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* Ilya Ilyin hopes to repeat Beijing gold in London
* National expectation inspires three-times world champion
* Billiards and karaoke fan says Olympics “unique”
By Robin Paxton
ALMATY, April 24 (Reuters) – Heads turn when Ilya Ilyin
strides into a billiards hall in Kazakhstan’s largest city. The
three-times world weightlifting champion grins and wraps his
muscular arms around doormen in the club as they take pictures
on their mobile phones.
Ilyin, still only 23, has just finished training in an
Almaty sports hall named in his honour. Nationwide expectation
that he can bring home his second Olympic gold sits easily on
his broad shoulders.
“It’s not a burden. It’s a plus,” he said. “I like to make
people happy. When you compete, when you feel the energy of the
people, it spurs you on.”
Ilyin is among Kazakhstan’s best hopes for gold at the 2012
London Olympics. The reigning world champion in the 94kg middle
heavyweight category, he says nothing quite compares to the
Olympic gold he won four years ago in Beijing.
“The Olympics have their own unique atmosphere and energy,”
he said, his dark, spiky hair still glistening after training.
“People might say it’s just the same as any other competition,
but don’t kid yourself. There’s a hunger for victory.”
Ilyin said there were about 10 competitors in the 94kg
category able to lift approximately the same weight in London.
He expects strong competition from other ex-Soviet athletes,
including his compatriot and 2009 world champion Vladimir Sedov.
“The victory margin will only be one or two kilogrammes,” he
said. “Whoever wins, I will offer my hand and embrace him like a
brother. I’m a simple person, always ready to befriend people.
“But in competition, I’m a warrior.”
Ilyin plays billiards to relax. His mobile phone rings
constantly. He wears ripped jeans and a black Nike T-shirt and
describes himself as “a music lover”; Russian rock songs are a
particular favourite during karaoke sessions with friends.
From dieticians to trainers, Ilyin has “an entire army”
behind his effort to win gold. He spares a special word of
gratitude for Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has
ruled the Central Asian state since before independence in 1991.
“It’s no secret that I’m going for gold. Everything possible
is being done for me,” he said. “You will achieve a lot of
support if you display the results. You must do your part, and
then you’ll receive it back.”
YOUNG CHAMPION
Ilyin showed his potential early. He was only six-years-old
when his brother started taking him along to a sports hall in
Kyzylorda, the remote city on the steppe of southern Kazakhstan
where his parents still live today.
“I’d finished kindergarten and there was nobody to look
after me at home during the day,” he said. “I started going to
the sports hall, running, jumping.”
Then he started lifting, only the bar at first. Coaches
quickly saw his potential. “By nature I was a little guy with
big legs – a stocky lad,” he said.
Ilyin was eight when he won his first local competition.
A year later, competing against children four years his
senior, he was crowned national youth champion of Kazakhstan. He
was breaking Asian records in his mid-teens.
At 17, Ilyin travelled to the International Weightlifting
Federation’s World Championships in Qatar in 2005 and returned
as champion in the 85kg category. He repeated the feat a year
later, this time in the 94kg category.
After a minor injury, he decided to take a break from sport.
“It was better to recover properly than to give everything
straight away,” he said. A fully fit Ilyin travelled to Beijing
in 2008 and won Olympic gold. Last year, in Paris, he became
world champion for the third time.
Ilyin has already visited London on several occasions. After
competing on Aug. 4, his thoughts will turn quickly to returning
to friends and family, not least his two-year-old daughter.
Home is Kazakhstan, a vast country of 17 million people, but
he cannot pinpoint a specific city. He divides his time between
Almaty, Kyzylorda and the capital Astana, where his partner – a
member of the national handball team – plays for the local club.
“I move around,” he says, “like a true Kazakh nomad.”
In the billiards hall, he racks up the balls for another
game and sips a cup of coffee, his favourite drink. He thinks
occasionally about a career after sport.
“I’ve started spending more of my time studying, trying to
improve my IQ by reading and writing,” he says. “I’ve missed out
on a lot in life. I don’t regret this, of course. Nevertheless I
need to make up for lost time.”
For now, though, his focus is London.
“My desire is strong and I have every opportunity,” he says.
“I have the hunger.”
(Editing by Peter Rutherford)
