TUESDAY, MARCH 14, 2017
lifestyle
F E A T U R E S
These file photos taken show Maja Kuczynska, 17, making airborne gymnastic moves during her skydiving performance inside a wind tunnel in the Polish capital Warsaw on February 19, 2017. — AFP photos
Young pioneers push envelope
on freestyle indoor skydiving
D
ressed in a white skintight full body suit and helmet, Maja Kuczynska spins furiously before diving into a fast-moving sequence of airborne gymnastic moves with the elegance of a ballet dancer.
Soaring into yet another spin, she then floats, twists and
backflips in choreographed maneuvers akin to acrobatics or ice-skating suspended in midair. Her expressive
and dizzying two-minute display is enthusiastically
applauded by the crowd seated around the outside of
the wind tunnel. At the age of 17, the Polish high school
student is one of about 20 top indoor skydiving competitors worldwide, who are pioneering the solo
freestyle version of a sport they call "flying".
"It's more of an artistic approach to the subject," the
slender and sleepy teen told AFP, at 3:00 am on a Sunday
as she waited to practice at the busy vertical wind tunnel
in the Polish capital, Warsaw. "It's such a fast-paced discipline, right now there's no one to teach me," she adds.
Vertical wind tunnels, where air moves up a column that
stands up to 20 meters (66 feet) high, were first developed for aerodynamic tests. Their recreational use has
gained in popularity over the last decade among skydivers seeking a safer alternative to jumping out of a
plane. Wind speeds in the tunnel can reach up to 300
kilometers per hour (186 miles per hour) and, while the
moves look effortless, staying in control requires enormous strength, flexibility and precision.
But there are no limits on creative freedom. "It's really different from, let's say, ice-skating, because it's been
around for such a long time that now it's really hard to
create new moves, while in the tunnel I can go in and
play and create something nobody has ever seen before.
"A couple of different people and I are creating this discipline," Maja adds.
Olympic dreams
She won the bronze medal in solo freestyle at a major
international indoor skydiving competition, the Wind
Games 2017, last month in Empuriabrava, northeastern
Spain. Competitions have rounds involving compulsory
moves and others where anything goes. A video posted
on Facebook of Maja's performance, choreographed to
Major Lazer's hit song "Powerful", has gone viral, gathering 30.5 million views in just over a month. She was only
outdone by Singapore's 14-year-old indoor skydiving
sensation Kyra Poh, who won gold in the freestyle category, and Czech competitor Jakub Harrer, who took silver, according to the Wind Games 2017 official website.
Although there are still just a handful of people
worldwide competing at the top level in the solo
freestyle category, there is already talk of the sport making it to the Olympics. "Indoor skydiving is the only aerobatic sports discipline that meets the criteria for being
an Olympic discipline," claims Bartosz Wiecek, manager
of the Fly Spot vertical wind tunnel in Warsaw. "It's following the same path as snowboarding, which at one
time was very 'underground' and very independent. "In
the end, an agreement was reached and it became an
Olympic sport because it gained popularity," he said.
Kids too
Several vertical wind tunnels have popped up in
Poland. They can operate around the clock and are much
cheaper and safer than skydiving out of a plane. There is
also no age limit. Maja says that when she started six
years ago, she was among a handful of indoor skydiving
children around the globe including two girls in
Singapore and "a couple of siblings in Dubai". "But now,
half of the flyers at least, at competitions for freestyle,
are kids!" she said.
At just nine years old, Polish "flying" competitor
Olga Lubak will head to Montreal in Canada, along with
Maja, in October for the World Indoor Skydiving
Championships. For now, Olga is spending hours in the
wind tunnel to perfect her routine. "I'm really stressed
out because I'm afraid of being last but I don't think
that will happen," she told AFP, before being swept up
in the wind tunnel in another series of "flying" twists,
turns and spins. — AFP
100 years on, debate rolls on over Russia's last tsar
S
aint or playboy, blood-stained autocrat or family man,
incompetent leader or just a victim of circumstance? A
century after he ended Romanov rule, Russia's last tsar
still prompts heated debate. Nicholas II abdicated on March
2, 1917, or March 15 by the current calendar, in the royal train
in the northwestern town of Pskov. "There's no consensus in
society or among historians about Nicholas II," says Boris
Kolonitsky, a history professor at the European University at
Saint Petersburg. Independent polling center Levada last
month found almost half of Russians feel positively about
Nicholas II. President Vladimir Putin, despite his Soviet spy
past, has linked his rule to the Romanovs, opening statues and
exhibitions and lighting a candle in front of an icon used at
Romanov coronations. In December he called for the 1917
centenary to bring "reconciliation".
A big 'what if'
Nicholas II abdicated after the February Revolution in Saint
Petersburg, when troops mutinied as protestors demanded
bread and condemned tsarism. An online poll by
A symbol of Russian tsars is pictured on the RussoBaltiysky K12/20 car (1911) during the exhibition ‘His
Emperor Majestry Garage’ of 50 old cars in Moscow.
Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid last month found 33 percent
blamed the events on "foreign secret services", but just 15 percent blamed the tsar's wavering. Nicholas first wanted his ailing son Alexei to succeed, but agreed to choose his brother
Grand Duke Mikhail, who refused, ending the dynasty. For
Romanov descendant Paul Kulikovsky, the moment of
Nicholas's abdication is a big "what if".
"It could easily have been avoided," said Kulikovsky, whose
great-grandmother Olga was Nicholas's sister. "He was basically isolated and didn't have any family or friends around him at
this crucial moment." Kulikovsky, 56, is the only Romanov
descendant living in Russia. With recognizably Romanov features, he grew up in Denmark but has a Russian wife. He is
philosophical about the Romanov legacy, citing a recent poll
finding that only 20 percent want a monarchy. "Even if there is
a monarchy, it's not a given that it will be a Romanov one
again and I'm fine with that," he told AFP.
Romanovs as holy martyrs
After Nicholas's abdication, a provisional government took
over but was overthrown by the Bolsheviks in the October
Revolution. The new authorities arrested the ex-tsar and his
family and moved them to Siberia and Yekaterinburg in the
Urals where the Bolsheviks shot them in 1918 and hastily hid
their remains. The Russian Orthodox Church has canonized
the whole family as holy martyrs, which some believe means
Nicholas II is beyond criticism. A forthcoming film about
Nicholas's pre-marital affair with a ballerina, "Matilda" by
Alexei Uchitel, has angered extreme believers who even
threatened arson attacks on cinemas. Monarchists this month
announced a bust of Nicholas II in Russia-annexed Crimea was
miraculously oozing myrrh-a claim denied by the Church.
Nicholas's ambiguous status as a historical figure but also a
saint affects his family, too. Criminal investigators and geneticists believe bone fragments found in 2007 are the remains of
Alexei and his sister Maria. But they cannot be laid to rest
until the Church decides on their fate. Meanwhile they lie in
boxes in state archives. Other family members were buried in
1998 in Saint Petersburg in a ceremony attended by thenpresident Boris Yeltsin. Leading a Church investigation is
Archimandrite Tikhon, a monk said to be President Vladimir
Visitors look at a Bebe Peugeot (1913) during the exhibition ‘His Emperor Majestry Garage’ of 50 old cars in Moscow.
— AFP photos
A visitor looks at a Bebe Peugeot (1913) during the exhibition ‘His Emperor Majestry Garage’ of 50 old cars in Moscow.
Putin's spiritual advisor. Tikhon said he hopes to announce a
decision by this summer. "We hope very soon this will be the
end of this chapter," Kulikovsky said.
'Not a good politician'
Historians are divided on the impact of Nicholas II's reign
and his abdication. Monarchist historian Vladimir Lavrov of
the Institute of Russian History at a recent debate in Moscow
said the "handover of power was illegal." It followed an "antiRussian and anti-Orthodox" revolution," he said. Yet the tsar is
still remembered as "Bloody Nicholas". In 1905 his troops shot
dead hundreds of peaceful protesters, shocking the world.
Historian Kirill Solovyov of Russia State University for the
Humanities recalled a Soviet joke that it wasn't Lenin but
Nicholas II who did most to foment revolution. Solovyov
believes a political crisis was inevitable but revolution could
have been avoided if in 1917 the tsar had agreed to "radical
changes in power."
But Nicholas delayed and by late February, the situation
was "probably irreversible", Solovyov believes. For Kolonitsky,
Nicholas "wasn't a good politician." "He didn't want to allow
reforms-which conformed to his beliefs, he was a convinced
monarchist," he said. Russia's complex situation "escalated significantly" during World War I, he says. "I'm not sure even a
good politician could have brought the ship of Russia through
those reefs. The challenges were very great." The public often
dismissed the tsar as "a fool," he said, but Nicholas was not
stupid. He was an "unusually reserved" man who viewed his
family as his priority, but also "had the gift to charm people,"
he said. He was "quite stubborn" but not a strong person or a
good judge of those he appointed, Kolonitsky said. "He wanted to be an autocrat but he didn't have the character of an
autocrat."— AFP
A visitor looks at a Delaunay-Belleville 35CV car (1912) during the exhibition ‘His Emperor Majestry Garage’ of 50
old cars in Moscow.