Schoolboy Adam goes for Russian Gold
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7th July 2008
MILD-mannered schoolboy Adam Whitehead is set to talk his way into winning Olympic gold without taking part in a single sport.
While Britain’s Lycra-clad athletes strive for victory in China this August, 15-year-old Adam will be dusting down his blazer in order to take on the world’s best . . . in Russian.
Adam, from Milnthorpe, Cumbria, is the only pupil from the North to be selected for a nine-strong British team heading for Moscow later this month, and the only one from a comprehensive.
The team includes pupils from some of the country’s top public schools, including Eton and prestigious Millfield in Somerset.
Adam will compete against young Russian-speakers from around the world as part of a prestigious week-long Olympiad organised by the International Association of Teachers of Russian Language and Literature.
At the end of a gruelling series of workshops, Russian-speaking challenges and research topics, the top team will bag gold medals at a ceremony at the Kremlin.
Adam said: “I’m really hopeful we can win, but the standard of opposition is going to be really tough. There are teams from America and Canada, not to mention the former Soviet states who all speak Russian on a daily basis!
“But there is a seeding system, so things won’t be stacked against us. They say that there will be national newspapers and TV covering the event, which is unbelievable.
“I’m just looking forward to going to Moscow. I’ve only ever been as far as France with my parents.”
Adam, a Year 10 pupil at Dallam School, a language college near Kendal, Cumbria, is fluent in the complex language despite only having studied it for two years.
He said: “It’s just something I have found really easy to pick up.”
To be selected for the British team he had to give a presentation in Russian, answer questions and then recite a Russian poem.
His teacher, Steve Mitchell, hailed Adam as a star for the future. He said: “It’s rare to come across a young man with such a natural gift and flair for language.
“We all have high hopes for the Olympiad and I have no doubt that with his skills and application Adam can go on to do anything he likes in his life.”