Shumbrat, Finno-Ugria

There was more in Russian press about Ovechkin's training in St. Petersburg and the translation is available at www.OnFrozenBlog.com

Quote from On Frozen Blog translation:

Alexander Ovechkin returned to St. Petersburg from Saransk, where he took part in the national Shumbrat, Finno-Ugria festival. Alex arrived back at the gym fresh and upbeat, even though he was coming straight from the airport.

Alex, what took you to Saransk?

I was invited to go there. My mom also came...

Ovechkin's Mom is ethnic Mordvin while his Dad is ethnic Russian.

Exact translation is "I flew there on invitation, because I have Mordvin roots. My mom also came..."

OnFrozenBlog also provided a link to the Finno-Ugric National Culture Festival.

President of Russia Vladimir Putin, President of Finland Tariu Halonen and Prime-Minister of Hungary Franz Durchan are expected to arrive in Saransk during the festival.

There are many Finno-Ugric peoples living in Russia. These groups speak languages that are related to modern Finnish and/or Hungarian and include the Karelians, Komi, Maris, Mordvins, and Udmurts. These groups traditionally lived in the Middle Volga region of Russia and are culturally diverse.

Prez Putin in his speech at the festival mentioned that out of 160 different ethnicities in Russian Federation 13 belong to Finno-Ugric.

Anyhow I had no idea about so many people sharing the same language from Ural to Finland, to Hungary. It was interesting.

P.S. Shumbrat means Hello.

Link to original SovSport interview

Wikipedia: Finno-Ugric (IPA: [finəʊ juːgrik]) is a grouping of languages in the Uralic language family, comprising Hungarian, Finnish and Estonian, and related languages. It comprises the Finno-Permic and Ugric language families.

Marathon man is training Ovechkin, Malkin and Gonchar in St. Petersburg.

Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Sergei Gonchar, Alexei Semenov and free agent Andrei Nikolishin are in St. Petersburg, where they got together for a summer workout.

Ovechkin to the Sport-Express reporter Dinara Kafiskina:

"Viktor Kozlov and Sasha Semin sre supposed to join us. Gonchar was working out in the off-season in St. Petersburg in the past and now we have decided to join him. So far our training is focused on jogging and working out in the fitness room, which was offered to us by Olga Slutsker, the owner of several fitness centers in Moscow and St. Petersburg. I called her and asked her to help with our training. The training process has been led by Dmitry Kapitonov, a former marathon runner."



"The atmosphere here is pretty cool, we workout five hours a day," continued Ovechkin. "We are planning on-the-ice training a bit later. So far, however, I don't know where the ice drills will be held. I plan to stay in St. Petersburg till August 10th. We spend our leisure time together as well. After morning workouts we have lunch, then nap, and in the evenings we are going to the movies and banya (sauna)."

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...hmmm
Quote about St Petersburg's Banya - Sauna (Spa)

If you have not visited Russian Banya - Sauna Spa, then you have not been to Russia on a tour. It is like if visiting the USA and not eating a hamburger.

All the fine museums of St Petersburg Russia with their finest art will not compete with a few hours in a nice banya or you can call it spa. There are several components which make this experience complete: good banschick (a person who knows all about banya), good atmosphere, ice cold swimming pool, steam room, vodka, caviar and plenty of good conversation.

If you are in St Petersburg Russia, contact Max. He knows all about banya and nightlife in the city. Russians celebrate in a banya anything from a signed business contract to a wedding anniversary. They go to a banya to get naked with wives, girlfriends, friends and business associates.

Sometimes it is not easy to book a respectable spa (banya) in the evening. The demand is high. The difference between good and bad ones is like the difference between Austrian coffee house and Starbucks, streetwalker and geisha, American smile and the smile of Madonna by Leonardo Da Vincci.