Sport is her whole life. She started with sports gymnastics, at the age of six, and she has been in armwrestling for 16 years.

I did not choose this sport, it chose me! I didn’t even like armwrestling at the beginning, even though I was the strongest among my peers, even stronger than many boys – tells us Venera Urazgildeeva, former armwrestling world champion and WAF referee. - I also thought it was a very simple sport, so I had little interest in it. I went to a tournament and I lost. It was then that I became really interested. My dad was a coach, the founder of one of the best armwrestling academies in Russia. I was his “test subject”! Everything he came up with, I had to do, and he had a lot of ideas!

Today, among her achievements are: Champion of Russia, Europe and the World, Distinguished Russian Master of Sport, highest category coach and international referee. Her sporting career is over now.

For some time I went to tournaments as a coach, because my students were starting – says Venera. – But I got bored, just sitting there and watching, so … I became a referee! There was one more reason, though. When I was still fighting, I often saw unfair refereeing. Every fighter trains hard for competition, often at the expense of family matters, health, professional career.

It’s really bad to lose by foul, when you’ve gone through every level of eliminations and got really high.

But refereeing turned out to be not as simple as she thought.

When I started referee, one of the more experienced refs asked me: “Venera, are you ready to be constantly accused of wrong decisions?”. Back then that question surprised me. Now I understand what he meant. In any fight, one fighter always loses. And for the first few moments after they’ve lost, they blame everyone but themselves. The first to blame is always the referee! But I take it in my stride. For me the most important thing is being fair and letting the fighters decide who’s the best.

Usually the people who meet Venera are very surprised upon finding out what she does, especially men. That’s why she tries to keep it quiet.

Fighting is not only the battle of arms, it’s also winning over yourself – thinks Venera. – I have great respect for martial arts. Strength sports are more draining than any sprint. Do you know any other discipline, where the contestant has to utilize all their strength, while also applying strategy? I’m a 100% behind the rule of always having a strategy. I mean professional armwrestlers, of course. Refereeing their fights is pure pleasure!

Iza Małkowska