KAZAKHSTAN: OLYMPICS: Ilya Ilyin, one of Kazakhstan's best weightlifting hopes, trains for the 2012 London Olympics where he intends to win gold

Record ID: 330688

  • Title: KAZAKHSTAN: OLYMPICS: Ilya Ilyin, one of Kazakhstan's best weightlifting hopes, trains for the 2012 London Olympics where he intends to win gold
  • Date: 25th April 2012
  • Summary: PEOPLE WALKING OUT OF BUILDING PICTURE OF ILYIN ON BUILDING WALL (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) KAZAKH WEIGHTLIFTER, 2008 BEIJING OLYMPIC CHAMPION ILYA ILYIN, SAYING: "I like, perhaps, attention, probably, because I have been doing this since early childhood. Isn't it good when people look (at you), when you can make them happy? This is not a burden, it is not difficult and not frightening, it is, on the contrary, a plus. When you perform, when you feel the energy of the people, it moves over to you. It is about the circulation of energy. And you get to feel this very well and derive a lot of pleasure from what you do."
  • Embargoed: 10th May 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan
  • Country: Kazakhstan
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA9T3A39PKBL2U865OIW8FIVWEB
  • Story Text: Ilya Ilyin, still only 23, has just finished training in an Almaty sports hall named in his honour. Nationwide expectation that he can bring home his second Olympic gold sits easily on his broad shoulders, as his coach Yerzhas Boltayev helps to hone his technique ahead of the London games.
    "He is now adding arm exercises on to the training. This makes the movement more complex and the spine starts making spinning movements," Boltayev explained during a training session.
    Ilyin is among Kazakhstan's best hopes for gold at the 2012 London Olympics. The reigning world champion in the 94 kg middle heavyweight category, he says nothing quite compares to the Olympic gold he won four years ago in Beijing. He showed his potential early. He was only six years old when his brother started taking him along to a sports hall in Kyzylorda, the remote city on the steppe of southern Kazakhstan where his parents still live today.
    "I was six years old when I first got to know the sport of weightlifting. My brother took me there (to the sports hall). I had finished kindergarten and there was nobody to look after me at home during the day. Such was the story. At first I used to come over to the gym, run, jump, I started doing abdominal exercises, I was given small bars. One could see that I was endowed by nature, I was a little guy with big legs - a stocky lad," Ilyin told Reuters.
    Around ten competitors in the 94 kg category will be able to lift approximately the same weight in London, he said. He expects strong competition from other ex-Soviet athletes, including his compatriot and 2009 world champion Vladimir Sedov. Ilya says the victory margin will only be one or two kilograms. Whoever wins, Ilya says, he will embrace him like a brother. But, he warns that in competitions he is a warrior.
    "I like, perhaps, attention, probably, because I have been doing this since early childhood. Isn't it good when people look (at you), when you can make them happy? This is not a burden, it is not difficult and not frightening, it is, on the contrary, a plus. When you perform, when you feel the energy of the people, it moves over to you. It is about the circulation of energy. And you get to feel this very well and derive a lot of pleasure from what you do," Ilyin said.
    From dieticians to trainers, Iliyn said he has "an entire army" behind his effort to win gold. He spared a special word of gratitude for Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has ruled the Central Asian state since before independence in 1991.
    "When a person has truly achieved certain heights, everything is being done for them to win. Put it this way, currently I am going for gold, everybody knows this; this is not a secret to anyone. Everything possible is being done for me. Really, I should pay proper respects to and thank first of all, in any case, Nursultan Abishevich (Kazakh President Nazarbayev), who closely watches sports as a whole and me in particular, too," Ilyin said.
    Ilyin was just eight when he won his first local competition. A year later, competing against children four years his senior, he was crowned national youth champion of Kazakhstan. He was breaking Asian records in his mid-teens.
    Aged just 17, Ilyin travelled to the International Weightlifting Federation's World Championships in Qatar in 2005 and returned as champion in the 85 kg category. He repeated the feat a year later, this time in the 94 kg category. After a minor injury, he decided to take a break from sport. A fully fit Ilyin travelled to Beijing in 2008 and won an Olympic gold. Last year, in Paris, he became world champion for the third time.
    Ilyin has already visited London on several occasions. After competing in London, he says his thoughts will turn quickly to returning to friends and family, not least his two-year-old daughter.
    Home is Kazakhstan, a vast country of 17 million people, where Ilyin divides his time between Almaty, Kyzylorda and the capital Astana, where his partner - a member of the national handball team - plays for the local club. Ilyin is certain about the outcome of the Olympic Games and says there is simply no other option for him except to win.
    "Well, I do not just hope, I will win. I will do everything possible for this victory. A lot, maybe not a lot, but (is at stake). I really want to win. I have a strong desire and I have got everything it takes, all the possibilities, I have a hunger for victory, to cut a long story short. I will do it and that is that," Ilyin said.
    Heads turned when Ilyin, wearing ripped jeans and a black T-shirt, walked into a billiards hall in Kazakhstan's largest city. The three-times world weightlifting champion grinned and greeted doormen in the club as they took pictures on their mobile phones. In the billiards hall, he racked up the balls for another game and sipped from a cup of coffee - his favourite drink. He thinks occasionally about a career after sport.
    "I love playing billiards. I have been playing (billiards) for five, six years. I play it once, twice a month, but I don't let it go. What else ? Currently I try to spend more of my time studying, trying to improve my IQ, reading, writing, I've missed out on a lot in life, really. I don't regret this, of course, but I need to make up for lost time," Ilyin said.
    For now, though, his focus is the London Olympics, where he is to compete on August 4.
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