Не очень хорошо, конечно, выкладывать тут чужой, да еще английский пост. Но кажется, многим будет интересно это увидеть. А может кто-то и переведет со временем (прошу прощения, сам не успеваю).
В общем, кто такая Варя Акулова все наверное знают. Рассказ взят с форума Real feats of strength (тут:
http://mon371.proboards107.com/index.cg ... r=chris101 ), автор - chris101, живет в Штатах (и, бедолага, наверное никогда за пределы своей родины не выезжал...
).
По мне, так интересны не только (не столько) впечатления про Варю, сколько вообще об Украине, Кривом Роге и условиях вариной жизни. Кто читает на этом языку - смотрите сами :neutral:
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I met Varya Akulova family last week
« Thread Started on Oct 20, 2007, 6:16am »
After 8 years being friends with the Akulova family, I met them by traveling to Ukraine. I filmed about 3 hours of good quality video on a camcorder. That is the good news.
The bad news is the family was so set on training a certain way on certain days, that I was able to capture on video mostly varya doing clean and jerks with a barbell, I was a bit unhappy that the family did not do more circus style feats of strength while I visited. After I traveled across the world, I was hoping they would adjust the schedule a little so I could see my favorite lifts, instead they just kept on schedule.
I wanted to see more acrobatic feats of strength (people lifting, kettlebell lifting, lifting unusual objects like furniture) Due to language difficulties, I was not able to get across what type of feats of strength people like to see, so over and over I was dragged to a gym where for hours on end Varya did clean and jerks, one of my least favorite lifts. So truth be told the trip was not what I expected. I did capture footage of Varya wrestling her father, a little bit of footage of Varya supporting parents in a wrestler's bridge, stomach strength, some kettlebells, and also I filmed some of Varya in everyday life, walking down a street and such. Truth is I was not able to get Varya to do some of my favorite feats of strength, such as leg press lifts, climbing a rope using only arms, pushing a vehicle, lifting many people at one time. So it was a disappointing trip, and also I wanted Varya to do some heavy deadlifts (150 kilograms or more)
It was not her training day for that type of lift, so she did it only one time, quite disappointing as I spent a great deal of money and traveled across the world. My trip was tiring, the travel, then all the poverty. Kiev was beautiful, many cafe, pastry restaurants, chocolate shops, candy shops (yes I have a sweet tooth) and many museums and shops. Kiev was wonderful.
The train ride from Kiev to Krivoy Rog (where Varya is) was long and dark, overnight travel and bumpy bumpy and with stops along the way in dark locations where the middle of the night Russian women announce on the loudspeaker and wake you up. Krivoy Rog is a big city. Giant trucks rumble up and down the streets, and spew out giant amounts of pollution. The air is smoky and there is poverty everywhere. The women dress stylishly, and it is so funny to see women in the finest Italian designer clothing riding 40 year old broken down buses or walking home into 60 year old apartment complexes where the concrete has worn away from balconies so much you can see the steel beneath. The potholes in the streets are huge so when you do take a bus ride 1 mile seems like 10 miles. Probably the funniest hing I saw was in her town when a poor family with no refrigerator hung a chunk of cheese outside their window of apartment in the cool air, and a poor man on the street saw the cheese and he took this long long stick and actually poked the bag until the cheese fell down and he ran off with the cheese. They are so poor and hungry that some steal food. I took the family to a grocery store and bought them 2 carts of food, including a frozen pizza, mushrooms and a big juicy chicken.
All of that food is for the rich in Ukraine, so it brought tears to my eyes to see the family so amazed to devour a frozen pizza with olives. I also took them out to eat, they almost fainted when I paid 10 dollars a meal. They were staring at the sugar packets on the table, shocked that the restaurant offered free sugar for coffee or tea they never saw free sugar in packets before. And I took them to a burger place, and that was the first time they ever ate a delicious cheeseburger. So I was happy to help the family. If anybody wants to help the family with a donation, I can tell you how using western union or money gram. When I arrived the refigerator was empty, so they were having troubles. Just 50 USA dollars donation is enough for food for one month. Varya's strength is real. I told her to curl up her fingers and I would uncurl them using my fingers. I couldn't do it. Varya's father is sad because he wants Varya to try the famous harness lift, they don't have a lifting device. He wants her to lift a small car, and while I was there I saw a small car and I asked Varya if she wanted to try lifting one end of it and I would film it. She told me she knew the owner of that car and he was, well at that point she curled up her fingers like an attacking cat and hissed, so I guess the owner of the car was a real grouch. I told her I would pay the owner 10 dollars if he let her try to lift it, just once, and the language problems just were not understood. Varya trains with great intensity, her strength is real, and she has a younger sister who is proving to be even stronger someday. I was quite surprised that few in her city (even at her gym) understood how famous she is on the internet. Even people at the gym she trains at did not know she has a web page.
In her town (and even in her neighborhood) I was quite suprised that few recognized her or even cared about her unusual talents.
I asked her if neighbors or friends in school often asked her to display her strength, and she said no. Surprising. When she gets on a bus in her town, nobody recognizes her. Surprising. Seeing the poverty and living conditions of her city in Ukraine, I am not surprised it would be difficult to get a visa to visit me in the USA (or get a visa to get to Australia) The poverty is everywhere, smog in the air, potholes in the road, homeless people, stealing cheese from second floor windows. Homeless cats and dogs (hungry looking) wander the streets. Sidewalks are caving in, cracked. The bus system, some buses are 40 years old with cracked windows. Coming from the USA, world's richest nation, I expected some poverty, I was not expecting it to be that bad. Varya's apartment has double steel doors, giant tumble locks (2 locks on each door) and every window has big steel bars. They have no washer or dryer, they wash clothing by hand. They dry in the air. When I buy them a frozen food store pizza (cost 4 dollars USA money) they were shocked. They never had a slice of frozen pizza. The family wastes no food, none, Varya eats every crumb on her plate and after her mother cooks canned vegetables, Varya drinks the water from the pan. On my last day in Ukraine, we stayed at a hotel in Kiev so I could get to the airport on time (my biggest fear was missing my flight and getting stuck in Ukraine, after 8 days of pollution I had enough, the air is awful, I got sick from it) At the hotel they had a free all you can eat buffet (60 different items from fish to pastries to eggs to juice) and oh the look on the family's face. All their life struggling to buy food and for one meal all you can eat. Oh the look on their face. I was so happy. I told them pile your plate high high high Eat eat eat! Finally I took them to the grocery store for some more food, and gosh how was I to know the plastic bags cost money? in America you buy food and they place your items in the plastic bag for free, in Ukraine you pay for a bag, I didn't know, I took the food and started placing it in bags, and then this store manager got angry at me because I didn't pay for the plastic bag. Also in Ukraine, cigarettes are cheap, about 80 USA cents per pack, so all over Ukraine smoke smoke smoke smoke smoke. I stepped outside the train station in Kiev, and my gosh like 300 people were smoking!!!! Oh my freaking gosh! I ran 200 feet away and I could still smell the smoke!!!!
Well, I have posted enough. Let me know if you have qustions from my trip. Varya wants to try lifting 15 men on a platform, backlift Weight 1,200 kilograms.