"They put me in a cage and lowered me into the water"
Tests at the limit, a powerful test of strength and character: on November 8, the premiere of the large-scale super-extreme project "Winners" will take place on REN TV. More than a hundred people from all over Russia who are already heroes in everyday life — doctors, firefighters, athletes, and the military — will enter the most difficult obstacle course to compete for the main prize of 3 million rubles and fulfill their dreams. Mikhail Koklyaev, an eight-time Russian weightlifting champion, became one of the mentors. He told about how he was trapped in a cage in the water, about the tears of the participants and other exclusive details in an interview with Izvestia on the set of the project.
"It's not the champion who wins the war, but the ordinary guy"
— How did you end up on the Winners project?
— A year ago, REN TV and I discussed the idea of creating a TV project about extreme power, but with a human accent, with a story about ordinary men living on our land. And in September, I was approved for the Winners project. The format is almost like in the World's Strongest Nation competition, where there is a captain and three fighters. Only here the participants are firefighters, rescuers, doctors, military, police officers. We don't show stars, but ordinary people who can be overlooked in real life.
— By what principle did you recruit people to your team?
— I either know them personally, or they are from my circle — they are also "jocks". I have to keep talking to them. It would be wrong if I didn't take my own, and then they'd ask, "Misha, we're friends, why didn't I invite you?" Do you understand? Besides, I have a subculture of "jocks", which I belong to myself. I have to stand up for them. If I don't bring any of them to the finals, they just won't understand me. That's why the team is my family, the ones I trust.
— What about the winning strategy?
— As my coach used to say, "Anyone can do it with money, but you try without it." Or, as the host of this project, Sergey Badyuk, said: "It's easy to win with the best, try with those who stayed." There are more ordinary people than professionals. In a war, it's not a champion who wins, but an ordinary man — if there's a good commander nearby. The main thing is to motivate a simple worker. You need the skills of a political instructor here: to lead them so that they believe in you, to show that you will go to the end on your own.
— Are the conditions on the project really close to the military: explosions, poor visibility, unpredictable weather conditions, complete disorientation?
— Of course! Look at what's going on around you! We are not filming in a warm, lighted pavilion, but in the open air. Suddenly it may rain or snow, everything will be covered with fog, the wind will blow away.
— Is that why it's so important for you to have your own people around?
- yes. The director immediately told us, "Guys, this isn't about sports, it's about people." The most important thing is to remain human by the end of the project. That's all. After the first test, when they put me in a cage and lowered me into the water, I realized that no team could get me out. I weigh 160 kg. Try to lift him up or at least move him. And then I saw the tears of one of my team members. And if a woman cries, it will come back to someone one day!
— Why do girls go into such tough projects?
— I also asked. The very participant, for example, is a family man. She has a husband, a child. She said, "If they see me, maybe they'll offer me a new job. I can earn more money for my family." It's a chance for her to use the media for the sake of her family, and I understand her. There's nothing wrong with that.
"The scariest thing is to see how the child screams incessantly while we pull him out"
— Do you think these trials are more physical or moral?
— I myself am already confusing reality with the project. My wife and I even had a fight a couple of times. And there were conflict situations with my team members. I yelled at them the most because they're close. I got into an argument with one of them: I called him names at the finish line, then we almost got into a fight. The analysis was specific. He almost hit me. I think that if I hired you, I gave you a chance to prove yourself. Therefore, for me, this is not a show, not a television project. The "Winners" became a reflection of my real life.
— So it even reached my wife?
- yes. My daughter heard my wife and I arguing. There was a real scandal. The next day, I wanted to take her to the set to see what Dad was doing. She said she would not go because she had never seen her father like this.
But today it is impossible to treat such projects lightly. First of all, people are looking at us. Secondly, we have to be real. There is a saying: "We are what we eat." And I add: "We are what we eat, watch, listen to, and read." I want people to watch sensible things.
— Tell us a personal story of one of the participants that you have sunk into your soul.
— In my team there is a rescuer of the Ministry of Emergency Situations Serega Kopytin. During his 20 years of service, he saved more than 50 children. I'm only talking about children! Not counting the adults. He told how one day a small child was sitting in a stroller and stuck his foot in a Soviet battery. She's stuck. And there's just boiling water. The parents are in a panic. The child is roasting alive, screaming. Serega says, "We've arrived, we're pulling out, and my heart is shrinking. The scariest thing is to see how the child screams incessantly while we pull him out." How can you not show such people? Athletes, stars — it's all great, it motivates, but no one motivates like people motivate themselves.
— You are the strongest man in our country. Eight-time champion of Russia in weightlifting. You are known in all sports circles around the world. And at the same time, you work as an ordinary physical education teacher at school. Why?
— Because I understood that my sports star was already waning and that sucking popularity out of my finger was an empty occupation for small—minded people. I've been working as a physical education teacher for the sixth year to be useful. If I make more videos and get more views, there will be one more blogger in the country and nothing will change, believe me. It will get worse when the working people disappear. That's a fact. And the idea of the project is precisely to build such professions to the ideal.
It motivates me, of course. In six years of work, these children have become mine. I've seen them since fifth grade, and now they're in the eleventh grade. This is my family. For an adult, six years is not so noticeable, but for a child, it takes forever. I see them growing up, and I'm happy when they run down the hall to me and hug me: "Mikhail Viktorovich, hello! We've missed you." We live for it.
"Russia is a strong country with a great history and great losses"
— It seems that the project has become no less an emotional ordeal for you than for the participants. In some cases, it's even too heavy.
— You have to make sense of everything. Especially when the cameras are on you. People will be watching! That's why I take it so seriously. I can't see it yet because I got my hair cut, but I've noticeably gotten more gray hair during the project.
— Are you sure that the participants take everything as seriously as you do?
— There was not a single team from which I would have felt a cold, indifferent attitude to the matter. I even thought about the project in my sleep and woke up thinking about the upcoming obstacle course. From the outside, it seems that nothing will change in the universe. Probably, it will be so. And let it be, but at the moment, in this small segment of life — mine and theirs — something is definitely going to change. We all understand that. There were no people who didn't care.
— That is, if a person came last in the test, but tried to the end, is he still the winner?
- of course. The main quality that I saw in all my guys was the desire to win. Not just "stand by", but fight to the end. Not a single one was indifferent.
— We can say that the project is a metaphor for life: there is a team around and constant challenges.
"That's right. Everyone knew why we were here. I trusted the team, they trusted me. If such a model worked in any field — medicine, education, housing and communal services — our country would be the best in the world. Because the mentor is responsible for the team, and the team is responsible for the mentor. Do you understand? And no one pulls the blanket over themselves.
— What is the ultimate goal of the project?
— Open a person to a person. Let's take an employee of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. He has a mortgage, a loan, a family, a child, a small apartment on the outskirts of the city. Let's say there are competitions in fire fighting and applied sports, friends with whom he can go to barbecue on weekends. And so it flows, this life.
He has a serious job, he saves people and risks his own life. But society gets used to it, stops noticing such people. But I want them to look at the project and think: "Finally they remembered about us." To make the rescuer happy for the rescuer, the doctor for the doctor, the policeman for the policeman. Russia is a strong country with a great history and great losses. And these guys are real people who live next to us. They should be appreciated.
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