Big

If someone knows of a site that can translate it from Russian, here is an interview with Gatsalov:

http://www.wrestrus.ru/article.asp?id=1461

akzent

This is the interview where from I took the info about Gatsalov's children and several days ago I opened a new thread to which Quick couldn't add something smart

Try with the on-line translation of altavista: http://babelfish.altavista.com
Copy the text of the interview and paste it in the translation field. IMO altavista Russian-English translation is best one offered free in the net, however it is bad and the English out-put text is often understandable or meaningless. At least you can understand the main points.

Sometimes the translation is quite funny for people who know both Russian and English. For example the translation of Russian “ochko” = “point”. In the plural form, “ochki” (points) is identical with the word “ochki” meaning “glasses”. So, these are two different words which have one and the same form. Altavista cannot differentiate them and each time it translates “glasses”. That is why, when you have in Russian that a wrestler has won on points, altavista translates that he has won “on glasses”.

BTW Gatsalov is quite impudent in that interview. He already has been sharply criticized in the forum on the same site: http://206.123.104.249/forum/viewtopic.php?t=156 (in Russian).

Big

What I am going to do is translate his interview myself small sections at a time. Stay tuned.

Big

Here the beginning , the preamble, if you will:

The victory of the Russian team at Krasnoyarsk's World Cup means even more in terms of that it was won with an experimental arsenal of wrestlers. Some injuries could not allow some best wrestlers in Russia to compete and their places were taken by the younger wrestlers. An Olympic champion from Athens 2004, Ghadzhimurad Gatsalov, who won in all three matches in Krasnoyarsk, in his 24 years of age looked like a complete veteran.

Schlottke

This will take quite a while to translate, but should give it to you with a fairly easy to understand translation.

http://translate.google.com/translat...language_tools

Big

That translation just butchered the inteview! No way can some google site get the intricacies of Russian vernacular.

Big

Here is the beginning of the interview:

In my opinion, the team wrestled not just good, but outstanding, began Gatsalov. On this World Cup team there were only 2 number 1 wrestlers in their respective weight classes, and the rest was filled in with young wrestlers and what a fill in it was! We shut out both Ukraine and Georgia, and that alone means something. Even in the final we wrestled pretty confidently.

Big

Interview continues:

I was also happy with my own results, considering the fact that initially I was not supposed to wrestle at the World Cup. Only a little while before the tournament the coaches along with Dzhambulat Tedeev decided to let me wrestle. Before Krasnoyarsk, I was only at one training camp with the team and did not have enough time to get into optimal shape. However, this World Cup was at home, in Russia, and I could not let down the fans.

Journalist: Are you concerned about some of the younger wrestlers challenging you?

Big

It is possible that some of the younger guys can push me aside. Nobody is irreplaceable. However, the wrestler that wants to do that has to prove that he is ready. There are many young wrestlers with great potential but they have not realized it yet. On top of that, often even a little threat by the newcomer to a titled veteran is often blown out of proportion as a big story. This is how it was with me when in the finals of an international tournament in Tashkent I was challenged by one young wrestler. I was not ready then like I wanted, received a much tougher draw than he did, and in the final barely moved my legs. But he resisted and gave me a real fight. Right away there emerged some voices stating: "Ah, look at that guy, look how he wrestled against Ghadzhimurad"!

Journalist: Did you you quickly understand that it is much harder to be an Olympic champion than an average wrestler?

akzent

This part of the interview shows Gatsalov's arrogance.
1. His intolerance towards opponents: He even didn't mention the name of the guy as if he didn't know him. Doing so, Gatsalov tries to ignore him. It was Kurban Kurbanov. #1 is due to:
2. his narcissism.
3. His propensity to lie. In comparison with Gatsalov, Kurbanov is not “a young wrestler”. He is exactly of Gatsalov's age. By saying he was a newcomer, Gatsalov tries to belittle even the “little threat” and to present the tight score of the match in Tashkent as an accidental result of the childish enthusiasm of a young wrestler. It is well known that Kurbanov was a BIG threat for him. In that season, Kurbanov wrestled well not only in Tashkent, but also on several other tournaments and the Russian federation knew that he could threaten Gatsalov's new world triumph. That is the reason why the federation made everything possible in order to eliminate Kurbanov who was going to compete for Uzbekistan at the 2006 worlds. In a quite suspicions meeting of the FILA bureau, the Russian members succeeded in “convincing” the other members to vote the suspension of Kurbanov. This happened on Sept. 23 2006, only 5 days before the beginning of the freestyle worlds. Quite an action by reason of “a little threat by the newcomer”.
4. His double moral standards. When talking about religion (and this his favorite topic) Gatsalov is comparable with Slay; the only difference – he is Muslim. In countless statements, Gatsalov said how important for him religion is; how God, religious education in the family, reading the Koran (in questionnaires, he always gives “Koran” as the answer to the question “which is your favorite book?”) and pilgrimage to Mecca helped him to build up a personality characterized by high morality, modesty and humanity. Obviously statements don't corespondent with behavior. Several times (also in the case of this last interview) Gatsalov's double games became targets for the criticism of some of the Muslims among the Russian wrestling fans.