Silver Fish won gold at Universiade

Alexandra Gerasimenya photosession

Belarusian swimmer Alexandra Gerasimenya nicknamed "Silver Fish" for her 2 silver Olympic medals in London has won a gold medal in Kazan and did a photo session for a sport newspaper "Pressball"

In Kazan the XXVII World Student tournament goes on. In the final swim on the 50 meter butterfly distance the Belarusian Alexandra Gerasimenya was unattainable for rivals, setting a new record for the Universiade and Belarus - 25.84. Silver will go to Canadian Catherine Savard with 26.05  and bronze to Italian Elena Jam - 26.28.

But on the eve of the competition Alexandra did one thing that a lot of her fans had asked her to do for a while and starred in the photo shoot for the newspaper "Pressball" and the Belarusian Federation of Swimming. Some of these brilliant pictures of our national pride is below

This year for Sasha is unusual in many respects. Not least because she missed the World Championships in Barcelona. "But now I know for sure that purposefully prepare for" the world "is easier than trying to combine serious study and training", - says Alexandra Gerasimenya, who just recently graduated as an Economist with a diploma from Belarusian Economic University.

"Now it will be difficult to convince me that a high-class athlete managed to finish a university with honours. If there are exceptions, I want to get to know this extraordinary man" - she says

"It seems to me that learning can be productive only when there is only one training session a day. But if you have two of them and you open your textbook at 8 pm, your brain is just tired. I know that according to research by scientists after heavy physical exertion, it recovered only after about 6 hours."

"I think we, sportsmen, can recover faster, but still it was a small consolation. I personally often fall asleep with a book in my hands. So on the exams I was sometimes ashamed as teachers really did a favour to me, supposedly saying - hay, she has other important things to do than study ..."

"Still, I'm glad I was able to adequately pass this challenge - now I am planning to go to Oxford ..."

Sasha is unstoppable. After second degree she is really going to have the third one. For reasonable question "Why that much??? she answer with a smile "For me it's not enough. Because I know that before the next Olympic I would not definitely have time for it".

Okay, forgive her this weakness and her craving to learn. And try not to see fatigue in Sasha's eyes during this session - between the second training session and morning departure to the airport for the next competition ...

Alexandra Gerasimenya, a Belarusian swimmer

by Sergey Schurko
Photo: Eugene Grabkin, Pressball