Russia’s passion for tennis gives way to judo
After a disastrous start at London 2012, Russia secured third place by total medal count, falling just 5 medals behind China. The team even managed to win one more gold than in Beijing four years ago.
Tennis stars Elena Dementieva and Dinara Safina were the heroines in Beijing, when love of tennis by the first Russian president Boris Yeltsin made tennis the favorite sport in the country. However, the tennis team did not perform well in London, with coaches blaming lack of financial support from the government. Even the presence of Maria Sharapova, who carried the Russian flag at the opening ceremony, did not save the disastrous performance on the Wimbledon courts. Judo, a sport strongly supported by current president Vladimir Putin (a keen judoka himself), emerged as one of the most successful sports for the Russian team, with three Olympic gold medals.
Analysis of coverage in the media presents an interesting picture. We looked at volumes for three sports: tennis, cycling and judo. The English-language media predominantly reported about Russian tennis team and its golden girl Sharapova – 72% of the total volume, with judo yielding only 24%. But the Russian-language media focused on judo – 60%, with tennis receiving only 37%. Can it be attributed to the medals won or to sport preference by the governing elite?
Tags: Cycling, Judo, London 2012, Olympics, Russia, Tennis Posted in
August 14th, 2012 at 1:39 am
I think the russian can afford to focus on other sports too, because they have dominated for so long in tennis. I hope the US will follow in their foot steps, the first thing is the US coaches have to take a hard look at their coaching methods, then revise what is not working! http://www.newtennisgeneration.wordpress.com