teams and sportsmen. Most of the important competitions are televised and people enjoy watching sports programmes on TV.