Sport

Happy birthday, "Archimedes"!

On 26 June, the 52nd birthday of the Swimming Pool "Archimedes" of JINR is celebrated.

It greets the vacationer not with summer relaxation, but with good sportsmanship - the swimming season still goes on and on Saturday, there will be open swimming competitions in the pool dedicated to its birthday. Competitions will bring together over 200 athletes, in addition to Dubna, 10 teams from other cities will participate.

"We work successfully, despite a decent age. Repair, reconstruction of the pool is a very expensive pleasure, yet we try to keep all the systems in order," Director of the pool Vladimir Nikolaevich Lomakin says. "We can boast of visitors with 52 years of experience. Not every pool has such loyal fans, but Gennady Alekseevich Ososkov and Alla Ilyinichna Efimova that participated in the opening ceremony of the "Archimedes", have been swimming here for more than half a century. We have got many visitors with 40 years of experience and younger swimmers. We look to the future with confidence, because we feel the constant support of the Directorate of the Joint Institute and the Directorate of the Department of Social Infrastructure of JINR.

They started to build the pool in 1965 and today, there are a lot of problems, such as tiles in a large bathtub break off, mechanisms fail. We replace whatever we can, change kilometers of pipes, valves, we constantly monitor our considerable economy. Chinese-made plumbing installed in showers quickly deteriorates, breaks easily and in recent years, the attitude of new visitors has become more demanding, more consumerist, but previously, going to the pool was almost like going to a "temple"! People come to us for a swim from the neighbour cities, such as Kimr, Zaprudnya, Taldom that has got its own pool, from Dmitrov, where there are three pools. People love our water.

JINR staff members have benefits for visiting the pool, the Institute allocates subsidies for its maintenance as well. There are sports sections of athletic gymnastics, aerobics and scuba diving. We also have got a swimming section in the Sports school "Dubna" headed by Igor Evgenievich and Alla Yuryevna Berezutsky, in which after a break, achievements grow, good results appear, sports standards are met. Twice a month, competitions are held in in the pool of the Sports school, this is a great opportunity to train in an Olympic format pool. Athletes from Konakovo also come to train on our tracks, with a 25-meter swimming pool. For almost 20 years, the Swimming Club of Veterans "105th Element" has been training in the pool. Its members play for the JINR team in city competitions, represent Dubna in competitions of various levels and set Russian records. A few years ago, swimming lessons for schoolchildren in the city stopped. We have organized training for children in a large bathtub with T.I.Badyul, whose classes are very popular. Also, our children's bath still works, where S.I.Sidoruk and T.I.Badyul work with success.

On the eve of the anniversary of the opening of the pool, I want to congratulate our close-knit team, which I am proud of, of its hard work, goodwill, attentive attitude towards visitors. Our esteemed Valentina Ivanovna Lebedina has been working as a nurse for 52 years already, Vera Vasilyevna Popkova has been working as a laboratory assistant for half a century, many employees have been working for 30-40 years. There is a rotation of personnel, but they leave us due to age or health status. And the work here is not easy, there is a lot of cleaning, disinfection, it was especially hard during the pandemic, but we never slow down. Many thanks to all employees, thanks to Directorate of the Institute for understanding our problems and constant support. Happy holiday to everyone, happy birthday to our beloved "Archimedes"!

Olga TARANTINA,
photo by Yury TUMANOV from the archive of the pool