It is not often possible to meet a person who has high sports achievements, who will still be a responsible and diligent student, as well as a fairly successful young businessman! Today we will talk about the student of the Volga region Academy of sports Alexander Vasilkin. He is the master of sports of Russia in badminton, the winner of the team Championship of Russia, the participant of superiority of Europe, the multiple winner and the prize-winner of the international tournaments. At the same time, Alexander manages to successfully combine active sports activities with his studies.
And in September of the current academic year, Alexander together with his classmate launched the first professional badminton club "Golden shuttle" in Kazan, which immediately aroused great interest among sports fans, the number of people involved in the club is growing every month exponentially.
In an interview with the press service of IFRS "Burevestnik" Alexander shared the secrets of his success. Read about how to be a successful athlete, student and even plus businessman in our material.
- Alexander, I would like our conversation to begin with your short story about your student team, your achievements. As far as we know, the team of the Volga region Academy of badminton is one of the leaders among student teams in Russia.
- There are only two major student competitions in Russia: the all-Russian Universiade and the Russian championship among students. Two years in a row the team of the Volga region Academy of sports wins the championship of Russia. Last year we won gold for the first time at the all-Russian Universiade. Recently, we also took first place in the All-Russian competitions among students, this tournament is slightly lower in status than the same championship, but we are still happy.
I believe that a sports University, where professional athletes are trained, should always win such tournaments, without it in any way. The Academy teaches the best athletes, for whom the conditions are created to combine study and training process, to show the highest sports results.
We have a strong team, all the guys are engaged in badminton professionally. Half of our team has the title of masters of sports of Russia, the rest are candidates for master, but I think this year they should get masters.
I would also like to note that we have an amazing coaching and teaching staff, one of the best in the country! Our coach – Igor Borisovich Nazarov, is a coach of the Junior team of Russia, coach of the Republic of Tatarstan, as well as a teacher of the Volga Academy of sports.
- Professional athletes are not always serious about performances at student tournaments. I believe that this competition is not their level. How are things in your team?
- To be honest, for us it is for granted-we have to play and win, there are no other options. The results of student competitions are of great importance for the Volga region sports Academy. We must meet the conditions that we create, so the question never arises, we simply do what needs.






We also have plans for our development in student sports. We would very much like to take part in the student European championship and, of course, the student world championship.  The team wants to participate in international competitions, it is very important in terms of personal development of the athlete.
- Let's go back a little bit. Tell us about your admission to the University. Was it hard?
- To be honest, it was not very difficult for me to enter. When I entered, our direction only gained momentum, professional athletes were few. Now is another time to do a little harder, but those who are professionally engaged, show good results, they have problems with admission will not arise.
Your regime is different from the average student's day. Tell me about a normal day.


- I, like almost all members of our student team, enter the national team of the Republic of Tatarstan. We have a strict schedule, it is necessary to combine intensive training, training camps, competitions and studies. A typical day looks like this: morning training (2.5-3 hours), then we visit couples at the Academy and go to the evening training, which also lasts about three hours. This is our usual regime when there are no fees. On collecting everything is more difficult: more trainings, less free time.
- With such a busy schedule, it's amazing where you even had the free time to start your business project. Where did the idea of creating a badminton club come from? What started it?
- It all started with the fact that we wanted to launch a project of Turkish ice cream. It's a very long story. In short, we had everything ready, we paid for the rent, but some higher forces intervened or it's just fate. We were dissuaded. Then we started thinking about creating a club. Everyone weighed, realized that if we open a club, we will do what we love, work for ourselves and still get high from it. We were helped with the opening. Support was provided by the badminton Federation of the Republic of Tatarstan, our coach, Igor Borisovich, also helped a lot.  In September we opened the first badminton club "Golden Shuttle"in Kazan. There were a lot of interested people, we immediately received more than 500 applications!
I am glad that we managed to gather an excellent team in the club, thanks to which we are making progress. I am not alone in the development of the club, I have a partner - Stas Chapurin. He is also a student of the Volga Academy, my classmate. We have wonderful young coaches: teacher of the Volga region sports Academy Karina Nazarova and student of the Academy Vitaly Egorov.
In addition, we pay special attention to our development in social networks, the formation of the image of our club. For this direction we are responsible Arthur Kadyrov, who is also a student of the Volga region Academy.
In General, everyone is very interested in working on the promotion of our club. It is felt that children are satisfied with process, give all the best for all hundred percent. I am very grateful to them for that.
- What is the uniqueness of your club? What do you think the popularity of "Golden Shuttle"is connected with?


- We provide both group and individual trainings. And the uniqueness of the club is that we give the opportunity to train with the whole family.  We are developing three areas: children's groups, Amateur groups and family training. In children's groups we teach the basics of the sport, if desired, the guys can continue to engage in badminton professionally. In adult groups we train Amateurs. People come to family trainings to pay more attention to children, to instill in them love to sports in particular to badminton. At all our trainings there are at least two trainers who do not leave engaged without attention, try to find to everyone an individual approach.
- Before the interview, your social networks were promoted. There is a photo on the court with the President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov. Please comment.
- With his project – badminton club, we went to the factory business. There for the first time met Rustam Nurgalievich. To be honest, because of this, they went there to learn about us the President, and our project was made public.
The second time we met Rustam Nurgalievich in the badminton Center. He came to play badminton with the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation – Maxim Alekseevich Akimov.  We were invited as the best badminton players. There is a photo and made.


- Well, let's talk a little about your plans for the future.
- As for sports plans, now I am preparing for the performance at the Russian Cup, which will be held in may in Kazan.
Also now I plan to focus on my studies, after all, I have the fourth year – the finish line. After graduation, I plan to continue my studies at our University in the master's degree.
There are also many plans and goals that are aimed at the development of our project – badminton club. We have already taken part in the factory of entrepreneurship, which served as a powerful impetus for us, now we want to enter the team of the personnel reserve of the Republic of Tatarstan with the project. In General, it would be nice to become a big businessman in 15 years. Personally, I do not like to be dependent on anyone, I like to take responsibility for myself, I think this is what determines my desire to develop my business, build my business.
- You are an example of a rare case. A professional athlete who combines studies at the University and at the same time pays much attention to the development of his own business. Finally, share the secret of success with our readers.
- The main thing is to set priorities correctly. There is a time for everything. Here for me, when we prepare for competitions, there is nothing around. When we do not have upcoming starts, we develop the club and pull up our studies.
By the way, I have no problems with studying. Fundamentally disagree with the stereotype that athletes are stupid. That's definitely not me. I believe that the main thing is to be in constant development, to find yourself and not give yourself concessions, even in small things. To develop and not to stop at the achieved results. This is an elementary discipline that should be instilled from childhood.
Text: Ksenia Lusanna (Press service of the IFRS "Petrel")