August 11, 2024

Fine Then, We'll Host Our Own Olympics


Fine Then, We'll Host Our Own Olympics
The easiest gold ever. RIA Novosti

With the official Russian team precluded from the 2024 Paris Olympics (thanks to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine), Russia instead put its efforts towards this year's BRICs Games in June. With eyebrow-raising results.

The BRICs Games are an annual sporting meet with a similar vibe to the Olympics, but spotlight instead developing nations (like the BRICs), or those that we don't typically see at the world games, ranging from the isolated (North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba) to the Russia-allied (Belarus) to the internationally unrecognized (Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Republic of Srpska). Russia chairs the games and hosted them in Kazan this year.

Russia, Brazil, and China sent the largest athletic delegations.

Events ranged from the expected, like swimming, fencing, gymnastics, and track, to the local, like Eurasian folk wrestling and Chinese martial arts, and the quasi-athletic, like chess. Not all events were well represented, resulting in Gogol-esque moments like the above photo, where a single artistic swimming competitor took home gold against no rivals.

Indeed, of the 2,970 participants, 1,276 medals were awarded: a rate five times higher than at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Most notably, nearly 80% of Russian participants took home a medal.

Surely the viewership of the BRICs games would be higher if they included tank ballet.

You Might Also Like

We'll Swim After Victory
  • October 15, 2022

We'll Swim After Victory

Our correspondent was offered a business trip to Odesa, Ukraine. He took it and brought this back.
Trekking In Partisan Footsteps
  • May 01, 2011

Trekking In Partisan Footsteps

Eastern Crimea was a center for partisan activity during the Great Patriotic War. In honor of the May Day holiday, we trek through this wild realm along the Black Sea.
En Garde, Russia and Belarus
  • March 13, 2023

En Garde, Russia and Belarus

The International Fencing Federation greenlit the return of Russian and Belarussian fencers to tournaments — and the Olympics.
A Wall of Resistance
  • February 27, 2023

A Wall of Resistance

A Russian shopkeeper's picture went viral after using the walls of his shop to express opposition to the invasion of Ukraine.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
Okudzhava Bilingual

Okudzhava Bilingual

Poems, songs and autobiographical sketches by Bulat Okudzhava, the king of the Russian bards. 
Jews in Service to the Tsar

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.
A Taste of Russia

A Taste of Russia

The definitive modern cookbook on Russian cuisine has been totally updated and redesigned in a 30th Anniversary Edition. Layering superbly researched recipes with informative essays on the dishes' rich historical and cultural context, A Taste of Russia includes over 200 recipes on everything from borshch to blini, from Salmon Coulibiac to Beef Stew with Rum, from Marinated Mushrooms to Walnut-honey Filled Pies. A Taste of Russia shows off the best that Russian cooking has to offer. Full of great quotes from Russian literature about Russian food and designed in a convenient wide format that stays open during use.
Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.
Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
Fearful Majesty

Fearful Majesty

This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.
Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955