Elite Sport was a Nizhny Novgorod fitness club at Gorky Street that operated in the 2010s[1][2]. It offered the full range, from a gym to a hammam made of natural onyx, which its website credited with the power to cure insomnia and nightmares[3], assembled a team of instructors with championship titles, and took clients on fitness tours to Cyprus[4][5]. The club's website ran from 2011; between the end of 2019 and the spring of 2021 it went dark, and a registrar's parking page took over the address[6][7].

The club on Gorky Street

The club described itself briefly: "a club for people who value convenience, comfort, and service and are focused on quickly achieving their goals"[2]. An earlier, still Flash-based site from 2011 spoke differently: "Your step toward beauty and health!" it said, promising: "Come in — we know how to surprise!"[1]. The site's footer in 2019 indicated that the club had existed since 2008[6] — three years before the site's first snapshot in the archive.

By 2019, the club occupied a 400 m² gym with one hundred exercise machines and sold memberships at prices from 39–47 rubles a day; the gym's description also listed group classes, a cardio zone, and a hammam "and much more"[6]. The club was located in the city's Nizhegorodsky District, and its phone number changed over the years: (831) 411-10-90, with (831) 212-84-48 added later[8][2]. Opening hours were 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. on weekdays and 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. on weekends[9].

What the club offered

The list of services grew year by year. The 2011 Flash website named gyms, a cycling studio, a cardio machine room, a Turkish bath, a fitness bar, a solarium, group classes, and a club card[1]. By 2013, the website promised "more than 30 programs": belly dancing, a fight club, prenatal classes, personal training, small group training (SGPT), corporate fitness, and group classes with names like GO-GO, Latina, Club Dance, Afro Jazz, and Strip Plastic[8]. At the same time, a new format appeared on the schedule — Hot Iron, for which the club's instructors were trained and certified under the program of Varvara Medvedeva's Moscow fitness school[8]. By 2017, a beauty salon had been added[2].

The gym had its own page on the website — "premium-class equipment, a wide selection of machines for various strength exercises and fitness"[10] — and was equipped with machines from several premium brands at once: TechnoGym, Cybex, Hoist, Life Fitness, Panatta, and Paramount, judging by the captions in the equipment photo gallery. Hammer Strength was also among the equipment brands in the gym.[11][12]. Its signature feature, a hammam made of natural onyx, was justified by the website not only on aesthetic grounds but also through lithotherapy, in detail and without a shadow of doubt: "onyx has a beneficial effect on the kidneys and liver," "lithotherapists suppose that onyx treats nervous disorders and depression... relieves insomnia and nightmares," and "in some countries onyx is believed to be able to increase potency"; the temperature in the steam room was kept below that of an ordinary sauna — 30–55 degrees (Celsius)[3].

Separately, the club offered "fitness testing" and a medical office: bicycle ergometry, hand dynamometry, and a "stress test," with the first consultation free of charge[4][9].

The instructor team

The club posted full profiles of its trainers on the website — with diplomas, certificates, and life mottos[4].

Nikolay Chistyakov, elite trainer of the gym, is a multiple Russian champion and a medalist at the world and European bodybuilding championships (NABBA, WABBA), a top-category trainer and master trainer of international qualification; he graduated from Nizhny Novgorod Pedagogical University with a degree in "teaching physical culture and sport," and earned a second degree in psychology at the Moscow Institute named after Catherine the Great. Motto: "The road will be mastered by the one who walks it!"[4]

Dmitry Yevlashev, a gold trainer with a WFF certificate, promised clients: "Only competent training of all the main muscle groups, plus a reasonable amount of aerobic exercise, allows you to say goodbye to 'excess' kilograms in the shortest possible time" — and added, more briefly: "Energy gives youth. Fitness is the key to active rejuvenation!"[4]

Anna Prasikova — aerobics, step aerobics, strength training, and stretching; three FISAF certificates in group programs. She ran ten-kilometer marathons, studied psychology, and published collections of poetry. Motto: "If I feel bad, I run; if I feel good, I run even better"[4].

Tatyana Moshkina — Pilates, strength and functional training, balance, and rehabilitation programs; highest qualification category in therapeutic physical training, advanced training courses at the Nizhny Novgorod Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics, diplomas from the Moscow schools "Fitness Academy" and "Fitness Express," and a certificate from the Russian Pilates Institute[4].

Among the group-program instructors was Olesya Gorlanova — classical and step aerobics, strength training, and belly dance; for fifteen years before that she had danced professionally in the show ballet "Ekspromt"[4]. Boxing classes — "to set up a proper punch, develop a sense of distance, acquire defensive skills" — for men and women were run by Aleksandr Kornev, a Master of Sport of the USSR[13]. Some of the trainers worked in the gym on a rental basis rather than as club staff: the website separately posted an announcement recruiting precisely such specialists[13].

Club life

On December 16, 2012, the club held a New Year's show for children, and on December 21 of the same year, a "Fitness Style Party"; the website posted photo reports from both evenings in its photo album[14]. On May 4, 2013, the Nizhny Novgorod Open Fitness and Bodybuilding Championship appeared in the same album[15], and in May 2013 the club took clients on a fitness tour to Cyprus[5]. The club also readily showcased its instructors in city advertising: Anna Prasikova's portrait appeared both on club memberships and on billboards.

The website had a separate section, "Success Story" — photographs of clients before and after weight loss[2]; the website did not recount the details of the stories themselves on the surviving pages.

Club website

The club's first website was built on Adobe Flash: an archived snapshot from April 2011 honestly warned, "Content on this page requires a newer version of Adobe Flash Player"[1]. By 2013 the club had switched to a regular (non-Flash) engine: the tab was simply titled "HOME," and a quotation from Coco Chanel hung in the corner — "Taking care of yourself should begin with the heart, otherwise no cosmetics will help"[8]. The site kept growing along with the club: by 2017 a "Success Story" item had been added to the menu, and by 2019 membership prices appeared right on the home page, along with a "Discounts and Promotions" page[2][6][16]. A particular source of pride was an interactive 3D tour of the club's halls, available since 2012[4].

How it ended

The site with the club's actual content was up until at least December 11, 2019[6]. By May 2021 the domain was already empty: in its place stood a standard registrar page reading "Site under development," with ads for hosting and for services that snap up expiring domains[7]. The domain remained parked like this in 2023 and in August 2024 as well — the only difference being that the heading had by then changed to "Domain registration has expired"[17]. Today the address does not respond at all.

The club opened on February 11, 2011, and positioned itself as a business-format establishment located in the city's business center — near Freedom Square and Belinsky Street.[11]

In September 2011, the club was the general sponsor of the sports and music festival "Elite Sport Festival" at the Rowing Canal, held jointly with the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Rowing Federation and the SDYuSShOR rowing sports school; the central event was the Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region Cup in "Dragon" boat racing, timed to coincide with the 85th anniversary of rowing in the region.[18]

The cardio zone was styled after a movie theater: dimmed lighting, Dolby Digital Surround sound, and two large televisions; it included eight treadmills and four elliptical trainers; the cycling studio was equipped with 5th-generation Tomahawk bikes with a display tracking heart rate, speed, and RPM.[11]

Besides boxing, the martial arts hall hosted TRX suspension training classes and aerial yoga in hammocks; the locker rooms were equipped with shower cabins and infrared saunas.[11]

The club membership card allowed freezing for a period of 14 to 60 days; the first orientation session in the gym and for the group programs was included in the membership price, while the tanning bed, massage, personal training, and nutrition planning were paid for separately. The club had two group-program studios of 90 and 100 sq. m, in which more than 30 types of classes were held, including instructors' original programs.[11][11]

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Wayback Machine — elitesport-gym.ru, home page (Flash), snapshot of April 19, 2011 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Wayback Machine — elitesport-gym.ru, home page, snapshot of May 29, 2017 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Wayback Machine — "Hammam (Turkish bath)", snapshot of August 14, 2015 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — Wayback Machine — instructor team page, snapshot of June 15, 2012 (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — Wayback Machine — photo album "Fitness Tour Cyprus, May 2013", snapshot of March 22, 2015 (archive)
  6. web.archive.org — Wayback Machine — elitesport-gym.ru, home page, snapshot of June 19, 2019 (archive)
  7. web.archive.org — Wayback Machine — elitesport-gym.ru, home page — registrar's "site under development" parking page, snapshot of May 16, 2021 (archive)
  8. web.archive.org — Wayback Machine — elitesport-gym.ru, home page, snapshot of April 10, 2013 (archive)
  9. web.archive.org — Wayback Machine — "Services", snapshot of August 13, 2015 (archive)
  10. web.archive.org — Wayback Machine — "Gym", snapshot of August 13, 2015 (archive)
  11. fitness.nnov.ru — The gym was also equipped with Hammer Strength equipment, in addition to the TechnoGym, Cybex, Life Fitness, and Paramount brands already listed on the club's website (archive)
  12. web.archive.org — Wayback Machine — photographs of the exercise machines in the club's photo gallery, snapshots of July 26, 2015 (archive)
  13. web.archive.org — Wayback Machine — "Boxing training with a Master of Sport of the USSR", snapshot of February 16, 2017 (archive)
  14. web.archive.org — Wayback Machine — the club's photo album, snapshot of January 21, 2013 (archive)
  15. web.archive.org — Wayback Machine — photo album "Open Nizhny Novgorod Fitness and Bodybuilding Championship", snapshot of March 22, 2015 (archive)
  16. web.archive.org — Wayback Machine — "Discounts and Promotions", snapshot of March 7, 2019 (archive)
  17. web.archive.org — Wayback Machine — registrar's parking page, snapshot of August 4, 2024 (archive)
  18. V gorode N — In September 2011, the club was the general sponsor of the "Elite Sport Festival," a sports and music celebration held at the Rowing Canal jointly with Nizh