Kazan welcomes 2013th athlete of Summer Universiade
Another plane from Moscow touched down in Kazan at 16:10. Journalists and volunteers waited impatiently and tried to guess who would be the lucky athlete with the symbolic number of '2013'. Lady luck chose Oksana Strelkova, a member of the Russian women’s university rowing team.
The volunteers, of course, greeted all athletes to arrive in Kazan with cheers, 'Welcome' signs and thunderous applause. However, Oksana was given a bouquet of tulips, souvenirs with the logo of the 2013 Summer Universiade and she was even showered with rose petals.
Oksana Strelkova was greeted at the airport with a loud cheer: “You are the 2013th athlete to arrive in Kazan! May victory be yours!”. The athlete was pleasantly surprised. Right after the welcoming ceremony, she shared her thoughts with the journalists.
“Do you think it’s a good sign that you became the 2013th, or just a coincidence?” she was asked. “It was a complete surprise for me. I hope that it’s a good sign and that the good impressions will help me at the competition. We are getting ready for the competition with the whole team and we are hoping to achieve great results. All of our rowing opponents are very formidable. Representatives of European countries are the most serious challengers. These are athletes from the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Italy and France,” Oksana shared with reporters.
“We were advised that the Universiade is a large and very serious competition. For the students, it is a competition that rivals the Olympics. The tryouts were conducted at a very serious level, more so than usual. We feel that we are responsible for all of Russia,” she emphasised.
Oksana Strelkova was born in Saratov. At her 26 years of age, she is a Master of Sport, many-time champion and medallist of Russian national competitions in rowing. One of her latest achievements is a bronze at the European Championship. This is Oksana’s first Universiade, and in August her team will be competing in the World Rowing Championships.