[Vision2020] Some Interesting Olympic News

[Tom Hansen]

Georgia beats Russia - at beach volleyball. 

If only all wars could be settled by attractive women in bikinis.

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>From the the TimesOnLine at:

http://tinyurl.com/5unfxt
 
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http://tinyurl.com/GeorgiaRussiaVBall

>From left: Georgian player Andrezza Chagas, Russians Alexandra Shiryaeva 
and Natalya Uryadova and Georgia’s Cristine Santanna embrace before their 
beach volleyball match

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Russia and Georgia at war... in beach volleyball
 
A truce may have been declared in South Ossetia, but tell that to the 
female beach volleyball players of Russia and Georgia. Hours after the 
guns fell silent in the disputed border region a few thousand miles away, 
insults were flying between the two countries as they extended their 
hostilities to a sandpit in central Beijing. 

In a hot and steamy arena in Chaoyang Park, the combat gear was skimpy 
bikinis and victory meant a place in the next round of the Olympic Games. 
Away from the reality of geopolitics, the battle of the beach babes 
resulted in Russia being overpowered by superior firepower and Georgia 
striding on as conquerors. 

Or was that Brazil? It was if you listened to the Russians as they 
grumpily licked their wounds in defeat, for it turns out that the Georgian 
pair had been imported from the sunny shores of Rio de Janeiro. The Black 
Sea is not known for its beach volleyball. Having gained dual citizenship 
three years ago, Cristine Santanna and Andrezza Chagas go by the nicknames 
of “Saka” and “Rtvelo”, which put together spell the Georgian word for 
Georgia. Cute, perhaps, if you have not just been beaten by them. “We were 
not playing against the Georgian team,” Natalia Uryadova, of Russia, said 
after losing 15-12 in the third and deciding set. “We were playing against 
the Brazilian team. If they are Georgian, they would have been influenced 
[by the war], but certainly they are not.” 

It might have been all friendly hugs at the start of the match, but by its 
end the barbs were out. Weary of comparisons between the match and world 
affairs, Alexandra Shiryaeva, Uryadova's slightly less sulky team-mate, 
was adamant that events back home had played no part in the 
contest. “There was no politics in this game. After all, these girls are 
Brazilian,” Shiryaeva said. “I don't suppose they even know who the 
Georgian President is.” 

Santanna, aka Saka, snapped back across the press conference dais: “Of 
course I know who the President is. It's Mikheil Saakashvili and I was 
with his wife here two days ago in the village.” Take that. 

Santanna was not finished. “I feel Georgian,” she said. “I've got a 
Georgian and a Brazilian passport and we did this for the Georgian people. 
I really didn't want this situation between the players. I don't want this 
to be a war between us.” 

Too late. The Russians were back on the attack. “It was stupid of Georgia 
to start a war,” Shiryaeva said. “We're big and they're small. But it's 
always been that way through history. I am just a volleyball player. I 
don't know anything about war. This is just my opinion, from one Russian 
girl.” 

While claiming empathy with the Georgian people, the Georgian/Brazilian 
pair did admit that they had only twice visited the country whose flag 
they are flying - once to collect their passports - but they promised to 
go after the Games for at least two weeks. 

Their Portuguese accents and Brazilian addresses will not dampen Georgian 
celebrations, however. Their Olympic team need all the morale-boosting 
they can get. Having initially voted to return home after the outbreak of 
war last week, the athletes were persuaded to stay to compete in the name 
of the Olympic spirit. Few, though, have been able to keep Georgia off 
their minds. 

“It's hard because nobody can compete here,” Levan Akhvlediani, president 
of the Georgian volleyball federation, said. “We had the world No1 in judo 
but we got no medals because it is too psychological. So any small win is 
a great win. I have slept two, three, four hours since the war started. 
But when we are in the village, we have to concentrate on the Games even 
when we are at war.” 

The context for this contest could not have been more absurd. As if a 
dozen pom-pom wearing beach girls shimmying around in bikinis during time-
outs were not tacky enough, the choice of music between points displayed a 
lack of understanding of the wider picture. 

Tom Jones's Sex Bomb was probably not a wise choice of track, but 
Blitzkrieg Bop by the Ramones was going too far. And if you are going to 
pick one line from Robbie Williams's Let Me Entertain You, in the 
circumstances, it probably should not be: “I'm a burning effigy of 
everything I used to be.” But this is the Olympics, where sport is 
distinct from politics, or so the Chinese organisers keep telling us. 

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
"We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students. The college 
students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."

- Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)


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