Silver Deer are Close Friends with Fair Play

MOSCOW, June 25, 2021 - Since the mid-1950s, sports journalists of the country have voted for the top ten athletes of the country, the best team and coach. 24 years ago, the Federation of Sport Journalists of Russia (FSJR) decided to award the winners with an honorary prize. The statuette was named the "Silver Doe", and since then, the company "Dialog-Conversion" gives out a hell of a dozen silver prizes every year.

The Federation invites the winners to the celebration, which is held together with our traditional friend and partner - the Russian Olympic Committee in its  Great Hall on Luzhnetskaya Street. The year of 2020 was the most difficult for obvious reasons. But we find a kind of an interval between the waves of COVID-19 and still invited the top stars, the sport leaders and naturally sport journalists to the Gala. 

Our winners in strict alphabetical order are: 

Anastasia Voynova-Darya Shmeleva (cycling), Natalia Voronina (speed skating), Ekaterina Katnikova (luge), Alena Kostornaya (figure skating), Daniil Medvedev (tennis), Konstantin Kurokhtin (Paralympic curling), Alexander Povetkin (boxing), Roman Repilov (luge), Andrey Rublev (tennis), Angelika Sidorova (track and field),

Best coach: Alexander Kuznetsov (cycling).

Team: The Russian national chess team - the winner of the online Olympiad-2020.

The ceremony was somewhat unusual. We started with checkers. Over the past decades, representatives of this game have not been awarded our prizes. And seven-time world champion in stocklet draughts Tamara Tansykkuzhina specially came from Ufa to get a Diploma from the Russian Olympic Committee and the Russian Fair Play Committee.

The final match of nine rounds, which started on April 23, was held in Warsaw, its winner was determined on a tie-break. After nine rounds the score in the match with the representative of Poland Natalia Sadovskaya was equal-54: 54. On the final day, only the fourth game in the blitz was won by a 42-year-old Russian.

But on April 27, during the fourth round, the Russian flag and the sign with the name of the Russian world champion were removed right during the match. Tamara only cast a glance at the representative of Polish official, who, despite the prohibitions, made his way into the playing area, which, in addition to the two draughts players, only of the match has the right to enter. By the way, the chief referee refused to do so in order to avoid the violation of the international rules. Tamara kept her courage, showed self-control, did not betray any dissatisfaction. This dignified and noble conduct cannot fail to command universal respect.

Of course, the behavior of the seven-time champion deserves a Fair Play Diploma.

Natalia Sadovskaya was also awarded the diploma of the Russian Fair Play Committee: she removed her country's flag from the table in a jesture of solidarity. A real Fair Play at the checkers board. Natalia Sadovskaya's Diploma will be transferred to her with the kind assistance of the National Olympic Committee of Poland.

- The match was very unusual. It will surely go down in history. With the help of experience and professionalism, I was able to come back and win. I knew how much attention this episode had generated. There was nowhere to retreat. I dedicate the award to all draughts’ coaches, " Tansykkuzhina said at the ceremony.

But this is not the end of Fair Play. A noble act was performed by Tamara's chess brothers, grandmasters. The ROC Cup and Fair Play Diplomas were awarded to the Russian men's chess team and the President of the Russian Chess Federation Andrey Filatov. In the "National Team of Russia – to Russia" tournament, the chess players donated their prize money to the last kopeck as well as the money collected with the help of philanthropists, to hospitals in small towns where people infected with COVID-19 are treated.

Chess players were waiting for another award - "Silver Deer" that was awarded to the best team of the year.

Chess is coming to the fore today. At the suggestion of a long-time friend of the Federation of Sports Journalists of Russia, multiple world champion Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov, the FSJR with the help of the All-Russian Association of Summer Olympic Sports (VALOVS), established another prize: "The Family of Champions". It is not necessary that it will be awarded every time. But it was the day when the FSJR award in the new category found heroes. It was awarded to the champions of the Chess Olympiad, spouses Ekaterina Lagno and Alexander Grischuk. There are four kids in a large champion’s family.

Konstantin Kurokhtin is also a hero of great Paralympic sports and Fair Play. Russian wheelchair curler, skip of the Russian national team at the Winter Paralympic Games.

Another winner is figure skater Alena Kostornaya. Alena won the European Championships in January 2020. After that, all international competitions were practically not held. The Kostornaya prize, which was voted for by sports journalists, is also a recognition of the merits of our figure skating, which shone at all the international starts of the new season. Alena and her mother were on vacation in Cuba. And the president of the Figure Skating Federation Alexander Gorshkov and the honorary President of the Federation Valentin Piseev will give her the "Silver Doe". Soviet and Russian coach Elena Chaikovskaya was also present at the ceremony.

Our excellent luge skiers Ekaterina Katnikova and Roman Repilov won the World Cup-2020. What can you expect from the Beijing Olympics?

- In Beijing, we will fight at least to the last. I hope that all our efforts will pay off and we will be able to once again please our country, " replied Repilov dressed in black smoking -torsido.

In recent years, tennis players have not been in the top ten. And now there are two of them. Throughout the voting, Andrei Rublev remained among the leaders. But at the ned of December Daniil Medvedev had literally burst into the top ranks. Both tennis players were at tournaments abroad. Both sent their video greetings. And the statuettes were received by Marina Andreyevna Maryenko-Andrey Rublev's mother and his sister Anna. And finally, Natalia Voronina is the 2020 world champion in the 5000 meters.

And then there was another pleasant procedure. For several years, the International Sambo Federation has been awarding its prize - the silver pen-to the journalist who writes about SAMBO even better then others. The owner of the coveted pen was Grigory Enikolopov.

And in the very conclusion, diplomas and awards were given to the anniversaries, veterans of sports journalism. The oldest of them is Anatoliy Chaikosckiy who turned 90 and is still working as the chair in the oldest Russian sport magazine “Fizkultura and Sport” that is, by the way 99 years of age. The president of the Amateur Hockey Association and the only female president of the men's hockey club, Alina Borodaeva, always helps us in this distributing nice and really valuable prizes.

The Federation of Sports Journalists of Russia  thanks the Russian Olympic Committee headed by President Stanislav Pozdnyakov, the All-Russian Association of Summer Olympic Sports and its President Vasily Titov, the president of Russian Skateboarding Federation Ilya Vdovin, the International Sambo Federation and its President Vasily Shestakov, the Amateur Hockey Association and its President Alina Borodaeva, the Organizing Committee of the FIDE Candidates Tournament in Yekaterinburg and the head of the press center Albert Minnullin for theirs help.