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On April 16, Rosa Khutor resort, an alpine ski resort in the Krasnodar territory, hosted the opening ceremony of the renewed Alley of Fame, dedicated to the outstanding achievements of Russian Olympic athletes.
The ceremonial ribbon was cut by Stanislav Pozdnyakov, a four-time Olympic champion and President of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC,) and Alexander Belokobylsky, Rosa Khutor CEO. In honor of the sports victories of Pozdnyakov, his personal medal was installed on the Alley. Three-time Olympic champion Galina Gorokhova, two-time Olympic champions Alexander Zaitsev, Svetlana Ishmuratova, Svetlana Khorkina, Anatoly Starostin, and Olympic champion Svetlana Zhurova also attended the ceremony.
The year-round Rosa Khutor mountain resort is one of the main heritage sites of the XXII Olympic and XI Paralympic Winter Games of 2014. It was here that the first competitions of the Olympic Games in Sochi were held and 30 sets of Olympic medals in 15 sports disciplines such as skiing, snowboarding, and freestyle, almost a third of the total number of sets of medals (98), as well as 32 of 76 sets of Paralympic medals, were fought for.
Even during the preparations for the Olympics, the decision to build a special installation at the resort in honor of Olympic champions, great Soviet and Russian athletes, was made. On the first anniversary of the Sochi Olympics, the Alley of Champions was opened at Rosa Khutor, personal golden stars of legendary champions appeared in the paving of the embankment. The first of them were named after well-known sportsmen Lidia Skoblikova, Irina Rodnina, Alexander Zaitsev, and Svetlana Ishmuratova. In subsequent years, the tradition continued, and stars of other award-winning athletes were installed at the resort. Then it was decided to carry out a conceptual renovation of the Alley.
On April 16, 2021, the new Walk of Fame was presented to the public. It was designed by sculptor Fillip Rukavishnikov and architect Alexey Dushkin. According to the creative concept, gold medals of Olympic heroes with their images, names, and sports titles, surrounded by olive branches, which in ancient times were given to the winners, will be placed on the fence of the embankment of the river Mzymta throughout the central part of the resort in Rosa Dolina.
In total, 25 personal medals of great Russian athletes who took part in the Olympics have been installed on the Rosa Khutor Walk of Fame: 4-time Olympic champion Stanislav Pozdniakov (fencing), 6-time Olympic champion Lidia Skoblikova (speed skating), 3-time Olympic champion Irina Rodnina (figure skating/pairs), 2-time Olympic champion Alexander Zaitsev (figure skating / pairs), 2-time Olympic champion Svetlana Ishmuratova (biathlon), Olympic champion Tatyana Navka (figure skating / dances), Olympic champion Roman Kostomarov (figure skating/dancing), 4-times Olympic champion Alexander Popov (swimming), 3-times Olympic champion Elena Vyalbe (cross-country skiing), Larisa Latynina, 9-times Olympic champion (gymnastics), Nikolay Zimyatov, 4-times Olympic champion (cross-country skiing), Pavel Kolobkov, Olympic champion (fencing), Svetlana Zhurova, Olympic champion (skating), 3-time Olympic champion Vladislav Tretiak (hockey), 3-time Olympic champion Alexander Karelin (Greco-Roman wrestling), 3-time Olympic champion Galina Gorokhova (fencing), 2-times Olympic champion Anatoly Starostin (modern pentathlon), 2-times Olympic champion Svetlana Khorkina (artistic gymnastics), 6-times Olympic champion Viktor An (short-track), Olympic champion, Chairman of the Coordination Commission for the Sochi Games Jean-Claude Killy (alpine skiing), 4-times Olympic champion Alexei Nemov (artistic gymnastics), Olympic champion Tatyana Totmyanina (figure skating), Olympic champion Maxim Marinin (figure skating), Olympic champion Alexei Yagudin (figure skating), and Olympic champion Alexander Yakushev (hockey).
As Stanislav Pozdnyakov, President of the ROC, said during the ceremony: "Rosa Khutor Alley of Fame is an interesting, unique and important project in many respects. It helps to maintain interest and respect for the national sport among a wide audience and gives additional incentive to cheer for the Russian athletes. It helps to support them and to learn about them as much as possible. The Walk of Fame has an educational mission, amongst other things, to preserve the Olympic legacy and memory of our outstanding athletes' achievements.
Every medal of the Olympic champion is placed at the Walk of Fame with the tablets with QR codes. When looking at them one can get information about sports biography, discipline, and achievements of a sportsman. All the information can be found at the special website of the Walk of Fame.
Alexander Belokobylsky, CEO of Rosa Khutor Resort, said: "We are very pleased that here, in the Mzymta River valley, the names of our well-known athletes are once again voiced. Thus, we also remember the glorious days of the Sochi Olympics. Probably, Rosa Khutor is the most sports-related resort in the world, and definitely the brightest example of effective use of the Olympic legacy. Today, it is the largest mountain resort in Russia, recognized as the best not only by the professional community (World Ski Awards-2020) but also by our guests (Travellers Choice-2020).
Every year about 1.7 mln tourists are coming here. They will be able to visit our Walk of Fame. I believe that it will be one of the most important tourist attractions of Rosa Khutor.
The Alley of Fame of Olympic champions will be developed. The plan is to install new personal medals in honor of the great Russian athletes in the future.
The Alley of Fame was created with the support of the Independent Non-Profit Organisation Sportclub ROSA.
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The Independent Non-Profit Organisation Sportclub ROSA was established to popularize sports, activities related to sports, and healthy lifestyle.
Original material: https://nvdaily.ru/info/207396.html