Young gymnasts from Ulan-Ude returned from China with a victory. Gymnasts from Buryatia “broke” the British “Minute of Fame” Gymnasts from Buryatia in London

Photo by the press service of the Ulan-Ude administration

In Manchuria, athletes won 15 medals of various denominations

The Ulan-Ude gymnasts of the rhythmic gymnastics studio “Grace” of the City Palace of Children and Youth Creativity returned with victory from international competitions in the Chinese city of Manchuria.

Our girls won a total of 15 medals in the individual competition. Of these, 4 gold medals were brought in different age categories by Sofia Voronova, Polina Borodina, Irina Shcheglovskaya, Yana Simashova,” says studio coach Svetlana Bogatykh.

The “Grace” studio was represented by 31 gymnasts from 6 to 13 years old. In total, 150 participants from Irkutsk, Blagoveshchensk, Manchuria, Beijing, Ulan-Ude, Zabaikalsk, and Chita took part in the international competitions, which took place from October 26 to 29. The apparent lightness and plasticity on the carpet is preceded by painstaking daily training.

Our girls also showed excellent results in group exercises - two golds, one silver and one bronze. All the girls showed their skills and gave 100 percent,” adds coach Natalya Chagdurova.

Despite the “Spartan” conditions for training, young Ulan-Ude gymnasts, under the guidance of their coaches, worthily represent the republic at the most prestigious competitions. The next ones will take place from November 11 to 13 at the Physical Culture and Sports Complex in Ulan-Ude. The championship of the Republic of Buryatia “Order of the Phoenix” is considered a rating championship and gathers a large number of participants not only from home, but also from neighboring regions. Gymnasts from the “Gracia” GDDYUT studio are rightfully considered one of the main contenders for medals.

Stage, twilight, spotlights. Four figures in emerald skin appear in a blaze of light and stand in front of the microphones.

We are from Buryatia, this is in Russia. Six hours by plane to Moscow and a couple more to London,” the girls greeted producer Simon Cowell, actress Amanda Holden, singer Alesha Dixon and comedian David Walliams, the jury of the box-office TV show “Britain’s Got Talent.”

What is the name of the team?

- “Angara Contortion” (“Bend of the Angara”).

Do you think you can win? – one of the judges challenged the participants.

Oh yeah! – the girls answered without a shadow of a doubt.

The result? Anyone who has seen footage of the Buryat snakes performing knows. Standing ovation from the audience, four “yes” out of four, progression to the next round and almost two million views on YouTube. The tricks the girls perform make me want to watch them over and over again. Their miracles of gutta-percha defy logic. The girls twist themselves into any knot, creating unimaginable figures out of themselves. All English newspapers wrote about the phenomenon of Buryat artists. And yet, Komsomolskaya Pravda correspondents found out what it is. We found gymnasts, but not in Ulan-Ude, but in Canada. As part of the famous Cirque Du Soleil, gutta-percha girls - Bayarma, Imin, Ayagma and Sarchmaa - tour North America. And the fact that the British show was conquered not by amateurs, but by professionals, even though this is not prohibited, became a scandal.

In general, we live in Los Angeles, but this is very conditional, since we are always on tour,” says 30-year-old Bayarma Zodboeva. – We are in each city for about two months, we give 8-9 performances a week, and the vacation is only a week, when the circus moves from one parking lot to another.

Bayarma, Imin and Ayagma have been working at Cirque Du Soleil for six years.

We passed the casting in Mexico when we worked in another circus,” Bayarma smiles. – And nine months later we were invited to Du Soleil. And here we are overseas!

Imin, Ayagma and Bayarma have known each other since childhood; they are from the same circus studio in Ulan-Ude. Sarchmaa recently joined the trio from Buryatia. She is the youngest member of the team, she is only 20 years old.

“I was born in the small village of Zugalai, Trans-Baikal Territory, my parents were simple workers, there were no influential relatives,” says Bayarma. - At school, physical education teacher Tuyana Dorzhinimaevna Ochirova noticed my ability in gymnastics. Then the parents learned that a circus studio was opening in Ulan-Ude. I really asked him to take me, mom and dad agreed. This was in 1996.

The first set also included Imin and Ayagma. The girls lived in a boarding school in one room and studied at the lyceum. After school, we ran to training, practicing for at least three hours every day. But you can’t hide talent! Gutta-percha girls began to be invited to various competitions and state prize tours. In 2005, for example, they won the Grand Prix in Monte Carlo, and in 2010 Mstislav Zapashny noticed them, gave them a bunch of compliments, and even invited them to join his troupe. But the gymnasts chose the “Circus Dream Factory” - Cirque Du Soleil. Still would! Artists of the Circus of the Sun, as the name is translated from French, entertained the audience during the 74th Oscar ceremony (the girls, however, did not attend the ceremony, as they were working at the theater in Los Angeles at the time - author's note) .), the 50th Grammy Awards and the 41st Super Bowl. They stage performances, incredible acrobatic performances and special effects. You need to buy tickets for their show, no matter what city in the world it is in, several months in advance

In fact, the producers themselves invited us to the show Britain's Got Talent,” says Bayarma. “They saw the performance on the Internet and offered us. This is not the first time we have participated in such reality. A year ago, for example, there was “The Late, Late Show of James Corden ": the rules in it are like in the Russian “Minute of Glory.” We rejoice at any invitation. This is another chance to show ourselves, to tell where we come from, about our land. And the name “Bend of the Angara” did not arise by chance. According to legend, the Angara River. - the only daughter of Baikal, who runs away from her father to the handsome Yenisei. We, too, like the daughters of Baikal, were born next to him, and grew up as beautiful, graceful and strong as the famous Siberian river.

If the girls win Britain's Got Talent, they will win a substantial sum. The main prize is 250 thousand pounds or almost 20 million rubles.

The British talent show was shocked by the “gutta-percha girls” from Buryatia. Flexible four Angara Contortion push their bodies to the limits as they twist, turn and twine together in a bid to impress our panel with their out of this w...

The four girls gave the jury members a standing ovation.

It’s our “Minute of Fame” that goes on vacation for several years and then returns, but somehow without much success. In the UK, a similar show called Britain’s Got Talent and aired on ITV has not lost its wild popularity since 2007.

In one of the latest releases of the project, four girls in tight green gymnastics suits appeared on stage. “We are from Buryatia, this is inside Russia. Our group is called “Angara Bend,” the girls said in good English. And they showed an absolutely stunning performance, reminiscent of extremely flexible snakes. The jury went into a frenzy: three out of four applauded while standing, naturally opening their mouths in surprise (remember, for contrast, how, say, our Vladimir Pozner reacted in a similar role). David Williams actually said that this was the most stunning number on the show that he had ever seen. Overall, it was a huge, phenomenal success. The next day, leading British tabloids talked about an incredible female quartet from Russia.

True, the fly in the ointment was not long in coming: reporters found out that in fact the girls had been living in the USA for a long time, had performed there on television, and were generally acting performers of the famous Canadian Cirque du Soleil. Like, these are professional gymnasts, and the show seems to be for amateurs. The girls' names, by the way, are Imina Tsydendambaeva, Bayarma Zodboeva, Ayagma Tsybenova - they are all really from Buryatia, but live in Los Angeles, and Sarchmaa - her profile states that she is from the Mongolian Ulaanbaatar.