Friendship of peoples in the language of grace

A bright pearl in the necklace of events of the WYF-2024 Sports Program was the International Children's Charity Alina Rhythmic Gymnastics Festival, which was attended by gymnasts and athletes from 23 regions of Russia, as well as from different countries of the world - Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Guatemala, Germany, Kazakhstan, China, Congo, Cuba, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Russia, Serbia, Uzbekistan. This largest project of the Alina Kabaeva Charitable Foundation has become a real sports holiday for guests and participants of the Youth Festival in Sirius!

The theme of this year's festival was friendship between peoples. On the gymnastics mat, world stars of rhythmic gymnastics performed together with very young participants. For example, two-time world champion Ekaterina Selezneva and World Cup winner Daria Trubnikova opened the festival program with a number in honor of the 90th anniversary of rhythmic gymnastics, together with young athletes from the LPR, DPR and Crimea and actor of the Mariinsky Theater Aaron Osawa-Horowitz.

Multiple world champions, sisters Arina and Dina Averina, also performed solo in separate numbers. And the invited actors were Larisa Dolina, Ragda Khanieva, Natalya Podolskaya, Ruslan Alekhno and Polina Gagarina. In addition to the guests of the Youth Festival, sports school students, who were specially invited to watch the bright performance of the champions, also became spectators of the show.

Another feature of the Alina Festival is its unique format: in 2024, for the first time, it will be held in two countries at once. After WYF-2024 in Sirius, it will be held in Minsk, on March 5 it will be hosted by the Minsk Arena.

"Thanks to all the children who performed, because without them such a holiday would not have happened. It's great that sports and art unite people. With this festival we showed that neither sport nor art have boundaries and it is impossible to prohibit it. We don't prove anything to anyone. We just love our job, we love what we do”,–said Olympic champion Alina Kabaeva after the end of the festival.

Alina Festival has been held since 2009. The main goal of the charity festival, which brings together hundreds of young athletes from Russia and other countries, is to popularize children’s and youth sports, in particular rhythmic gymnastics.

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Alina Rhythmic Gymnastics Festival was included in the sports program of the World Youth Festival, organized by the organizing committee of the World Friendship Games, a new multi-sports tournament that will be held for the first time in Russia from September 15 to 29, 2024. The program of the World Friendship Games will include competitions in 33 summer sports, and more than 6,500 strongest athletes from all over the world will take part in the competition.

The World Youth Festival is held on the federal territory of "Sirius" from March 1 to 7, 2024 in accordance with the Decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin in order to develop international youth cooperation.

The Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh) is the organizer of the World Youth Festival, with the Directorate of the World Youth Festival serving as the operator for WYF-2024.