On Children's Day, famous athletes held a motivational meeting with the youth of the Movement of the First at the RUSSIA EXPO

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On International Children's Day, June 1, at the RUSSIA EXPO, as part of the Movement of the First Festival, Pavilion No. 55 (Home of Youth) hosted a motivational discussion "Achieve and Succeed with the First." Renowned athletes — figure skater Ilya Averbukh, biathlete Olga Zaitseva, mountaineer Sergei Kofanov, and footballer Dmitry Sennikov — shared insights on how to stay motivated and achieve success with participants of the Movement of the First from different regions of Russia, as well as international students.

The distinguished guests shared memories of how they started their sports careers, talked about who inspired them to win and served as role models, gave practical advice, and of course, wished the "Firsts" success in achieving their goals.

"Don't postpone anything until tomorrow. Live, dream, and strive to accomplish everything — do everything here and now, seize the moment, and realize your potential. Step by step, understanding that our victories come from daily routine work, and there are no other recipes. If you miss this moment, you'll turn into someone who will whine for the rest of their life, saying 'what could have been...' You have everything, guys. Don't talk about fatigue or burnout. Burn first, then keep burning, lead others, and strive to be better than yourself," said Olympic figure skating medalist, director of theatrical shows, producer, and choreographer in figure skating Ilya Averbukh.

Sport is always associated with discipline. It is this, combined with perseverance, that helps achieve high goals and be the first in your chosen field. Biathlete, two-time Olympic relay champion, three-time world champion, and Merited Master of Sport of Russia Olga Zaitseva shared with the kids how not to give up when it seems that nothing is working out.

"If you are pursuing a goal, there will never be a smooth path; there are always difficulties. But this path is given to us so that we can overcome these difficulties — and then you reach your dream and goal. And when you feel like you don't want to do anything, when nothing is working out, you probably need to take a little break, distract yourself, but don't give up. For me, for example, my family, friends, team, and of course my dream and desire to succeed helped," said Olga Zaitseva.

Sergei Kofanov is a Master of Sport of Russia, Russian climbing champion, and the youngest climber who conquered Mount Jomolungma. In 2007, during an expedition to Everest, he even saved the life of a lost Italian climber. At the meeting with the youth, he talked about how motivation changes throughout life.

"I have been climbing for almost 30 years, and over such a long period, motivation, of course, changes. It is absolutely normal for your motivation to change throughout your career because it is very difficult to find a single motivator that will drive you your entire life. In my case, at the start, one of the main motivators was the desire to be the first. But this motivation works for a certain period. For me, it shifted to another type of motivation — I became a coach. The satisfaction of seeing athletes achieve, perhaps, even greater results under your guidance than you did is a different kind of motivation. Then I started working with regular people who wanted to climb mountains — and that had its own motivation, and so on," noted Sergei Kofanov.

A huge role in maintaining motivation and achieving results is played by the team, noted Dmitry Sennikov, two-time Russian champion, multiple silver and bronze medalist, three-time Russian Cup winner, two-time Russian Super Cup winner, and participant in the European and World Championships as part of the Russian national football team: "I hopped, you could say, from club to club because I was looking for 'my' team with which I could win something. And I was lucky to find a championship team with which we had many victories, so the role of the team is certainly very important. However, while working in a team, it is important to understand that you are just a link in a large mechanism and must always act for the benefit of the team. And this applies not only to sport: it is always important to maintain balance to achieve common goals."

The Festival of Childhood and Youth "Movement of the First" will take place in all regions of the country, with its main venue being the RUSSIA EXPO. At the grand opening ceremony of the Festival, participants were warmly welcomed and congratulated by distinguished guests and popular artists from the Main Street Stage of the Exposition.

The large-scale youth celebration will be held at the Exposition from June 1 to 2 and promises many exciting activities for children and adults: business games, quizzes, presentations, masterclasses, motivational discussions with famous people, meetings with experts, star performances, vibrant events, flash mobs, and much more.