Equal Opportunity Sports: Olympians/Paralympians Give Master Classes to Disabled Kids

Sergei Shilov (1970- ), Honoured Master of Sport of Russia, Paralympic skier

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Russian Paralympic champs gave master classes in various sports for Moscow school kids at the Спорт равных возможностей (Equal Opportunity Sports) festival. “Sport works wonders, it brings people back to life. It’s especially important for kids with disabilities”, noted a spokesman for the festival from the Russian Fund for Support of Disabled Persons Единая страна (One Country). To introduce the kids to sports, the festival at the Dynamo Moscow Sports Palace brought in six-time Paralympic champ Sergei Shilov, along with Olympic champions Svetlana Zhurova and Aleksandr Popov. Also present was the president of the organising committee of the Sochi 2014 Olympics, Dmitri Chernyshenko. He hoped that such festivals would attract the disabled to compete in sport and to win at Sochi in the Paralympics.

A variety of devices allows the disabled to compete in sport; they assist in training, and help the athletes to attain excellent results on the field. Ivan Goncharov showed the kids his special vehicle, which resembled a hybrid tricycle bred with a Formula One car. He said, “This is a sports stroller. We use it in track-and-field for all cross-country disciplines”. Ivan didn’t start in Paralympic sport until four years ago. Prior to that, he was a tobogganer, but after he suffered an injury in the Russian championships in 2003, doctors had to amputate his left leg. So far, Ivan hasn’t won any Paralympic awards. However, like all the athletes at the festival, he has Olympic dreams. In the near future (if it’s possible), Ivan would like to participate in the Paralympics in London, he told VOR, “I’m going there. How’s it going to turn out? That’s anyone’s guess. Therefore, I’ll get ready, and then we’ll see”.

At the festival, the kids could try their hand at fencing, basketball, and dancing in wheelchairs. They actually used the techniques and elements that the champs taught them during the master classes.

13 September 2010

Nadezhda Podolsky

Voice of Russia World Service

http://rus.ruvr.ru/2010/09/13/20105804.html

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Romania Calls the Chicks Home… SVS Didn’t Tell You about This

Mother Church is calling us HOME… it’s where we belong.

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Building confidence requires much effort and time. However, shattering confidence takes no time at all; it happens quickly, but the effects are long-lasting.

Valentin Zorin

VOR Commentator

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My thanks to a friend who alerted me to this post… I don’t have time to track the non-Russian (OCA and ROCOR are part of the Russian orbit, like it or not) Church news. I usually don’t post such because I like seeing articles in the original language (there’s virtually nothing of import written in English, kiddies). I give you this reference for two reasons… firstly, to give you access to a source that posts a great deal of material. It’s obviously “cut-and-paste” blogging, not critical journalism… but that’s NOT a put-down. Such things serve their purpose. To translate from the original as I do takes time and restricts the amount of output. Be aware that this blogger doesn’t check the posts for errors nor are they “read” against the original. That being said, John Sandipoulos is doing a service, one that’s useful for the non-specialist. Secondly, it gives further documentation to a point that I’ve made in the past. Read this. Do note this quotation:

This principle is in full accordance with the decision of the Panorthodox Preconciliar Conference of Chambésy-Switzerland (6-13 June 2009), which specifies that each autocephalous Church has the right to shepherd its own diaspora.

And:

[The] hierarchs of the Holy Synod are reaching out and addressing a Heartfelt appeal to all Romanian Orthodox clerics and faithful abroad, who are, without blessing, in other sister Orthodox Churches or in non-canonical church structures, to restore their direct communion with their Mother Church, under the canonical jurisdiction of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church.

In short, the Holy Local Church of Romania doesn’t recognise the OCA, calling it a “non-canonical church structure”. There’s been much hot air and Sturm und Drang on the Stokoe website amongst nappy-wearing konvertsy screaming about how they’re going to have an American Local Church NOW, and if the other Local Churches won’t sign off on it, they’ll go off on their own. Earth to konvertsy: There is NEVER going to be an American Local Church… let that sink in, children.

THERE IS NEVER GOING TO BE AN AMERICAN LOCAL CHURCH.

All of the Local Churches represent either complete nations that are essentially Orthodox in identity, or they embody Orthodox who aren’t only a substantial minority within their lands, they’re a majority in certain localities. None of that applies to the situation in America now, nor shall it in future. When the dust settles, there shall be the EP, MP, SPC, BPTs, and BOR… there shall not be an OCA, full stop. As for the fairy tale that MP parishes in the USA are required to name the OCA metropolitan in services, that hasn’t been released in any secular press release, nor was there ANY mention of it on the official website, patriarchia.ru… I searched under “Митрополит Иона”… and there was NOTHING. It could be a SVS Fib… after all, Schmemann claimed that there were one million members in the OCA… it has a history of “interesting assertions”, no? Syosset does have a “track record”… do remember Eric Tosi saying, “The records simply don’t exist”.

You don’t rebuild shattered confidence by simply shouting, “It’s all over”. You don’t rebuild shattered confidence by paying off questionable figures with 250 Gs. You don’t rebuild shattered confidence by refusing to deal with people, facts, and situations that you find “disagreeable”. You rebuild shattered confidence by telling the truth… like all simple things, it’s easy to say, hard to do. Orthodoxy in the USA doesn’t have the resources necessary to build a Local Church… we’re always going to be someone’s “dependency”… what’s wrong with that? As for JP… you know the old saying… Quem deus vult perdere, dementat prius (Them whom the gods would destroy, first, they make him mad).

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Thursday 16 September 2010

Albany NY

Russian Troops Marched in Parade in Mexico City on Mexican Independence Day

I couldn’t find an image of the Russian soldiers in Mexico City… here’s a unit of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army that marched in the same parade.

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On Thursday, in the Mexican capital of Mexico City, a military parade marked the bicentenary of Mexico’s declaration of independence. Mexican President Felipe Calderón reviewed the marchers, more than 18,000 soldiers took part. In the central square of Mexico City, along with troops from 17 other foreign countries, a platoon of the Russian army marched in the independence celebrations; they came at the express invitation of the Mexican government. The crowd saw examples of in-service military equipment, including Russian-built articles. 16 September is the most important Mexican national holiday, as Fr Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla called the people to rise up and fight for liberation from the colonial yoke of Spain on this day in 1810.

16 September 2010

Voice of Russia World Service

http://rus.ruvr.ru/2010/09/17/20799705.html