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One of the strongest swimmers in Russia, 21-year-old Andrei Minakov, moved to the USA back in 2020 year to study at Stanford. In an interview, the athlete told how Russian students celebrate the New Year in the States, why he wants to return to Russia and how relationships are built with swimmers from other countries.
“Americans are funny because 1 January at seven in the morning there was training”
– Andrey, how many flights had already been accumulated by the end of the year?
< br>– It is difficult to count them accurately. If we take into account all the flights from America, it definitely exceeded 50. Turkish Airlines has already given me gold status.
– Is this exhausting?
– The body already has experience, so adaptation is much easier.
– You celebrated the New Year in the USA. Do you want snow and Olivier for the chimes?
– The Americans are, of course, funny in this regard – on January 1 at 7 am we have a training session. I missed my homeland and the snow madly, but not Olivier.
– What New Year traditions are there?
– New Year in the states is not celebrated the same way as here in Russia – just dinner with the whole team. We started training with the team on December 27th. Everything is just working. If I'm not mistaken, January 1 is a working day, so I celebrated the New Year with two workouts.
– In the series “Friends” or “How I Met Your Mother” it is customary to kiss at the chimes, indeed do they do this in America?
– To be honest, this is the first time I’ve heard about this. In the USA there is a big bias towards celebrating Christmas.
– Have you been to the USA for Christmas? How do Russian and foreign students usually celebrate Christmas at Stanford?
– I never celebrated it myself. But there is such a thing that the parents of the guys on the team come, they can take someone to dinner with them. Or, if the student's parents live close to campus, they can invite international students to visit them. This usually happens around Christmas and Thanksgiving because they are family holidays. I went there myself, but the atmosphere cannot be compared with our New Year. I have seen a lot of films about Christmas in America, pictures with decorated houses, where everything is like in a fairy tale, but, unfortunately, I have never seen anything like this in my life in the place where I am.
– Are there Christmas balls at Stanford? Or maybe various fraternities hold costume parties? Lots of alcoholic punch, loud music and competitions (litreball)?
– There are no Christmas balls, but each course has organizational councils that hold parties. Last year, our graduation party had a gala evening, where the guys were in suits and the girls were in dresses. This is more for networking. Like in the movies, we don’t have parties, and all because the university has very strict rules and regulation of parties. Last year, Stanford fans even started the Stanford Hates Fun movement, which means “Stanford hates fun.”- Were you initiated as a student at Stanford? For example, in my first year I was covered in flour and eggs and forced to run around the university.
– Not at the university itself. But my friends at another university have a tradition where they take away all the newcomers’ clothes, take them to the forest, take away all their phones and leave them with a basic survival kit, such as matches, a knife, etc. The forest is a two-hour drive from the university, and students must find their own way back. Of course, all this is done under supervision so that no one gets hurt or gets lost.
– Usually athletes at universities are popular with girls. Do you feel attention? Is there such a thing as you walking through the corridors of Stanford in a bomber jacket and female students looking back at you?
– Not in a bomber jacket, but American baseball and football players are certainly popular, they are in greatest demand. I can’t say that no one is interested in other sports, but football and baseball players stand out very much.
– Is it possible to be a slob at Stanford?
– There is a certain set of rules. For example, when you move into a room, you and your neighbors draw up a contract. This is a three-page document that specifies the rules for living in the room, for example: do not make noise, respect each other, and so on.
– Did you have to climb out the window?
– Nobody appreciates romance here.
– After finishing your studies, do you plan to return to Russia?
– It seems to me that people are already tired of discrimination, inequality and infringement of rights. If you compete, then it’s normal to compete, all together, under the flag and the anthem. This is precisely why people don't want to go there. I also believe that every decision in life is a business decision. Yes, you can get neutral status and qualify, but you will have to pay for everything yourself, all hotels, flights, meals, no prize money, and at the same time your rights are violated in full. But I am one of those athletes for whom the honor of the country is above all.
– Have you already come to terms with the fact that we will not go to the Olympics?
– Hope dies last. But we are still preparing for the Friendship Games, this will be the main start. First of all, we pursue the interests of the country, and personal ones only after.
– A couple of months have passed since the approval from World Aquatics. Have you ever wanted to get neutral status and go to Doha for the World Championships? Girev received neutral status, for example.
– You quickly get used to good things, and you don’t want to go downhill anymore. For example, when you already went to international competitions as part of a team, you got a completely different experience. When you carry the flag and sing the anthem of your country… I recently was at the Ak Bars match, and the anthem was played there, I then caught a feeling of nostalgia.
It’s very disappointing to watch how our Western colleagues show your duplicity. When you look at the decisions made by international federations, it becomes very sad because of such injustice and double standards.
I believe that if we are “bent in” once, everyone will understand that we can be “bent in” a second time. I am a supporter of full rights for athletes from Russia.
– Does it seem absurd that Russian athletes were prohibited from communicating with the media at international competitions?
– How do we communicate with swimmers from other countries?
– I keep in touch with different athletes and there is no hate. On the contrary, people are supportive. They say they wouldn't want to be in our shoes and go through what we're going through. They really want to meet and compete. In the summer in Italy I met with Thomas Ceccon.
– There are many scandals around the Olympics in Paris, and this does not count the suspension of the Russians. For example, information regularly appears that the city is simply not ready to host the Games, that there are not enough law enforcement agencies, or that the city has been attacked by bedbugs. How difficult can this make staying in Paris and participating in the Olympics?
– I can’t say about bedbugs; I haven’t been to Paris for a long time. But if we talk about security, this is a very good question. No matter what anyone says, both the West and America are very, very dirty, there are a lot of emigrants. These are no longer the countries that were 10 years ago; Russia is ahead in terms of security and comfort. I can say that now in the West, especially in America, “Russia of the 90s” is happening.
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