Academics or Athletics
“Back then, in the Soviet Union, we didn’t have that much entertainment, especially for kids… so the only way you could keep kids occupied, is by making them play sports and run around – or study. So, it was one or the other,” Anna Kournikova shared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Clearly Kournikova and her family decided to choose athletics over academics, and rightfully so. With two athletically oriented parents, growing up in the Soviet Union where entertainment options like computers and television were limited or non-existent, she had the opportunity to participate in all sorts of sports – especially winter sports like cross-country skiing.
“Go Outside, Play!”
Kournikova jokingly explained that her parents always encouraged her to go out and play sports because she always had so much energy.
“I used to play so many sports when I was growing up. My parents would just give me a soccer ball [and say] ‘Go outside, play!’…I was so hyper, I was like going crazy. I was like everywhere,” Anna Kournikova revealed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Surprisingly enough, though, the one sport that Kournikova seemed to excel and favor more than any other wasn’t a winter sport at all.