The Rybinsk publishing house "Mediarost" publishes the book "Demino marathon". 136 pages of photographs and memoirs will tell about the birth of the ski center and the development of the largest ski marathon in the country.


The team of authors began work on the book in the fall of 2022. In a short time, we managed to collect a unique archive of photographs, record interviews with various people involved in the birth of the main winter event brand of the Yaroslavl land.


- Demino marathon from a small-town event of a local scale gradually, year after year, grew into an event that is significant for the entire skiing Russia. This is a story of progressive development - from small to big. And it is interesting not only for athletes, but also for all people who strive to develop any business, to achieve success. Demino ski marathon has become a phenomenon about which it is not only possible, but also necessary to publish books. We tried to show the internal cuisine of the marathon, and the people who are preparing it, and the skiers, and the spectators, and the marathon itself as a phenomenon in the life of Rybinsk, the Rybinsk region, the Yaroslavl region and the country as a whole, - said the director-editor-in-chief of the Mediarost publishing house » Vitaly Goroshnikov.


The creative team of the publishing house has done a lot of preparatory work. Only for the selection of photographs, thousands of archival frames had to be revised. The authors conducted dozens of interviews, read hundreds of articles in order to isolate the main thing and select the most interesting.


— For me, the history of the marathon was a discovery, although for the last nine years I have been aware of how the marathon goes. From the outside, we only see the holiday, the front side of the event, and a little bit of the emotions of the athletes. And from the inside, this is a huge job, huge ambitions, a constant nerve - it will work out / it won’t work out, we will get in / we won’t get in, there will be snow / there will be no snow. Hourly struggle, sometimes with uncontrollable elements, huge internal work and constant concentration on the goal. I wanted to tell the reader about this so that the event would be perceived deeper and more voluminously, - said Nadezhda Lazareva, the author of the texts of the book.


Readers can trace the history of Demino from the 70s of the last century. Then it was a little-known place on the territory of the Rybinsk region, where enthusiastic skiers got only by truck, and then walked two kilometers. A fateful decision was made to make Demino the center of sports life of the largest Saturn plant in Rybinsk, and then to create a world-class sports event on this basis.


- In the 90s, the stadium was nothing of itself. I held orienteering competitions on it, drew maps. He was supported, but there was no real investment, so there were no serious competitions. A new page began when Rybinsk Motors took patronage over the stadium. The Central Federal District competitions, Russian cups and championships began to be held here, - recalls the chief judge of Demino marathon Andrey Arsenyev.


The circulation of the book comes out on February 28 on the eve of the XVI International Rostec Demino Ski Marathon. It will be an excellent gift for all sports lovers and a valuable copy in the local history library. It will be available for purchase at the Mediarost publishing house, in Demino ski and biathlon center and on Internet sites.


Rostec Demino Ski Marathon is the largest ski marathon in Russia. Russialoppet leader in terms of the number of finishers in the main race. In the 2022 season, the winners of Demino ski marathon at a distance of 50 km were Alexander Bolshunov and Natalya Nepryaeva. The general partner of the competition is the Rostec State Corporation.