2004 Russian Athlete of the Year (more offseason NSR shenainigans)

Allrightie then. I've just gotten my journalist ballot to vote for the top 5 Russian athletes of the year. What is your opinion on the subject?

Here are the candidacies I am considering, in alphabetical order:

Khasan Baroyev: GR heavyweight wrestling Olympic Champion
Igor Borzakovsky: a sensational win at the Olympic 800m
Yelena Isinbayeva: the queen of track and field, Olympic pole vault gold
Nikolai Khabibulin: first Russian goalie to win the Stanley Cup, possibly overlooked for the Conn Smythe Trophy
Andrei Kirilenko: first Russian NBA All-Star
Ilya Kovalchuk: NHL's Rocket Richard Trophy co-winner
Svetlana Kuznetsova: won the US Open (her case is hurt by poor performance in the Fed Cup final)
Anastasiya Myskina: won the French Open, was perfect in leading Russian to Fed Cup title
Maria Sharapova: Wimbledon and WTA winner
Yelena Slesarenko: Olympic high jump champ
Olga Slyusareva: the cycling veteran comes back to win the Olympic points race.

What would your choice be? Any other candidacies?
Currently I am leaning towards Myskina, though she is hurt by failing to win an Olympic medal and grumbling about Sharapova's possible Fed Cup berth.
Sharapova and Isinbayeva are right up there too.

Other categories include:

Team of the Year (My field is narrowed to the women's sabre, Fed Cup, men's rowing four, synchronized swimmers, rhythmic gymnasts, Loko and Terek)

Coach of the Year (Is it Papa Syomin or what? Actually, one can make a very strong argument about Shamil Tarpishchev, the tennis guru.)

The Discovery Of the Year (pretty much all of women's tennis is a good pick, but Sharapova, the cycler Ignatiyev and the pentathlete Moiseyev are all strong candidates too)

Disappointment of the Year (this is where the football nats should rule supreme, but ice hockey was horrible too, Khorkina's Olympic meltdown was shameful, Korzhanenko's doping DQ was too and the swimmers really stunk up the pool).

Should this thread be fun or what?

 

Would you be willing to name the top 5?
I am interested to see how the vote here compares to the eventual media poll I will participate in.

 

Not bad. Kovalchuk, though, will have a tough time in the polls due to his poor performance on the national team and a lackadaisical one (so far) for Ak Bars.

 

It's the other way around. He was sometimes great and sometimes poor at the Worlds but his World Cup performance was horrible. Probably the worst player in the bunch.
Ilya's national team record is very, very unconvincing to say the least.

 

He lives!

Sharapova certainly seems to be the favorite. Though, I am still not convinced that winning the Wimbledon is that much more impressive than winning the French Open, and Myskina's Fed Cup performance was unbelievable.

 

I would love to argue this rationale, but I simply can't.
Kudos to Zenit for an Internet argument most comprehensively won. And jeers to Zenit for putting images in my mind that have no place there before the end of the work day.

 

Myskina and Isinbayeva get the shaft. Well, both probably don't mind, if you know what I mean

That's a good one. Though Sharapova's success at the age of 17 is astonishing.

Not much, but I never expected them to be THIS crappy.

As for spelling, really, I am happy I came this close.

 

Not as many replies here as I had hoped for.
My Top 5 is:

1. Anastasiya Myskina (tennis): French Open and the Fed Cup dominance
2. Yelena Isinbayeva (pole vault): Olympic champ, World female Track&Fielder of the Year
3. Maria Sharapova (tennis): Wimbledon, WTA champ, great legs
4. Yuri Borzakovsky (track): Dramatic Olympic 800m victory over Kipketer
5. Nikolai Khabibulin (hockey): Led Tampa Bay to the Stanley Cup

The overall results of 4 BS voters (5 points for first place through 1 pt for 5th):
1. Sharapova - 18
2. Myskina - 11
3. Ilya Kovalchuk (hockey) - 7
4. Khabibulin - 6 (3 mentions)
5. Isinbayeva - 6 (2 mentions)
6 (tie). Borzakovskiy and Kirilenko (basketball) - 5
8. Kuznetsova (tennis) 2

From speaking with some of my collegaues, it looks like Sharapova is a huge favorite and should win. Granted, the mystique of Wimbledon is big and the fact that she is so young has played a big role, but I thought Myskina's performances were slightly more impressive.

Semak may get a big late push, thanks to last night, given that football players always get a disproportionally huge amount of votes.

My pick for Team of the Year is the women's epee, for their gutsy Olympic victory.
Terek Grozny (Russian Cup winners) and the women's tennis Fed Cup team were also mentioned on BS. I think the latter is the current favorite.

My pick for Coach of the Year is Yuri Semin, for bringing Loko from behind in style. Taprishchev is the BS favorite and will probably win it, though Karpol (women's volleyball) should get plenty of votes too.

My pick for Discovery of the Year is Russian women's tennis. I think its emergence in 2004 was one of the top stories in sports. My BS collegues agree, though focus specifically on Kuznetsova and Sharapova. I think, one of them will wind up winning.

My pick for Disappointment of the year is the national football team. Even the cynic that I am, I didn't expect such a horrific year from them. The Olympics, Yartsev, Euro2004 and Marat Safin get mentions too. I think that this is the one vote I will actually get right.

 

Perhaps an old Taras Bulba joke will illusrate. And before you ask, Taras Bulba is a Gogol character, a fearless Cossack leader and a staunch anti-Semite.

Taras Bulba is challenged to a duel by D'Artagnan. As they meet, D'Artagnan takes a piece of chalk and draws a little cross on Taras' belly.
"Say, what the hell?", exclaims Taras.
D'Artagnan takes out his epee and says:
"This is persisely the place where I shall have the honor of piercing and killing you".
"Aaaaah... Hey, boys, bring me my club!! And empty a sack of flour on this chap, will you?"

There are a lot of things that will surprise the old Anatoly. One of them is that women really don't find this kind of voice sexy. But if he still doesn't know it after all these years, he is beyond any help.

As long as he stays the hell out of the house while I am dealing with those lips, I am totally fine.

 

You've heard it here first:

Yelena Isinbayeva has won the media vote for the 2004 Sport-Express Russian Athlete of the Year. Details to follow.

 

And so, the 2004 Sport-Express media poll yielded the following.

Athlete of the Year: Yelena Isinbayeva.


Isinbayeva, a half-Dagestani pole vaulter and a gorgeous piece of ass, exploded into the international track&field scene this year, after being an understudy to teammate Svetlana Feofanova. A dominant Olympic victory and a world record combined with pole vault's being a "high profile" sport in Russia ensured her win in the polls.

Following closely behind was Yuri Borzakovsky, whose spectacular victory in the 800m was as inspiring as it was surprising. He got 290 points to Isinbayeva's 299. Yelena's looks may have been a desisive factor. Isn't she a gorgeous piece of ass?
Maria Sharapova (speaking of which) ended up third with 164 points (including 3 from me) for winning the Wimbledon and the WTA Championships. What eventually hurt her case was Serena Williams' WTA injury, making Maria's win less valuable and the fact that Maria can be considered an American athlete as legitimately as a Russian one.
Anastasiya Myskina (144 points) got big kudos for winning the French Open, but her Fed Cup heroics were tainted by the quality of opposition.
Andrei Kirilenko (63 points) is a somewhat surprising Top 5 finisher. Basketball is very high profile in Russia and Andrei became the country's first ever NBA All-Star.

The Team of the Year is women's tennis for winning the Fed Cup, the French's lameness notwithstanding. 45% of the vote. The men's Olympic-winning rowing fours was second in the voting. The synchronized swimmers were another trendy choice.

The Coach of the Year was predictably won by Yuri Semin (31%), who led Lokomotiv to an impressive RPL win. Nikolai Karpol (women's silver-medal volleyball team), Shamil Tarpishchev (tennis) and Irina Viner (rhythmic gymnastics) were also in the running.

The Discovery of the Year went to Sharapova, who was an easy choice despite my feelings that the overall phenomenon of Russian female tennis players should've been recognized. Maria received 49% of the vote. Track cyclist Mikhail Ignatiyev was the runner-up.

The Disappointment of the Year is the overall performance Russian national football team, an overwhelmingly easy choice (38% of the vote), with the runners-up being: the 7-1 loss to Portugal (20%) and the coach Georgiy Yartsev (9%).

Another nomination, The RPL Player of the Year was desided by a poll of RPL players and went to Lokomotiv's forward Dmitri Sychev.
However, his win was very slim, just 1 point over the Zenit colleague Alexander Kerzhakov.
Zenit's versatile midfielder Andrei Arshavin was third.