“Then they apologized.” Coach of the Russian national team in biology about the sanctions and our victory
Western countries, in their desire to humiliate Russia, have gone so far as to vote against Russian children in order to keep them out of international olympiads. But the reason and world authority of our trainers-teachers nevertheless prevailed, and our schoolchildren were able to go to Yerevan, where they showed once again that they are the best in the world.
"We have the most biological biologist in the world", — jokes about the absolute winner of the International Olympiad in Biology, his mentor. Yakov Korobitsyn from the Moscow school of the Center for Pedagogical Excellence became the absolute winner of the Olympiad. Three other members of the Russian team also won gold.
How, under the conditions of sanctions, were Russian schoolchildren able to defeat all the strongest competitors? r told aif.ru about thisHead Coach of the Russian Team, Professor of Biology at Lomonosov Moscow State University Lomonosov Alexander Rubtsov.
Yulia Borta, aif.ru: — Alexander Mikhailovich, how did you manage to bring the team to competitions< strong>in person in Yerevan? Our students were not allowed to previous international olympiads in mathematics and physics,allowing participation only remotely from Russia.
Alexander Rubtsov: — Biology team was allowed to full-time participation. The only condition was that we compete under the flag of the International Biological Olympiad, and not under the flag of Russia. And we don not waving Russian flags anywhere. But we all flew to Yerevan, and schoolchildren, and coaches. Everyone participated in the work. Adults in the jury, children, respectively, in the competitions. At the other Olympiads, there a lot of pressure.
— How were you able to turn the tide?
— I "butted" three months.
— So is it your personal merit that the children were still able to come?
— I can't say it's personal. This is a merit, including and of the participating countries, which voted for the fact that our guys should not be allowed in. Someone was for to remove the Russian team altogether, but by a majority of votes we were still allowed in. After that, some delegations said that since we participate they will go — it's in mostly Europe. And then we held a vote, as a result of which we were given the condition — perform only under the flag of the International Biological Olympiad and not show the Russian flag anywhere on stage and in other public places. We agreed.
— Which countries favored us?
— Voting was closed; I don't have such information. But since I have many acquaintances and colleagues in other countries, in the organizing committee, I have a rough idea of who were for us, and who is against us.
— Who are our closest competitors in biology? According to mathematics, for example, these are the Chinese, we can can get around them there yet.
— Chinese here too. But they have a covid epidemic now and they did come. So we are lucky in that regard. And so you would have to fight. Although there were Taiwanese, and this is also a very strong team. Also Singapore — invariably in leaders.
— How were the places in the individual standings, in addition to the absolute 1st place?
— Our guys also took 5 place, 9 and 10 places by the number of points. All of them received gold medals. According to the rules of the Olympiad, they are awarded 10% of of all participants according to the highest score. All of our students are in the top ten.
— Last year, the International Olympiad was held online. In person Is it harder to participate?
— Of course, it's more difficult. On practical tour there were 4 rooms for completing assignments. That is, schoolchildren worked in four different rooms —during the day botany, zoology, bioinformatics, biochemistry. They worked with their hands, set up experiments, got results. All this was entered into the answer sheets. By the way, in the field of bioinformatics, our Yakov Korobitsyn took 1st place.
There was also a theoretical tour — for three hours from morning to dinner we answered questions, and for another three hours in the evening.
— Did did feel that our guys are trying to sue, underestimate points?
— I want to note the warmest and friendly attitude of colleagues from Yerevan University, which hosted the Olympiad. To be honest, all the delegations, with whom we communicated, with the exception of two or three countries, which I will not name, treated us as friendly as possible. Someone even came up later and apologised with the words that, they say, they don have nothing personal to us the guys, it is all about politics.
—  ;Now many athletes in the West have begun to advocate for Russian athletes to be allowed to participate in international competitions. Because without Russians and sport is not the same. Probably the same thing in science?
— Of course. Otherwise, who will compete with if we don will be?
— There is an opinion that international Olympiads are held, in including, so that the West can look at our best guys and then lure to themselves.
— In principle, the diploma of the international Olympiad makes it possible to enter many foreign universities without exams. Since I have been preparing for the Olympiads for twenty years, I know that there are guys from Belarus, Ukraine who went to enter the universities of Poland and other European countries. Our guys make their choice in favor of education in their country. And and this year three go to Moscow State University, and one graduate to Novosibirsk State University. Last year, all four came to our university.
— had one girl in the team; Why are there always more boys? Are they smarter or do they have a more combative nature?
— Perhaps boys have a stronger psyche. We choose from the winners of the All-Russian Olympiad for schoolchildren. Initially, we had eight candidates. Among the eight there were two girls. As a result, in the competitive struggle, she entered the national team alone, and there were three guys left. There were years when we four girls participated. Last year and the year before we had four boyfriends. It all depends on how the guys show themselves. So we don’t have any gender, as it’s fashionable to say today.
— A nwhether it is necessary to expand the selection, and not limited only to the All-Russian Olympiad? There are probably a lot of talented children in Russia.
— The All-Russian Olympiad covers tens and hundreds of thousands of children. Only at the final stage in 11 class more than a hundred people perform. And we start tracking kids in 9th grade. In addition, there is an educational center “Sirius” in Sochi, in which 100-200 schoolchildren come to scientific shifts. Not only the winners of the All-Russian Olympiad, but also the winners of others get there. These are guys who are interested in biology, they do a good job. So we choose to the national team not on the eve of the international Olympiad. This process takes 2-3 years. During this time we teach children — potential candidates for the team, watch them, how they grow, progress.
— Where do talents come from? Are selected and trained by school teachers who are passionate about the subject? Or are they that wayare born like me?
— In different ways. There are children who are born as young naturalists, they are interested in nature, biology. Of course, teachers also influence. But first of all, it is the desire of the guys themselves to learn new things. This is a huge work, a lot of everything you need to read, watch. Do it yourself.
— What can you wish for schoolchildren who also strive to succeed in the sciences?
— We need to continue to study what they are interested in. Participate in olympiads, go to the educational center "Sirius". After all, not only Olympiads come there, but also talented guys, starting from 7-8 grades. And they look at whether it is interesting to them or not. If interested, they continue to study in more depth.
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