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Training With Ivan
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13238 |
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Section : |
BOOK WORLD
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| Issue
Date : |
10 / 1987 |
3,382 Words |
| Author
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Gabe Mirkin, M.D.
Gabe Mirkin is an associate clinical professor at Georgetown
University School of Medicine and a talk show host for WRC
Radio in Washington, D.C. He is a competitor in amateur long-
distance races. |
SECRETS OF SOVIET SPORTS FITNESS AND TRAINING
Michael Yessis with Richard Trubo
New York: Arbor House, 1987
200 pp.
Are Russian athletes superior to athletes from other countries because they have the best scientific training methods? Yes, says Dr. Michael Yessis, a professor of physical education at California State University in Fullerton. To support his contention that the Russian system for developing athletes is superior to that of other countries, Yessis compared the results of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, in which Americans won 174 medals, with those of the Eastern-bloc's "Olympics," called the Friendship Games. Eastern-bloc athletes performed better than those from the West in events that can be measured directly, such as by timing or distance covered. For example, in twenty-eight of the forty-one track events, the performance of the winning Eastern-bloc athlete was superior to that of his or her Western counterpart.
However, it is arguable that Russian athletes are not inherently superior and that they do not have any scientific information that is not available to athletes from Western countries. For example, in the 1976 Olympics (the last time that both the Western and Eastern-bloc countries competed), athletes from Eastern Europe and other communist-bloc countries, not Russians, gave the communist-bloc countries their apparent advantage. Judging simply by the total number of medals won, one might conclude that the Russians have superior athletes. However, Simon Freeman and Roger Boyes point out in their book, Sports Behind the Iron Curtain, that when the number of medals is divided by the number of people in each country, the Soviet Union, with a population of 275 million, finished in twentieth place, just ahead of the Americans. The smaller communist countries, and not the Russians, have made the greatest advances in international sports competition.
True, state control of athletes and the sports industry allows the Soviets to get the most run for their ruble. Consider: Because Mark Spitz won seven gold medals in swimming in the 1972 Olympics and Bruce Jenner won the 1976 Olympic decathlon, the American free enterprise system rewarded them with a great deal of money, and they immediately retired from competition. On the other hand, Olga Korbut, the Russian gymnast and darling of the 1972 Games, and Vasily Alexeyev, the great Olympic weightlifting champion, didn't become rich from their performances, and they continued to compete until they were unable to do
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