“The Bitsevsky Olympic Sports Complex is probably known to every jockey in our country, a huge number of Russian and world champions have come out of it. Unfortunately, the time has come when it has become, in fact, an emergency , poorly adapted for sports and recreation. That’s why we decided to radically rebuild all this vast space. Today Bitsa is experiencing a new birth,” said Sergei Sobyanin.
Recall that five years ago the fate of “Bitsa” seriously worried many Muscovites. The largest in Europe, with an area of 46 hectares, it was built for the 1980 Olympic Games, but in the last 40 years it has never been repaired. As a result, there were rumors that the complex could be demolished and another shopping center built on this site. Sobyanin decided otherwise. After visiting the complex in 2018 and seeing that Bitsa did not even need to be repaired, but literally saved, he ordered to develop a project for the reconstruction of Bitsa. And after several years of work on its implementation, “Bitsa” has turned into a world-class equestrian center.
Trainer Maria Chabrova, 24, has been training in Bitsa since she was nine, and on the day the mayor arrived, she rode a horse for the first time on the Olympic field. “This field has been closed for the last 30 years,” she told RG. “The ground has become completely unusable. Now it is something else: the field is flat, undulating and there is a lot of space, the riders Do not interfere with each other.”
Training camps, as Sobyanin convinced himself by riding one of them on a stallion named Shield, are now of no worse quality. Trainers and athletes also like updated stables. “Light, with a lantern on the roof and very spacious, they are comfortable for both horses and riders,” said Sofia Frolkina. “They cool down a lot, especially in summer, when you come in cool after exercising in the heat.”
Sofia has been attending Bitsy since she was six years old, at 13 she became a candidate for a master of sports, and now she is already the champion of many All-Russian and international competitions.
More than 540 athletes from equestrian sports, swimming, modern pentathlon, shooting and archery are trained at the base of the complex. But any Muscovite and of any age can ride a horse. “I have students from 2.5 years old to 50,” shared the coach Alla Yakovleva.
It would seem that a 2.5 year old baby can do it? “Learn not to be afraid of a horse, to understand that an animal can be trusted,” the trainer explained. And this, experts say, is the most important thing when communicating with any animal.
The modernized sports complex now has eight training fields and one warm-up field, a small stadium and a jumping stadium (Olympic Arena) with a capacity of 4,620 seats, three indoor arenas and a changing room, summer and all-season stables with stalls, a veterinary clinic. and a universal sports center, a 53-room hotel with a six-lane pool and a ski base and slopes up to five kilometers long, as well as a family cafeteria. On the territory of the Bitsevsky forest, adjacent to the complex, a 1.7-kilometer horse trail has been organized. The complex is expected to receive more than 1,500 visitors daily.
In addition to the activities of professional and amateur athletes, competitions and exhibitions of equestrian sports, including those of the Russian and international level, will be held on the territory of the renovated Complex. As so far, “Bitsa” will also be used for hippotherapy of patients suffering from cerebral palsy and other diseases in which contact with horses is indicated. Anyone can take unique lessons with an instructor.
